League of Legends Patch 3.8 Shakes Up the Meta With Cheaper Boots

League of Legends has often been criticized for having a fairly stagnant meta game. Usually of the professional players use the same, or very similar strategies in game and this really makes the game feel a bit boring. The new League of Legends Patch 3.8 addresses several meta issues. The small change to level one boots in this patch just might spell big things for the old and stale meta in bottom lane.

The typical meta is as follows:

Top: Tanky mage or attack damage bruiser.

Mid: Ability power carry.

Jungle: Crowd control bruiser.

Bottom: Attack damage carry and ward-machine support.

Cheaper boots are awesome for aggressive supports

The support role has long been a ward-bot. Support champions typically are starved of gold and of luxury items, so they must prioritize gold-per-5sec items and wards.

Supports always start with the same items: wards and a gp5 item. This has just been the most logical opening build. Wards to keep the lane safe, potions to stay in lane, and a component item to rush a gp5 item (Philosopher’s Stone or Kage’s Lucky Pick).

A new opening build option

This patch however, boots are now only 325g instead of 350g. This might not seem like much, but it is just enough for a new opening build. With Utility masteries, a support gets 525g at the start of the game. This is now enough to afford basic boots and 2 sight wards (75g each) and a 35g potion. Alternatively, a sight ward and a vision ward (125g).

Aggressive CC supports, like Taric, Alistar, Leona, Thresh, and Blitzcrank can now justify starting boots. Boots give faster movement speed and enable these CC heavy champions to rush in and force early level engagements. For these champions, early boots make for early kills.

This has always been an option, just very high risk/high reward. With this new patch, the risk is much lower because you can afford both wards and a potion for safety.

I’m always a fan of shaking up the meta, and I think cheaper level one boots will change the meta in a big way. This is just one change, to the bottom lane meta, but I think there are tons of other possible meta shifts in the making. Every lane can benefit from early boots to make early game plays, and this new League of Legends Patch 3.8 makes it much more viable.