With season three around the corner, RIOT has been foreshadowing a lot of changes. One of those is the addition of more support-centred items, though specifics were still vague. Morello hinted at the mastery changes once again, saying that they are adding “alternate ways to get gold (cool new mastery for supports inc...).” However, he was quick to stress that “zero CS” supports are fine, and, in fact, have been the optimal way to play support forever.
Another thing that RIOT is looking at changing, though, is the standardisation of item builds. Morello said that they are looking to upset the normal “everyone starts boots/pots” situation. He also replied to a forum post about on-hit/attack speed builds, saying “we're trying to make that a viable build.”
Speaking of item builds, Statikk chimed in on some planned jungle changes, which will also necessitate new builds. “The current dominant jungle strategy (GP10 Support / Tanks) is fairly stagnant,” he wrote. “The approach we're currently taking is to significantly increase the rewards of jungle camps over time “ He went on to say that RIOT wants to reward junglers who build for combat, not just supporting and tanking.
Looking forward, he said that they want to improve the viability of sustain junglers. “We aren't going all the way back to the extreme of the old jungle where you would just get crushed unless you were Warwick,” wrote Statikk. “We do feel there is a happy medium between Season 1 and Season 2 jungle.” Finally, he mentioned that the jungle creeps will be beefed up and there will be new items to compensate for the difficulty:
“The biggest difference here though is that we will be offering itemization that will help champions who need that extra boost in the jungle. Champions who are already super strong in the jungle may opt to not build these items, but it's pretty interesting to see what new junglers may become viable with these new items."
Will we see a big return of Wriggle’s Lantern, or will the new items do their job? Either way, season three looks like it will change things up considerably.
