Riot Games has detailed the various League of Legends 2022 preseason items, runes, and game features being added or changed in the update. Some of these were referred to and partially explained in a recent League of Legends Season 12 video which showed new dragon types. Many of the changes have been implemented with the idea of increasing competitiveness and giving players more chances to shift the tides during matches.
League of Legends is famous for being one of the most popular and highest-earning online games out there, but it also carries some infamy due to toxic cultures in-game, online, and at Riot Games itself. The game easily has one of the largest esports presences to date as well, solidifying its place as a premiere competitive game in the industry. With League of Legends’ infamy and huge player base, Riot consistently makes changes to improve the overall experience - to varying levels of effect. In addition to regularly rebalancing champions, Riot most recently announced plans to remove League of Legends' "all chat” to curb in-game toxicity.
Every year, League of Legends preseason changes are controversial within the community despite Riot's good intentions. Today, that tradition continues with the announcement of new and altered items and runes for the LoL 2022 preseason. Many of this next season’s item changes are centered on health, such as Winter’s Approach, which grants an additional 400 health and “bonus health equal to 8% mana” and builds into Fimbulwinter. Both of these particular items come from Wild Rift, League of Legends' mobile version with differences compared to the original PC game. Other items received small alterations to their functionality, including Knight’s Vow, Force of Nature, Abyssal Mask, and Cosmic Drives.
The items are just the tip of the iceberg for League of Legends’ patch 11.23, however. The Lethal Tempo and Glacial Augment runes have been reworked, and a brand-new rune called First Strike is on the horizon, which, upon damaging an enemy before they do so, grants players extra gold for a short duration based on damage dealt to enemy champions. The aforementioned dragon types that are part of the update also get a few extra details before getting into objective bounties. It's possible that this will be the most controversial addition, as players already have gripes with the bounty system in League of Legends. The new objective bounty system gives the trailing team a chance to come back from a deficit and is calculated “based on four factors: XP lead, Gold lead, Dragon lead, and Turret lead.”
With new seasons always comes new seasonal League of Legends champion skins, as well as new events. As the game says goodbye to “all chat,” it's saying hello to a host of new game-changing features, items, and runes. It’s worth noting that while there are names, descriptions, icons, and stats associated with all of these changes, it’s all subject to change as Riot "continues to test and look through feedback during PBE.”
The League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE) is where players of good standing can try out upcoming updates and give feedback to help improve the game before new aspects of the game are released. As of today, all of the items listed by Riot as part of the preseason patch will be playable in PBE, except for the new First Strike rune. They’ll be part of PBE for four weeks until being released in November. It’ll be interesting to watch as League of Legends continues to test its boundaries and make changes to the formula as it moves into its thirteenth year of support.
League of Legends is available on PC.