10 biggest changes from patch 6.9
By Andrew Ross
5.) Jungle changes
Besides the Elemental Dragons and Rift Herald, there are a lot of other big jungle changes.
The first is that Red and Blue buff have been changed. The damage over time from Red is now two plus two-times level at 1.5 and 3.0 seconds. It also has a new burn on hit that applies a free tick of damage on application or reapplication in addition to applying or extending the damage over time effect. The slow has also been changed to 10/15/25 percent at levels 1/6/11. Finally, its health regeneration has been increased to 1/3/9 percent maximum health per five seconds at levels 1/6/11 (only when not in combat with champions, turrets or epic monsters).
Blue has been changed so that it gives 15 percent bonus AP, and its mana regeneration is now five plus one percent maximum mana per second.
The buffs will still last for two minutes on their first clear, but its duration goes down to 90 seconds after that.
Speaking of Red and Blue, Riot has made the decision of adding global timers 60 seconds before the buffs spawn. Not only are they adding the timers, but they are also adding an icon to the minimap that will appear at the same time and brighten 20 seconds before the buffs spawn.
Finally, the experience gained in the jungle is increased all across the board. First, all jungle items grant 30 bonus experience on monster kills for each level higher the monster is than you. Next, Hunter’s Machete and Hunter’s Talisman will now grant 50 bonus experience on large monster kills rather than only 15. Finally, upgraded jungle items will grant 50 bonus experience on large monster kills rather than only 30.
The changes are going to be…interesting, to say the least. Red and Blue are going to be more powerful, and they are also always going to be contested. Adding the timers and minimap icons for the buffs seems like a really poor decision from Riot, but it’s just another thing they are doing to make the game less strategic.
The jungle experience is a big deal and could make a lot of junglers more viable than ever. For example, Warwick is a jungler that needs to hit six before he can do anything, and he will be able to make that happen relatively quickly now.
6.) No more boot enchantments
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but boot enchantments have been removed from the game completely. They said there’s a chance that they will revisit boot enchantments down the road, but they didn’t sound too committal about it.
This probably won’t alter the game that much, but it’s definitely a bummer.
Next: Let's fix Season Six