As LoL dives into Preseason 2024, eagle-eyed fans have observed that Riot VFX artists are dropping hints about the anticipated Season 14 terrain and map changes for Summoner's Rift. Just recently, these changes were confirmed in the hefty 2024 Gameplay Preview blog.
While the exhilarating 2023 League of Legends World Championship reached its electrifying conclusion and the dreamy boyband HEARTSTEEL bursts onto the global music scene with their record-breaking debut single "PARANOIA", players eagerly await the surprises that Season 14 holds.
These upcoming terrain and map changes are poised to revolutionise the game. Without further delay, let's delve into the speculated modifications coming to Summoner's Rift!
All LoL Preseason 2024 terrain and map changes
Riot developers have unveiled plans to make substantial adjustments to the terrain of Summoner's Rift in Season 14. This is particularly exciting news considering that the map has not undergone any significant changes since it was redrawn in 2014, aside from the addition of Elemental Drakes.
From the announced changes, it appears that Riot devs are revamping the entire jungle, paving new jungle paths that allow for more security when moving between lanes.
At the same time, these adjustments provide solo laners with increased agency and protection from potential ganks by enemy junglers.
These map changes aim to introduce more symmetry to Summoner's Rift, placing both the red and blue sides on equal footing. Below, you'll find a comprehensive list of all the expected map changes set to arrive in Season 14.
Top lane changes
Top lane, often dubbed an "isolated island" in the League of Legends community, will receive some much-needed attention in Preseason 2024, particularly to address the "coinflip" sentiment that many players associate with the role.
Riot is taking steps to address this by removing the gank path on the red side, making it more symmetrical to the blue side. The red side has been more vulnerable to ganks due to its open entryway. By closing off this entry and introducing a new path to the lane further back, the playing field between the two sides will be levelled.
On top of that, the brush has been moved to the middle of the river. Overall, these changes will create a trickier ganking path for junglers, allowing top laners to focus more on their lane opponents rather than constantly looking out for hungry junglers.
Midlane changes
In the Midlane, Riot devs continue to tackle the potency of jungle ganks by giving their solo laners more agency.
The river brushes have been pushed farther back from the lane, and one gank path on both the red and blue sides has been relocated right by the Tier 1 turrets.
These adjustments aim to create a safer environment for playing a variety of champions, particularly benefiting mages with less mobility. Now, midlaners can explore a broader range of strategies with increased confidence in their positioning and safety against potential ganks.
Bot lane changes
For the bot lane, Riot has added a small wall in the botside river and pixel brush right beside it, so both teams can more reasonably fight for vision control.
Following this, there’s a red side-only change to make the lane more symmetrical. The blue tri-brush area has been mirrored onto the red side, opening up a new gank path beside the tower. This change aims to create better symmetry, eliminating any side-based advantages concerning gank protection and warding.
Jungle changes
The most significant terrain change in the jungle is a new, wide wall positioned directly across from the Baron and Drake pits.
This new wall is designed to provide additional safety for junglers on their half of the map and equalise the options for midlaners to roam towards both the top and bottom lanes.
Baron pit changes
The menacing Baron Nashor is getting a massive rework. In Preseason 2024, Baron will take one of three forms when he emerges, each form provides the same classic buff, but alters how he fights and determines the shape of his pit:
- Hunting Baron: no changes
- Territorial Baron: creates a wall in front of the pit
- All-Seeing Baron: closes off the front and opens up both sides, creating a tunnel
These new forms introduce diversity in how Baron fights unfold from game to game.
Overall, these map changes are anticipated to have a massive impact on the game's flow, influencing jungle pathing, ganking strategies, map traversal, objective control, and even lane positioning.
Additionally, they may help alleviate long-standing debates about the significance of side selection by balancing the amount of space and paths on both sides of the map.
LoL Preseason 2024 release date
League of Legends Preseason 2024 kicked off on 20 November 2023 in the Public Beta Environment (PBE), LoL’s test server. The anticipated release date for these gameplay changes on live servers is 9 January 2024, which also marks the start of the first split of 2024.
Meanwhile, players can continue on their current ranked journey until 3 January 2024.
Interested in learning more about LoL Preseason 2024? We've got you covered. Check out our comprehensive LoL Preseason 2024 guide here, which includes more in-depth details on the upcoming changes!
There are also huge itemization changes coming in Season 14, such as Mythic items ceasing to exist, new items entering the game, and some items having their build recipe changed.
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