Unhealthy Preseason Changes. That's the real meta.
No. This isn't another rant about how broken new kha'zix is. that's been well established. this is about how the real preseason changes affected the game overall. By real changes, I'm talking about gameplay and map updates, not champion or class ones.
Plants - W T F. I get it Riot. you realized that some of the buffs you got in s6 from smiting camps were a little unhealthy so you wanted to replace them with something else for junglers instead of just removing them, but here's the difference. in s6. smite buffs were just that. smite buffs. only junglers could use them. and it made junglers a lot more effective in vision control wars. especially after the previous change made to vision wards. but making plants usable by everyone just takes away a jungler specific tool and makes it an everyone tool. Scrying plant: redundant given that dewarding in s7 is easier than in any other season with control wards/sweeper trinkets/new duskblade passive. we don't need it. Blast cone: bullshit. a ridiculous gimmick that can be used by anyone to hop the wall to the most important buffs in the game. or just straight up escape an otherwise inescapable position. Forget the fact that it's a minor nerf to champions who can jump impassable terrain because now anyone can do it. Honeyfruit: Actually pointless for junglers, useful for everyone else I guess. I have the least problem with this plant. except what I said. its pointless for junglers it's actually just a buff to the lanes. junglers already have a built in heal on every smite now.
Control Wards: Okay. ill be the first to say it. what was wrong with pink wards? the system worked fine. I think the fact that control wards disable regular wards AND provide vision is stupid, but I'll ignore that for now and address the real issue. THEY DON'T REVEAL INVISIBLE CHAMPIONS. there is actually no way to properly reveal: Akali. Vayne: Talon. Wukong. KHA'ZIX. and a decent handful of other "short term" stealth champions. forget the fact that this doesn't make sense because they reveal wards(which are invisible). It's a massive buff to those listed champions because previously they could be countered by for thought and decent pink ward placement. This kind of indirect buff is stupid since a lot of assassins who use stealth just recently got directly buffed in the rework(Ahem KHA'ZIX). also low-key a massive buff to lee sin cuz now h can do what no ward can.
As a wrap-up note. don't mistake this post for just bashing riot for trying to change. What I'm legitimately looking for is good reasons why these changes are better than the previous system in place. And aren't just made because Riot felt like they have to change something every season or people get bored. I think some changes make sense and were necessary. For example, removing strength of the ages makes sense. The keystone wasn't a champion specific or situational benefit. it was just straight up more health on a champion. it wasn't even jungle specific.
All in all I am fairly disappointed in the preseason so far. Not because Riot didn't work hard. But because i feel like they didnt pay attention to the changes players are actually asking for. and leaving alone changes and systems made previously that were working fine.