New Aphelios changes coming soon to League

League of Legends boasts one of the largest rosters in the gaming world. The developers at Riot Games have worked hard to create champions with diverse playstyles.

One of the most popular roles in the MOBA is the AD carry, a position primarily focused on kiting and dealing damage from a distance through auto-attacks. The role requires a balance between dealing damage through auto attacks and abilities, which can vary based on the effectiveness of different items.

Currently, Aphelios is heavily focused on using abilities. However, the developers want to change this and have plans to significantly revamp the champion in an upcoming patch. In the patch 14.14 preview, Riot Phreak explained their vision for the champion.

“We actually aren’t huge fans of the fact that Aphelios is kind of a caster right now. His primary build is E max second, and rush Collector. We’d really rather he be more of an auto-attacker and less of a 5000 range burst mage.”

Aphelios has been a controversial champion since his release, particularly due to his ability to deal massive on-hit damage with his white Chakram gun. Since then, the developers have significantly nerfed Aphelios, leaving him less impactful compared to other champions.

Riot Phreak mentioned that he has some ideas for Aphelios. He suggested that it’s possible they might implement some patchwork changes in updates 14.15 or 14.16. These changes would aim to make Aphelios more of a traditional auto-attack carry and less focused on what can feel like overly powerful gun combos.

According to the League of Legends patch schedule, Patch 14.15 is set to be released on July 31, with Patch 14.16 following two weeks later on August 14. This means we may soon see many of these changes implemented.

League of Legends is infamous for making adjustments to items during its yearly preseason, and this year, players are concern in anticipation of one of the game’s most recent additions being removed.

Statikk Shiv, which was re-added to LoL after a two-year hiatus, is expected to be removed next season, according to LoL players.

Statikk Shiv, one of the reintroduced items in LoL, might be removed

In a post on the League subreddit earlier, players speculated that Statikk Shiv might be removed from the game if the game’s current nerfing trend continues.

Statikk Shiv has been missing from League’s market for nearly two years, having been removed from the game in 2020. When it was re-added earlier this season in patch 13.10, it was changed to emphasise magic damage and wave clear, with its passive giving additional AP damage and its damage against minions.

“They keep nerfing the only, and i mean ONLY reason people buy that item, which is it’s wave clear. So when people stop buying the item because it’s no longer good at wave clear, Riot will remove it.”

Because of this change, Statikk Shiv became a must-buy for AP champions as well as some hybrid AD carriers, and it briefly became one of the most OP items in League.

Statikk Shiv has been heavily nerfed since its reintroduction in LoL Patch 13.10, with Riot hammering its AP ratios and minion damage bonuses in numerous updates subsequently. Its 50% AP ratio has been decreased to 15%, and the AP scaling on minion damage has been eliminated entirely.

Then, the item’s minion damage continued to be lowered in Patch 13.18.

Riot has previously eliminated items that were considered as flops and had lost touch with the community following a series of nerfs. Items like Banner of Command, and others all had their glory before Riot nerfed them to oblivion, and Statikk Shiv may follow suit.

With such difficulties occurring on a daily basis, the League of Legends community is not known as the kindest in gaming. As a consequence, several players urge Riot Games to prioritize resolving the issue in the coming season.

League of Legends Season 14 State of the Game

A player recently expressed his thoughts on Reddit, noting that he hopes Riot would make a change in League of Legends Season 14 instead of making major in-game adjustments until the preseason begins in November.

“I feel like balancing is at a pretty good spot and new updates like Neeko bring fresh gameplay to the rift,”

“But it feels like this is the worst it’s ever been for the community,”

Smurf accounts have been a problem in League of Legends’ lower elos. Many lower elo players have expressed their displeasure with botted accounts invading their ranked games, with these smurfs frequently being threatening or just not playing the game correctly when something doesn’t go their way.

For years, the community has been moaning about toxicity in lobbies, and it appears that the problem is getting worse.

Bot accounts are another concern in League right present, as highlighted by players in the comments.

As a result, players are urging Riot to make some much-needed adjustments to address these kinds of issues, such as attaching an existing phone number to accounts or developing an algorithm to better detect botted accounts, which might assist with the current state of the community and the overall game experience.

Players urge Riot to directly tackle these smurf accounts and hope that in the future season, instead of making further adjustments to the jungle or adding new dragons, new items, Riot would prioritize community health to combat the toxicity that has been growing up over the last year.

“We felt it was important to keep the roster together – this is a World’s winning roster and hopefully we will be able to show it in 2023.”

In a recent Patty Yu’s interview, T1 CEO, Joe Marsh, explained why the club retained the same lineup for the 2023 season. He stated that T1’s current team is capable of winning the League of Legends World Championship, and that this is the company’s aim for this year.

“We have had these players in our system for over four years at this point. Oner, Zeus, and Gumayusi all came up through our Academy system.”

“We saw glimpses of their potential in 2021 once we made the coaching change in summer. 2022 we took another step forward – the first year where all five of the guys had the chance to play together consistently for an entire year.” 

At the same time, he mentioned that T1 players had been a member of the organization for a few years, with Oner, Zeus, and Gumayusi, going via the organization academy, implying that they have worked effectively side by side.

Marsh also emphasized how time-consuming re-signing Faker would be, therefore the organization decided to give new contracts to Keria, Oner, and Zeus in the spring in order to focus in the summer on keeping its renowned mid laner under its fold.

Overall, Joe Marsh stated that the current squad is the greatest T1 has had in years.

T1 was one game away from winning the Mid-Season Invitational and Worlds in 2022, but fell to Royal Never Give Up and DRX, respectively. The current T1 group may undoubtedly achieve new titles and win international championships with additional practice.

Although it is still too early to determine the meta of League of Legends tournaments when entering the Spring 2023 period, the community can already guess somewhat from friendly tournaments. The most notable is the Demacia Cup 2022 when the LPL’s mid-range teams show great determination when the big teams have not had time to warm up.

This tournament still lacks many top League players, but it is clear that the quality of expertise is highly appreciated by experts. Ignoring the performances of each team, it can be seen that the number of champions used is still diverse and there have been quite a lot of changes compared to Worlds 2022.

According to Leaguepedia statistics, there have been 92 different champions selected in just 77 games, especially none of them being considered too strong.

The champion with the highest win rate was Syndra with a striking 67.5% pick and ban rate. Syndra has really made a strong comeback thanks to the arrival of new items or Riot’s “mid-patch” at the end of the season. This is the most preferred mid lane champion of the tournament, followed by the return of Ryze, and Akali.

The two champions behind Syndra are K’Sante and Fiora, who actually dominate the top lane when they can confront many champions. Fiora and K’Sante’s win rates are also extremely impressive (69.6% and 62.5%, respectively).

In the bot lane, Varus, Zeri, and Yuumi are also seeing some love from the players. Meanwhile, the duo Lucian and Nami still retained their position in the meta.

The Jungle is the position with the most changes in the League preseason 2023, but unlike solo queues, professional teams still make fairly safe and easy options at this position. Wukong, Sejuani, Vi, Kindred, Lee Sin… being heavily selected suggests teams want strong open positions.

Facing the above situation, the community hopes that the updates at the beginning of League 2023 season will help open the jungle position, creating conditions for new champions to have the opportunity to return as much as other lanes.

Wild Rift 3.4 comes with 4 new champions

Patch 3.4 is set for September 15 and is set to release 4 new champions ported from LoL PC: Gwen, Yone, Vex and Warwick

Kindred is also rumored to be teased and will be on the next champion release in 3.5 or 4.0

Uncertain info also includes Spirit Blossom Nami (possibly exclusive) and Akali (exclusive for Wild Rift) both Legendary; Spirit Blossom Yone and Riven

League of Legends will receive 3 consecutive events in Patch 12.19, 12.20 and 12.21

• Patch 12.19 is set for October 5 and will be accompanied by the return of Spirit Blossom 2022

• Patch 12.20 will be Trick-or-Treat for Halloween, slated for October 19

• Patch 12.21 comes with Music Beat Universe event, follows up November 2

Spirit Blossom should have a Variant Double Legendary skin like Solar/Lunar Leona

You can find more Worlds 2022 info and dates here

Riot modifies RP pricing across regions on a regular basis to keep things in line when economies change. However, the company has revealed that one of its largest rises would be implemented in the coming weeks.

Riot Games stated that they will be raising the prices of RP and TFT currencies on August 19 to account for inflation.

“Starting on Aug 19 Pacific Time, RP and TFT Coin prices will increase in most Riot regions to account for worldwide inflation, currency fluctuations, maintaining fair prices between and within regions, consistency across our products, and other associated cost increases”

Some areas are hit worse than others. Players in North America may anticipate a rise of roughly 10%. However, several European countries are making way for rises of more than 20%.

The cost of RP will rise, making skins more expensive. Knowing that a price rise would not go down well with their gamers, Riot Games is hosting a promotional event during which they are providing additional RP and TFT coins on all purchases.

Despite these efforts, League players from all regions and continents are furious, denouncing Riot Games’ decision to raise the price. Riot Games’ decision has received harsh feedback across several social media platforms.

One specific player even points out that no corporation is required to adjust its pricing to account for inflation. Riot boasts annual sales records, and inflation has little influence on its bottom line. This is just to take advantage of regular players who are suffering as a result of the economy.

Players are still wondering about the validity of the inflation since RP is just a virtual currency for an online game.

While RP costs are rising, it’s crucial to remember that League of Legends and TFT are still free-to-play — skins and cosmetics are frequently the only things players purchase with RP. Those hoping to collect more skins and cosmetics, though, should brace themselves for a financial blow.

The new League of Legends Durability Updates back in Patch 12.10 has had a long-term impact on the entire League of Legends roster.  Simply altering one feature of the game has changed the way players play the game and interact with each champion.

As a result of this modification, healing and shielding in League of Legends have grown too powerful. Riot has spotted this as quickly as ever and is implementing modifications to make the game fairer over the next several updates.

Durability Update’s initial rollout was imbalanced for several champions, but they’re working to smooth it out. In short, healing and shields will continue to be less advantageous in the upcoming League of Legends updates.

In Riot Games’ last week’s Quick Gameplay Thoughts, Riot Phroxzon stated that:

“We’re striving to make the game balanced around 40% heal reduction. Ideally, Grievous Wound (GW) shouldn’t be something you need to buy every game, but instead should be a situational purchase in games versus 2 or more heavy healing champs. Moving forward, we’re planning to cautiously reduce the strength of healing to be more in line with the state of GW today.”

Riot has once again used their nerf hammer. Grievous Wound is a debuff that is essential for several champions in the game. Healing has grown so strong and frequent among champions that it is required in every game.

As far as we are concerned, Enchanters and lifesteal-based champions will be greatly affected in the next patches that incorporate the adjustments.

Riot has also nerfed Yuumi and Soraka to assist kickstart this nerf on healing and shielding everywhere. Champions like Irelia or even Aatrox might be in line for nerfs, but we don’t know for sure.

The game is starting to feel extremely different as Riot makes huge adjustments left and right ever since the Durability Updates. Some are becoming frustrated by the continuous change, while others are enjoying the changes and the work that Riot is doing.

Orianna may not be the most thrilling champion to play or watch, but she is a popular champion in League of Legends, and she is also a very old champion, having originally appeared in League in 2011.

The developers are working on improvements for champions whose skills need to be improved. The objective is to bring some of these classic champions’ visual effects up to current League standards while also improving gameplay clarity.

According to Riot Zhanos, the Visual Effect Artist in charge of Orianna VFX, this update will mostly focus on her W and R, but she will still receive a full update for improved visual clarity, cleaner hitboxes, and a quality push to meet the current standards.

Skins affected by the VFX update

• Base: Complete overhaul
• Gothic: Same as base
• Sewn Chaos: Same as base
• Bladecraft: Recolored from new base
• TPA: Same as base
• Heartseeker: Complete overhaul
• Winter Wonder: Recolored from new base
• Victorious: Matching new base FX
• Dark Star: Complete overhaul
• Pool Party: Matching new base FX
• Orbeeanna: Matching new base FX

Riot’s skins were updated with the new VFX as part of the other visual changes they’ve done in the previous few months. This implies that many of her old skins may be improved as well, although we still feel the changes won’t be as significant as we expected.

So keep a watch out, because Orianna will be getting some new animations and a much cleaner design in League patch 12.7.

League of Legends players may now earn an “infinite” number of RP due to Microsoft Rewards, an online giving system that rewards users depending on their online activity.

Typically, users may only obtain in-game currency by paying it with real money or by entering codes. Now, a new mechanism is being introduced, and the creators believe it will provide players with an “infinite” option to earn in-game currency.

League players will need to log in to their Microsoft account and pick the objective they wish to attain by selecting either 100 or 650 RP (1500 or 6500 Microsoft Reward Points) to acquire the in-game currency. Following that, players will be able to earn Microsoft points in a variety of ways, which can then be exchanged for other items, including the highly desired Riot Points.

On the main page of Microsoft Rewards, you’ll find the phrase “Get free rewards.” Microsoft will gather customers’ data and preferences in return for points, which will benefit the technology firm in a variety of ways. They can also earn points by completing questionnaires and quizzes about their preferences.

These refresh every day, but completing them numerous days in a row will earn you additional points and get you closer to receiving your League gift card. You can repeat this process as many times as you like to get as much RP as possible.