Season 4 Changes

Hello! Welcome to another Blog post!

This week there has been some released information about the upcoming season 4. So far they have only gone into detail about the changes to supports. They have also given some hints to what they would like to do with the jungle. Since support is my favorite role and jungle is my second favorite, the released information has made me giddy with anticipation for what’s to come.

In season 3, supports had to deal with the short end of the stick. They must share a lane with the ADC in bot lane. The ADC gets all the CS (minion kills). Minion kills equal gold. The more CS a champion has the more gold they get and with that gold they will buy items to make themselves stronger. Meanwhile supports get nothing and are only there to ward and “support” the ADC in getting killed. The support is also supposed to help the ADC get away from fights since most ADC’s don’t have the best mobility. Since the support gets the least amount of gold, yet have to do all the warding, they rarely get past 2 or 3 full items throughout the game. In season 4, they are attempting to boost the amount of gold supports earn. I am thrilled by this because I play aggressive supports. If I get more gold, I will be more effective in fights and i should also be able to do even more warding. Another change they plan to make is making it so all champions have 1 ward at all times. Usually as a support I am trying to keep about 5 wards on the map at all times. If all the champions on a team use this ward that they are given then the map will have a good amount of vision in comparison to the current ward situation. If more people have wards then it will lift the burden off of the support to do all the warding. If the supports don’t have to do all the warding then that in turn will also help the support with their gold use efficiency.  This makes me very happy.

They have also given a little information on the changes to the jungle. The biggest change to the map in general is that they are adding a fourth jungle camp. I am guessing that it'is going to be a small camp. I doubt it will be a large camp because having a 3^rd buff that the jungle would need to take care of would be overwhelming. They also discuss how the jungle will provide more XP (experience points are essential for leveling up). I like this because in season 3, if a gank goes badly then the jungler falls behind. Same if he has buffs stolen. If there is a fourth camp then he has a better chance at keeping himself from falling behind. I don’t think this will be very beneficial to the jungler late game though. Late game, all the laners come in and take all the camps leaving the jungler with nothing. This is why after laning phase, the jungler pretty much becomes another support if he doesn’t get fed.

Basically I am excited that the supports are getting more gold because frankly it is extremely needed. There hasn’t been too much information released on the jungle changes yet, but I am happy with the fact that they are giving room for a jungler to farm (grind to get CS and XP) his way back into the game without relying on his laner’s farm. Also I wonder if a losing lane will be able to take advantage of the fourth camp so they can take the CS from it so they can go back stronger in their lane.

Season 4 changes overview: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/features/preseason-draws-closer

Vision ward changes: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3975411

Support changes: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=3978129

Thanks for reading! Have any questions or comment then you know what to do!