The Rift Will Never Be The Same: Guest Article by James Slavin

There are quite a few changes hitting the Rift in 2015. From jungle camps to items, turrets to buffs, League of Legends is going to play a whole lot differently. The changes to the Inhibitor Turrets and the Jungle, in my opinion, will have the biggest impact on the game and the focus of this article.

Turrets

Turrets are being drastically changed next Season. Turret health is being altered as well as adding changes to how Inhibitor Turrets attack.

Turret Health is now 2000 across the board for non-Inhibitor Turrets, with Inhibitor Turrets being ramped up to 2500 hp. In addition, the Inhibitor Turret now attacks with a beam that continuously attacks a target. The beam will attack four times a second, and also increases their damage over time differently than other turrets. (100% to 260% over the course of 6.5 seconds and ignore their targets armor from 40% to 100% over the course of 6.5 seconds vice the current Warming Up and Heated Up passives combining to deal 100% damage on the first hit, then 137.5%, 175%, 200%, and finally 225% on the fifth hit and beyond).

In addition, if an Inhibitor Turret is not attacked for 60 seconds, it will grant a small shield to itself and nearby allied champions. These changes are to signify just how important it is to get an Inhibitor down in a lane, and to address solo / split push champions easily peeling away from their team and downing an Inhibitor in under a minute (Yup, looking at you Master Yi and Tryndamere.)

Jungle

From the camps to new buffs, the Jungle in Season 5 has been radically changed. I feel these changes have been made to address the current meta of having mostly an assassin / carry based Jungler such as Master Yi / Rengar / Kha’Zix, and therefore bring the more forgotten jugglers back into play.

For starters, the camps themselves have changed. In addition, each camp now grants a small buff after the killing blow, so long as Smite was used on the larger monster. This is to ensure the Jungler most benefits from taking jungle camps. Decisions will now have to be made when considering giving camps to teammates in a lane (Mid will typically farm Wraiths, while Bot will take either take the Large Wraith or Golems). Also Red Buff and Blue Buff spawns at 2:00 minutes. This will change how junglers most efficiently perform their first clear

• Brambleback (Elder Lizard) – Restores a large amount of Health.
• Blue Guardian (Ancient Golem) – Restore a large amount of Mana.
• Krugs (Ancient Golem) – Grants Gift of Heavy Hands – adding Execute Damage to your attacks.
• Gromp (Large Wraith) – Grants Gift of the Toadstool which adds a poison to enemies that attack you.
• Raptors (Wraith Camp) – grants you a buff that automatically grants you true sight for a short time the next time you are spotted by an enemy ward.
• Murkwolf (Wolf Camp) – A ghostly wolf patrols that quardrant of the jungle for a moderate time. If an enemy champion enters that quadrant of the jungle, it’ll run at them and alert you to his position.

As you can see, this changes a lot of things, not only in who should take the camps but also when to take them. Smite does not need to be the killing blow in order to grant the buff, just used before the large monster dies. Ergo, it would make sense to now Smite early to maximize the amount of times Smite is used during a full jungle clear. That being said, this will open up new avenues for counter jungling as well. Do you still save Smite to secure the camp to avoid it being stolen? Or use it as early as possible to get a buff advantage on the enemy Jungler?

These changes are what I think will most impact how the meta evolves in Season 5. Keep in mind all of these changes are subject to change, and I would expect them to be rebalanced numerous times following their release.

James is an avid League of Legends player who occasionally moonlights as a competitive player in the Street Fighter community. He doesn’t believe in the Twitterverse, so visit his to stay up-to-date with his adventures.

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