Riot Explains Critical Strike Changes Coming To League 2021 Preseason
Can you hear that? It's the winds of change of coming to League of Legends ahead of the 2021 preseason. Alongside an already promised item overhaul, we're about to see some major changes to Critical Strike. Fans were already warned the item shop would be reworked "from top to bottom", but when it comes to Critical Strike, the changes will be some of the most noticeable.
Although all eyes are on the upcoming League of Legends World Championship, it's important to remember Season 11 is also just over the horizon. According to Lead Gameplay Designer Mark "Scruffy" Yetter, Critical Strike is being scaled back from 200 to 175 on LoL's Public Better Environment. The idea is that power will be pulled from "super late game crit builds" in favour of "more upfront stats" including attack damage and speed.
Critics have complained about "crits" for years now. The problem is a game can be won or lost based on a late-entry crit - which hardly seems fair. With the removal of dodge, others have argued that crit should've gone the same way. The latest update isn't quite there, but at least it shows Riot is listening to its players.
The change will pre-emptively come into play on Champions including Yasuo, Yone, and Tryndamere. It hopes to ensure they have a "similar power to live” and also “dynamic choices in the systems” without having the need to go over 100% crit. When it comes to non-crit, Yetter added, "These choices become new options at second or third items, because they wouldn’t derail your damage per second completely. We will be making sure non-crit champs also have access to items with similar niches".
Click to enlargeAcross the board, the chance of a critical strike per item has been nerfed from 25% to 20%. It's good news for those who've continued to fly the flag for a crit nerf, however, it's bad for those who roll the dice and hope to use Critical Strike as a last-chance saloon. Elsewhere, there was a promise more changes would be added to the PBE over the coming weeks. Riot is spacing things out to avoid "overloading" gamers with everything at once. Yetter couldn't give an exact date, but said everything is expected to go live in the 11.1 patch.
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