In previous preseason patches, the community generally gets smacked in the face with massive last-minute changes. This spontaneous shifting of the meta often leaves the community very upset. With the addition of Valorant, a large amount of quitting players, and the Sad State of League movement started by LoL personality Voyboy, Riot Games has started listening to their community a bit more. One way they are showing their sincerity is talking about preseason long before its arrival.
What’s The Target This Time?
For the first time in a long time, junglers can rejoice that their home won’t be forcefully renovated. The Riot dev team has decided that they want to focus on items this preseason. This affects everyone, so the changes will hit across the board. There are three topics around items they will be focusing on: item interface, champion to item synergy, and refining and creating items.
Item Interface
At the core of items, there is the item interface. For beginners, the interface can become overwhelming. The endless list of items and stats can create confusion for players just starting out. In the preseason, Riot Games want to make the system more intuitive for the new players, while keeping it convenient for the savvy summoner.
Champion and Item Synergy
Another aspect the League dev team deems worthy of their attention is how well items synergize with champions. In particular, Riot wants to push items into two categories; items that synergize with champions' kit (Like Lichbane on Fizz), and items that are situational to the game (Like Armor Penetration or Magic Resist). Everything outside of this scope will be cleaved cleanly from the interface.
Creating and Refining Items
Over the lifespan of the item system, many new and innovative ideas popped into the developers’ heads. Some items were overpowered or overloaded with actives and unique passives. Stats are also adjusted often from buffs and nerfs and are sometimes uneven, so Riot tends to smooth all of this over. Item stats will be rounded out, recurring unique passives among items will be removed, and any item niches that need to be filled will be created. In their preseason post, they say 34 percent of items will be the same, 33 percent will be refined, and 33 percent will be new.
