League of Legends is slowly gearing up for its 2020 preseason which will inevitably bring about changes from the pool that became available on the Public Beta Environment back in October.
With Patch 9.23 set to release tomorrow, and likely to introduce a good number of changes to League of Legends’ meta, here’s a closer look at what you can expect from the popular MOBA going forward.
League of Legends Patch Notes 9.23 Preseason Changes
A good few changes in League of Legends upcoming 9.23 patch involve the game’s dragons. While the Infernal and Ocean dragons will provide the same buffs when killed, the Cloud Dragon will grant cooldown reduction for your ultimate ability, while the Mountain Dragon will reward a percentage increase of Armor and Magic Resistance for besting it.
The preseason 9.23 patch will introduce the new Dragon Souls mechanic to League of Legends. It will grant a permanent buff upon killing a fourth dragon of the same element, with only one buff being obtainable per game. Here are the effects of the Dragon Soul buffs:
- Infernal Drake: Every three seconds, your next attack creates a small AoE explosion, dealing adaptive damage.
- Ocean Drake: Dealing any damage triggers strong health and resource regeneration for three seconds. Minion damage gives less.
- Cloud Drake: Hitting enemies with abilities or attacks lowers the cooldown of your base abilities.
- Mountain Drake: After not taking damage for five seconds, gain a permanent shield that lasts until destroyed.
After a Dragon Soul buff is gained, the Elder Dragon will spawn instead of the four dragons above. It has also seen a couple of changes, its buff no longer scaling with the number of dragons bested throughout the game. On top of that, the Elder Dragon will be able to instantly execute enemies below a certain health threshold.
League of Legends is also getting a new elemental rift system as part of its preseason changes. Depending on the element of the third dragon that spawns, the entire map will suffer specific changes.
Thus, the Infernal Dragon makes walls crumble, opening up new paths, the Ocean Dragon spawns new brush, the Cloud Dragon spawns areas that increase movement speed, allowing for more opportunities to catch enemies off guard, and the Mountain Dragon causes new walls to spawn throughout the map.
Other changes coming in League of Legends’ preseason 9.23 patch involve the brush in the jungle and on the bot and top lanes, experience gain and items. You can check them all out in detail in Reddit user Malmorphius’ thread over on the Summoner School subreddit.
