2024 is going to be a big year for League of Legends as the popular MOBA celebrates its 15th anniversary. The celebrations will only take place in October, but Riot already outlined all the major changes and new additions coming throughout the year. Among other things, LoL players can expect a couple of new Champions, important systems changes, a highly anticipated visual gameplay update (VGU), and, of course, plenty of new skins. Further more, there’s even an Arcane Season 2 teaser to boot.
League Of Legends: Wild Rift Patch 5.0 Introduces Three New Champions
Veteran League of Legends players will be happy to see these three Champions ported over to Wild Rift.
The new season of League of Legends kicks off on January 10th and will come accompanied by a new cinematic in the vein of Ruination and Warriors. The devs are keeping the details under wraps for now, so we’ll have to wait until next week to learn more about it. Considering that the new season will feature several Arcane tie-ins, there’s a chance that the cinematic will be related to the show in some way or another.
New Champions And Updates
League of Legends season 2024 will introduce at least two new Champions, one of whom has already been revealed and will be playable on the Public Beta Realm (PBE) starting on January 9th. The Champion in question is a baby dragon who goes by the name of Smolder the Fiery Fledgling. Smolder is a new ADC with a penance for chasing down foes and burning them to a crisp. You can check out Smolder’s kit down below.
Description
Q - Super Scorcher Breath
Smolder belches flame at his enemies. This Ability evolves with stacks gaining the following:
W - Achooo!
Smolder lets out an adorable flaming sneeze, damaging and slowing enemies hit. Hitting champions causes an additional explosion.
E - Flap, Flap, Flap
Smolder takes flight, gaining Move Speed and ignoring terrain for 1.25 seconds. While flying, Smolder attacks the lowest health enemy.
R - MMOOOMMMM!
Smolder’s mom breathes fire from above, dealing extra damage and slowing enemies in the center of her fire. Smolder’s mom also heals her son if she hits him.
Passive - Dragon Practice
Hitting champions with Abilities and killing enemies with Super Scorcher Breath grants Smolder a stack of Dragon Practice. Stacks increase the damage of Smolder’s basic Abilities.
The next Champion coming after Smolder is a bit of a mystery. However, the devs have already revealed a couple of key details. According to Riot, the second Champion coming later this year will be a Vastayan mid-range solo-laner mage that the developers have been trying to bring to the Rift for a while now. Previous attempts to make the Champion work have apparently been unsuccessful, but it looks like the new ADC is finally ready to join the fray later this year.
Aside from the new Champions, LoL players can also expect updates to three existing Champions. Riot confirmed that Shyvana will be receiving some much-needed love this season and that the developers are already busy making important tweaks to her gameplay. Meanwhile, Skarner is getting a VGU sometime in the first half of 2024 and players can expect another Champion to receive a similar treatment further down the road. Riot declined to mention who the second Champion was, but they did say that it’s going to be one of the characters seen in Arcane.
Arcane Season 2
Speaking of Arcane, Season 2 of the show is set to launch this November and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about it. Riot just revealed a new cinematic trailer showcasing Singed along with a second character whomay or may notbe Warwick. Just kidding, it’s definitely Warwick. The cinematic doesn’t show much, but it’s enough to give LoL veterans an idea of where Arcane season 2 is going in terms of story and lore.
While season two of the show is still a long way off, League of Legends players won’t have to wait until November to scratch to enjoy some more Arcane. Riot promised Arcane-inspired gameplay along with the introduction of Ambessa Medarda, one of the characters from season one, sometime later this year. There’s also the aforementioned VGU and plenty of Arcane-themed skins to look forward to in the months to come.
Systems And Modes
As far as gameplay changes are concerned, some of the biggest highlights of season 2024 revolve around the improvements to the Ranked and Champion Mastery systems. There’s also going to be a new system known as Vanguard designed to combat bots, smurfing, and scripting. According to the devs, Vanguard“will allow for live match termination and will refund LP to players in games with/against detected cheaters and bots.”
Players who are looking forward to some new modes can expect the return of Arena in the first half of the year, complete with a number of improvements. URF is also returning during the Lunar New Year event while One-For-All is expected to arrive sometime after patches 14.3 and 14.4. There’s also an entirely new game mode coming later in 2024. Details surrounding it are scarce at this time, however, Riot promises that the new mode“will be a different take on core League gameplay and will be a more relaxed way to spend time with friends.”
For a full breakdown of what’s coming in League of Legends season 2024, check out the latest developer diary down below.
