A new pre-season in League of Legends is upon us. And with it comes developer Riot Games' promise of "strategic diversity."
As explained earlier this month, strategic diversity is all about giving you "more paths to victory so your in-game decisions matter just as much as the champions you pick." To do this, Riot is implementing a number of changes to the game that will be tested during preseason. The biggest difference seems to stem from the jungle, which has been completely reworked with new mobs and items that encourage this strategic diversity. Objectives have also undergone some tweaks.
Below is a full detailed list of changes to League of Legends for the 2015 preseason. It's important to note, however, that some of these could be changed further as Riot collects feedback and data from the League of Legends community.
Objectives
Dragon Rewards
- DRAGON'S MIGHT: +8% total attack damage and ability power
- DRAGON'S DOMINANCE: +15% damage to minions and monsters
- DRAGON'S FLIGHT: +5% movement speed
- DRAGON'S WRATH: +15% damage to turrets and buildings
- ASPECT OF THE DRAGON: Doubles all other bonuses and your attacks burn enemies for 150 true damage over 5 seconds. Lasts 180 seconds
Baron Buff Revamp
- EMPOWERED MINIONS: Minions near Champions that are Exalted are now enhanced with Baron's power. Melee minions become much tankier, Caster minions deal more damage and Cannon minions get significantly increased range.
- EMPOWERED RECALL: Champions Exalted with Baron Nashor now Recall much more quickly. This should allow for a very quick regroup when needed and also allow for some interesting risky plays since hiding and getting out is easier.
Turrets
Inner Turrets
- Added a regenerating shield to inner towers that is automatically shared with nearby friendly champions, making it a little easier to withstand poke compositions (without completely invalidating them) while continuing to reward teams who play smart.
Base Turrets
- All base turrets now have a new weapon; a powerful energy beam that not only deals damage but slows the target and reduces their damage output.
Jungle
Camp Smite Rewards
Murkwolves: Summons a Rift Spirit that watches over a portion of the jungle, giving vision to your team.
Raptors: Grants "Razor Sharp," giving you a warning and Magical Sight (can spot invisible units) when an enemy ward spots you.
Gromp: Grants "Gift of the Toadstool," poisoning enemies who attack you with magic damage over time.
Krugs: Grants "Gift of the Heavy Hands," stunning minions and monsters you strike and doing bonus true damage vs turrets (this consumes the buff).
Brambleback and Ancient Sentinel: Smiting the Brambleback restores 20% of maximum health, while smiting the Ancient Sentinel restores 25% of maximum mana.
New River Monster: Rift Scuttler
The Rift Scuttler is a new durable monster that runs away from attackers rather than fighting back. When a team defeats the Rift Scuttler, they are awarded a vision bubble and shrine that grants out of combat movements peed in front of Baron or Dragon pit.
Difficulty
- All small monster camps now respawn every 100 seconds (instead of 50 seconds)
- All small monster camps have had their base health, attack damage, gold, and experience rewards increased by 20%
- Red Brambleback and Blue Sentinel have had their base health and damage increased significantly
Jungle Items
The Hunter's Machete upgrades into one of four different jungle items before being mixed and matched with any one of four enchantments that are each designed for a different role. Both Madred's Razor and Spirit Stone (and their respective upgrades) are being removed from the game, but some of their item bonsues are being combined into new items.
Hunter's Machete
PASSIVE – JUNGLER: Deal 30 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and restore 8 health and 3 mana per second while in combat with monsters
Stalker's Play
PASSIVE – CHILLING SMITE: Your Smite can target players, dealing 28-164 true damage (based on level) and slowing their movement speed by 50% for 2 seconds
PASSIVE – JUNGLER: Deal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 12 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters
Poacher's Knife
PASSIVE – SCAVENGING SMITE: Smiting a large monster in the enemy jungle reduces your cooldown by half (regardless if you kill the monster or not). If you Smite and kill a large monster in the enemy jungle, you get +20 gold and +175% movement speed that decays over 2 seconds.
PASSIVE – JUNGLER: Deal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 12 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters
Skirmisher's Sabre
PASSIVE – CHALLENGING SMITE: Your Smite can target players, giving you vision of them, making your attacks deal a bonus 18-69 (based on level) true damage to them, and reducing their damage to you by 20%. This lasts for 6 seconds.
PASSIVE – JUNGLER: Deal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 12 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters
Ranger's Trailblazer
PASSIVE – BLASTING SMITE: Your Smite damages all monsters near the target, dealing 50% damage and stunning them for 1.5 seconds. Your Smite cooldown is reduced by 15 seconds and restores 15% of your missing health and mana when used on monsters.
PASSIVE – JUNGLER: Deal 45 magic damage on hit to monsters over 2 seconds and gain 12 health and 5 mana per second while in combat with monsters
Enchantments
Enchantments provide a specialized set of bonus stats tailored for different roles. These can be mixed and matched with any jungle item you choose.
Warrior
- +45 attack damage
- +10% cooldown reduction
- +10 armor penetration
Magus
- +80 ability power
- +20% cooldown reduction
Juggernaut
- +500 health
- +10% cooldown reduction
- +35 tenacity
Devourer
- +50% attack speed
- +40 magic damage on hit
- PASSIVE – DEVOURING: Killing large monsters permanently increases the magic damage on hit by 1. Champion kills and assists permanently increase the magic damage on hit by 2.
Items
- +500 health
- +300 mana
- +100% base health regen
- UNIQUE PASSIVE – VALOR'S REWARD: Upon leveling up, restores 150 health and 200 mana over 8 seconds.
- UNIQUE ACTIVE: Grants 60% movement speed to you and nearby allies when moving towards enemy or enemy turrets for 3 seconds. After 3 seconds, you emit a shockwave, slowing nearby enemy champion movement speed by 80% for 1 second. You can reactivate this item to emit the shockwave early.
- +300 health
- +100% base health regen
- +10% cooldown reduction
- UNIQUE ACTIVE DISABLE: 3 seconds
- LOCKOUT FROM BEING USED ON THE SAME TURRET: 8 seconds
- UNIQUE PASSIVE: POINT RUNNER: Builds up to 30% Movement Speed over 2 seconds while near Turrets (being in combat does not remove this)
- +60 ability power
- +10% cooldown reduction
- +20 magic resistance
- +200 health
- UNIQUE PASSIVE: LEGION: Grants nearby allies 20 magic resist and 100% base health regen.
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UNIQUE ACTIVE: PROMOTE: Greatly increases the power of a lane minion and grants it immunity to magic damage (120 second cooldown).
- CANNON MINIONS: damage +100, health +600, armor +100, magic resist +100, INCREASED size
- MELEE MINIONS: bonus attack speed +90%, damage +50, health +600, armor +40, magic resist +40, INCREASED size
- RANGE MINIONS: bonus attack speed +30%, damage +75, health +400, armor +40, magic resist +40, INCREASED size
- +800 health
- UNIQUE PASSIVE: Restores 1% of maximum health every 5 seconds. Health restore increases to 3% of maximum health if damage hasn't been taken within 8 seconds.
Elixirs
Elixir of Fortitude and Elixir of Brilliance have been replaced by a set of mid/late game consumables. These are more expensive than the previous Elixirs and only one can be active at a new time. The choice will ultimately be determined by your team's strategy.
Elixir of Ruin
- +250 health
- +15% bonus damage to turrets
- GRANTS SIEGE COMMANDER: Nearby minions gain +15% bonus damage to turrets. Minions also gain movement speed based on your own movement speed.
Elixir of Sorcery
- +40 ability power
- +15 flat mana regeneration per 5 seconds
- GRANTS SORCERY: Damaging a champion or turret deals 25 bonus true damage. This effect has a 5 second cooldown against champions but no cooldown against turrets
Elixir of Iron
- +25% increased size
- +25% slow resistance
- +25% tenacity
- GRANTS PATH OF IRON: Moving leaves behind a path that boosts allied champion movement speed by 15%
Elixir of Wrath
- +25 attack damage
- GRANTS BLOODLUST: Dealing physical damage to champions heals for 10% of all damage dealt. Scoring a kill or assist extends the duration of this Elixir by 30 seconds.
Armor/Magic Resistance
"We want defensive item purchases to be reactive to the situation, and also not trap players into buying items they don't want, so we've simplified a number of build paths by adding lower-cost components. For example, Chain Vest now builds out of Cloth Armor."
Health/Mana Regeneration
"We're changing regen items from flat values to percentages of a champion's stats. The benefits of a design like this are twofold: by having regen scale throughout the game we can create items that provide meaningful benefits early while still remaining relevant late. We also get the benefit of being able to tune regen more effectively champion-by-champion, meaning we can focus strong regen items onto champions where they can be powerful and healthy."
