Riot Games has released the first League of Legends patch of 2014 with a long list of notes. As Riot's Chris Tom admits, there's nothing world shattering in there, just a lot more refinement and tuning. “We're still closely watching the state of the game as it evolves with the preseason,” he says in a post on the game's official website , “and this update is just another step down that path.”
For the casual player, or those who have yet to try LoL, most relevant news is that players who are new to the game will now have access to a static roster of free champions to choose from during their first few levels. After that, they'll go back to the old free to play rotation of champions. These changes will be turned on at a later, yet to be mentioned date.
“Our goal is to improve the way players learn to play League of Legends when they're first starting out,” Tom said. “These champions were picked because of how easy they can be learned and how enjoyable most new players find them.”
Ah yes, because you know how LoL is hurting for new players these days, seeing as how it's only the most popular PC game in the world .
The rest of the information is relevant to those already fluent in LoL. Beyond a bunch of bug fixes and champion specific-adjustments, highlights include vision code changes, balancing levels to make 2v1 lane swaps more risky, and a new healing passive for every spirit item.
The 2014 ranked season should reset in the next few days, and when that happens we'll also get a full list of changed in the patch notes.
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