Stealth, Vision and Assassination: The Pre-Season for League of Legends 2017
League of Legends pre-season is now live and one of the biggest change it introduces is the new stealth mechanic. Riot has decided to clearly define what “stealth” means, how it can be countered and, with a ton of changes to the assassin class, a more clearly-defined way to kill high-value targets.
Camouflage, Invisibility and Shimmer
Before Patch 6.22, stealth is loosely defined as “you can’t see me” and that was basically it. Now, Riot classifies stealth in two ways: camouflage and invisibility.
Camouflage is the longer version of stealth that is revealed by proximity to champions, turrets and the new Control Ward. Evelynn, Rengar and Twitch are some champions who utilize this mechanic.
Invisibility is the shorter and much stronger version, of stealth. Champions like Kha’Zix, Vayne and Talon are some of the champions who rely on this mechanic to get into position and kill their target.
Shimmer is also being introduced as a way of countering the new stealth system. Hitting an unseen champion (with a skillshot, an area-of-effect ability, etc) causes the air around them to shimmer, revealing their location for a very short moment.
Vision vs Control
With the rework of stealth, Vision Wards will be replaced by the new Control Wards.
Unlike their predecessor, Control Wards reveal camouflaged champions but not invisible ones. The “control” in their name also implies that they “control” the vision around them. Not only do they reveal nearby traps and Sight Wards, they actively disable them.
With that much power and control, Control Wards still have a weakness: they’re visible to the enemy team while disabling Sight Wards.
A New Way to Kill
All these changes happen alongside the assassin update and that isn’t a coincidence. The role of an assassin is to kill his target and stealth is one of the most effective ways of getting into kill range. It may mean Kha’Zix or Rengar bypassing wards, LeBlanc or Shaco confusing which way they went or Talon coming in from a surprising angle and killing you before you even know what happened.
The pre-season is Riot’s time to go crazy and to try out exciting new things. Be sure to read the patch notes before heading to The Rift as all these changes, and a ton more, are now live.
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