I'm very sorry to say this but....

I think this pre-season won't be as exciting as the last 2 years. Ye we got new assassins wich is very good, some new items here and there and... plants. Now, i don't want thsi to sound like a rant because it isn't, i still like all the changes, but i have to be honest, and i feel some of them missed the mark.

1. Let's start with the new thing on the rift: Plants. Well that sounds pretty generic in itself, but i have tried these things on the PBE. They are okay. But that's it. From what i read Riot kinda want to give us more "point of contestion" on the map: i like that, but plants are really not something players will fight over for, or risk soemthing to gain control of. They are small little bonuses that are nice to have, but nothing else. So if the point was to have more options to play the map or get objectives and stuff like that, i cannot see PLants helping too much with it.

2. Rift Herald: This dude has a great concept, but it's still in that akwars spots where really no one is going to contest someone else taking rift herald. Mainly because you can only kill him when you have a clear advantage on the top side, and still it cost too much time and health. The buff is okay, but not game changing. So it's already very rare to see in solo queue someoen acutally risking something to take it down, but it's even more rare that the enemy team do something to contest it. But isn't Rift Herald supposed to be a big Objective in the map? That's what his purpose his, balance the map out, so we have a big objective on the top side in contrast to dragons. How to make it feel special? I'd suggest that the earlier you take the herald in the game, th more duration on the buf you have. This would encourage people to try contest it earlier, because killing it early= Veyr long buff. He would definetly need to be a little bit less durable and do a little bit less damage, because right now is still a bit too strong, and takes away too much health and time to contest. And you have to make this buff counts more. I don't want ti to be game breaking of course, but it has to be impactful somehow, otherwise no one will bother to cotnest this objective.

3. Supports still have quite a bit of gameplay related long-term problems: I like having finally some more map imapcting items for supports, something that make you say "oh yes, i can finally show soemthing of improtant here, not be jsut like an aura bot, or a ward bot". But overall i still think Supports have an avalanche of problems. The mere fact that as support, players have to be penalized in gold and experience makes no sense to me. You have to balance this thing out. IF you think supports are unbalanced with full experience or gold, then do soemthing to make them balanced. It's really discouraging (especially for new players) to play the support role overall just because of that fact alone. Riot said the vision should be a team, a global effort. Guess what? It isn't. As long as this **** Sighstone is in the game it will never be. TRINEKTS SHOULD BE ALL THE TOOLS WE NEED FOR VISIOn (with some tweaks). Supports are FORCED to buy this item, that does nothing special, and just take up 1 slot of your inventory. SO vision needs to be a global thig. I'm tired as fuck honestly of me playing support buying 10 pink wards in each game, and my adc buying 1 at best. Over the years players became accustomed to the fact that Support in a moba game = getting vision and no kills. IT's NOT TRUE. That's not what support means. The support role means so much more than that. Supports are the playmaking champions and the solid spine of the team. If you get out of position and you need a help, that's when support shines. When you find a good opening to start a big teamfight, that's when supports shine. Not by placing fking wards. THat's the least important thing (and the most boring as well). Okay this was a rant. (i'm support main, can you blame me?)

4. Masteries: Well i really hoped this season they would expand on the new mastery system we got last year... but that's not the case apparently. Ye we got some changes here and there. But nothing new, not nearly enough new choices. This system needs some more love. IT's still a bunch of passives with the only interesting thing being the keystone masteries, and like i said, those are not nearly enough to say "ummm i have this big pool o Keystones to choose from , what do i choose?". So i think it's mandatory the fact that you have to work on those (considering how big of a part they have in the game as well) Also there are some masteries that are so specific they leave you with no choices (like Windspeaker on some supports, or Deathfire touch on some mages etc...)

5. Still not a word on Aatrox I heard people saying he was going on to take some changes in the pre season... Where are those? He literally wins the award for the most neglected champion in history. I literally saw more Galios, Warwicks and such in my games and i cannot remember the last time i saw an Aatrox be played. It's so sad considering he is a relatively recent champion and he is so badass looking. So i would love to hear a red comment on these VALID concerns. Some of you may disagree with me, but iìm pretty sure many others agree as well.