Season 3 Patch Imminent!

It’s show time, ladies and gentlemen.  Ranked games on League of Legends have been disabled in preparation for the Season 3 patch that Riot Games has been talking about for the past several weeks.

The leagues

The first and biggest update is that Riot is putting into place with the update is the change to their Ranked system, removing ELO and implementing the league system that we’ve been hearing about.  Players who are already ranked according to ELO will be placed into league divisions based on a formula involving both current and maximum achieved ELO during the preseason.  Everyone who hasn’t played enough for that formula to work will have their first few Ranked games following the patch being ‘placement’ matches to figure out what league/division to put them into.

In addition, the time penalties for queue dodging are being shortened and a league point penalty is being added, with league points being the points earned to rise within a given division.  Riot did not specify if this LP penalty would apply to dodging non-Ranked games as well as Ranked.

The dark child

The visual update for Annie is also going live with the Season 3 patch.  All of her skins have been updated with new animations, graphics, and even new voice effects.  While the visual update is not a surprise, what was a surprise was the announcement that came at the same time Ranked queues that the Goth Annie skin would be made available for purchase with the update.

Previously the skin was only available in League of Legends through a specific bundle, and apparently that remains the case.  The announcement was retracted within two hours of when it was made in the first place.

The rest

As with most patches, there were a few balance changes made throughout the various champions and items in League of Legends, and a few quality of life changes.  Nunu’s Blood Boil was nerfed, Volibear got a slight attack speed increase, other champion changes are in the video preview.

Sightstone and Ruby Sightstone now both cost more and give more health, ostensibly to counteract how much early vision can be gained a bit, and the wards they drop are worth 25 gold apiece now instead of 10.  Black Cleaver now gives slightly less health than it did before, with each stack of armor shred shredding slightly less armor while being able to stack one further time.

Champions who have abilities that scale them as the game progresses all received an identical update.  The abilities that grant a permanent effect based increases when they score a last hit now give double that value if that last hit is on a champion or larger minion (such as siege minions or Baron Nashor).  This change affects Nasus’s Syphoning Strike, Sion’s Enrage, and Veigar’s Baleful Strike.

The leagues of the League of Legends are going live, it’s time for everyone who’s been waiting for an excuse to put on their game faces.  The Challenger Tier is waiting.