A little over two years after being shelved, Ultimate Spellbook, the chaotic, ever-popular ability-loaded League of Legends mode, is back for another run. Things will be a little different this time though, with the Riot Games developers implementing several big playlist changes they’ve been cooking up for the last 24 months.
When Ultimate Spellbook arrives in League Patch 14.19 in late September, it’ll bring with it several gameplay changes focused around more Ultimates. This includes players choosing between four at the start of the match (up from three), several extras added to the overall list, and Ultimate options appearing “periodically throughout the game” to replace your first choice.
Riot has also been playing with a new Ultimate Spellbook feature called “Ultimate Ammo.” This mid-game upgrade can be collected from Barons, Elder Dragons, and by earning Dragon Souls and gives you a whole extra use charge for your Ultimate. Yes, this feature genuinely means you can just cast your Ultimate twice in a row—I’m picking Brand.
Finally, this 2024 Ultimate Spellbook rework will bring several smaller changes to jungle camp timers and balance tuning for auto-Smite, both of which should really help junglers.
It looks like this may be the first Ultimate Spellbook run in some time that doesn’t bring a Summoner’s Rift map theme, however. The LTM will run through the 2024 World Championship during its tie-in event but won’t have any esports stylings.
Last time the Spellbook game mode ran in 2022, it was Star Guardian themed and had a specially designed map to boot. Before that, it popped up in the 11th League preseason as elemental dragons were first unveiled. The mode was originated in 2021 alongside the much-hated Ruination event; Spellbook was quite well received despite that backlash.
It’ll be interesting to see which champions (and their abilities) emerge as top contenders in Spellbook this time around. Last time around, popular picks included Yone’s Fate Sealed ultimate, Aatrox’s World Ender, and Irelia’s Vanguard’s Edge.
Ultimate Spellbook is now available for testing on the League PBE before launch.
Published: Sep 11, 2024 01:11 am