League of Legends has been stepping in a lot of mud these past few months, but now Riot is acknowledging its mistakes and committing to walking back some of the game's most controversial changes.
In a new dev video update and accompanying blog post, League Studios' Andrei Van Roon and Paul Bellezza addresses several elephants in the room. "We know that some of you are frustrated—even questioning if Riot is still the company you’ve always known," reads the blog. "We aspire to put players first, and when our decisions don’t land the way we intended, it can damage your trust.
"Recently, we’ve made a number of changes that didn’t hit the mark for everyone. We’ve been listening to your feedback, and it’s clear that there are areas where we need to adjust."
Chiefly, Hextech Chests, which had been used as a way to get free stuff before being removed earlier in the year, are now coming back. Starting next week with Act 2, players will again be able to earn Hextech Chests by playing the game, but there will be a limit of 10 chests and keys per Act. Eight will be spread out through the free seasonal pass, while the other two will be earnable through the game's Honor system, which rewards and punishes players based on their in and out of-game behavior.
The nerfing of Honor rewards was another recent League change that really, really didn't go down well with players, and while Riot says it's "working on" the system, no specific changes were revealed today.
The introduction of the new Exalted skin tier in October, which locks the game's most premium skins behind a very expensive gacha system, is yet another recent change that sent League players reeling. One particular pain point is the upcoming Sahn Uzal Mordekaiser Exalted skin, which many players felt lacked in quality even compared to much more affordable skins. It's now being delayed so that Riot can "ensure it better delivers on its core fantasy."
Riot also says it's "taking more time to improve all future Exalted skins," which suggests there probably won't be a new one in every Act as originally planned.
Finally, Riot addressed the latest season's changes to the Blue Essence grind, which, you guessed it, people didn't like very much. Starting with Act 2, the Blue Essence cost will be lowered by 50% for all champions, making it a lot easier to unlock new champions for free.
Those are the big highlights, but some smaller changes in response to player feedback include the return of Your Shop in Patch 25.6 and the Blue Essence Emporium in Patch 25.7, and the tournament queue Clash going back to a monthly cadence. Finally, one of the non-Prestige skins on the paid seasonal pass will be replaced with 25 Mythic Essence.
While these changes aren't likely to entirely fix what's become a pretty messy situation, Riot hopes it's a good first step: "We’ll keep tracking how these changes feel, talking with all of you about how things are landing, and making adjustments. We’ve always built League along with all you, the community. Thank you for sticking with us and hearing us out, and we look forward to continuing to work with you to make sure League is the best game it can be."
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