Another year is looming ever nearer, and so a new round of updates and changes are coming with it for League of Legends. The Preseason 2023 update is officially entering the Public Beta Environment (PBE) from tomorrow, October 4, and it’s quite a substantial update. The focus is on improvements to Jungle, which has flown under the radar for far too long. Along with it will come a few tweaks to other things like the communication system, and of course, new items are on their way.
We’ll walk you through all the biggest changes coming in this update, so you know what to be on the lookout for when you enter the PBE tomorrow.
First thing first, this great monster has returned with buffs and an all-new soul. Now the Chemtech Drake, which spawns on Summoner’s Rift, will grant Tenacity and Heal/Shield strength when it’s slain, plus the new Chemtech Soul will grant you extra damage when your health is low. This makes it a much higher-priority target than it ever was before.
On top of this, the Rift is getting a new Chemtech-themed design with a bunch of the jungle plants and Zaunite chemicals getting upgraded effects.
You no longer have to venture into the jungle alone, as you can now buy eggs from the in-game shop that will hatch into pets and slowly evolve as they kill monsters and gain treats. There are three to choose from:
- Noxian Embercat – An aggressive pet that provides slows and bonus damage.
- Ixtali Ixmander – A tank pet that provides a shield based on your health which gives you slow resist and Tenacity when broken.
- Ionian Cloudleaper – A movement pet that provides bonus movement speed.
There have also been tweaks to make the Jungle more accessible for new players. First is a plan to add visual indicators for leashing, showing how far camps can be pulled before their patience starts diminishing. Second, every champion now has recommended paths for the jungle based on the routes of highly-skilled junglers.
In an attempt to improve team communication the ping wheel has been updated to hold a total of eight pings. The four existing pings are there alongside four new ones: Push, All-In, Hold and Bait. There is also a new ping wheel that focuses on vision and uses the following three pings: Vision Cleared, Enemy Vision, and Need Vision. This should make communicating with teams a lot easier, and gives everyone more options for quick strategising.
A few adjustments have been made so that top lakers can scale faster compared to other lanes:
- Solo Lane Experience: Solo lanes will now receive a 95% experience multiplier (previously 93%) from minions.
- Duo Lane Experience: Duo lanes will now receive a 22% bonus experience multiplier (previously 24.73%) from minions.
- Mid Lane Gold Changes: All minions spawned in the mid lane will now be worth 1 less gold before 14 minutes when last hit (previously, only cannon minions were worth less gold, but were worth 10 less gold).
12 items are being added or updated with Preseason 2023, and here are the names of all of them:
It’s important to note that items are among the most likely features to receive multiple tweaks during their period in PBE, so it’s worth checking regularly to see if any changes are in the works.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism