League of Legends’ Patch 8.10 will be deployed on the live servers in just a few hours, and as usual, it contains a plentitude of new features, however this time, with a differential when compared to previous patches: balance changes to champions have been minimal – with Riot holding those for Patch 8.11, which will see a bunch of updates to the Marksmen class and its items – focusing instead on tweaking the game further, which will likely have huge implications in how players approach it, considering some changes are quite big for a mid-season patch.  

The jungle is this patch’s the main place of attention – or concern, depending from your point of view: a bunch of items have been updated, but more importantly, the experience provided by camps has been heavily reduced early on in the game, in order to decrease jungle pressure as in most cases three full jungle camps were enough to reach level 3 – giving the jungler a window to gank solo laners still stuck a full level below.

Besides it, we have now a new Rift Scuttler, as well as changes to the bounty system, number-tweaking for a bunch of runes, and obviously, new skins. You can check out the full change list here, but for now, take a look at the five features I am looking forward the most on League of Legends’ Patch 8.10:


Pulsefire team gets bigger

Joining up the ranks beside Pulsefire Ezreal, and Pulsefire Caitlyn, we will be seeing Pulsefire skins for Riven, Twisted Fate and Shen released on Patch 8.10. Yes, you read it right! After almost five years – since the release of TPA Shen to celebrate the Taipei’s Assassins victory at the Season 2 World Championship – the Eye of Twilight will be receiving a new skin, and what an amazing one it is.

For the first time ever, we can actually see part of Shen’s face – yes, in all other six skins he has (and his base one), very little of him can been seen, making this one a very special skin for one of the most traditional champions in the top lane.

The skins for Riven and Twisted Fate look amazing as well, which players becoming fully emergent on this futurist setting provided by the Pulsefire skins, where our Champions, after getting the knowledge to bend time and space to their will - are fighting the dystopian Remembrancers in a parallel universe set on a distant future in Piltover. Pretty cool right? So cool, it makes me almost wanting to main Riven. Well, almost.


Jungle XP down

As mentioned above, the experience provided by jungle camps was massively revamped on Patch 8.10. With junglers being able until now to level up a bit too quick during his first clear, the amount of xp given in the early levels was reduced significantly, with it scaling until reaching the numbers currently on the live server.

While this are obviously good now to all laners, as it will probably take some extra time until the junglers decide the join the party, it will be interesting to see if this important change will have any impact on the current meta, with the question being whether champions known for their strong early ganking potential will be dropping in favor of ones who prefer to scale – preferably until getting their ultimate at level 6 – before making an appearance in the lanes.

If you want to check out the math behind everything, take a look at the full list of changes regarding jungle camp experience:

REMOVED SLOW DOWN: Experience no longer reduced by 5% per level champion is ahead of the camp being taken.

NEW RAID BOSS: Monster camp experience now scales with level, capping at level 7.

BLUE SENTINEL: 180 ⇒ 115 - 180 (at levels 1-7)

RED BRAMBLEBACK: 180 ⇒ 115 - 180 (at levels 1-7)

LARGE KRUG 125 ⇒ 100 - 157 (at levels 1-7)

MEDIUM KRUG: 35 ⇒ 35 - 55 (at levels 1-7)

SMALL KRUG: 7 ⇒ 7 - 11 (at levels 1-7)

LARGE WOLF: 100 ⇒ 65 - 102 (at levels 1-7)

SMALL WOLVES: 40 ⇒ 25 - 39 (at levels 1-7)

LARGE RAZORBEAK: 62 ⇒ 56 - 88 (at levels 1-7)

SMALL RAZORBEAKS: 35 ⇒ 19 - 30 (at levels 1-7)

GROMP; 200 ⇒ 115 - 180 (at levels 1-7)

REMOVED GRIMP: Gromp no longer grants 37.5% reduced experience on its first clear

REMOVED FALSE START: Medium Krugs, Small Krugs, and Large Razorbeak no longer grant 25% reduced experience on their first clear

WHEATIES: Large Krug's first clear experience reduction 50% ⇒ 30%


Say hi to the new Rift Scuttler

Jungle camp experience is however not the only big change that should stay very close on ourradar: with the goal to provide junglers a new way to obtain a lead, our beloved Rift Scuttler has received a complete rework on Patch 8.10, transforming it in a very tasty neutral objective for players willing to take some risks to propel ahead early one when compared to his enemy counterpart.

For starters, it will provide much more experience than before – well, not that it mattered before as the “old” Scuttler currently gives a meager 10 XP to its killer – which will probably include it on the jungler’s clearing path on, as they seek to soak as much experience as possible before making the first attempt of a gank.

The gold provided has been increased gradually as well, capping at 140 at level 9, and its initial respawn time was decreased a bit, from 2:15 to 2:00, with its respawn time also being reduced – by 45 seconds from 180 to 135. But the most interesting change is the fact that, after both Scuttlers get killed for the first time in the game, only one will be respawning for the remainder of the game, on a random side of the river, which however will be signaled ahead with the help of a respawn marker.

Personally, this is a very critical change due to two factors: first, of course with just one Scuttler around, the amount of experience and gold given is suddenly cut by half, transforming it suddenly in a more contest minor objective. But secondly, and most importantly, the removal of one of the Scuttler means that vision to major neutral objectives has been cut by half as well, with teams now being forced to spend more resources to establish control around the Dragon or Baron pits instead of relying on the vision provided by the Scuttler to make sure the enemy is not sneakily trying to take down a big monster completely uncontested.

Here are all changes coming to the Rift Scuttler:

HEALTH: 800-3920 (based on level) ⇒ 1200-2480 (based on level)

EXPERIENCE GRANTED: 10 ⇒ 115-230 (at levels 1-9)

GOLD REWARD; 70 ⇒ 70-140 (at levels 1-9)

INITIAL SPAWN TIME: 2:15 ⇒ 2:00

NEW TWO CRAB ENTER: At initial spawn, Scuttlers will spawn in the top and bottom river. Both must be killed before the respawn timer activates.

THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE: Once both initial Rift Scuttlers are killed, only one Rift Scuttler can be on the map at any given time for the rest of the game. Respawn locations are randomly determined, but signaled ahead of time with a respawn marker.

RESPAWN TIME: 180 seconds ⇒ 135 seconds

NEW SHIELDS UP: Scuttler's extra defenses now have a particle to indicate when she's protected and when the shield has been broken

UPDATED MY CABBAGES: Rift Scuttler's chance of trying to steal a honeyfruit is significantly decreased


A couple of changes to runes

We got used recently to big and important changes coming to several runes in previous patches, ranging from new features to complete overhauls, but time, all changes are purely regarding their balance – but that doesn’t make them lesser important.

Some of the number-tweaking look very promising, from the damage boost to Cheap Shot and Demolish and the reduction of the time needed until receiving the free Stopwatch provided by Perfect Timing. But not everything are buffs: a very popular option since its introduction on Patch 8.6, the health provided by Chrysalis has been reduced by roughly 20%.

Check out all changes coming to runes on Patch 8.10:

Cheap Shot

DAMAGE: 12-30 ⇒ 15-60

Ingenious Hunter

BASE ACTIVE ITEM COOLDOWN REDUCTION: 10% ⇒ 15%

ACTIVE ITEM COOLDOWN REDUCTION PER STACK: 6% ⇒ 5%

Phase Rush

MOVEMENT SPEED: 15-40% ⇒ 25-40%

Demolish

BASE DAMAGE: 125 ⇒ 175

Chrysalis

HEALTH: 60 ⇒ 50

Bone Plating

DAMAGE REDUCTION: 20-50 ⇒ 15-40

Perfect Timing

TIME AVAILABLE: 10 minutes ⇒ 8 minutes

Hextech Flashtraption

IN-COMBAT LOCKOUT: 10 seconds ⇒ 2 seconds


Some extra gold to help you carry easier

To wrap it up, a system change that might have important implications. With Riot claiming that “the rewards a player gets for performing well are too split amongst the whole team,” the focus on the bonus gold provided when shutting down an enemy on a killing streak has been drastically changed on Patch 8.10, with the player responsible for the kill receiving the entire shutdown gold for himself.

And depending on how “fed” the opponent is, it can be a very significant amount of gold, from 200 if the enemy has three kills in a row to 400 if he is Legendary. While champions with low kill potential will clearly lose resources, it provides aggressive players with an extra incentive to try taking down a strong enemy, providing him with extra gold to try to snowball carry his team to the win.

Take a look at all changes to the Bounty system:

HEADHUNTER: Assists on bounty kills no longer grant bonus gold.

ONE KILL: 100 gold split among team ⇒ No bounty

TWO KILLS: 150 gold split among team ⇒ No bounty

THREE KILLS: 300 gold split among team ⇒ 200 gold to killer

FOUR KILLS: 350 gold split among team ⇒ 250 gold to killer

FIVE KILLS: 450 gold split among team ⇒ 300 gold to killer

SIX-PLUS KILLS: 450 gold split among team ⇒ 300 gold (+25 gold per kill beyond 5) to killer

BOUNTY CHANGE ON BEING KILLED: Dying removes 3 bounty levels ⇒ Dying resets bounty to 0


And that would be all for today! Let me know which changes you are looking forward the most! League of Legends’ Patch 8.10 is expected to be deployed on Wednesday, May 16 in all servers across the globe.

(Photos courtesy of Riot Games)