League of items damage control, Riot happy without Preseason

In the latest League of Legends dev blog, Riot Games shared more information on the upcoming changes to the game. 

While looking at the future additions to the game, including a new Mythic skin thematic and two additional Prestige editions coming this July, the League team looked back at the beginning of season 14. This year, League players didn’t have time to get accustomed to the changes the new season brought as Riot got rid of the Preseason, transitioning from Season 13 with only a one-week break before Season 14 officially launched alongside Patch 14.1. 

But while some players might have raised some concerns and complaints about the absence of the Preseason, the League team is “happy” about it. 

The team is also content about the shift of gameplay changes to the start of the season and the overall state of the game. That said, they are actively working on mitigating the unintended potency of items and the increased burst damage that has disrupted the experience on the Rift. 

“One of our big goals was shifting power from items to champions by reducing the amount of haste and stats that items provided,” said Matthew “Riot Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, League’s lead designer.

The goal seems to be to adjust the damage levels and to bring the state of items back to a state similar to what was after the implementation of the Durability Update. That patch boosted champion health, magic resistance, and armor, lengthening early-game teamfights. To ensure that the changes do not disrupt the overall balance of the game, the League team will have to look closely at a variety of elements, particularly how much damage champions can deal in a short amount of time.