Riot Increases Diversity in J4, Lee Sin, Vi Skins

Riot Games publicly released Patch 4.20 on November 29, 2014, and with it came blazing changes to how junglers farm, gank, itemize, and get screwed over by their laners. Now, almost three months later, Riot Games has been incredibly pleased with how the new changes have improved Strategic Diversity, offering junglers many varied and tactical paths to victory in choosing which Jarvan IV, Lee Sin, or Vi skin they want to bring onto Summoner’s Rift.

“Combined, Lee Sin, Vi, and Jarvan IV offer a whopping 18 different cosmetic options, but a major problem in Season 4 was that we saw the same three base skins repeated over and over, even in high-level professional play” stated Balance Team member Ryan ‘Morello’ Scott. “I mean, we pay them twelve-thousand goddamn dollars a split, so you’d think they could do a little advertising.”

Another major problem Riot faced with previous seasons was that the very design of the jungle forced players to make suboptimal and ambiguous choices, such as not picking Vi, Jarvan IV, or Lee Sin. With the Season 5 jungle changes, Riot has made it very clear what choices a jungler needs to make in order to win the game.

“One side benefit was that new jungle is now very accessible to players of all experiences,” said Patrick ‘Scarizard’ Scarborough. “Commando Jarvan, priced at an accessible 520 RP, is perfect for newer League players, while Warring Kingdoms Jarvan is better suited for more experienced wallets.”

“I mean, players,” Scarizard added.

Many players, especially on the official forums and /r/leagueoflegends, voiced their doubts about the changes during their daily Two Minutes of Riot Hate.

“I miss Season 2’s jungle dynamics,” reminisced nostalgic /r/lol user remember_the_ayy_lmao. “Back then, almost any champion could jungle, as they all died just the same without items.”

“I prefered Season 3’s Spirit Stone item paths,” added user BlueFive. “It really helped diversity in the top and bot lane with the introduction of Vlad and Blue Ezreal, and I heard it might have even changed jungling or something.”

At the time of writing, Riot’s Balance Team was working hard at rebalancing Rek’sai and Gnar, as soon as the intern had finished counting all the different mechanics.