Hey everyone!
Joe here again on behalf of the League Dev Team.
This preseason, we're making some big changes to the game.
In the last Riot Pls, we introduced Runes Reforged
and discussed our plans to make runes
free for everyone.
This is a huge, long-term investment in League,
and one of the biggest changes to core gameplay
that we've made in a long time.
If you haven't already heard, we're combining runes
and masteries into one streamlined system
that helps you customize your playstyle.
In order to get your feedback,
we've been releasing a steady stream of new
information about runes over the last few months.
We've also been playtesting the new system
with players around the world, from bronze
to pro, and iterating based on their feedback.
Runes Reforged are going to PBE later this month
and we can't wait to see what you think.
Today I want to talk about another major update
we've got coming this preseason.
While working on runes, we started thinking about
how we could improve some of the other related
systems in League.
Systems like leveling and IP.
Replacing runes and masteries gave us the chance
to revisit progression and rewards at the same time.
In this video, I want to share what we have planned with you.
Right now, after every game,
all players receive a little bit of IP,
whether you're brand new or you're a grizzled veteran
who's been playing since season one.
As a result, some players have giant piles of IP
with little to spend it on, while others struggle to save
for the champs they need.
To solve this, we're introducing a revamped rewards
system that levels up with you.
Here's how it's gonna work: when preseason hits,
we'll be lifting the level 30 cap in League of Legends.
Instead of getting a little bit of IP after every game,
you'll receive an unlocked chest every time you level up.
We'll customize these chests to contain
different content based on your level.
When you're leveling from 1 to 30,
you'll get more champions and blue essence.
At high level milestones, you'll earn more
exclusive rewards like emotes that show off your status.
Come November, we're also going to merge
IP with blue essence so you can buy and craft champions
using a single currency.
You'll use blue essence for everything that used to cost IP.
When we change over, we'll do a direct conversion
of all your existing IP into the newer, bluer essence,
and everything in the store will cost
the same amount it did in the old system.
In order to make this work, we'll be tuning down
the amount of essence you get from disenchanting,
but you'll be able to unlock champions
about as quickly as before, and at lower levels,
it'll be faster.
To offset the essence disenchant changes,
we'll be tweaking the way loot boxes work
so you'll have a chance to get two drops in one chest.
We're also adding "bad luck protection" to crafting,
so you won't ever go on long streaks without getting
a skin shard or a gemstone from chests.
These are huge changes to the way leveling
and rewards have worked over the last seven seasons.
We're communicating about them early
so they don't come as a surprise when preseason hits.
For those of you interested in learning more
about the upcoming rewards changes, we've just
published a dev blog that dives much deeper
into our thinking behind them.
Click on the link below if you want to learn more.
With runes soon becoming free,
we want to show our appreciation for those of you
who've invested time and IP into runes over the years.
Previously, we announced that we'd
refund runes purchased since the end of May.
But we think we can do a little more.
So, for runes you bought before the beginning
of the 2017 season, December 7th of last year, we'll
give you 100 blue essence for each regular Tier 3 rune,
and 300 blue essence for each Tier 3 quint.
For any runes you bought since the beginning
of the 2017 season, we'll refund the full cost.
Keep in mind that all of this will hit
just after we merge IP and blue essence
and you'll be able to use your blue essence just like IP.
Since the current runes are going away soon anyway,
we're reducing the price on all current tier 3 runes
to 10 IP each, starting today.
Heads up that anything you spend on runes or rune pages
won't be refunded after the price drop.
The plan for rune pages is to carry them over
into the new system, so prices on rune pages
aren't being changed.
However, we heard from some players
that being able to edit rune pages in champ select
makes having more than a few pages feel less meaningful.
So, for any rune page you bought with IP,
we'll give you back 1,500 blue essence.
We also want to do something for folks
who bought rune pages with RP.
So, for every four rune pages you bought using RP,
we'll give you an epic skin for a champion you own.
We'll also round up, so for example
if you bought 11 pages with RP, you'll get three epic skins.
And, of course, you'll still keep your rune pages
in the new system.
Refunding runes will leave many of you
with more blue essence than you know what to do with,
so we're going to give you something to do with it.
At the start of Preseason, after converting
your IP into blue essence,
we'll open up a limited-time blue essence store.
You'll be able to purchase things like
ward skins, icons and a bunch of chromas.
For all of you IP dragons who've hoarded mountains of IP,
we'll also include a few super-rare,
high-priced items like the URFWick skin.
While we're focused on shipping these big features
in time for preseason, we're still taking time
to tackle quality-of-life requests.
By now you've seen the long-requested "warded here" ping
and recently we expanded the free rotation
from 10 to 14 champs.
Client performance still isn't good enough for some of you,
and we're continuing to work on this patch over patch.
Before the end of the year, we'll follow through
on our promise to add a skins tab
to your collection in the client.
Of course, Worlds is just around the corner,
and everyone here is getting super excited.
You'll notice that patches leading up to Worlds
include more changes targeted at pro play.
Our goal is not to dramatically shake up the meta;
our goal is to enable more creative comps,
different strategies and greater diversity,
all without compromising the normal experience on live.
Once Worlds is over, expect preseason
to shake things up a bit.
This is going to be one of the biggest updates
to League's core gameplay ever,
and it may feel a bit like season one,
where we'll all be learning and experimenting together.
We'll be on deck to listen to feedback,
engage with the community, and of course
balance the system aggressively
in preparation for the 2018 season.
Everyone on the team is really excited
to bring you all of these changes, but as always,
we need your feedback.
Please share your comments or questions,
and we'll address as many as we can.
Thanks so much for playing,
and we'll see you on the rift.