2016 Season Update - Upcoming Features, New Champion Select, Crafting, Client Update Alpha, & more!

With 2016 right around the corner, Riot has launched an extensive 2016 Season Update promotional page detailing the upcoming preseason changes and future features we can expect next season!
Continue reading for more information, including a look at the new champion select, the new hextech crafting system, ranked improvements, League Client Update Alpha, and MUCH MORE!

The new site is broken up into numerous sections highlighting all the changes coming out way in the 2016 season. Click the links below to jump to the appropriate section on Riot's promotional site:

• Preseason
• Marksman Updates
• Marksman Items
• Keystone Masteries
• The Rift Herald
• Vision
• New Starting Items
• New Sustain Items
• Compete Together
• New Champion Select
• Ranked Improvements
• Champion Mastery & Crafting
• Better With Friends
• Clubs
• Parties
• League Friends App
• League Client Update Alpha

Below we've done our best to transcribe the content of the massive 2016 Season Update site . For your best viewing experience, probably hit one of those links above.

Table of Contents

Preseason

As you've likely seen in our enormous PBE updates this cycle, Preseason 2016 is approaching in full force! The site details the large scope changes coming up, including Marksman updates & items, powerful new Keystone Masteries, a new Rift Herald to conquer around the top lane, vision changes, and more!

The changes we're making this preseason all work toward making each game of League feel unique. From the different champion strengths you bring to the items you take to battle, all the way to the masteries you choose - we want your decisions to matter and have a clear impact on how each game plays out. 

MARKSMAN UPDATES  

We're following up our juggernaut changes with a close look at League's marksmen. Rather than just balancing them against today's meta, we want to give each marksman a specific meta-agnostic identity, a unique bargaining chip that each can bring to the table to either catalyze their team comp or counter the enemy's.

Miss Fortune  

Miss Fortune's always been the wombo comboiest of League's champs, so we're souping up her ult and adding in a new mechanic to highlight her trigger-happy tendencies.

Bullet Time now lasts longer and fires increasing waves of bullets as she levels her ult, while we're moving Strut over to her W and giving her a brand new passive tentatively titled... Love Tap. With it, MF will deal increased damage to targets other than the one she last shot at. She has two guns, and by constantly switching targets, she'll deal huge amounts of pain to multiple victims. Finally, Impure Shots doesn't last as long, but gives her much more attack speed, and crucially lasts longer every time Miss Fortune deals extra damage with Love Tap.

Quinn
We're turning Quinn into League's speediest champion. No-one counters a split push as fast as Demacia's Wings.

Blinding Assault no longer blinds (so uh... that's going to need a rename), but its cooldown is reduced whenever Quinn attacks enemies turned Vulnerable by Valor. Next up, we're turning Quinn's ult into a toggle, giving Demacia's Wings the ability to MOVE. Most champions rely on Teleport to safely stray from their team, but League's speediest champion can move about freely and split push - or counter a split push - anywhere on the map without needing summoner spells.

Graves
Graves has always been about getting up close and personal to whatever he wants to makes holes in, and now he's even stronger at that. We dare you to dive him.

We're changing up Graves' basic attacks so they behave like his Buckshot, meaning his basic attacks deal area of effect cone damage and knockback minions, although the three (yep - his shotgun still fires three rounds, and no, we still can't explain it) rounds can each be blocked. Still on Graves' basic attacks, he actually has an ammo system now, and reloads his gun after firing two rounds. Every round that lands reduces the cooldown on Quickdraw, which no longer grants attack speed but does reload his gun. Finally, we're tweaking Buckshot, giving it a unique T shape attack that deals two rounds of damage. We could try to explain it, or you could just watch the video.

Kog'Maw
We're refining Kog'Maw into a high-powered artillery void puppy. Properly protect him, and he'll wreck any team.

We're lopping off Living Artillery's double champion damage, and adding in execute damage that scales up to deal quadruple damage to low health targets. Meanwhile, we're cutting Kog'Maw's Bio Arcane damage in half while doubling its attack speed buff. Oh, and as long as Kog'Maw's W is active, he'll completely disregard League's attack speed cap.

Corki
Corki's still the most magical of the marksmen, but now the daring bombardier gets one minute to go FULL CORKI whenever he heads back to base.

Corki's always been League's magic damage dealing marksman, something we're reinforcing by tweaking his basic attacks to deal half magic and half physical damage. We're reducing the range of his Valkyrie to make him a little less safe, but adding in something totally unique to the mustachioed aviator. Now, once he hits level six, Corki - or Corki's ground staff - will spawn a crate of rockets and bombs back at HQ. Once Corki flies over one of his crates, he gets SUPERCHARGED, earning a homeguard boots-esque boost, increased base movement speed, and a supercharged Valkyrie that basically carpet bombs a huge area with napalm... but only for a small window of time. Basically, Corki has a minute to make a huge play once he picks up his Corki care package - whether or not he makes the most of his window will often separate the good Corkis from the great Corkis.

[Click here for more info on Corki's changes.]

Caitlyn
Caitlyn’s on the hunt as Piltover’s premiere sharpshooter. Siege down enemy turrets while picking off fleeing enemies. 

Caitlyn's traps now run on ammo, so the sheriff can lay down up to three at a time, and while trapped enemies no longer suffer damage, Caitlyn can hit them with a basic attack at much longer range to deal instant Headshot damage. She gets the same bonus off enemies caught by her 90 Caliber Net, too. Finally, we're tweaking Cait's Piltover Peacemaker, making the initial shot much thinner until it strikes a target - then her round bursts open and deals reduced damage to everything behind it.

MARKSMEN ITEMIZATION  

We're offering more options when it comes to who (or what) you want to fight, and how you contribute to your team through that choice. So whether you want to be a lone gunman, dueling on the edge of the fight, or the nimble spellcaster, or the siege machine and tower crusher, we're providing you with the right items to buy so you can take out the right targets. 

We've done a sweeping categorization pass of marksmen items to clearly communicate why and when you would want to buy an item. Some haven't changed much, but we've revamped others significantly to play nice with the rest. Below, we've tagged new items (and significantly revamped items) accordingly, as well as those who've had larger changes.  

KEYSTONE MASTERIES  

This preseason, we're updating the mastery system to offer focused, high-impact choices rather than a slew of nuanced micro-math optimizations. Each successive "tier" of masteries will grow in importance, ending in a tier 6 "keystone mastery" that fundamentally impacts how you play your champion. By condensing power into clear decision points, the masteries you take from game to game should have an impact on your playstyle, and we want to offer multiple mastery paths for most champions in League.

[Click here for details on each of the new mastery trees.]

THE RIFT HERALD  

It’s no secret that players who depart for the top lane can end up feeling isolated without a dragon to contest. Rather than just flipping the map on its head, we’re exploring ways to bring some relevancy to the north so top laners can feel like they're interacting with their team before the 15 minute mark.
Details are still being sussed out, but expect to meet something new on Summoner’s Rift in the early phases of the game. Defeat it, and gain a single target buff focused on early game power and pushing down the lane.

VISION 

Our goal with vision is two-fold: first, we want to keep pushing the vision game as a team effort and, second, we want to make vision more dynamic than days past. For that first goal, we’re doing things like free trinket upgrades for all, along with the option for tier 2 support items to upgrade into either powerful tier 3 active items or slot-efficient sightstones. For the second goal, we’re removing Stealth Wards from the shop so teams will need to rely more heavily on their pink (and blue trinket!) wards to get the vision control they need. In tandem with this change, however, we’re also adding a new feature in ward ‘debris’ when a ward passes on. By giving you the ability to see the dead bodies of wards who’ve moved on with their lives, you’ll be able to learn more about your opponent’s vision habits as well as your own.

Ward Debris 

Wards now leave behind corpses when they die, letting you know the warding habits of your enemies and teammates. 

Trinkets  

Trinkets now upgrade automatically and grow in strength as you gain levels. Blue Trinket has been removed, but Yellow now either works like before (2 wards on cooldown) or can be sidegraded to a long-range scout trinket, capable of dropping a visible 1-health ward with unlimited duration. Red Trinket now ‘reveals’ all units (monsters, champions, wards) it scans, acting as both a ward sweeper and brush checker. Red can also sidegrade into a personal radar that follows your champion around for a while, sweeping and disabling all wards as you go.

Sightstones

Gold generation support items can now either upgrade into fully-fledged tier 3 items with powerful actives, or slot-efficient sightstones with gold generation stats. Additionally, we’ll be reintroducing the Ruby Sightstone, which will reduce the cooldown of all of your active items. So either you can go all-in on active items, or just finish that Sightstone before going traditional damage / tank support items.

NEW STARTING ITEMS  

We're using the Doran's items (Blade, Ring, and Shield) as a baseline "generalist" set, with the addition of newer, more specialized options for those who want to opt into other early-game openings. Do you want a more aggressive lane? A defensive farming option? Somewhere in between? We've got you covered.

NEW SUSTAIN ITEMS  

Health pots are going up in price to better position them as a purchase for those who just need some sustain to get them past the early game. Any form of long-term sustain we folded into the refillable potions (and their subsequent upgrades) to really solidify their identity (because before, it was… flask and potions to be a ‘sustain' build). Mana potions, on the other hand, are being removed. Our decision to remove mana pots goes along the same philosophy as starting items. 100 mana tends to benefit certain types of champions over others (with mana costs being balanced against individual champion kits) and can wildly shift from being a mediocre purchase to a very cost-efficient one. By removing mana pots, we can better balance champion ability costs with the mana regeneration stat while also streamlining the 'sustain game' of League.

Compete Together

Next up we variety of changes to how you get into the game with a new Champion Selext experience,, changes to ranked competition & queues, and rewards to earn with the Champion Mastery & Crafting changes!

NEW CHAMP SELECT 

Break out your best champs in your favorite roles. With new champ select, everyone is on the same page before the draft even begins. Each player chooses two positions (or fill!) before queueing up to find a team. A new feature, “pick intent”, helps everyone understand the champ you want to play and the contribution you want to make to your team's comp. With the draft underway, a new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. Put simply: champ select should leave every teammate - and every team - better placed to smash the enemy nexus. 

The new champ select process will head to PBE first before going live in normal draft with an upcoming patch. We'll also be testing improvements to the ranked experience during this time, but those features may show up on PBE after the new champ select. We'll have more details farther down the page, but here's a quick look what's coming:

POSITION SELECT
You now select two positions out of top, jungle, mid, bottom, support, and fill. Requiring two positions ensures short queue times and that no one gets stuck in a position they don't want to play.

POSITION ASSIGNMENT
Everyone learns where they're headed at the same time. Team chat appears here, helping the team get on the same page.

PICK INTENT

Before the ban phase begins, you can pick the champ you plan to play, highlighting it for your teammates to see. Pick intent helps your team sort out potential comps and avoid teammate-harming bans.

BANS
We're distributing drafting responsibilities amongst all players. A new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. For clarity: bans still happen before picks.

PICKS
Bans and picks happen one at a time and require everyone to lock in their choice. If anyone fails to lock in a pick or ban, champ select ends and players return to queue. We expect this change to speed up champ select after everyone adjusts to locking in picks and bans.Next


EXPLORING NEW CHAMP SELECT 

Friends understand each other's intentions and set each other up for success. This idea is key to champ select's new design.The new champ select helps strangers cooperate so every player plays from a position of strength, understands their teammates, and makes their best possible contribution to a win. 

PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS

Position Assignment

When exploring position select, we delved into how most people play the game and designed around what we found: most players feel strongest in two positions. So you now select two positions out of top, jungle, mid, bottom, support, and fill. You're guaranteed to land in one of the positions you select. And yes, support's now officially a position in addition to a role. Check out your options: 

• Select a primary and secondary position and matchmaking weights your primary choice, making it more likely you land there; you're guaranteed to slot into one of the positions you select
• Select a primary position and "Fill" as your secondary, and matchmaking weights your primary choice, placing you in any other role if necessary
• Select "Fill" and join a team in any position

Requiring two positions ensures short queue times and that no one on your team gets stuck in a position they don't want to play. We know some options (*cough* support and jungle) aren't always quite as popular, and plan to incentivize these roles with IP bonuses if necessary. 

We don't see position select impeding lane swaps or other emergent strategies in the future, and teams remain totally free to collaborate and experiment with different comps (double jungle 2016)! 

UNDERSTAND YOUR TEAMMATES 

Pick Intent

After your match is made, you and your new teammates discover your position and enter the draft. Before the ban phase begins, everyone picks the champ they plan to play—this is called pick intent. Pick intent helps your team sort out potential comps and avoid teammate-harming bans.

No More Surprises

Now each player selects their champion one at a time. For example, if your team has first pick, the opposing team still picks two champions afterward, they just lock in one after the other. 

As a result, however, both bans and picks now require everyone to lock in their choice. If a player fails to lock in a pick or ban, champ select ends and players return to queue (and that player faces the same queue dodge penalties). 

MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION

Distributed Bans

We're distributing drafting responsibilities amongst all players so every player gets a chance to make a meaningful contribution to their team. A new ban phase distributes one ban each to the players who receive the last three picks, while the top two have a shot at securing priority champs for the team. For clarity: bans still happen before picks. 

PBE FIRST, NORMAL DRAFT SOON AFTER, RANKED AND BLIND PICK LATER DURING THE 2016 SEASON 

New champ select hits PBE first, and will go live in normal draft during an upcoming patch. We'll keep you posted on all queue changes as they approach, and we're excited to hear your feedback!

RANKED IMPROVEMENTS 

If the World Championships have shown us anything, it's that League is a team game and the best competitors are also amazing teammates. We believe a truly competitive ranked experience should reward a player's ability to lead or collaborate with their teammates just as much as their ability to shut down a lane. That said, for a while now the ranked experience has also been a lonely one, having the choice of either queueing up with a friend or braving it solo. We've even had to go so far as to give small penalties to duo-queuers to compensate for the unspoken benefits of friendship (can you really put a price on friendship?).  

Our belief is that League is better - and more competitive - with company, so we need to walk the walk on that philosophy. 

DYNAMIC GROUPS

This upcoming season we're replacing the solo/duo queue with a dynamic group queue, where you'll be able to climb the ladder with any number of teammates, going from single participation all the way to a full team comp. There's no longer a penalty for players ranking together, so the benefits of grouping up will always prevail. You'll still need to be of similar rank to your queue-buddies, and the system is designed so that groups will almost always play against similarly grouped opponents (so if you're in a premade five, there's a 95% chance you'll run into another premade five), but now you'll be able to compete the way you want to.

Ranked teams will still be available for players who want to form a team of any skill level, as teams are judged on the skill of the static group rather than the sum total of the individuals. That said, this season we're also going to be improving the path to pro, with less ranked team grinding and more focus on performing when it counts. Details to come! 

GROUP BONUSES

For those of you yet to find your trusty battle-buddies, there's no better time than now to consult your friends list (or recruit that support who just carried you) - after dynamic groups go live, we'll be launching with abonus IP promotion for all parties who play together. Additionally, with Clubs and Parties hitting the stage, maybe your ranked soulmates are just one social sphere away from that push to Challenger. 

IMPROVED HIGH-LEVEL MATCHMAKING

Enduring thirty-minute queue times for reaching the top of the ladder isn't exactly a reward, but that's historically been the price paid when you're incredibly talented at League. We're optimizing high-level matchmaking to identify epically skilled players faster and widen the MMR range for finding games.

This isn't the place to get too technical but, essentially, high-level players will be matchmade in the same games that would have happened after a thirty-minute wait, but at a much faster pace. 

PROMO HELPER

When you're in a division lower than Gold 1, if you lose a promotional series, the next time you enter your series, you'll start with at least one win.

Ever since we released the league system for ranked play, we've been following it closely, identifying pain points and looking to add clarity to progression and placement. In 2016, we're adding a new feature to help alleviate "promo anxiety," better reflect improvements in skill, and make it easier to ladder up when climbing to your actual level.

Beginning with the start of the new ranked season, if you lose your promos but are still able to get back into a series (demonstrating you've got the skills but just aren't winning in the right order), you'll start that new series off with at least one win. As the TL;DR said, though, promo helper does not apply to tiers and divisions above Gold 1. 

NEW CHAMPION SELECT IN RANKED

New champion select will debut in ranked play for testing during preseason in NA and TR. Read the lowdown on new champion select here!

CHAMPION MASTERY & CRAFTING 

We knew from the beginning that while mastering a champion was a goal in and of itself, we also wanted to go beyond that to reward you for your feats. Our first attempt at this included in-game emotes, multikill banners and loading screen borders but... those were just the start. This year we want to keep recognizing you for the cool things you're already doing, like playing with your friends or performing well across a wide variety of champions.

Cue the introduction of... 

HEXTECH CRAFTING 

We're introducing a new system called "Hextech Crafting" with two goals in mind: one, create a new way to pick up randomized loot at large discounts (we're tuning the drop stats here but, if you want something specific, a direct purchase will still be the most efficient), and two (this one may be more important for some of you), allow players to earn their way toward champions or skins for their in-game accomplishments. Free.

We're still fleshing out the details, but wanted to share some plans:

CHESTS WHERE?
Later in the new season, you'll be able to earn Mastery Chests and Keys as you team up and compete with your friends. Upon acquiring (and combining) the two, you'll be able to unlock the chest, earning loot items ranging from 7-day rentals to permanent skins and champions.

You'll have the chance to randomly pick up Keys and Key Fragments after each win. Playing with your friends will result in getting a few more keys than going solo and, if you've got the right kind of friends, wins should be easier to achieve as well! Once you pick up enough Key Fragments, you can convert them into full Keys at the crafting table. 

Mastery Chests will be tied to your post-game grades, which have always been a combination of your personal and team performance for that game. We're still settling on the number of chests we'll give out this way over the year (so it's not a grind and we can get a clear view of the ecosystem we're creating), but we'll also be exploring ways to give out chests (and keys) for other modes and events.

For those who just want to pick up loot at a significant discount, we'll also be offering unique types of chests in the store that are guaranteed to be good deals! Finally, if the rewards you earn aren't something you see yourself ever using, you can swap them for other content via the crafting table. 

DISENCHANTING, UPGRADING, AND REROLLING AT THE CRAFTING TABLE 

When it comes to content you plunder, you'll be able to redeem or modify it via the crafting table. Loot items you don't want can be disenchanted into essences. These essences are used to upgrade other items from shard rentals to permanent content. Alternatively, you can use the crafting table to reroll 3 of any permanent or rental item into a different permanent item of the same type (skin or champion). 

THE FUTURE OF CRAFTING 

We're excited to share this system with all of you on PBE in the coming months. Our goal is to also build a scalable, robust system that future rewards can plug into. We'll have a lot more details as the 2016 Season Update rolls out, so stay tuned!

Better with Friends

In addition to changes to the game, Riot also has several changes to help you connect with players and friends! These new additions include a new club system to group up with friends, a party system to keep grouped up between games, and a brand mobile application for  socializing on the go!

Whether celebrating pentakills and promo wins, or agonizing together over a streak-busting throw, League is better with friends. So we're adding a trio of new features during the 2016 season to help you build and join communities of like-minded players, make it easier for premades hitting the rift, and help everyone keep in touch while afk with a new League chat app for iOS and Android.

Clubs, Parties and the League Friends app are foundational features. This means that while their official launch is early next year, we're going to be building them up and working on them throughout the 2016 season. 

CLUBS 

Clubbing it Up

Clubs are player-named (names must be unique), player-organized, and player-controlled social groups. The idea is to help you grow the amount of available friends at any given time so you can head to the Rift with the right teammates, every game.

Out the gate, each club provides a persistent chat room that lives across login sessions for all clubmates. This social hub facilitates friendships and naturally provides a place to organize games. Club leaders wield a full set of moderation tools, allowing them to invite or kick members at any time. Leaders can share the management burden, unlocking invite and kick powers for chosen officers. At launch, clubs max out at 100 members, but we'll likely increase that number over time. 

Find the Right Friends

What's in a club? Well, that's entirely up to you. From esports fans to collegiate gamers, clubs can form around just about anything. And as a bonus, you can rep your club on the Rift with tags attached to your summoner name. Just as a note: because you can be a part of multiple clubs at the same time, there'll be a way to swap which tag you sport in-game. 

PARTIES 

Group Queue Faster

Parties simplify the way small groups of friends stick together between games. Have some basics:

One player hosts a party, inviting friends to a group chat that persists through games, but not login sessions. With a party set up, the party leader goes through the normal flow of starting a game and then every player in the party queues up together. After the game parties stick together, keep their group chat, and can easily hit the Rift all over again. 

Open or Closed

Parties are open by default, meaning friends will see your party in their friends list, know you're looking for people to play with and be able to join you with just a few clicks. Party leaders can close parties too, making them invite-only.

LEAGUE FRIENDS APP 

League is better when you play with friends; it should be as easy as possible to hit up your pals and organize a game. Enter the League of Legends Friends mobile app.

The app makes your League friends list truly mobile, so you can always yell at your ranked team's jungler—whether he's ganking bot lane from the river, or off fishing in an IRL river. Here's a few reasons to get excited:


Connect With Friends Whenever, Wherever

Use the League Friends app to hit up your buddies for a match any time they're available—even before they've booted up their rig. The app syncs your conversations from any device, so you can keep up the team trash talk long after smashing the enemy nexus. 

Never Miss A Match

It's a lot easier to organize your team games when everybody is online. Optional push notifications ensure that you'll get the message when your squad feels a late-night itch for a 5v5. 

WHAT'S IN STORE

Like we mentioned up top, Clubs, Parties, and the Friends app are early efforts that we plan to ramp up significantly. Clubs can look toward a future of challenges that clubmates can only face together and search functionality is also in the cards, which should help players without a huge friends list find clubs to join.

The League Friends app will be available (totally free) for Android and iOS sometime in early 2016, and you can expect it to keep evolving over time, supporting features like Parties and Clubs when they become available.

League Client Update Alpha

Last up we have a look at the upcoming client update alpha!

The current League of Legends client has been your companion for the past six years, but it's in sore need of an upgrade. We've been working hard to make that happen, and beginning during the 2016 Season we'll invite community members to test and give feedback on a work-in-progress alpha version of the updated client. We have a limited number of slots open in the alpha client construction crew, but we'll make room for as many folks as we can.

Once the alpha is complete, the updated client will be defined primarily by three things: 

WHAT WE'RE BUILDING

New Tech

We're abandoning the legacy client's tech framework and building the updated client from the ground up, so players will finally have the more reliable, responsive client they deserve. Bonus: teams at Riot will have an easier time developing and delivering new features.

Streamlined Style

The updated client is our chance to rethink interface and design, cooking in some fresh visuals while we're at it. The new design unifies all sections of the client under a clear, visually-consistent theme.

Stay Connected

We're already working on quite a few features that will make playing with friends easier, including Parties, Clubs, and the Friends mobile app. The updated client takes that goal further by giving you a resource-light, standalone friends list you can use to stay in the loop without needing to open the full-size client. It'll let you see who's in game and message your buds while you're downloading the latest patch, and you'll be able to launch straight into games with a click.

SO HOW CAN I JOIN THE ALPHA?

Anyone who signs up for the alpha can expect an incomplete, bumpy experience as we actively work on every part of the client. If you're a brave player who wants to join the alpha construction crew, keep a few things in mind: we're looking for level 30 players from all over the world, and those with a history of good in-game behavior will be given priority. For development purposes, not everybody who applies will make it in. Look for signups to open before the alpha kicks off next year.

Follow Up Discussion

Over on reddit, Pwyff commented  on the timing of all this: