The League of Legends preseason is almost upon us and will bring with it a whole load of changes. Just like every other preseason, there will be a bunch of changes that will stick whereas other will be complained about for years to come. Here are the most memorable changes that were made to the game during previous preseasons.
Runes Reforged
During the last preseason, the outdated rune system was finally changed. Masteries and runes were combined into one system and that is the rune system that we currently know of. This change was absolutely brilliant. It was about time for the old rune system to be removed from the game at that was absolutely horrible and it couldn’t have been replaced by something better than this. Especially keystones are a fine addition as this gives certain champions a completely different playstyle than they had before and also empowered a lot of champions that used to be a lot weaker. Runes Reforged is definitely one of the best things to ever be added to League of Legends.
Summoners Rift Update
Although the update to Summoner’s Rift was not really a preseason change, it was released during a preseason, specifically the preseason in 2014 and thus we will count it for this list. Although many current players might have never played on the previous map, the update was such an enormous change. Although old Summoners Rift was not extremely ugly, the difference between the current one and the old one is night and day. All the jungle camps also got a much-needed facelift and especially the difference between the new and old Baron Nashor is extremely noticeable as he changed from a purple worm into a menacing monstrosity.
Support Items Overhaul
The three support items that we currently have in the game, spellthief’s edge, the ancient coin, and targon’s embrace, were all introduced to the game in preseason patch 3.14 and were a change that the support role desperately needed. These items have made more supports viable and made the role a lot more interesting to play during the early game. Instead of simply buying a philospher’s stone to passively acquire gold you now got to actually do something. These items are still in the game and have improved over time to the point where they now give supports a mini-quest to complete during the laning phase to give supports more to do.
Jungle Overhaul
In 2015 Riot decided to completely rebuild the jungle and build paths for junglers. Camps were changed significantly so that they all feel different from each other and a few new jungle monsters were added such as the Rift Scuttler. Jungle items also saw a huge overhaul with the removal of old jungle items and four new items taking their place. These 4 jungle items were the Stalker’s Blade, Poacher’s Knife, Skirmisher’s Sabre, and Ranger’s Trailblazer. Currently, only the Stalker’s Blade and Skirmisher’s Sabre are left in the game and commonly revered to as blue smite and red smite respectively. However, the changes that were made to the jungle itemization still has an impact today and is a change that made the jungle infinitely better.
Living Jungle
The living jungle was a second jungle overhaul that Riot attempted and is remembered for all the wrong reasons. This is the change that brought you the beloved jungle plants that raised hell within the community. One of the most popular features of the jungle was previously that smiting certain camps gave you specific stat boosts but this was being replaced by random plants with mediocre effect. Although these plants are a bit more accepted nowadays, people still argue that they’re too reliant on RNG and have never accomplished what they set out to do, which was making the jungle feel more alive.
