Absolute dielectronic recombination (DR) rates for lithiumlike Ni 25+ (1s 2 2s) ions were measured at high-energy resolution at the Heidelberg heavy-ion storage ring TSR. We studied the center-of-mass energy range 0-130 eV which covers all ∆n=0 core excitations. The influence of external crossed electric (0-300 V/cm) and magnetic (41.8-80.1 mT) fields was investigated. For the measurement at near-zero electric field resonance energies and strengths are given for Rydberg levels up to n=32; also Maxwellian plasma rate coefficients for the ∆n=0 DR at electron temperatures between 0.5 and 200 eV are provided. For increasing electric field strength we find that for both the 2p 1/2 and the 2p 3/2 series of Ni 24+ (1s 2 2pjnℓ) Rydberg resonances with n > 30 the DR rate coefficient increases approximately linearly by up to a factor of 1.5. The relative increase due to the applied electric field for Ni 25+ is remarkably lower than that found in previous measurements with lighter isoelectronic Si 11+ , Cl 14+ and also Ti 19+ ions, [T. Bartsch et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 2233(1997 82, 3779 (1999) and to be published] and in contrast to the results for lighter ions no clear dependence of the electric field enhancement on the magnetic field strength is found. The Maxwellian plasma rate coefficients for ∆n=0 DR of Ni 25+ are enhanced by at most 11% in the presence of the strongest experimentally applied fields.