Preseason Update: Forge Your Path

A minisite featuring all the upcoming changes at Preseason is now available! Continue reading for all the details of what is coming, including the Runes Reforged update, Leveling and IP changes, and more!
Continue reading for more information!

Table of Contents

• Preseason Update: Forge Your Path
• Preseason FAQ

Preseason Update: Forge Your Path

The Preseason Update: Forge Your Path Minisite is now up, giving tons of details on Preseason, including new runes, leveling and IP changes, more on the blue essence store, and more! Get all the details below or on the interactive minisite.

DISCOVER NEW RUNES

We’re combining runes and masteries into a single, streamlined system that you can use to adapt and customize your playstyle in champ select. Runes Reforged concentrates your pre-game power into a focused set of options, so every choice matters more. All 60 of the new runes are free. 

Click the images below to see the most powerful runes—called keystones—in each path.

PRECISION 

IMPROVED ATTACKS AND SUSTAINED DAMAGE

Press the Attack - Attacking the same champion grants endlessly stacking attack damage.

Preseason FAQ

Along with the minisite, there is a FAQ that answers all the questions you might ever have:

General 

• When’s Preseason going live?
• We’re aiming for November 8th for the start of Preseason. 

• When’s the start of new season?
• Due to the scope of changes this year, we want to ensure we have the right amount of time to get balance to a good place before we kick off the new season in January of 2018.

Uncapped Leveling

• What’s the new level cap?
• There’s no level cap! Level to infinity (but not beyond it—it's dangerous to level beyond infinity). 

• What exactly will I get for leveling up past level 30?
• Instead of getting IP after every game, you'll receive an unlocked chest every time you level up. These capsules almost always contain champion shards. The exceptions to this will be on certain "milestone" levels like 50, 75, 100, etc. When these levels are reached, you'll get exclusive rewards that you can use to show off your status in-game. These rewards include a special high level ward skin and milestone emotes which you can upgrade using blue essence. At very high milestone levels, you can even get a gemstone. 

• I’ve played a ton of games at level 30 already. Will I start at a higher level in the new system? 

• No. The new, uncapped leveling system is primarily aimed at giving you more goals to shoot for (and rewards for hitting them). With that in mind, we didn't think it made sense to start so many of you at a very high level. That would take the goals away from the very people this system is intended to support. 

• Are you making changes to 1–30 leveling?
• Yes! We’re shortening the time it takes to get to level 30 and making it grant more IP/BE than before. And because you won’t have to spend any of your currency on runes instead of champions, new players should have many more champions by the time they get to level 30. The pre-30 capsules are more curated than the post-30 capsules, especially at the earliest levels. The first ten levels, in particular, will focus on more accessible champions to help players get comfortable in League before the capsules become more random. We also want new players to unlock a couple of random (but not exclusive) cosmetic things like ward skins and icons as they level up, but that stuff will be available to everyone who levels up past level 30 as well. We'll also make slight tweaks to the rate at which you'll unlock summoner spells when leveling to 30. 

• I’m already level 30. Will I retroactively get the leveling capsules for climbing from 1–30? 

• No. Remember that the new leveling system is a replacement for the IP you get after games now. You already got rewarded for all the games you played when you leveled from 1–30, but it was in the form of IP. So new players aren't going to get anything you didn't already get for playing the game. It will still take new players a long time to climb to level 30 and get the 30 capsules along the way. If you spend that time instead on your level 30 account, you'll get a bunch of capsules as well and you'll be well on your way toward unlocking one of the exclusive cosmetic rewards at the milestone levels. 

• Will leveling in the new system get slower the higher you climb?
• Yes, but it won't ever get much slower than it is now. The leveling curve will get slightly harder and slower as you go, but the curve stops getting steeper once you reach level 150. Basically, the climb from levels 151 to 175 will take exactly as long as the climb from levels 176 through 200. At any level, this will vary depending on how many games you've won with the First Win of the Day bonus (which will soon give bonus XP) active. If you play two games per day, and win one each time, it will actually only take 10 games to level up even at the hardest part of the curve. One nuance to understand with this is that the difficulty won't increase in a straight line. Leveling will get a little bit tougher as you approach each milestone level (every 25 levels) and then it'll speed up again until you get closer to the next one. 

• Will there be seasonal resets to levels?
• No. 

• With the new leveling system, are you changing the speed at which I unlock champions?
• The vast majority of you will earn the champs you want about as quickly as you did in the old IP-based system—and it’ll be faster in some cases. That’s because of the sheer number of shards you’ll be getting from leveling, honor, and the mastery system. Of course, it’ll also be faster generally since you’ll no longer have to spend on runes. The only folks who’ll feel like they’re earning currency a little more slowly compared to the old system will be those at the highest levels (150+) who play many games each day. That’s largely because we’re going to turn the First Win of the Day into a more substantial daily mission that gives bonus XP. It’ll give you a big burst of XP, and subsequent games will kick out a little bit less. 

• Are you removing my ability to unlock a specific champion with the new leveling system?
• No. The new blue essence will do all of the things you could previously do with IP and blue essence. You’ll be able to purchase any champion directly from the store with blue essence, so you won't be dependent on RNG to unlock content. Getting a specific champion shard also allows you get a 20 percent discount on that champion when upgrading to a champion permanent. If you don't want the shard you can always disenchant it and use the blue essence you get from it to unlock a different champion from the store. 

• What’s happening to IP boosts and XP boosts?
• We’ll be removing IP boosts from the store. XP boosts will still be available. If you have active IP boosts when preseason hits in November, they'll get automatically converted to XP boosts. Now that rewards are tied to leveling up, XP boosts will become much more valuable by increasing the speed you unlock content (you'll level faster, and thus you'll earn capsules faster). To reflect this, we’ll be increasing the price of XP boosts to be closer to the value of IP boosts. 

• If I’m not yet level 30. Should I not play until Preseason so I don’t miss out on any capsules?
• All IP earned between now and preseason will be converted into blue essence, so the best way to earn progress towards unlocking champions is to keep playing! 

• Will we receive blue essence after every game?
• No. The new rewards system is all designed around champion shards (which can be turned into blue essence) dropping whenever you level up. 

• What if I randomly get a cheap champ shard when I level up? Will I just be unlucky?
• We've designed the system so it's not overly-reliant on luck. You can get multiple champion shards whenever you level up, and if you get a low priced champion shard like Ashe, it will come with other shards to bring up the total value of the capsule. The capsules are balanced like this so that everyone will get close to the same value from hitting any given level, so luck won't make a difference to how quickly you can unlock champions.

IP & Blue Essence

• Are you making any changes to the way disenchanting shards works?
• Since you'll be getting more shards thanks to the new leveling system (and with other recent changes to honor and events), we'll tune down the relative value of the essence you get from disenchanting shards of all types—champ shards, skin shards, and ward skin shards. In the current system, for example, disenchanting a champ shard will get you about a third of the BE you need to buy a champ at that shard's tier. In the new system it'll get you 20% of the way there. Also, with so many more champ shards in the system, we need to remove the ability to reroll them into permanent champs—but we’ll occasionally sell mystery champions for blue essence. For these reasons, you should go ahead and reroll or disenchant any shards you don't want to upgrade before preseason hits so you can get the most essence possible out of them. To make up for essence drop rate changes, we'll tune the way loot boxes work to increase the amount of skins you'll get from them. We'll also add "bad luck protection," so you won't ever go on long streaks without getting a skin shard or a gemstone from chests. 

• Why did you choose to call the new combined currency "blue essence" instead of "IP?"
• The new blue essence does all the things that IP used to do, but ultimately, we chose to call it blue essence because of how it's integrated with the loot system. With blue essence we can offer things like discounts on champions through champion shards, multiple champion shards per level up, and the ability for players to use the champion shards they are earning towards things like champion mastery level 6 and 7. Also, shards you get from honor or the champion mastery systems can now be disenchanted for use as currency in the store. 

• How will refunds of champs purchased with IP work after the transition?
• Refunding champs purchased with IP will now refund equal value in blue essence. 

• What will happen to my existing blue essence?
• To ensure your existing blue essence is not losing value during the transition to the newer, bluer essence, it will be multiplied by 6.5 and added to your IP balance to calculate your total blue essence value. 

• What are you doing for players who'll have tons of BE with nothing to spend it on?
• The biggest thing is the special blue essence store, which is specifically designed to give those of you who've already unlocked all the champs (and stored up big piles of IP) tons of cool exclusive content to buy. The highest priced items in the store—gemstones and URFWick—are meant for folks who've been around earning IP for many seasons. For the first go-round this preseason the store will include:
• 1,500 BE - Mystery icon box (guaranteed to be an icon you don't already own)
• 2,000 BE - Chromas (includes all chromas that have been available for at least six months)
• 2,500 BE - “Mystery Mini” Icons Box (exclusive to the special BE store)
• 3,950 BE - Mystery Champions (guaranteed to be a champion you don't already own)
• 4,900 BE - Mystery ward skin box (guaranteed to be a ward skin you don't already own)
• 6,000 BE - Rune ward skin (exclusive to the special BE store)
• 50,000 BE - "Make it Rain" emote (exclusive to the special BE store)
• 50,000 BE and up - Gemstones (First one costs 50,000, second costs 75,000, third costs 100,000. Limited to three per account during the special BE store sale)
• 150,000 BE - URFWick skin (now exclusive to the special BE store) 

• Will the special BE store ever come back?
• Right now we're thinking we'll bring back the special blue essence store at least once per year. We're not sure what it will include when it returns, but when we bring it back we'll be sure to include the unique stuff like the rune ward skins and the emotes. 

• Is the URFWick in the special BE store different than the original URFWick?
• The URFWick skin we release with the blue essence store will be a 2017 edition, similar to what we did with Championship Riven. Original owners of URFwick will automatically receive a special limited edition upgrade of the original skin, a loading screen border, AND the new URFwick. 

• Are there any other rewards for veterans coming this preseason?
• We're planning to give out exclusive emotes based on how many hours you've put in since the beginning of League. Playing approximately 500 hours gets you the Defender of the League emote, at around 1,500 hours gets you the Champion of the League emote, and 2,500 hours gets you the ultra-rare Conqueror of the League emote. We're also looking into work on the profile page that'll let you show other players when you started playing League (including all your previous ranked badges). We're hoping to ship that by the end of this year or the beginning of early next year. 

• Mystery Hextech coins are going away. Why?
• Mystery Hextech coins were added so you'd have a path to upgrade your mastery tokens with IP. Since IP and BE will soon be combined, they've become less necessary. Plus, if you were really into the random champion shards, you’ll be getting those a lot more frequently anyway from the leveling capsules. 

• I noticed that champ shard re-rolling is going away. What about skin shard re-rolling?
• You'll still be able to re-roll skin shards just like before! 

• Should I do anything with my existing champ shards?
• It depends on what you want to do. If you want a bunch of extra BE, you should probably disenchant them now since they'll give out relatively less blue essence after preseason hits. That said, you're free to hang onto them if you think you might want to use one of the shards to unlock a particular champion. 

• Will upgrading to champion mastery 6 & 7 still cost the same amount of blue essence?
• The price will be scaled up by 6.5—the same amount we're scaling up all your existing BE. So it will "cost" the same in the new system, but the numbers will be higher across the board. 

• Are there any changes to account transfers?
• To ensure players don’t miss out on their rewards by transferring servers, we’re going to be turning off account transfers roughly a month before Preseason starts (October 10) until two weeks after preseason starts (November 20). If you’re thinking about transferring servers you have two options:
• 1. Do it before we turn off account transfers on October 10.
• 2. Wait until Preseason starts in November, play one game and redeem your rewards before you transfer servers. This is the best way to ensure you don’t miss out on any rewards.

Runes

• I bought lots of runes in the old system. Do I get anything for spending on the old runes?
• With runes soon becoming free, we want to do a little something to show our appreciation for those of you who've spent time and IP into runes over the years. We decided that the right thing to do would be to give you some of the IP you spent back based on when you bought your runes. So, for runes you bought before the beginning of the 2017 season, we'll give you 100 IP for each regular tier 3 rune, and 300 IP for each tier 3 quint. For any runes you bought since the beginning of the 2017 season, we’ll refund the full IP cost. For rune pages, the plan is for your rune pages to carry over into the new runes system, so prices on rune pages aren't being changed. However we heard from some players that being able to edit rune pages in champ select makes having more than a few pages feel less meaningful. So, for any rune page you bought with IP, we'll also give you back 1,500 blue essence. We also want to do a little something for folks who bought rune pages with RP. So, for every four pages you bought using RP before September 1st, we'll give you an epic skin for a champion you own. We'll round up, so if you bought nine pages with RP, for example, you'll get three epic skins. 

• What if I don’t have a champion that’s eligible for an epic skin?
• If you're one of the rare players who has every skin for every champion you own, you should write in a note to player support after preseason hits and rewards have been distributed. They'll take care of you. 

• Why aren’t you just giving me back all the IP I ever spent on runes?
• Our business model is to use the money we get from selling optional content to improve the game, esports, our servers, and everything else. Making new runes free for everyone, giving players thousands of BE, and keeping champion earn rates about the same as today means significantly less RP spent on champions, rune pages, and the cosmetics in the blue essence store. It’s a big investment that’s only possible because of your support over the years. We understand that it can feel bad to have something you paid for suddenly become free for other people, and that's why we're giving folks who spent on runes back in the day the blue essence amounts we announced in Riot Pls. But we also have to focus on using our resources to reinvest in the game. We think that giving a little something back (rather than a full refund) strikes the right balance for players today and in the future. 

• What’s happening to IP I spent on runes and rune pages between September 1, 2017 and November 8, 2017?
• On September 1st, we announced that all regular tier 3 runes have been be priced at 10 IP each. Rune pages will still be available in the new system so rune pages will continue to exist in the store for the same price. Existing rune pages will carry over to the new system. Any IP spent on runes or rune pages since September 1, 2017 will not be refunded. 

• What is Riot doing for people who had special legacy runes?
• We'll introduce an exclusive ward skin for anyone who owned any special legacy runes OR who spent at least 125,000 IP on runes or rune pages* before the September 1, 2017 cutoff date. We'll also give rare rune owners a special commemorative icon. *If you bought rune pages using RP, we'll count each of those as 6,300 IP spent toward this reward. 

• When and how will I receive my transition rewards?
• Once preseason starts in November, you’ll receive your rewards after you successfully complete one game. There’ll be a number of missions in your mission pane that will remind you when you login.