The League of Legends Arena game mode has been going strong for the past few months, despite numerous balance issues. As Riot works to improve the mode, numerous changes are planned for upcoming updates, including a massive revamp of Koi Pond, Arena’s most frustrating map.
“We know some players have been asking for changes to Koi Pond,” wrote Mike “Riot Rogue Fool” Breese on X yesterday, announcing the Koi Pond revamp planned for the League of Legends Patch 14.15. He outlined numerous changes that Riot aims to introduce, all of which are being implemented to “make the map less frustrating” and reduce the times players “feel isolated or trapped.” For example, the Lillypads will now close after almost 11 seconds, up twice from the previous 5.5-second timer.
Blastcones will also take twice as long to regenerate, with the northern one being moved closer to the center of its island. The bottom-right island will no longer have a Blastcone, which seems like a confusing choice, though we will have to wait for actual gameplay to evaluate how impactful this decision will be.
The outline states that Koi Pond will have unique Hexgate cooldowns four seconds lower than the other maps to allow for more mobility between the islands. Riot plans to add more Brushes to the map and change its spawn locations to remove spawning in the bottom-right corner of the map. Lastly, Koi Pond’s Circle will shrink faster initially but allow players on the map more time to respond to the enclosing flames.
Koi Pond has been one of the least-liked maps in League of Legends Arena due to how it isolates players on islands with no way of rejoining the battle. Those who played champions without substantial dashing or blinking were doomed from the very start unless favor swung their way, making Koi Pond encounters for them much more frustrating. Arena itself is going to see lots of new stuff in the coming weeks, with new Augments, items, and more planned for Patch 14.15.
