What’s New in League of Legends Pre-Season 11? Everything You Need to Know

League of Legends begins its Season 11 pre-season today, with an update going over the weekend. With that comes arguably the biggest change seen since launch. In addition to all the usual champion balance changes, it comes with a complete overhaul of the shop and the overall item build system. Here we’ll be discussing everything you need to know about League of Legends pre-season 11.

Riot has voiced for quite a while that its item build system was getting a little stale, with certain builds on certain champions being the only thing you could do in a match to be a viable teammate, with anything else considered trolling. With such a massive pool of champions, it seemed a shame to pigeonhole all the mages into one build, all the assassins into another, etc.

Potentially due to the impending release of Wild Rift, Riot has today implemented massive changes in items and how you choose to build your character to suit your play style and the opposition you face.

A New Item Tier – Complete Re-Work of the Item System

A new tier of item rarity has been added into the rotation – Mythic. These Mythic items are the most powerful on offer and perhaps more importantly give your champion unique passive and active abilities. These enable you to completely tailor your build to who you’re directly facing in a lane, whether that’s a bruiser tank, an agile assassin, or a deadly mage.

You can have only one of these Mythic items in your inventory at any one time and are encouraged to use that as the cornerstone of your build, picking up other legendary items to complement the Mythic or to fill in any gaps or weaknesses in your build.

As well as adding powerful new passive abilities to your character, these Mythic items add a passive to any other Legendary item you purchase throughout the match. Some items will add 5% Magic Penetration to every Legendary you add, whilst others will stack 5% Ability Haste (the new name for cooldown reduction) with each Legendary. It’s a huge change, and let’s you really hone in on your what makes you perform better.

There has been a ton of new items added, and old ones have been reworked. Check the full patch notes out out if you want to pour over the hundreds of changes.

The Shop Has Changed

The shop has also undergone big changes. Instead of being reliant on your own knowledge of the ideal build for your champion (or using a third-party app like Facecheck) it now instead shows a ‘Recommended’ tab, which will give you a few options for the best item to build next based on your character, your current build and even the opposition you face.

For example; if you’re coming up against a tank with a lot of armor, the shop may start to recommend armor-piercing items to attempt to counter this.

The shop still has the ‘all items’ section, for people who know exactly what they want and how they want to build. It seems to be the best of both worlds, if you know what you want then great, if you don’t.. then, also great.

Character Buffs and Nerfs

As with any patch, there are changes both good and bad for many Champions in an effort to balance the game.

• Caitlyn
  • Headshot damage maths has been changed slightly to accommodate the changes to critical damage this patch. Raises the ceiling slightly for her crit damage.
• Jhin
  • Lowered his overall crit damage, the developers say this is so that his fourth shot critical strike still feels meaty.
• Senna
  • Passive crit damage reduction and crit chance per 20 souls decreased. R now collects Mist Wraiths on cast.
• Tryndamere
  • Passive crit chance flattened.
• Yasuo
  • Passive now converts crit strike chance above 100% to bonus AD.
• Yone
  • Passive now converts crit strike chance above 100% to bonus AD.
• Akali
  • Q cost (Five-Point Strike) decreased later in game.
• Katarina
  • Passive, E, and R now apply on-hit effects. R now deals hybrid damage and scales with attack speed.
• Kayle
  • Passive bonus attack speed now scales with AP.
• Ornn
  • Masterworks now upgrade Mythics. Ornn now gains increased bonus health in addition to armor and magic resist. Bonus defenses now increase per Masterwork he creates.
• Viktor
  • Hex Core removed; Viktor now upgrades his abilities by earning champion takedowns and last-hits. E damage increased. Mana growth increased.
• The following Champions also have a +20 to their mana growth:
  • Amumu, Anivia, Camille, Cassiopeia, Cho’Gath, Corki, Darius, Ekko, Ezreal, Fiora, Fizz, Gangplank, Hecarim, Irelia, Jax, Kassadin, Malphite, Nasus, Ornn, Ryze, Skarner, Sylas, Twisted Fate, Udyr, Vi, Viktor, Volibear, Wukong, Xin Zhao, Yorick, Zilean.

ARAM Balance Changes

• Game Pacing and Gold Income
  • Nearby Minion death gold has been increased from 5 > 6, the ambient gold you accrue has been increased by 10% and cannon minions will spawn on both waves, every other wave, starting at wave 3.
• Invisibility Detection
  • Oracle’s Elixir has been removed from the shop, but now Cannon minions and super minions now each have one charge of a modified Umbral Glaive’s Blackout passive: 900 range and 4 seconds of visibility once detected.

New Skins Added

We’ll be continuing to update you all with the League of Legends updates brought in with Season 11. It’s still up in the air with how dramatic of a difference this will make to the game-play but the initial impressions are very positive, at least from this Lux main.