League of Legends' pre-season update to focus map vision, late game growth

League of Legends' third season recently ended with a shocking cliffhanger, as Ziggs was revealed to be the lovechild of Gragas, who had himself been framed for the horrific slaughter of hundreds of minions. None of that is true, but I know more about TV than sport, and so like to pretend that LoL's seasonal shifts relate to that instead. As we head towards the new pre-season, Riot have been running through the balance changes that will arrive along with it.

The basic philosophy is to alter the way vision works, and to address the late game slump that's been identified among support and jungle heroes. For vision, Riot are shifting the responsibility for ward placements away from individual players, and to the team as a whole. You can read about those changes in more detail here .

Elsewhere, alterations are being made to encourage late game comebacks. That includes a change to inhibitors, so that only minions in that lane are buffed. For a full rundown of what's planned, head over to Riot's introductory pre-season post .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.