Riot Games has announced some big changes that are coming to the arena mode in League of Legends when it returns for its third run since initially launching last year.
The biggest change to the arena mode is that it will now feature eight teams of two, rather than the four teams of two that it had previously. This should be a massive change when it comes to keeping things fresh, as you will obviously face different teams and champions more often. It should also stop the annoying games where you end up playing against the same team over and over again, which did get tiresome.
To make sure that this change doesn’t totally throw out the balance of things, there are also a lot of changes to make sure that games aren’t extended. The aim is to make sure they still stay relatively quick, compared to a standard LoL match at least, and there will be tweaks to the likes of gold rewards, starting health and health loss.
The other big change is the addition of prismatic items, which should be some of the most powerful in the game and how you can acquire items. Instead of just buying exactly what you want, you can now purchase an anvil, that when used will present you with three item choices, or three stat boosts if you buy a stat anvil. Anvils will obviously be cheaper than the items they offer, so if you are prepared to deal with some randomness and adapt on the fly you can get stronger earlier. This should offer even more variety in games and reduce the dependence on set builds.
“Our hope is that this will go a long way to tackle concerns voiced around the game state getting too stale or repetitive,” said Eduardo “Riot Cadmus” Cortejoso, product lead for modes in League of Legends in a dev blog. “Even in a scenario where you run into similar teams, they will likely be building different items and choosing different augments each game, so try your best to figure out any specific game’s current conditions to come out ahead. Players who adapt best will come out ahead, as opposed to those that rely too heavily on a specific strategy!”
The new version of arena is set to launch on May 1 alongside the 14.9 patch and will run for the entirety of Split 2. This should give players a lot more time to get hands-on with the mode before the Vampire Survivors style mode launches later in the summer.