The League of Legends season is nearing its end and players are grinding as much ELO as possible to get a nicer border. On Nov. 6, season 6 will be over and we move to a dangerous time in our favorite MOBA, preseason. Riot can’t implement major changes in the middle of a season or the whole competitive scene would crumble. That’s why the preseason is usually when Riot tries to implement as many crazy ideas as possible to try and make the game feel more fluid and unique.
We already know that Dynamic Queue is going the way of the dodo bird , a replay system is finally on it’s way and Assassins are getting a major update , but what about the rest of the game? Riot just released a brand new road map for all the crazy ideas it plans to implement in just a few short months.
Here’s a breakdown of what Riot has in store for League of Legends during the preseason:
Jungle
Plants are coming! Ivern must have gotten a solid grip around the imaginations of Riot’s design team, because they are implementing a new plant buff system during the preseason. Riot found the buffs given to jungle camps by smiting them were a good idea, but also realized players weren’t given enough interactive options or were basically stuck saving their smites for more important objectives. The plants will spawn “with some degree of variance” and offer more choices that don’t make you waste your smite.
As a Jungler you have very few options when clearing your jungle. You want to start at one side of the map and just clear each camp in order, in between ganking lanes. Riot wants to add more diversity to jungle clears, though they haven’t said how they are going to achieve that goal.
Rengar isn’t necessarily part of the jungle, but I feel he deserves a place here. Riot has tried fixing the kitty cat twice before, and they are hoping that, like Ryze, third time's the charm. One-eye himself will no longer be a squishy burster, he’s going to have to go for much larger prey. Empowered abilities will have more play to them than just using them in a given order. Also, On The Hunt is getting some counterplay so players can react before a red exclamation mark appears above their heads.
Items
Goodbye Aegis Of The Legion . Aura items have always been difficult to balance in League and Aegis has always been a problem. Meteos has been complaining about how broken the item is for years , asking for Riot to just remove it from the game. It took them seven seasons but they finally listened, replacing it with “a few distinct items” that force supports to think “which one protects my ally in a way that aligns with my playstyle?”
Masteries
Riot wants masteries to feel a bit more fluid, allowing players to use what they want instead of what’s optimal. The mastery tree is solid overall, but still has a few problems that they want to fix. No actual information is out yet, but expect Keystone Masteries to get a serious overhaul in the coming preseason.
Plants, broken shields and new masteries, this preseason is shaping up to me a major League of Legends game changer. What’s your favorite change? Tell us in the comments.
