So, big things are anticipated to happen with League of Legends now that it is entering the 2014 Season, and with it comes a fair few changes and features to be added, nerfed or removed. According to its promotional page via the official League of Legends website, the 2014 Season will change things up a bit as the game continues to evolve to try and provide the best experience for its players gameplay-wise (if they could also nerf players’ capacity to be grossly arrogant and egotistical that would be great too). As well as making changes to its eSports, its competitive ranked games, and releasing an upcoming Teambuilder feature, Riot Games has also released details on the upcoming 4.1 patch for League of Legends , the games first big update of the year.
Posted on the official League of Legends website, the 4.1 update is centered around refining and fine-tuning the gameplay of League , by “de-fogging” certain characters like Shyvanna, Riven and Annie, modernising certain items and trying to resolve the 2v1 lane swap strategy.
For ranked players, it may not be your lucky day when this patch drops, because ranked sessions during this Season of 2014 will be reset, allowing for a “fresh start to the new season.” It levels the playing field, so it’ll give other players a chance to climb the ladder if they otherwise couldn’t.
The patch also includes changes to how vision works in the game, like allowing for a more quick and dynamic response whenever abilities are used to reveal an area of Fog of War, like Lux’s Lucent Singularity ability. What’s more, the changes will also affect wards and projectiles, changing it so wards lose their vision whenever they’re disabled (say by the Sweeping lense trinket) and so projectiles cast by abilities will register quicker and reveal whoever casted it if they happen to be within the Fog of War (like if an ability was cast from within a bush).
Changes have also been made to items and champions too, as well as a few fixed bugs related to certain champions. Even game modes have had a little tinkering, like Summoner’s Rift and Twisted Treeline.
Changes to Summoner’s Rift nerf the outer towers, and the Top- and Middle-lane towers now have a 20 damage reduction from basic champion attacks. These changes are meant to discourage the 2v1 lane swap strategy that’s allegedly been adopted in order to score the upper hand by shutting down opposition while also gaining an early advantage. To prevent this sort of maneuver from being put into place, Riot has made it so that leaving your bottom-lane tower is more vulnerable, thus discouraging a 2v1 lane swap.
Changes to Twisted Treeline, as well as Crystal Scar, include tweaks to certain items that are available in those two game modes. Infinity Edge has been removed from allowed items list as well as the B.F. Sword, but in doing so some other items have been reintroduced, like Wicked Hatched and Lord Van Damm’s Pillager (an item that will replace Infinity Edge in those respective game modes), which both have a new build order and an effect. These particular changes were made because those two items are easier to build up over time, and so items of equal value that were a bit more difficult to obtain in a fast-paced game mode were removed. Additional changes also include changes to the cost of certain items, like Grez’s Spectral Lantern and the Hextech Sweeper.
Finally, Riot has also introduced a “stable roster of free champions for new players,” with a goal to improve how players learn to play League when they first start out. The roster is comprised of champions that are considered to be both easy to learn and fun to play with, and is only available to new players for the first few levels before they are introduced to the normal Free to Play rotation that’s currently in place.
You can find further information on League of Legends’ 4.1 update by reading the dedicated post via its official website here .