As League of Legends Season 8 approaches, it's tough not to reflect on some of the most crucial changes to the game since the beginning of the season. Here are the five biggest changes of League of Legends Season 8 so far.
5. New Champions
With every season, new champion releases are always exciting, and this season was no different. In Season 8, both Kai'Sa and Pyke were released.
Surprisingly, each of the two new champions were fairly balanced upon release and both saw a decent presence in professional play. Kai'Sa's assassin-style twist on the traditional marksman role was refreshing and provided a high-risk, high-reward style for players picking her.
Pyke also brought a new take on the support role, bringing a similar assassin play style to the bot lane. While his hook has often replaced Thresh's, the champion offers a fun play style as players can easily jump in and out of team fights.
4. Champion Reworks
Swain, Aatrox, and Akali all received reworks this season. While each were incredibly strong upon their release, Swain and Aatrox have since balanced out while Akali still needs time to settle.
Each of the three champions saw massive presence in professional play, and even though Swain has since been nerfed, the champion has continued to see the stage as his reworked kit is still strong. Swain was picked in multiple different roles, especially following the changes to marksmen in Patch 8.11.
3. Additional Runes
In Patch 8.6, Riot Games released two new runes while removing both Iron Skin and Mirror Shell from the Resolve tree.
Both Conqueror and Chrysalis were introduced in this patch. Conqueror was designed to help champions excel in long, drawn-out team fights, especially melee ranged champions, while Chrysalis provided extra defense in the late game.
While Conqueror has arguably been the more impactful of the two, having been picked more frequently for champions like Renekton and Yasuo, the two runes have both proved useful where Iron Skin and Mirror Shell did not.
2. Jungle Changes
Prior to Patch 8.10, Riot Games felt that junglers had too much impact in the early games. As a result, this patch brought changes to jungle experience, The amount of experience provided by jungle monsters was decreased, although it began scaling with level.
One of the most important changes in this patch, however, was the increased jungle interaction with the changes to Rift Scuttler spawns. The game begins with one spawning on each side and are worth exponentially more experience than they previously were, providing incentive for junglers to take the early spawns. After the first two crabs die, only one spawns on the map at any given time, providing a point of skirmish as junglers fight for the experience.
1. Changes to ADC
Patch 8.11 brought some of the biggest meta shakeups of Season 8. This patch drastically hit marksmen, reducing the power of critical strike items while also weakening marksmen sustain.
As a result, many marksmen were pushed out of the bot lane and replaced by mages. Swain, Brand, Vladimir were all picked over traditional ADCs, causing an uproar in the community. While these changes have since began leveling out and certain marksmen have slowly began returning to the bot lane, this patch was one of the most frustrating for many players.
Photos courtesy of Riot Games.
