LEAGUE OF LEGENDS PREVIEWS SEASON START 2024 GAMEPLAY CHANGES

Voidgrubs & Voidmites: Voidgrubs are brand new inhabitants of the Baron pit that will be taking the place of the first Rift Herald of each game before despawning at 14 minutes. Starting at five minutes, three Voidgrubs will spawn, each with its own respawn timer, and a maximum of six can spawn in a single game. When aggroed, each Voidgrub will unleash a swarm of Voidmites to attack their enemies. Players that slay Voidgrubs will earn the Hunger of the Void buff that gives the user damage over time bonus damage to structures. This buff stacks based on the amount of Voidgrubs taken down; slaying five or six will cause the player to periodically summon one or two Voidmites, respectively, that will help take down structures.

Rift Herald: Rift Herald is back, but with a brand-new, Voidgrub-inspired look. New in Season Start 2024, when players crush the Eye of the Herald, Rift Herald will spawn as usual, but the user or an allied champion will be able to right-click the Rift Herald to jump onto it. The player will then be able to steer the Rift Herald and command it to charge forward, damaging and knocking up any enemy champions in its path. If players charge the Rift Herald into a turret, it will do even more damage than if the Rift Herald charged into it without being controlled. After colliding with terrain or a turret, the champion riding the Rift Herald will be knocked out, going back to their usual selves.

Void Camps: Starting at 20 minutes into the game, the next time Blue Sentinel and Red Brambleback respawn, they will rise again as Voidborn Sentinel and Voidborn Brambleback, respectively. Their transformation makes them harder to take down, but now grants their respective buffs to the entire team of the player that takes them down, excluding any allies that were dead at the time of taking the buff down. Also starting at 20 minutes, Rift Scuttler will next respawn as Voidborn Scuttler. When slain, Voidborn Scuttler will send out a massive Scryer’s Bloom effect, revealing all champions and wards in a large surrounding area. Similar to Scryer’s Bloom, all wards revealed this way will be reduced to 1 HP.

Baron Nashor: In addition to a visual update, Baron Nashor is also getting three brand new forms: Territorial Baron, Hunting Baron, and All-Seeing Baron. Each of these forms comes with their own terrain changes to the Baron pit. Hunting Baron leaves the pit unchanged, Territorial Baron creates a wall in front of the pit, and finally the All-Seeing Baron closes off the front and opens up both sides creating a tunnel. Additionally, each variation of Baron comes with different attacks: Hunting Baron blasts all nearby enemies with lightning from above, Territorial Baron uses his new hands to pull champions towards him, and All-Seeing Baron opens a Void Rift that creates a damage over time zone within the new tunnel pit.

Top Lane: The top lane will feature two major changes: the terrain on both sides will now be more closely mirrored and there will be a new small wall and brush combination in the middle of the river entrance.

Jungle: The biggest terrain change to the jungle will be the addition of wide walls directly across from the Baron and Drake pits.

Mid Lane: In mid lane, the brush will be moved back slightly, providing more safety for less mobile champions.

Bot Lane: Similar to the change coming to the top lane, a small wall and brush combination will be added to the bot side. Additionally, the blue tri-brush area has been mirrored onto the red side. These changes are designed to make the lane more symmetrical, eliminating any side-based advantages.

Item Changes: Mythic Items will be removed from the game with the goals of shifting power from items into the champions themselves and giving players more flexibility with their build paths. With this change, there will come a plethora of item additions, removals and adjustments to power and effects. Additionally, an update to item tooltips will be rolled out, making descriptions more digestible at a glance while keeping detailed information viewable as needed.

Drake Changes: Once Infernal Drake’s Infernal Rift is locked in, Infernal Cinders will spawn around the map. Each cinder will give the champion that picked it up adaptive stats and a burst of movement speed. Upon death, champions will drop half of their cinders which can then be picked up by allied or enemy champions. Also, given the new terrain changes, a few of the small walls and brushes for Mountain Drake and Ocean Drake will be moved.

Dynamic Music: Alongside visual changes coming to Baron pit, new music will be added when fighting around Baron or other Void objectives.