10 Biggest Differences Between League of Legends & Wild Rift

For years, players have wondered if League of Legends could become more successful as a mobile game. Tomorrow, players in North America will finally have their answer. With League of Legends: Wild Rift finally going live on March 29, players will be able to introduce their non-PC friends to League.

According to Riot, the Wild Rift experience is meant to be nearly identical to the core League of Legends gameplay. It’s not a mobile port, but a game built from the ground up to re-imagine what League would look like if it was not on the PC.

The goal is for League of Legends veterans to be able to jump into the game far more quickly, but also lowering the skill floor enough so as not as to overwhelm new players. It’s not “League of Legends for dummies” but the different controls and less powerful processing systems necessitated some changes from League of Legends. Here are 10 of the biggest changes to expect going into Wild Rift.

1. Champion Changes

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To start, there are fewer champions in Wild Rift (61) than League of Legends (155 when Gwen is released). Riot has promised to add more champions, at a rate of about two per month, but it’s possible that not every League champion will end up on the Wild Rift.

In addition, some champions are going to be significantly different from League of Legends. No champion in Wild Rift will have a passive ability, so abilities like Vayne’s Silver Bolts and Vi’s Denting Blows won’t be in Wild Rift.

Finally, some champions will have their existing abilities re-tooled to better work with the new controls. For instance, Katarina can now move while in her Death Lotus and Rammus’s ult now lets him leap into the air and slam down. Learning a champion’s “new” kit in Wild Rift is definitely going to be a learning curve.

2. No Item Actives

In Wild Rift, no item you buy will have an active element. They might have a unique passive that is similar to its League of Legends counterpart, but items like Zhonya’s Hourglass and Blade of the Ruined King won’t have their actives.

Instead, players can get one active effect as the enchantment on their boots. These include the Zhonya’s stasis or Rocketbelt dash. This also means that some champions will have access to those active effects that they couldn’t get in League of Legends, like Vayne getting the Zhonya’s active.

3. Aggressive Nexus

League of Legends vets will notice that the Nexus is no longer flanked by two towers as the last line of defense. However, don’t think this means you can automatically backdoor every game. In Wild Rift, the Nexus fires those laser beams to defend itself.

4. Dragon Changes

Ocean Soul is different in Wild Rift from the base game. Instead of flat healing and mana regen, the dragon now grants physical and magic damage vamp (healing whenever you do damage).

There are some major differences between League of Legends and Wild Rift!

In addition, because the games are so much quicker, the Elder Dragon’s execute effect is now wrapped into Dragon Soul. It should be extremely rare for teams to hit the point where they’re stacking four or five dragons.

5. No Jungle or Support Items

You heard that right, players will not need to buy support items to supplement their income from not farming and junglers will not need the smite item in order to get the extra gold and XP from farming the jungle. This is surely going to have some significant changes to which champions can be played in those two roles.

6. Enemy Lock

Because it is going to be so difficult to micro-manage the champion’s auto attacks, Riot has instituted a new mechanic where any enemy champion you attack becomes “locked” onto. This means that you can combo multiple attacks and abilities with less chance of accidentally clicking on the wrong enemy. Think of it as Wild Rift‘s version of attack moving.

7. Camera Assist on Long-Range Skills

If you’re concerned how champions like Jinx or Lux might operate in Wild Rift with their long-range ultimates, don’t worry, Riot has thought of that. When shooting one of those long-range abilities, the camera will automatically focus on the player, making it easier to aim. There’s also a picture-in-picture mode that will track the skillshot’s path, allowing you to see if you sniped the enemy without adjusting your camera.

8. Positional Preference

When you queue up for a game, you won’t be asked to choose two positions, a primary and secondary, that the system will try and put you in before resorting to the dreaded autofill. Instead, you’ll be able to rank all of the positions, one through five, and the system will try to find you a spot in your preferred roles before moving on to the less-desired roles. You’ll get your favorite positions more often in Wild Rift and you’ll be far less likely to get your least favorite.

9. Dynamic Queue

Wild Rift will have a ranked mode and players will be able to queue up and play. However, there will not be separate solo and flex queues. Instead, players can queue up in parties of two, three, or five, and play ranked together! This harkens back to the dreaded days of Season 6 and dynamic queue.

10. Cosmetics

While a lot of your favorite skins might be coming over to Wild Rift from League of Legends, there will be some skins that are exclusive to Wild Rift. For instance, Riot announced Stargazer skin line that will be exclusive to Wild Rift.

The Official Champion Difficulty Tier List. dark. Next

But there are also a few types of other cosmetics unique to Wild Rift. Among them are “Baubles”, little trinkets players can throw onto the corpse of enemies that they slay. There are also Rift Emblems, which lets players show off their favorite champion and skin line. But cosmetics like emotes and icons will also be available in Wild Rift.

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