The 2019 World Championship has come to a close. The game was fairly well balanced in 2019. We saw a lot of unique picks in professional play and there were high expectations leading into the finals. Now the 2019 season is coming to a close and we must look towards the future of League of Legends. This is everything you need to know about League 2020 preseason, all the new items, map changes, and dragons summarized so you can be prepared.
All information is currently in testing on the PBE and is subject to change.
Table of Contents
Dragons and Elemental Rift
Drakes will still be random, but not completely. They will spawn in a pattern. The first two drakes to spawn will only spawn that one time. For example, you might see Infernal – Cloud – Ocean – Ocean – Ocean – Ocean. However, Ocean – Ocean – Cloud – Infernal is impossible. The third drake and beyond, until the Elder Dragon, will be the same element. The third element is what will dominate the Rift; that’s where the changing map comes in.
There are 4 different changes that can dominate the Rift, each one based on a drake element. After the second drake is slain and the element for the third is determined the map will change to match it.
In the Infernal Rift, walls and a few bushes are torn down.
For the Mountainous Rift, new walls are added.
More bushes and honey fruit are added in the Ocean Rift.
In the Cloud Rift, speed buff zones are added.
Dragons Buffs
The stacking buffs from slaying drakes have also been changed.
- Infernal: Percentage increase to your attack damage and ability power.
- Mountain: Percentage Increase to your Armor and Magic Resist.
- Ocean: Regenerate missing health over time (even in combat).
- Cloud: Extra cooldown on your ultimate.
Dragon Soul
In addition to the normal dragon buffs, there is a new kind of buff that you can get from slaying drakes. The buff is called the Dragon Soul. There are 4 different kinds, one for each element. You get the Dragon Soul instead of the normal stacking buff when you kill your fourth drake, and the one you get will be based on the dominant element.
- Infernal Soul: Auto-attacks and spells cause an AOE explosion every 3 seconds.
- Mountain Soul: Gain a shield after not taking damage for 5 seconds.
- Ocean Soul: Dealing damage causes you to regenerate your health and resource.
- Cloud Soul: Using your ultimate gives you a burst of move speed.
Elder Dragon
After a certain amount of time or after a team has claimed the Dragon Soul, the Elder Dragon will be the next dragon to spawn no matter how early it is in the game. So, only one team can claim a Dragon Soul. The Elder Dragon buff has also been changed. Instead of scaling with your previous dragon buffs, the Elder Dragon buff will provide an execute: Damaging an enemy will burn them if they are burned below a certain health percentage, they will be executed.
The Rift Herald
All of this talk about dragons only puts more priority on the jungle, bot lane, and mid lane. What about the top lane? The Rift Herald will be changed to provide more options and help keep the top lane relevant. It still does the same thing but will spawn earlier and can respawn a second time if killed early enough.
League 2020 Preseason Map Changes
An alcove will be added to the top and bot lane as well as a new bush near the Blue Sentinels.
Experience Changes
Experience will also be changed to favor solo lanes to help balance bot lane’s influence on dragons. Base XP generated by minions will be increased, and extra XP from sharing will be reduced. This way, solo lanes will level a bit faster and shared lanes will level a bit slower compared to the 2019 season.
Jungle XP is also being slightly reduced overall, and Krugs and Gromp will give the same amount of XP, so you can hit level 3 off of any outer camp, buff camp, and a third camp. This will help balance the blue and red side since the blue side originally had an advantage due to Krugs’ proximity to the bot lane. Now, junglers will be able to early level 3 gank all lanes.
League 2020 Preseason Items
Zz’rot Portal, Ohmwrecker, and Raptor Cloak will be removed. So, if you want to use them, now is your last chance.
Shurelya’s Reverie, Youmuu’s Ghostblade, Edge of Night, Kircheis Shard, and Duskblade are being changed. Here’s what they will look like:
Moreover, a new item, Sanguine Blade, will be added. It gives a massive attack speed buff when there are 1 or fewer enemies nearby. This will be great for split pushers and isolated picks.
Support items will be reworked. After buying the initial item, you will upgrade it by completing quests, no more buying upgrades. There will be 4 support items, each one with either the spellthief’s quest with AD or AP or Targon’s quest with AD or AP. (Finally, some AD support items for Senna and Pyke.) The Amulet Coin quest will no longer be available.
Keystone Rune Changes
Finally, the Keystones being changed are Conqueror, Aftershock, and Kleptomancy.
Conqueror will now stack up to 10 times, each stack granting adaptive force. You will no longer deal true damage at max stacks, but the heal is increased. Melee attacks and ability give you 2 Conqueror stacks while ranged attacks will only give 1.
Aftershock will favor tank builds. The armor and magic resist will have a smaller base increase and higher scaling. The damage will also be buffed.
Prototype: Omnistone is replacing Kleptomancy. This rune will give you the effect of random keystones.
That’s everything to look out for in the League 2020 preseason. I hope this helped guide you through all of the changes so that you can be prepared!
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