Top 10 Things New Players Take for Granted

Some Things Never Change...Some Did

New players never got to experience some of the "fun" old things that players were privy to before League really refined themselves into the game they are today. There are still certainly complaints with the game because we all love complaining, but if some of this stuff was reverted...you'd be in for a treat!

Some Things Never Change...Some Did

New players never got to experience some of the "fun" old things that players were privy to before League really refined themselves into the game they are today. There are still certainly complaints with the game because we all love complaining, but if some of this stuff was reverted...you'd be in for a treat.

Flash Nerfs

Nearly every champion picks up Flash. However, it's been through its share of changes before it landed at  400 range and 300-second cooldown. At one point in time, it was all the way up to 1000 range and a measly 180-second cooldown. To compare, this is a little longer than Tristana's rocket jump and almost as long as Amumu's bandage...but instantaneous. Needless to say, the counterplay was low and Amumu was basically busted.

Jungle Minions

There was a point in time where if you picked anyone except for Warwick or Nunu in the jungle, you were basically trolling. Clearing jungle without a leash was almost impossible, and getting your blue or red stolen meant you'd be two levels behind the rest of the game.

Jungle Timers

One of the most controversial changes to the game was the addition of timers to jungle camps. Before this, players believed that the knowing timers was a major differentiation between good players and mediocre players. However, this also meant that if you didn't see exactly when the enemy jungler took a camp, you'd never know when it was coming up. This allowed junglers to snowball games without worry.

Oracle Changes

In the oldest version of the Oracle, it was a one-time use item that persisted until death. This allowed tanky junglers to sweep wards for free the entire game as long as they didn't die. When you add this to the fact that players didn't get a free ward trinket, let's just say the map was generally very...dark.

Free Runes

One of the most welcome changes in League history was the removal of the rune system. This old system meant you had to grind for hours and hours just to play a champion at a reasonable level. Worse, runes were also locked by level, making this less of a MOBA and more of an RPG. Nowadays, the game is much more beginner friendly and you can play new champions without grinding out another 100 games for the right runes.

Low Ping

Before the age of high-definition streaming and a centralized server, players regularly experienced ping of 70 to 150ms, meaning that Flashing certain skillshots was basically out of the question. In order to dodge some spells you'd need to anticipate it and truly predict. Now, you can mostly get by on reaction time and players complain when ping goes above 50 ms.

"Global" Spells

Other than Shen, Soraka, and Karthus, other champions used to have global spells as well. The worst offender by far was Twisted Fate, who actually had his teleport as a regular skill, not his ultimate. When you coupled that with his AOE gold card stun...well let's just say it wasn't pretty.

Meanwhile, Nocturne and Pantheon's globals also allowed them to gank from fountain for some extra low counterplay opportunity.

Dragon Diversity

Originally, killing Dragon simply net you a large amount of gold and experience. Some junglers even specialized at killing Dragon at level two and netting a huge amount of global gold and exp for their team. There also was no global announcement for when Dragon died, meaning it would just be a pleasant surprise when you noticed the enemy laner was up a level and half an item with even CS.

Free Wards

Players still complain when their team has low vision scores. However, when the game first started you'd see some games where not a single ward was purchased by any team, not even the support (not that support meta was really a thing). Meanwhile, even as we transitioned to sightstones, some support players opted out of building one completely. It wasn't until Riot gave everyone free ward trinkets that we started to see the map light up with some visibility.

Invisibility Counterplay

Invisibility mechanics have changed drastically over the years. Originally, Evelynn was a permanently invisible champion from level 1 and could follow enemies around burning them with Sunfire Cape. In fact, those were also the days before Unique items were part of the game, so you could stack Sunfire Capes for extra obnoxious damage.

What else has changed? Is there something that you wish Riot would bring back? Comment below!