League of Legends: Which new Elemental Dragon is strongest? – Preseason 2020 breakdown

Side Lane Alcoves

If you’re not a fan of dragons, fortunately there’ll be a few more major preseason changes added to the game in the coming weeks and months – the first of which is a terrain update to both the top and bottom lane.

Plain, old, boring, straight lanes are a thing of the past! In Season 10, we’ll be getting alcoves to add some spice to the side lanes. Ultimately, these small areas don’t add that much to the laning phase, and probably won’t be used all that much aside from the occasional bot lane skirmish.

However, isn’t it nice to see an impactful update to the lanes that have been so consistent for countless seasons now?

Additional Brushes

The final map change comes in the form of two new brushes – one near the blue side blue buff jungle entrance, and one near the red side blue buff jungle entrance. In terms of overall game impact, these two new hideouts shouldn’t change how the game is played fundamentally, but will definitely alter gameplay every so often.

Due to the fact that these two brushes occupy high traffic zones on Summoner’s Rift, you can expect them to be utilised frequently for ambushes, warding, or gank preparation in the early game. That being said, their overall game impact should be quite small.

Jungle Experience

Overall jungle experience has been reduced, but Krugs are no longer the kings of minor jungle camps. Now, the gold/XP received from each jungle camp has been improved to increase pathing diversity, and Gromp can now provide junglers with a level 3 path option in the early game.

Reducing Krugs’ priority in early jungle paths is a step in the right direction, but reducing overall jungle experience two years in a row is unlikely to go down well with jungle mains.

Top Lane Experience & Influence

The top lane island is finally receiving some love in season 10 with improved minion experience to ensure they level faster, while nerfing bottom lane minion experience to balance out the map. Top laners can also snowball their lead more effectively in the early game with two Rift Heralds available if the first is killed early enough (with an earlier initial spawn timer).

After nine long seasons of pain, is it finally time for top lane to be impactful in solo queue? Probably not. But the Rift Herald changes could result in jungle priority being shifted from an early Elemental Dragon to the top side, unless it’s an Infernal.

Other Changes

Support items, lethality items, and a few keystone runes will also see changes in preseason. Until the numbers are available, it’s too hard to tell how this will impact games.

The 2020 preseason patch will hit live servers in November with Patch 9.23! It’s likely we’ll see some more additions and information before then, as well as plenty of PBE gameplay, so keep your eyes peeled!

What do you make of the preseason changes? What are you most excited for? Which Elemental Drake do you think is strongest? Let us know in the comments, on Facebook, or on Twitter!