Some cool stuff happening in League
- Summoner Spell variety
Not too long ago, summoner spells were consistent across the board: top Teleport, jungle Smite, bot Heal/Exhaust, maybe Ignite if the support had kill pressure. Mid laners were the only role with any real choice about their spells, and it was still hard to justify taking anything besides a second Teleport.
Now you see bot lanes with Barrier/Heal, Cleanse/Heal, Heal/Exhaust, Heal/Ignite...all kinds of crazy shit. Top laners can justify combat spells like Ignite and Exhaust because it lets them control their lane and match the pressure of bot in this meta. Mid is a real free for all, with Teleport, Ghost, Exhaust, Heal, and Cleanse all being viable options depending on the enemy comp.
Flash is as dominant as ever, but it makes the game more interesting and should probably stay that way. Hextech Flashtraption will make shit even crazier.
- Supports don't rush Sightstone every game
This is one upside of the Ardent/botlane meta. Supports can justify itemizing power over vision, because winning lane is so important and they have great first purchases like Ardent Censer, Redemption, Knight's Vow, Zeke's Convergence, etc. etc. The reworked trinket system and addition of Control Wards actually gives bot lane decent vision control of their own lane, so Supports can delay Sightstone until midgame when the map opens up more.
- More varied objective play
For a while, winning lanes just slowly pressured their towers until someone won a fight bot, then the winning team took dragon. Now that we have a first tower bonus, different dragon buffs, and a Rift Herald worth taking, there's a lot more decisions to make. Junglers can play around the top or bottom of the map depending on winning lane matchups, the value of the first dragon versus the Rift Herald, or the value of either of them versus first tower gold. Laners also have more incentive to rotate early in the game and secure first tower, even at the cost of their own tower.
Just sayin'. This game is better than it was a year ago.