League of Legends' Early Game Is Changing to Help Invaders

Invasions at the start of League of Legends matches will likely become more common after the early-game phase is adjusted to benefit invaders.

The longer speed boost that players get when they first leave their base at the beginning of each match already contributes to invasions by allowing those hungry for conflict to get into position quicker. This change was added several patches ago so that minions could spawn quicker without impacting players' early-game invade potential, as Riot Meddler first mentioned in his Gameplay Thoughts post.

"We'll be doing some tuning to the start of game speed boost in an upcoming patch, probably 8.7," Riot Meddler said. "Back in pre-season we increased its speed significantly so that we could reduce time until minions spawn without cutting into invade times too much."

While Riot Meddler added that the change has worked overall, he pointed out that defenders get an advantage over invaders when it comes to stopping the invades before they occur. By the time invaders take their position in the river or cross the line into enemy territory, their speed boost has mostly run out while defenders still have theirs active. This allows for defenders to make a speedy exit, but that'll change soon.

"That's worked well overall, the exact implementation can be a bit too punishing for aggressors though, given they'll sometimes be trying to chase down defenders who haven't yet entered the river and so still have the large speed boost themselves. Looking at adjusting things a bit as a result so defensive positions aren't rewarded quite as much. That's likely to look something like removing the speed after passing the outer towers (instead of the river), reducing the speed buff duration a bit, or making the speed boost start higher but decay."

For team compositions that bring a heavy amount of early game crowd control without sacrificing lane pressure – Braum, Swain, Blitzcrank, and other come to mind – this change should make the early game much more eventful. Riot Meddler responded to another comment elsewhere in the post when a user brought up the Homestart buff and how it doesn't apply to players that join the game later. When asked if it could be added as a buff until players leave the fountain, Riot Meddler added that it was a possibility as long as it didn't apply every time someone leaves the base.

"Hmm, that seems reasonable, assuming it's still a one time thing (not getting it again if you go out, invade, recall)," Riot Meddler said. "I'll pass that on, thanks!"

The changes are expected to be released in Patch 8.7 if Riot Games follows through with the plans, but look for the changes on the PBE first.