Vision and Support QoL Changes for Season 7

Vision:

Trinket system reworked

• Overall trinket recharge rates increased slightly over time.

• "Primary" trinket runs on 2 separate charges: Stealth Ward (green) charges and Vision Ward (pink) charges. This single slot holds both types of wards. Stealth Wards are placed by pressing the "4" key (default) while the Vision Ward is placed by pressing the same key twice in rapid succession.

• Primary trinket icon shows the current number of charges of each ward type in the top right and bottom right corners of the icon as well as clear charge time indicators for both ward types.

• Vision Wards recharge much more slowly than Stealth Wards. Stealth Wards have a max of 2 charges until 20 minutes and then are automatically upgraded to hold a maximum of 3 charges but the Vision Ward remains at a single maximum charge.

• This trinket is permanent and cannot be sold or replaced.

• Players will start with one charge of a Stealth Ward at the beginning of the game. The Vision Ward begins the game on cooldown and will become available at the 3:00 mark.

• A secondary trinket slot is added that can be allowed to hold either a Scrying Orb (blue trinket), Oracle's Lens (red trinket), or a Vision Totem (pink ward trinket).

• Secondary trinket items are available to pick up at the shop immediately but will be locked until 7:00.

• All trinkets are still completely free, and can be swapped for no cost. However, changing a trinket will disable all trinket-use for 90 seconds even if another trinket is purchased, regardless of its type.

• Oracle's Lens reworked to function the same as the current Oracle Alteration.

• Players may only have a single blue ward placed per player but this ward still does not count toward the maximum ward limit and still cannot be targeted by teammates for interactions such as ward hopping.

• Farsight Wards placed from the Scrying Orb now last one minute.

Sightstone and upgraded Sightstone items: Removed.

Supports have been consistently underappreciated as a class while also consistently being the least appealing class for many, many players. Sightstone is a major reason behind this lack of fun and appreciation of the support class as the item does not feel strong or rewarding even when it is (It's in a similar spot to auras). Second, Sightstone heavily skews the design philosophy of warding being a team effort by giving the Sightstone purchaser (the support) significantly more vision power than the other players by giving them wards that lasted 3 minutes right away as well as the freedom to then buy vision clearing tools alongside it. With the above changes everyone can now participate equally in the battle for vision as everyone has immediate access to the same primary warding items as well as strategic secondary warding items. Gold also becomes a non-factor to vision, so there's no inherent advantage for teams who are ahead and no excuse for teams who are behind! We want the most gold-starved class to be able to express themselves in more unique ways besides warding and giving them more freedom to choose how to support their team and freeing up their primary burden should let them do that and make the support role a more enjoyable class to more players.

• Reminder: trinket recharge rates have been increased as the game progresses to compensate overall map vision (or lack thereof).

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FAQ (thought of these before you asked)

Q: Why combine Stealth Wards and Vision Wards in one slot? A: As the game progresses item slots become more and more scarce. Vision naturally suffers in the very late game when teams will almost always have to choose items over vision. This should effectively solve this problem.

Q: I think I clicked the primary trinket key twice quickly enough to get a Vision Ward instead of a Stealth Ward, but how can I be sure? A: Holding the trinket key down to display the ward placement cursor now reflects which type of ward you have selected for clarity (single press = green cursor = Stealth Ward, double press = pink cursor = Vision Ward). If you didn't get it then click away like you normally would.

Q: If I can have a Vision Ward from my primary trinket and one from my secondary trinket slot at the same time, does that mean that I can have two Vision Wards placed at the same time? A: No, Vision Wards remain at the current 1 Vision Ward on the field per-player system as we have now.

Q: If I can only have a single Vision Ward on the map at a time why would I bother getting the Vision Totem to fill my secondary trinket slot? A: There are multiple reasons why you'd still choose to purchase that second Vision Ward. Vision Wards from the primary trinket charge up pretty slowly and so you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot wait to get one naturally. Vision Wards also provide excellent territory-claiming potential with their natural true sight and you may need to attempt to reclaim that territory after your first Vision Ward has been destroyed or to spot that Twitch who could be sneaking around for a flank.

Q: Why do we only get Vision Wards at the 3:00 mark when we get Stealth Wards immediately? A: We like the current general lack of vision at the start of the game. Clever and timely scouting are key early game before vision wars start taking place around mid game. We also don't want to impede junglers too much with the added vision but also give players the necessary precautions to defend against stealth champions early as well as create more skirmishes between competing teams.

Q: Why are secondary trinkets only usable at 7:00 but I can still get them at the beginning of the game? A: Too much vision and/or vision denial in the early game can lead to heavier snowballing, uninteresting games, and interfere with the laning phase too much. In order to preserve enough of the early game as possible we decided 7:00 would be an okay point to allow the vision game to start stepping up a bit. The items are obtainable from the start so everyone isn't forced to back at 7:00 to purchase their other vision items and can instead get right into phase 2 of the vision game.

Q: Why don't secondary trinkets become available at level 9 or something like they do now? A: Not everyone is going to hit level 9 at the same time. We don't want to give a greater lead to teams or players who are already ahead as it is. Just like how everyone knows Baron Nashor spawns at 20:00, everyone should know and be ready for secondary trinkets to become available at 7:00 for both teams.

Q: Do secondary trinkets still have alterations that can be upgraded? A: No. Trinkets still scale in effectiveness by game length but the 3 secondary trinkets you have to choose from are effective enough to be distinct and offer strategic diversity. This also makes the trinkets easier to balance

Q: Why remove Sightstone if it's been such a staple item for so long? A: We want to make the support role a more appealing role for players as well as better balance the balance of warding between classes. Sightstone ended up being a key obstacle for both of these goals.

Q: How will removing Sightstone make supporting more fun? A: Supports spend a lot of their time in lane accumulating gold at a slower rate than other classes while also trying to contribute throughout the game. Currently, purchasing a Sightstone sets supports back since it gives only health as a stat and further inhibits their income by slowing the development of their gold-income items. Giving supports more freedom with their gold allows them to purchase more than just the same few items in an average game and further express their supporting style with more unique purchases.

Q: Why not add other versions of Sightstone? Like one that grants ability power? A: We thought of this but decided the vision game was still being too skewed toward supports instead of toward the entire team while also not fixing the problem of supports having very stagnant builds due to lower income and "must buy" items.

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