Season 10 is almost here for League of Legends, and with a host of changes expected in pre-season, players can now get their first taste of them on the Public Beta Environment (PBE).
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Pre-season in League of Legends is usually a testing zone for Riot to see what needs major changes. Every year, a host of updates revolutionize the game like the rune update in season seven and the vision update in season nine.
Season 10 is no different, with Riot making major changes to Summoner’s Rift itself for the first time since its visual update in 2014, and updating the elemental drake system to provide a dynamic gameplay experience.
To start it off, elemental drakes are now vastly changing the way Summoner’s Rift will look every game. The third dragon will transform the Rift before it spawns, and will be the only dragon that spawns for the rest of the game.
- Ocean Rift: Bushes expand in jungle and river, with additional Honeyfruits spawning.
- Cloud Rift: Wind currents are created in the jungle, giving champions who move through them a movement speed boost.
- Infernal Rift: Terrain around buffs gets destroyed, opening up new avenues.
- Mountainous Rift: Terrain around buffs gets bolstered, closing off escape paths.
Once one team slays four dragons, they’ll gain an additional Dragon Soul buff for the rest of the game. This is an upgraded version of the base buffs for elemental drakes, and opens up the dragon pit so Elder buff can spawn.
The Elder buff is getting an update too. While it’ll still grant some passive stats, it’ll now give players a full-on execute ability once they stack up damage onto a target. Elder Immolation kills low-health enemies who have recently been attacked by an Elder buffed champion, but can be dodged by Zhonya’s Hourglass and other invulnerability items and abilities.
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On the top half of the map, the Rift Herald will now spawn multiple times, as long as it’s downed before 14 minutes. It now spawns at eight minutes, and respawns six minutes later. This means that teams can utilize two Rift Heralds in a game to really break open the enemy base.
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Those aren’t the only changes being made to the jungle though. League’s perennial punching bags are once again getting big changes to their role, with the experience system being tweaked. Overall, junglers will receive less experience, but it’ll be more evenly distributed across the map, with a nerf to Krugs and a buff to Gromp.
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Outside of the jungle, the top and bot lanes on Summoner’s Rift will be getting little alcoves on the corners of the map. This will provide a new angle for junglers to lane gank from and could make for some interesting ambushes.
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Kleptomancy is getting a major rework. Instead of players getting a random selection of items throughout the game, they will now be able to cycle through all of the other keystones – similar to how Unsealed Spellbook works for summoner spells.
Zz’rot Portal and Ohmwrecker are being removed from the game entirely, after both items have had very little relevance in the meta for quite some time. Shurelya’s Reverie is also getting a rework, deviating away from Righteous Glory and becoming more of an enchanter support item.
These changes are only the start for what’s to come. More champion and item changes, visual improvements, and possible gameplay reworks are still expected to hit as season nine comes to an end and season 10 gets rolling.
You can read the full patch notes on the League of Legends forums.
