League of Legends: March Dev Talk Highlights - Summary

The Riot team came together for the League of Legends Dev talk in March. While it may not be filled with new features like the one at the start of Season 14, there's plenty to unpack. The changes primarily revolve around Ranked, Practice Bots, and Skins. Here's a short summary of the LoL Dev Talk:

Ranked Changes

We've previously addressed issues concerning negative LP here. Check out the article for more information. Here's a summary:

• Almost half of all Emerald players found themselves experiencing negative LP gains last season, with 85% in Master+. Riot has fixed this, significantly reducing the number to around 5%.
• This season, Ranked climbing should feel more consistent following some adjustments, particularly regarding smaller LP gains. This makes both climbing and demoting easier.
• Riot addressed the issue of placing new players in Gold or Plat. This is a well-known problem in the community.
• The Riot team continues to work on better distinguishing smurfs from new players, an ongoing concern, especially in low elo, where skilled players create secondary accounts to play at a lower rank.

Vanguard Release Date

League of Legends' version of Vanguard, the anti-cheat system, is currently undergoing customization and updates. It will specifically target cheaters, scripters, and bots in LoL. This might be good news for the modding community. 

Riot will develop a roll-out method to test Vanguard's impact on players, initially releasing the system in one region.

• The global release date for Vanguard is set for April 2024.

New and Improved Bots:

League of Legends will introduce new practice bots in patch 14.6. Co-op versus AI will offer Intro, Beginner, and Advanced queues, making bots feel more like real players. Riot is also announcing the following changes:

• Over 80 fixed bugs have been addressed.
• Better overall stability and performance of practice bots.
• Better itemization, movement, and combat for the bots, providing a more realistic and challenging experience.
• Bots will now use environmental plants like Blast Cone, Honeyfruit, and Scryer's Bloom.
• The starting bot champion pool is now bigger, offering players a wider variety of opponents to practice against and adapt their gameplay strategies.

Learn more about Co-op vs AI here.

New Prestige and Mythic Skins

Yummi and Leona Prestige skins will be released in July, following the launch of Evelynn and Kayle's Prestige skins in March.

A new Mythic Theme, Crystalis Indomitus, which offers a darker take on Crystalis Motus, will feature skins for Kha'Zix, Xerath, and Nautilus in March, July, and August, respectively. Read the full article detailing all upcoming skins here.

The March LoL dev talk introduces some intriguing changes. We'll observe how they unfold in the future and their impact on the League of Legends community.