With the extensive changes to dragons in League of Legends’ 2020 preseason, Shelly may seem like an afterthought. But Patch 9.24 looks to bring some more priority to the Rift Herald.
Riot gameplay systems designer Daniel “Rovient” Leaver added on to yesterday’s Patch 9.24 outline with some additional Rift Herald information. The designer tweeted today that the damage Shelly deals to turrets will be increased.
“A small update to yesterday’s 9.24 patch buffs: Rift Herald will now always take at least two turret plates when she charges,” Rovient said. “The second Herald will also do a tiny bit more damage on the charge too.”
The buff is likely in lieu of the map-wide focus drakes have been getting to secure the coveted Dragon Soul. Buffing Shelly may incentivize junglers, along with top and mid laners, to pay more attention to the headbutting Herald in the early and middle stages of a match. And the second Herald being buffed to do even more turret damage may ensure junglers visit the objective again.
Patch 9.23 attempted to balance out the two monster objectives by giving Shelly a second spawn and decreasing the Eye of the Herald channel time to one second. But junglers can effortlessly solo dragons in the early game, making drakes of higher priority than Rift Herald.
It’s unclear if these Rift Herald changes will even out the scales, but Riot’s targets are certainly trending in the right direction.
Published: Dec 3, 2019 02:11 pm