Riot shared their goals for champion class item changes in the upcoming 2021 Preseason.
Riot Games always tries to bring as many changes as possible in the preseason update that shift the League of Legends meta most of the time. In the 2020 Preseason, they brought significant changes to the Elemental Rifts which changed the landscape of the game.
As Season 10 is very close to the World patch, Riot has finally revealed their goals for the 2021 Preseason update in the latest dev post. And this time they are completely revamping the item system overhaul and bringing some major changes to Marksman, Jungle, Mage, Tank, and Assassin items.
Jungle Item Changes
Early Season 10 was all about jungle changes. They changed the Jungle XP multiple times and also tried to expend the jungle champ pool by introducing jungle buff to multiple new champions.
And now the 2021 Preseason will also bring some more changes to the Jungle items. From the 2021 Preseason, Jungle items will be entirely free for purchasing.
“We’re applying the same treatment to junglers: Jungle items will be a starting item that requires no additional investment,” Riot Games said. “Junglers should get the stats and resource bonuses they need from this item so they can immediately start working on the rest of their build.”
Marksman Items Changes
The state of ADC in Season 10 is very questionable, and the majority of the ADC mains have been complaining that their role is very underwhelming. After all these complaints they did bring some significant changes to ADC in patch 10.11 to return some of thier carry potential.
The main reasons ADCs feel weak because in order to be relevant in the game they are required to build all the “must-buy” items. Another thing ADC mains have been complaining about was how much team-reliant their role is to be impactful in the game.
Regarding all these complaints Riot Games said, “We still want marksmen to be the class that is defined by its late-game carry potential.” But from the preseason Marksman will feel much stronger just after buying one item. They are also planning to make ADCs item choice more diverse and looking forward to adding AD Armor items and more spellcaster marksmen options.
Mage Items Changes
Currently, most of the mages choose Lost Chapter as the first item to solve their mana issues and later complete it to the Luden’s Echo. Some mages also prefer Rod of Ages but the selection is still very limited.
Thus, from Preseason, Riot will open opportunities so that Mages have more options to choose from as their first items. Riot said, “Mages today suffer from a set of first items that don’t have clear tradeoffs or situational purpose, making their first item choice basically predetermined in each meta based on which item is tuned the strongest.”
Riot is also planning to create a “fantasy item for artillery mages” that will emphasize their unique range and skills. As the cooldown reduction will be reworked to Ability Haste, it will also bring significant changes to the Mages item build path as well.
Tank Items Changes
As Riot is bringing some significant changes to Mage items, they are now also giving more magic resist options to Tanks as well. Tanks will have more new items that will enhance their utility by giving them more “baseline defenses.”
“Tanks need to fill a wide variety of functions for their team, so we want to make sure they have build options to support them while getting the necessary defenses to be a meatshield,” Riot Games said.
Tanks will also have Late-game capstone items similar to Deathcap from the 2021 Preseason which will make them more “efficient” in the late game.
Assassin Items Changes
Riot is testing some damage/durability hybrids and manaless items for AP Assassin which will offer them some more early buy choices. Riot however doesn’t think AP assassins need separate items for their class, rather they want AP assassins to complete their build with the tank or pure AP items.
Although AD assassins have more options to chose from as their build, Riot thinks they need more situational item build options. Riot said, “We’re going to look at what types of items they need late-game and where it makes sense for them to draw from other classes (like fighters do) versus having a specialized assassin option.”
