Welcome to the Preseason Spotlight. In this video, we're going to introduce
the biggest changes coming for the jungle, objectives, and items in the
2015 Preseason. You can think of this as a high-level overview – if you
want more details, hit up the preseason microsite and the patch notes.
Before we get to the krugs and gromps of what’s changing, let’s
talk about the big focus for 2015: strategic diversity. In other
words, it's giving you more paths to victory so your in-game
decisions matter just as much as the champions that you pick.
Alright, jungle. Important thing here is jungle diversity. Sounds an awful lot
like last year’s preseason, but we’re taking a different approach for 2015.
We've got new item paths, Smite’s got some shiny upgrades, and we're making
monsters tougher to better differentiate between your Warwicks and your Rammi.
Also there's a crab.
First, spirit items are gone. Hunter’s Machete now upgrades
into four new items, each changing Smite in a different way.
Stalker’s Blade is gank-focused, letting you
smite enemy champions for damage and a slow.
Poacher’s Knife is for the counterjunglers, giving you bonuses
when Smiting down camps on the enemy side of the jungle.
Skirmisher’s Sabre is a dueling upgrade. Smite an opponent
and gain a combat buff against them for a few seconds.
Finally, Ranger’s Trailblazer is your farm-focused pickup, turning
your Smite into an AoE and restoring health and mana on use.
You can also buy enchantments, ensuring you get the end-game stats you need.
Be sure to read up on those because we’re not explaining them here.
We’re also adding bonuses for smiting monsters. Smite the raptors
to get a true-sight buff when you’re spotted by a ward. Murkwolves recruit a ghost that provides
vision, Gromp hooks you up with a poisonous thornmail, Krugs let you stun monsters every few attacks,
and smiting red or blue restores health or mana. You can probably figure out which is which.
Finally, under the jungle category we’ve got your new favorite camp:
the Rift Scuttler. This tanky crustacean actively avoids combat,
but if you bring him down he gives vision of either the Baron or
Dragon pit and a speed shrine for all of your teammates. Thanks crab.
Next up, let’s talk about objectives. They’re changing. Strategically.
First, turrets. There are new regenerating shields on the inner turret
which spread to nearby allies, providing extra safety against sieging.
And yes, what you’re seeing, that’s a laser. This is
a new change for the inhibitor turret, and it slows
and causes whoever it hits to deal less damage to
help deal with those pesky split-pushing Jaxes.
Baron's a badass now instead of a lategame snack. Not only will
you have to actually pay attention when taking down Baron but,
when you finally do, Baron buff now lets you recall twice as
fast while also giving your nearby minions super siege power.
Dragon and turrets have always had similar rewards -- gold. To create strategic differences,
Dragon now no longer gives gold but grants a permanent stacking buff on kill. The buffs go up as
your team secures more Dragons, adding up to the giga stack bonus. Kill five dragons for your team
and you’re going to hit like a monster truck wearing a suit of larger, cooler monster trucks.
This year we focused on strategic items that benefit your
team more than just giving you an individual pile of stats.
First, there are new Elixirs. Ruin gives bonus damage to towers and boosts your split
pushing, Sorcery gives ability power and true damage on hit, Iron buffs your size, and boosts
the movement speed of any ally who follows you, and Wrath gives attack damage and some life steal.
Each of these is tailored to your specific needs at any point in the game.
Second, meet Righteous Glory. Stats aside, Righteous Glory’s active gives a big
movement speed bonus when running toward those those super annoying disengage teams.
After a few seconds, you’ll emit a massive slowing
pulse that hits all nearby enemy champions.
Sadly, the movement speed bonus does not scale
up with how annoying the enemy team is.
In short, the philosophy we’re pursuing is around the ways you look to win
and the paths to victory your team can take.
And this is just the beginning.
Preseason is a time when we can experiment heavily with League to bring it to a better place,
and there are a lot of changes we haven’t mentioned in the video.
Be sure to check out the microsite and the patch notes for more details but, for now,
this is your Preseason spotlight signing off.