Ascension Is Returning to League of Legends With Some Changes

The power-filled League of Legends game mode known as Ascension is coming back to the new client soon, but it'll have several changes accompanying it.

While the rotating game modes usually involve players employing some unique strategies with the new rules, some plans were being used in Ascension that weren't very healthy to the game mode. Keeping an Ascended champion on your team is vital to winning, but that necessity occasionally led to players avoiding combat in order to keep the buff.

"This time around, we wanted to take a pass at addressing the 'Pacifist' strategy from our last visit to the Crystal Scar," Riot Bazaam said. "To be clear, we are not in the business of dictating strategies on RGMs... that being said, we are not thrilled with gameplay that results in 5 players being held hostage for 50 minutes."

To work on the pacifist issue that's worked its way into Ascension in the past, the following changes are being made:

• Players now have access empowered recall throughout the game, so take a break from the action and head back to base to grab some fancy new items.
• Empowered recall is disabled for Ascended characters.
• If you somehow manage to get back to base while you are Ascended (here's looking at you Pantheon) you will be stripped of the Ascension buff and Xerath will respawn as normal as if you died while ascended.

And with the rollout of Ascension in Patch 7.22, another even bigger changes is coming: The Runes Reforged update. These new runes will also lead to the creation of some interesting strategies in League within the rotating game modes, but some of them don't make much sense in Ascension. Minion Dematerializer, for example, poofs away minions, a rune that would serve no purpose in this game mode. For those of you who have been keeping up with the runes, below are the rune swaps that are coming:

• Waterwalking -> Scorch
• Zombie Ward -> Ghost Poro
• Minion Dematerializer -> Future's Market
• Kleptomancy -> Glacial Augment
• Demolish -> Font of Life

The game mode is now available for testing on the PBE, so check out the changes and get prepared for the full release in Patch 7.22.