As we all know, Preseason is a time of trying out new things as a result of big changes implemented by Riot Games. During the Preseason, the meta of the game is chaotic, as everyone is trying to figure out what the new best Champions, Runes, items, and builds are. As a result, we all see many Champions and builds in positions that these Champions were not in before. This article aims to look at the major changes made in the Preseason so far and see the effect they are having on the overall game! This article is not going to be looking in-depth on any specific Champions, but at general changes to gameplay, such as the changes to Turrets and Runes and more. To start, let’s first take a look at the changes implemented to the Turrets.

Turret Changes

Turrets have experienced many changes in this patch, the most notable of which would be the addition of Turret Plating. Outer Turrets have had their health increased from 3800 to 5000, and there is now a Plate for every 1000 health (This only applies to Outer Turrets before 14:00 into the game). Turret Plating increases their resistances and for every plate destroyed the Magic Resist and Armor of the Outer Turret will increase to compensate for the lost Plate. Furthermore, destroying one of these plates will grant 160 gold, which is split among all nearby players. This has the potential for a much higher gold pay-out to players should they be able to take a tower before the Turret Plating falls. This means a player will want to make pushes early to get as many Plates off the Turret as possible to maximize the gold they can get!

The first Turrets to go down now only grant 150 bonus gold due to the bonus gold now provided by taking out Turret Plates. Turret Plating falls off of all Outer Turrets at 14:00 in the game, and they lose ALL Armor and Magic Resist (This only applies to Outer Turrets). This also means that you no longer have the chance to get the bonus gold for destroying Turret Plating. Some other notable changes that have happened with Turrets are that their AD scaling has changed from +4 AD per minute to +9 AD per minute, meaning that all Turrets will hit much harder much earlier. This will deter players from taking unnecessary tower dives early in the game, as they will now be punished much harder for doing so should they play it wrong.

With the changes to Turrets, Champions with the ability to shove waves early and efficiently will have more potential for getting this bonus gold from the Tower Plating. As a result, many mages with this ability will likely be seeing more play in the Mid Lane and have the potential to get a lot of gold quickly. This also applies to the Bottom Lane. Many people in higher elo games have been seeing a lot of success in the Bottom Lane with mages such as Ziggs or Karthus. Champions such as this are also benefitting quite heavily as a result of some of the changes to Runes, but more on that later. For now, we will next look at some changes to the Epic Monsters of the Rift!

Epic Monster Changes

With the Preseason also comes some changes and buffs to the Epic Monsters. Baron Nashor experiences a small change with the respawn timer going down to 6 minutes from 7 minutes. Baron Nashor will still first spawn at 20 minutes into the game. Even though Baron sees a relatively small change, teams will now have to look for the Baron power plays more frequently due to this shortened respawn timer. On the other hand, the Dragons of Summoner’s Rift have seen more than a few changes.

The first Drake now spawns at 5:00 into the game rather than at 2:30, and Dragons have had their respawn timers reduced to every 5 minutes instead of every 6 minutes, with the exception of the Elder Dragon. The Elder Dragon now shares the same respawn timer with Baron Nashor at spawning every 6 minutes. This change to respawn timers for Dragons, in conjunction with the reduced respawn timer of Baron, will force teams to decide which objective they should go for later in the game.

Since Baron Nashor and Elder Dragon now have the same respawn timer at every 6 minutes, it is more likely for these two objectives to be up at the same time. To make Dragons more enticing for teams to go for they have been buffed in the early stages as well. This increase in power to early Dragons will make teams less likely to want to give them up so easily as they may have before. Now these Dragons offer more power earlier on, and the same power as they did before when you get three of the same element.

The Buffs to each Elemental Dragon are as follows:

Infernal Drake: 1st Drake grants +10% AD and AP now as opposed to 8%/2nd Drake +17% instead of 16%/ 3rd is the same

Mountain Drake: 1st Drake grants +16% damage to Structures and Epic Monsters instead of 10%/2nd Drake +23% instead of 20%/ 3rd is the same

Ocean Drake: 1st Drake grants +6% rather than 4% missing health and mana (out of combat)/2nd Drake +9% instead of 8%/ 3rd is the same

Cloud Drake: 1st Drake grants +3% movement speed now (tripled out of combat) as opposed to 2%/2nd Drake +4.5% instead of 4%/ 3rd is the same

These buffs are going to make teams want to get these Dragons earlier on when they spawn. This early power will give teams a bit more of an advantage to get ahead earlier to try and close out the game. However, since teams can gain more power a bit quicker, there are also changes to allow for teams that are behind to have a better chance to get back into the game as well. This is of course referencing the changes made to the Bounty System, which we shall be looking at next.

Bounty Changes

Before Patch 8.23, bounties felt rather abstract and you would never really know how much you were worth if you were on a roll, or how much enemies were worth if they were extremely fed. Bounties pay out to the Champion who gets the kill on the other Champion with a bounty, and now bounties are displayed on the Scoreboard, so long as the bounty is 150 gold or more. So, if you have a bounty of 150 gold for example, the Scoreboard would display 450 gold next to your Champions icon. This is the sum of the 300 gold you are regularly worth plus the 150 gold bounty.

The bounty system is meant to help people get back into the game if they are behind. If you were to see someone with a very high bounty on the other team, you might want to focus them down to claim the bounty on their head. On the other side of this, if you see you have a high bounty on you, then you will likely want to play a bit safer so as not to give the opponent the bonus gold on your head. Should they claim this bounty, you are giving them quite the opportunity to get back into the game.

You can also now gain a bounty without even taking down any enemy Champions. By farming and accumulating large amounts of gold, your value to the other team will also increase. This means that if you are farming really well and have not died, then you can still get a bounty placed on you. It is also important to note that a bounty will be capped at 1000 gold.

If you are still getting kills and farming well with your bounty capped out, and then you die to an enemy Champion, then the excess bounty you were accumulating will roll over onto you when you respawn. So, if you technically have a worth of 1450 gold, and you die to an enemy champion, they will claim 1000 gold. The remaining 450 gold of your bounty will be put on you when you respawn.

The new bounty system provides a good visual to the players allowing them to better formulate a strategy of attack or defense. If you have a bounty of 1000 gold on you, then you and your team will want to protect you a bit more in a team fight, so as not to let the enemy team claim that massive payout. If an enemy Champion has a 1000 gold bounty, then you and your team might want to focus them to claim said massive payout. This is a cool, yet somewhat subtle, change that will likely alter how someone might play the game when there are a lot of bounties throughout the game.

Rune Changes

The changes to Runes were rather subtle but effective. You no longer gain the bonus stats you once did based on the Rune Path you went. Now there are Rune Shards. These are stats that you can select and edit on your Rune Pages before loading into a game. There are three rows with three options to choose from in each row. These rows are Offense, Flex, and Defense.

The options you can select from each row are as follows:

Offense: +10 Adaptive Force (the same idea as Adaptive Damage was), +9% Attack Speed, or +1%-+10% (Cooldown Reduction increasing from 1 to 10 from level 1 to 18).

Flex: +10 Adaptive Force, +5 Armor, or +6 Magic Resist

Defense: +15-+90 Health (Again increasing as you level up from 1 to 18), +5 Armor, or +6 Magic Resist

These changes to the Runes help to make them a bit more straightforward in the statistics you are being granted before even loading into your game. Now if you see you are going to be going against a very bursty AD assassin, you might decide to double up on Armor in the Flex and Defense rows. If you are pinned up against a Champion that you think you can easily trade with, then you might look to double up on the different offensive stats.

Rune Stats are something that you will be likely to change every game now, as they are, for the most part, pretty dependent on the enemy team’s composition and your lane opponent. This adds another layer for you to attempt to gain an edge over your opponents before the game even starts and choosing the right stats can and will really help you out, especially in the earlier stages of the game.

Burst Mages have seen quite a large benefit from these Runes, as they can now start the game with a pretty large amount of AP. They have the potential to go to lane with 40 AP if they double up on the Adaptive Force options, take Absolute Focus in the Sorcery Tree, and start with a Doran’s Ring or a Dark Seal. This is a very large amount of AP to start off the game with, and as a result you can deal a lot of damage in the laning phase, even at level 1.

These are the bigger changes to the game that have been implemented in the Preseason so far, and I am sure there will be many more to come. Until then, try to get the most out of these changes to put yourself ahead of your opponents to take Victory in your games. It is important to know how each of these changes affect the game and playing the same way you might have in an ever-evolving game like League of Legends will not always work. It is important to adapt to the changes and figure out what is powerful in the Meta if you wish to continue consistently win the games you play. Have fun pushing yourself to evolve with the game and to continue growing as a player. Good luck Summoner!

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