My feedback for Preseason 8 (so far)

Hey this is probably my first time posting here (hopefully this is the right section), I'm just gonna put my thoughts of the Preseason changes so far as feedback.

RUNES

> We’re combining runes and masteries into a single, streamlined system that you can use to adapt and customize your playstyle in champ select. Runes Reforged concentrates your pre-game power into a focused set of options, so every choice matters more. All 60 of the new runes are free.

The new rune system is pretty great, I'm glad riot gave us some random legendary(?) skins for our rp rune page purchases considering one rune page works for everything now (which is a good thing). The majority of the runes feel impactful, some of them are weird like glacial augment and guardian (still not sure what this does) but for the most part they all feel great and live up to or surpass their keystone counterparts.

I don't like that you can't delete the preset pages as it makes looking for your own pages kind of clunky. I also don't like how the editor closes in champion select at times, its very annoying and it sets you back to a previous page so you have to look for it again and then change it. Overall the runes are pretty broken ingame too but I'm sure balance patches will come in due time.

Leveling beyond 30

> We're removing the level 30 cap, and the new cap is… infinity! We're also replacing the IP grind with a revamped rewards system that levels up with you.

This change seems like something pretty unnecessary, but since runes aren't restricted by level I guess it's fine. I'm pretty neutral on this but a progress tracker outside of rank is probably nice especially for more casual players.

Loot from leveling up

> Instead of getting IP after every game, you'll receive an unlocked chest each time you level up. Capsules contain champ shards and blue essence, and if you hit special milestone levels, you'll earn special rewards like gemstones or rare emotes.

I think this is pretty good with the uncapped leveling to make it rewarding outside of just being a number. I like the milestones too because after awhile champ shards are useless.

Blue essence and IP

> To tie all these changes together, we're connecting the leveling and loot systems by merging IP and blue essence. The newer, bluer essence will work in all the places IP and BE worked before, including loot and the champion store. And everything in the store will cost the same as it did in the old, IP-based system—for example, it'll be 6300 BE for a newer champ like Kayn.

This in itself is pretty whatever. It makes sense making it one currency.

Veteran Rewards

> You've put in serious hours on the Rift. Show off your veteran status with an exclusive emote. The more you've played, the better your emote will be.

This is whatever too, but in a good way.

Essence Emporium

> The transition will leave some of you with more blue essence than you know what to do with, so we've got something extra planned. At the start of Preseason, after converting your IP into blue essence, we'll open up a limited-time blue essence store. You’ll be able to purchase things like ward skins, chromas, and (especially for veterans) a few super-rare items like the URFWick skin.

A one time IP sink, something long time players have wanted for awhile. I don't know if this is satisfactory to them because I could only afford a gemstone and some icons / wards but I liked it.

Other things

Some things I noticed that I'm really not a big fan of mostly involve blue essence. I was farming champion shards for poppy to try and get her to level 6, and when I finally got them, I didn't have enough blue essence (it costs 3250, I had 540ish). No problem. I've leveled up twice already so I'll disenchant my champion shards because I own all of them anyway. 5 disenchants later I only have 2101. I'm pretty sure riot said the ip (blue essence) gain was better than before, so does it cost more to get a champion mastery up I guess? I'm not sure how many level ups 3250 BE is, but to get 7 you also need 3900 BE, so you probably have to level up a decent amount just to get a champion mastery up, which I don't really like. It's not satisfying. Maybe Riot intends for you to have the champion shard, but this bothers me.

I've also heard some complaints about the Blue essence gains not living up to what Riot said, but since I didn't do the math or play enough to truly tell, I'll have no comment for now.

Lastly I really don't like that the only way to get blue essence is from a whole level up. Imagine a scenario where you are 1-10 blue essence away from something. You could 20 games just to get a few blue essence. I think it would be nice to get some blue essence per game like we had before in addition, it can even be a small amount.