Esports fans of League of Legends have been experiencing a somewhat stagnant meta in recent months. The same champion picks, the same strategies, and the same gameplay mechanics have dominated the competitive scene. However, exciting changes are on the horizon, as Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, is gearing up for a series of changes directed at esports.
With significant changes planned for the game, it’s time to take a closer look at what these changes will mean for the competitive landscape. In this article, we’ll explore the upcoming alterations to League of Legends from an esports perspective, examining how they will impact the current meta and what they mean for the future of the game.
Yummi will be back
One of the important topics of discussion regarding the upcoming changes to League of Legends is the champion Yuumi. Yuumi has been a divisive champion, with two main problems that players have identified.
Firstly, Yuumi has been frustrating to play against, mainly when used by experienced players who have optimized her play style. Secondly, Yuumi has been most powerful in the Pro Play bracket, which has made her less accessible to casual players.
In response to these issues, Riot Games has implemented significant changes to Yuumi’s kit. Here’s what we can expect from the new version of the champion:
- Yuumi’s Q will be more dodgeable, which should make it easier for players to avoid taking damage.
- Her healing ability will be tied to landing her Q, which will incentivize players to use her abilities more actively and engage more in the lane.
- Yuumi’s ultimate will no longer root enemies, which should make it less frustrating to play against.
- Finally, Yuumi’s optimal ally to sit on will be her lane partner, and players will incur a cost for swapping to fighters, assassins, or mobile allies. This change is expected to make Yuumi less dominant in the Pro Play bracket and more accessible to casual players.
However, despite these changes, Yuumi is still expected to remain one of the strongest enchanters in the hands of the best players in the world. This means that fans will likely see her frequently in professional play, and she may continue to be a source of frustration for some players.
Nonetheless, the changes should make Yuumi a more balanced champion overall and provide more counterplay opportunities for opponents, which is a positive step for the game’s competitive scene.
Mages will get stronger
League of Legends players can expect to see more diversity in mid lane picks in the coming months, as Riot Games has been working to address issues with mage champions. In Season 12, Riot introduced a “pseudo-durability” patch to mage items, which added HP to make squishy, immobile mages more resilient against assassins. However, this update had unintended consequences, as it pushed the power of mage items too low, making it difficult for mages to deal functional damage and creating balance issues in the game.
One of the core challenges in balancing mage champions is finding the right balance between mana and poke. If mana is too inefficient, mages tend to default to pushing the wave and scaling, while if mana is too plentiful, mages become too powerful and push out other champion types. While small item buffs have helped, Riot Games is still debating what mage subclasses need to do to feel special and exciting in the modern League of Legends meta.
The challenge of finding unique identities for mage champions is compounded by the fact that different mages have vastly different needs and playstyles. For example, Zoe and Veigar require different approaches to feel fun and exciting to play. Currently, many mage champions are funneled into using the same core items (mana burst mythic into Zhonya’s and Rabadon’s), which limits their diversity and creativity.
Despite the lack of clear direction, Riot Games is actively discussing how to make mage champions more appealing and fun to play in the current League of Legends meta. This will likely involve finding ways to differentiate mage subclasses from each other, while still maintaining balance and fairness in the game. With these changes, players can expect to see a wider range of champion picks in mid lane and a more engaging and diverse game overall.
Jungle meta will change drastically
Riot Games is making several changes to the jungle that will affect the way players approach the role. One of the most notable changes is the increase in power of farming camps and the decrease in power of early ganks. This means that players who focus on farming will be rewarded with more gold and experience from camps, while players who focus on early ganks will face more risks and less reward.
To illustrate this change, let’s consider the example of an aggressive early game jungler like Lee Sin. In the current meta, Lee Sin players can often invade the enemy jungle and steal camps, denying the enemy jungler experience and gold, while also setting up early ganks to get their lanes ahead. With the new changes, Lee Sin players will have to be more cautious when invading, as they will face greater risks of counterjungling and may not receive as much reward from early ganks.
Another important change is the removal of the counterjungling penalty, which was often misunderstood by players. This penalty previously made it less attractive for players to invade the enemy jungle, but it also made it less risky for players to focus on early ganks. With the removal of this penalty, players will have to weigh the risks and rewards of different strategies more carefully.
Additionally, the decrease in jungle gold per camp in Season 12 made it more difficult for players to farm efficiently. Riot Games is planning to bring back about half of that lost gold to make farming more viable as a strategy, ensuring that players have more options in how they approach the jungle role.
Finally, the sweeper changes are designed to make it harder for junglers to get off early ganks by reducing early vision denial. This change will also reduce the power of the trinket throughout the game, making it less effective at choking out enemy sight. Additionally, sapping experience from waves after getting early ganks and pushing out waves or catching allied waves after they die will be less effective at slingshotting players ahead of the game without farming camps or killing enemies. Overall, these changes aim to create a more balanced and diverse meta for the jungle role.
Itemization
In the world of League of Legends, items have always played a critical role in defining the meta. They dictate which champions are strong and which are not, which strategies are viable and which are not. And in the current state of the game, there are a handful of items that are having a massive impact on the meta, often giving champions immense power spikes and turning the tide of games in their favor.
One of the most prominent of these items is Imperial Mandate. This relatively inexpensive item gives a boost to ability power, mana regeneration, and health, as well as a passive effect that causes a champion’s abilities to mark enemy champions. When those champions take damage from an ally, they take additional damage and are slowed. This passive effect is particularly potent on champions with high-frequency abilities, such as Seraphine or Zyra, and can often lead to snowballing advantages in the early game.
Another item that’s having a significant impact on the meta is Umbrial Glave. This item gives a boost to lethality and ability haste, as well as a passive effect that allows a champion to detect and disable enemy wards. This makes it an incredibly powerful tool for controlling vision on the map, which is critical in high-level play. With Umbrial Glave, champions like Senna and Zed can sneak up on unsuspecting opponents and catch them out of position, leading to easy kills and map control.
Moving on to tank items, Frozen Heart is having a massive impact on the meta right now. This item gives a boost to armor, mana, and cooldown reduction, as well as a passive effect that reduces the attack speed of nearby enemy champions. This makes it a must-have item for tanks and bruisers who want to survive against attack speed-based champions like Vayne or Jinx. With Frozen Heart, champions like K’Sante or Ornn can survive in lane against their more aggressive opponents and become virtually unkillable in team fights.
Finally, there’s Demonic Embrace, an item that’s become incredibly popular on AP champions like Maokai and Karthus. This item gives a boost to ability power, health, and magic resistance, as well as a passive effect that deals damage over time to nearby enemy champions. This makes it a potent tool for AP champions who want to deal sustained damage in team fights, as well as helping them survive against enemy burst damage.
The impact of these items on the meta has been significant. In many cases, champions that were previously considered weak have become incredibly strong thanks to the power spikes provided by these items. For example, Nami has become a dominant force in the bot lane thanks to the power of Imperial Mandate, and tanks like K’Sante and Ornn have become virtually unkillable in team fights thanks to the defensive power of Frozen Heart.
Of course, the impact of these items on the meta is not universally positive. In some cases, they can lead to stale gameplay and frustrating experiences for players. For example, the combination of Imperial Mandate and Nami can lead to incredibly oppressive gameplay for enemy teams, while the vision control provided by Umbrial Glave can make it difficult for opponents to make plays on the map. And the defensive power of Frozen Heart can sometimes lead to long, drawn-out team fights that can be tedious for players and spectators alike.
Overall, however, these items have had a significant impact on the meta, and it’s likely that we’ll continue to see them play a major role in the game for the foreseeable future. As always, it will be up to players and teams to adapt to these changes and find ways to counter the strategies that arise as a result.
Rift Herald changes
The Rift Herald is a fascinating objective in League of Legends that has seen its share of ups and downs. At the moment, it seems to be in a bit of a weird state where its rewards don’t always seem to justify the risk of fighting over it. In order to make the Rift Herald a more valuable and contested objective, it may be worth considering some changes to the way it works.
One potential solution would be to increase the gold reward for taking the Rift Herald, and to make that gold reward more evenly distributed among the team. For example, instead of giving a few turret plates to the team, the Rift Herald could give a flat amount of gold to each member of the team that participated in killing it. This would incentivize teams to fight over the objective, as the reward would be more tangible and would benefit the whole team.
Of course, this change would need to be balanced in some way to prevent the Rift Herald from becoming too powerful. One possibility would be to increase its health so that it’s harder to take down, and reduce the amount of damage it does to turret plates. This would make it more difficult to take the Rift Herald quickly and safely, but it would also make it less likely that a team could use the Herald to take down multiple turrets quickly.
Another way to balance the Rift Herald would be to increase the amount of damage it does to turrets after a certain point in the game. For example, the Rift Herald could do reduced damage to turrets in the early game, but after 14 minutes (when most of the outer turrets have fallen), its damage to turrets could increase significantly. This would make the Rift Herald a more valuable objective to contest in the mid-to-late game, as it could be used to quickly take down remaining turrets and gain map control.
Overall, the Rift Herald is an important objective that could use some changes to make it a more interesting and rewarding part of the game. By increasing the gold reward for taking the Rift Herald and balancing its health and damage to turrets, Riot could make the objective a more valuable part of the game that teams will be eager to fight over.
Tier 2 vs Tier 3
The difference in gold provided by Tier 2 turrets and Tier 3 turrets has been a topic of discussion for some time now. Currently, Tier 2 turrets provide around 600 gold, while Tier 3 turrets provide only 100 gold. This difference in gold rewards often leads to extended games where teams focus on taking Tier 2 turrets around the rift to gain an economic advantage over their opponents.
One solution to this issue could be to increase the gold provided by Tier 3 turrets to make them more valuable targets. This would incentivize teams to prioritize taking down Tier 3 turrets, which are located closer to the enemy base, and thus, potentially riskier to attack. Additionally, increasing the gold rewards for Tier 3 turrets could lead to more decisive games as teams would need to push deeper into their opponents’ territory to secure a significant advantage.
With an increased gold reward for Tier 3 turrets, however, the team would have more incentive to push deeper into the enemy base and take down these turrets to gain a more significant economic advantage. This would lead to a more exciting and decisive endgame.
In conclusion, increasing the gold reward for Tier 3 turrets could potentially make games more exciting and decisive by incentivizing teams to push deeper into enemy territory to secure significant economic advantages. It would also reduce the emphasis on continually taking down Tier 2 turrets, which can prolong games unnecessarily.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the changes discussed in this conversation are not confirmed to be implemented in the game, but are currently being worked on by Riot Games. These changes aim to balance the gameplay experience and provide more diverse strategies for players to use. While we don’t know when these changes will be implemented, we hope to see them in the game soon to improve the overall experience for players.