Introduction to Preseason

With the preseason patch looming over head, Riot has created a mini site to help summoners read up and get informed on all the major changes coming to the League of Legends in the next patch Make sure to hop on over to Riot's Preseason mini site, which details all of the upcoming item, jungle, and mastery changes. Alternatively you can continue reading for a much less interative synopsis of the Preseason mini site's contents.

Item Changes 
The item's section of the mini site features an interactive, full list of new items, update items, and removed items coming in the preseason update. Nearly every item got some sort of tweak or change in the upcoming update, so you'd be well off skimming the list and seeing whats new with your favorite gear.

To kick off the preseason we're introducing a number of new items aimed at offering more options for customizing your build. This upgraded arsenal includes more items with active abilities and new upgrade options for some of your old favorites.

We're remaking a few classic items in order to provide a broader appeal for previously niche buys, and upgrading some others so that they're more relevant at every stage of the game. We're also reevaluating the cost of every item relative to the utility it provides for its phase of the game.

We've pruned the item shop to remove certain items that no longer fit into the current framework of the game. Many of these items were either less powerful than alternatives, too powerful to be elegantly balanced, or purchased only as part of a later game upgrade. Instead of drastically changing these old standbys, we opted to remove them to open alternative builds.

Jungle Changes
First up is an overview of what is getting fiddled with in the jungle and what the goals are for the update, overall.

"We’re making changes to the Season Three Jungle to increase jungler diversity, reduce the pressure on early game lanes, and give junglers a greater presence in team fights.

In Season Two, the most desirable junglers had high area-of-effect damage, late game utility, and ganking presence. For Season Three, we want to open up the playing field to allow champions with other strengths to share the spotlight. By redistributing the total hit points in the wolf, golem, and wraith camps to favor the large monster, we’re making it easier for single-target champions to keep up with their AoE counterparts.

Similarly, fast-clearing junglers were able to pour on the pressure early in the game with constant ganking. To combat this clear-and-gank rhythm, jungle monsters now gain health and damage at a more aggressive pace as the game progresses. Similarly, the gold and experience rewards also increase at a faster rate. This forces junglers to make a strategic decision between applying pressure to the lane and spending their time and health farming these more valuable monsters.

These changes should provide a larger roster of viable junglers, along with a greater range of strategic options through all phases of the game."

... and here is just how these changes should impact your typical jungling experience.

Early Game: Early on, junglers will have to balance the risk of ganking against the greater gold and experience available to them by farming the new, more powerful jungle camps. Mid Game:The improved rewards from the neutral monster camps offer junglers the option to farm up and utilize powerful new items to really shine in the mid game. Late Game:With improved rewards, new items, and rebalanced jungle camps, more junglers will be able to scale effectively into the late game and have a greater impact in team fights.

As you may have take checked out in the item section, junglers will have a slew of new options to help them clear out neutral mobs, the most prominent of which is the Hunter's Machete.


Mastery Changes
By navigating to the masteries tab, you'll find a calculator you can use to mess around with new builds or just get a better sense of what the masteries are.

I highly recommend you visit this page for yourself and give the new masteries a looksy! The utility tree got a ton of delicious and powerful new options!

Summoner Spell Changes
While the Summoner Spell changes might not be as dynamitc and exciting as the others, they are just as imporant. Here we find a list of revised, removed, and new summoner spells. Hovering over each will spit out the values for each ( but not cool downs )

FAQ
Here is a copy and paste of Riot's FAQ covering most of the common questions summoners will have about the preseason updat

The preseason is the period between competitive League of Legends seasons. Though we’re constantly making balance changes from patch to patch, the preseason presents an opportunity to refine some of the underlying systems that define the game. During this time, we’ll be introducing and iterating on some big gameplay changes before Season Three officially kicks off.

2. What can I expect during the preseason?

Think of the preseason as a beta period for Season Three. It will be a time for you to familiarize yourself with the changes we’re making to items, masteries, summoner spells, the jungle, and more. Throughout the preseason, we’ll be listening closely to community feedback and making regular updates to all the new content we’ve introduced.

3. Why are so many changes being made for the Season Three Preseason, and why now?

The preseason is an ideal time to introduce more sweeping gameplay changes like these, since it’s less disruptive to all levels of the competitive scene.
We’re extremely pleased with the strategic evolution and champion diversity we saw over the course of Season Two, but we’re always looking for opportunities to make League of Legends even better. One of our primary goals for the preseason is to ensure that the metagame stays dynamic by promoting individual playstyles over established strategies.
To accomplish this, we’re making updates to nearly every customizable aspect of the game, including items, masteries, and summoner spells. We also made some changes to the jungle to promote a greater variety of junglers and lane champions.

4. Will Ranked play during the preseason count towards Season Three?

Yes! All your Ranked games during preseason (after the preseason patch) will carry over into Season Three.
Additionally, on December 27, the top XX ladder teams will be invited to participate in an online qualifier from January 4-6. The top six teams from this qualifier will earn the right to compete for a spot as a Riot-sponsored pro team in Season Three.
For more information, check out the official announcement.

5. Why are so many new items being added to the game?

Greater build variety is a common community request, and we couldn’t agree more! One of the main goals for Season Three is to increase the areas where you can make interesting, strategic decisions. We felt that providing options for more nuanced item builds was a big part of achieving this goal. With over 20 new items, you’ll find you have more opportunities to counter-play and build around distinct playstyles.

6. Many items have been changed or removed from the game. Why?

This preseason, we went back and rebalanced many old items. For example, attack damage was overvalued, attack speed was undervalued, and there was too much durability on early game items. As a result, many familiar items will have new costs, stats, and build paths. For items that have been removed, you’ll notice we’ve introduced new items which will fill those gaps while allowing you to have even more build diversity and opportunities for counter-play.

7. What changes are coming to the jungle and why?

Overall, we were pleased to see how jungle strategy developed throughout Season Two, but we also identified a few areas we can improve. For starters, we wanted to increase the variety of viable junglers, as well as the number of viable late game strats by increasing the jungle rewards. We also wanted to decrease the pressure on early game lanes by making these more rewarding camps more difficult to clear. With these changes, junglers will have many more opportunities to make strategic decisions that impact the game.

8. Many summoner spells were reworked or removed. How will these changes affect gameplay?

Over the course of Season Two, some summoner spells became mandatory for certain roles, which didn’t give you much opportunity to make strategic choices. In order to create more viable choices, we’ve buffed some of the weaker skills, adjusted the cooldowns on some of the more popular spells, and even added a rebalanced version ofBarrier to Summoner’s Rift. With these changes, you should have more room to select summoner spells that fit your specific style of play.

9. Masteries have been updated. What can I expect?

In Season Two we saw a bunch of heavily-optimized “cookie cutter” mastery builds rise to popularity. We want the updated masteries to contain many equally-viable options at each level of the tree to ensure that your masteries are unique to you, and selected specifically with your playstyle in mind.
For example, going deep into the Utility tree should now be a matter of personal preference regardless of your role, not just the required setup for a support champion. We’ve introduced new masteries to make each tree viable for more than one archetype.

10.How can I contribute to the Season Three Preseason?