Riot releases the first of the preseason patches with changes to user interface, tweaks to champions, support champion and item reworks, a new vision system, new masteries, and a revamped jungle.
Among the pi patch changes, the change professional gamers and popular streamers are likely the most appreciative of is the new option to mass dismiss notifications, including game invites and friend requests. If anyone has watched a popular stream, they know this change has been a long time coming.
Riot also submitted basic champion changes that likely have little to do with preseason goals. Corki's Phosphorous Bomb rework adds range and travel time to the ability, and the increased AD ratio on his ultimate will allow him to scale better into late game. Gragas' changes allow him to instantly trigger barrels when they reach their target location, but the range is reduced, and his Body Slam now rewards the player when used as part of his damage combo instead of a simple mobility tool.
Support champion utility now scales with ability power or other item stats, while supports receive nerfs to their base damages and damage scaling. For example, the most significant support changes were centered around Taric and Soraka who likely saw the least amount of play in the latter half of Season Three. Soraka's Starcall magic resistance shred now scales with AP and reduces the cooldown of Astral Blessing. Her Astral Blessing bonus armor now scales with AP, and her Infuse damage now scales with her maximum mana, while ally casts allow Soraka to donate 5% of her mana to allies in addition to base amounts. This will reward her for building AP and mana in lane. Taric, meanwhile, has received damage scaling with bonus armor as his new passive, and his other abilities receive the most benefit from building armor or health.
Gold income items for supports have been completely redone. There are now three mutually exclusive options that grant AP, regen, or health, and grant gold to supports dependent on their style of play. They each also follow single build paths into utility items that will add a new level of decision making into early purchases.
Jungle items are now also mutually exclusive purchases and grant gold bonuses for killing jungle monsters. The most significant change is to Wriggle's Lantern, which gives 40% increased gold income from jungle farming and now grants attack speed instead of lifesteal and attack damage. Spirit of the Spectral Wraith also now grants CDR, and could make the jungle more accessible to a larger number of AP junglers. All "Spirit" items now grant up to 40 gold on kill or assist or large monster kill. It is likely that these items will be considered more lucrative than Wriggle's Lantern in competitive play due to their greater combat stats. Jungle creeps also now scale much better with average player level, and grant more gold and experience.
The largest change affecting all players, however, is the change to vision. Each player is now limited to three stealth wards and one vision ward each, and Oracle's Elixir has been removed to make room for trinkets. Sight Wards are now called Stealth Wards, as they are only visible with true sight. Vision Wards are now visible to all players and require five auto attacks to disable. The new trinket system includes a CV-esque trinket, a sweeper trinket to replace Oracle's, and a warding trinket granting short duration wards for free. These trinkets have no cost associated with them outside of their final upgrades and can be exchanged throughout the game. I have a feeling this will create a lot of creative warding and play-making when the patch hits the competitive scene.
We will have to wait until far down the line to see how these changes will affect League of Legends eSports, but we can at least get a preview tonight on NACL, where the amateur teams face off for the last day of the week on the live patch. For a full summary of changes, please head to the League of Legends website, and check out their preseason website.
Source: League of Legends
