League of Legends Vision Changes in 5.23 - How To Handle It?

Hey lads. Today our LoL elo boost team is bringing you another article about our favourite topic: the preseason, specifically the vision changes.

Everybody is trying to figure out what are the best masteries to pick (cough Thunderlord’s Decree cough) and the optimal build paths, but many players don’t give enough importance to the vision changes. The green wards were removed from the shop, the trinket system changed dramatically, there is a new sightstone and a new neutral objective, the Rift Herald, that needs to be controlled. So let’s analyze how the new vision game will work!

RIP Stealth Ward, You Will Be Missed

I’m gonna be honest, this is my least favorite change. The Stealth Ward, our green invisible friend was removed from the shop, and now can only be placed by the yellow trinket or the sightstone upgrades. According to our LoL boost team, this has a lot of consequences.

First of all, losing a ward in lane can get you in trouble, since you won’t be able to replace it for a long time, so pink wards are way more important especially in the top lane. On the other hand, having access to two charges from the start implies that you can get more vision early, at the cost of being blind for a long period of time.

Secondly, many solo laners won’t get the red trinket any longer. Denying vision is important, but according to our elo boost team having vision yourself is even more crucial, especially if you are behind. Vision wards are not enough to secure the vision for a whole team, so vision denial will be sacrificed. The blue trinket offers a nice alternative, but it places visible wards that are really easy to spot and remove.

Third, the meta will slowly change. Soon or later you will see different champions dominate our LoL tier list, especially poke based heroes. We recently had Ziggs buffs, and since this meta is all about snowballing and taking turrets as soon as possible we will see more poke oriented comps. The removal of green wards means that it’s gonna be easier to abuse the loss of vision and the fog of war to sneakily land your poke abilities.

A New Queen: The Vision Ward.

The removal of the Stealth Ward encourages summoners to buy Vision Wards more often, especially if you consider that their price has been reduced to 75 gold from 100. This means that it’s really worth using them as a cheap “one time only red trinket”. We expect them to become the most reliable source of vision denial, especially in the solo queue where you can’t expect to always have a support that wards properly: during their duo queue boost sessions, our boosters always advised to carry a single vision ward in your inventory, even if you already have placed one.

Another reason is that potions are more expensive, so instead of buying three pots you may as well get only one and wait a few seconds for a vision ward. On the other hand, if you decided to pick up a refillable potion, you won’t have anything to spend your spare gold.. except for the pink ward. So do yourself a favour, listen to our LoL boost team and get them!

Who Is The Rift Herald, And What Does He Do?

Now the top lane will see more presence during the early game. Before the changes, the bot lane used to get most of the jungler love because of dragon control: nowadays the dragon buffs are worth almost nothing (except the first) since the games are so snowbally and ends way before you have the opportunity to get five stacks.

Now we have a new neutral objective, the Rift Herald, living in the Baron Pit before Nashor himself spawns: that’s a good reason for your jungler to come top lane, for the joy of Sion, but also a good reason to get vision control around that area via stealth wards or Scuttle Crab. This new friend hits really hard, so if you see the enemies trying to kill him go there and ruin their party. According to our elo boost team, the buff is also extremely important since it gives you an incredible pushing power in the early game, allowing you to get more gold for your team and snowball the game.

Remember that now your jungler can upgrade his Machete to the Tracker's Knife, an upgrade that doesn’t change your smite but allows you to place stealth wards. This means that we will see more Lee Sin flying around the map, but also that junglers will be able to deny visions with the red trinket while also providing a few wards for their team. One of the most common mistakes we see in our duo queue boost sessions are about Tracker's Knife and the Sightstone. Many junglers like to build both items, but their passive, Warding, does not stack so you don’t get additional wards, as it is “unique”.

So don’t get fooled and get only one of those!

The Sightstone, Revamped

Finally, Riot decided to change the Sightstone. This item used to be a cheap must-have for supports in the early game and for “supporting” junglers, especially in competitive, but it resulted in almost a wasted slot in the late game, since it was not providing combat stats except for a low amount of health. Now with the new upgrades it feels more like a complete item giving real stats.

These three new upgrades will replace the tier three support items. Sadly, the Talisman upgrade is really really weak, but on the other hand, the Face of the Mountain and Frost Queen’s Claim upgrades are really powerful and definitely worth picking, so we can expect a rise of different supports in our LoL tier list. Before you ask it, no, the Talisman upgrade being bad is not enough to balance Soraka. Sadly.

Let’s not forget that the Ruby Sightstone was changed as well: to compensate for the nerfs, it now gives a 10% cooldown reduction to active items. It’s not a lot, and definitely it’s not comparable to the other sightstone upgrades, but it’s something. Hopefully, it will be buffed soon to be as slot efficient as the other options.

Finally, we know that the preseason is a scary moment and you are all confused. Hopefully, we helped you understand the vision changes: like it or not, that’s how it works now, and you should take advantage of the new system. Let’s be honest, having 20 wards on the map like in season three wasn’t the best, right?

This ends our articles. Check back our site in the next days for more content!