League of Legends Removes a Starting Trinket

The newest League of Legends patch takes one of the game's most popular starting trinkets out of the equation by permanently removing it from the store.

League of Legends patches don't always deal with trinkets, but Patch 8.8 will remove the Sweeping Lens from the store, the Red Trinket for those who know it better that way. The patch notes that have just been released informed players that they should no longer look for the item in the game's store while explaining why it's being completely removed.

"The decision-making surrounding trinket swaps is currently a bit more complicated than it needs to be," the patch notes read. "By making swaps more consistent and decreasing the number of potential swaps, we're hoping to make the gains from those swaps more clear."

With the Red Trinket being removed after the patch is released, the level requirement for the upgraded version, Oracle Alteration, is being decreased. Instead of being available at level 9 like it currently is, it'll be available right from the start of the game at level 1. This means that those who opt for the ward-clearing trinkets early won't be able to cast their trinket at range like the Sweeping Lens allowed, but they'll still have the ability to clear wards and other unseen traps with Oracle Alteration.

The idea of removing the Sweeping Lens from the store and making Oracle Alteration available from the beginning was first discussed nearly three weeks ago when Riot Meddler brought up the potential change in a Gameplay Thoughts post. The Rioter said that some trinket adjustments would most likely appear in Patch 8.8 and explained what Riot had in mind.

"At the least we'll be making it so Oracle's is available from level 1 instead of Sweeping Lens," Riot Meddler said. "Original reason to not to that was concern at how much lane brush control it would offer, we believe we can address that by having the Oracle's duration scale by level. Also considering some other possible things, including yellow trinket wards having a longer lifespan and longer CD (give a longer period of safety when you do use them, need to be a bit more deliberate about when that is however)."

The Yellow Trinket change didn't make it through to this patch, but another trinket change did.

Trinket Swap Rules

• SAME COOLDOWN: Swapping from one trinket to another now retains the same percentage cooldown as the previous one, rather than resetting to a 120 second cooldown

The removal of the starting Ret Trinket will occur when Patch 8.8 goes live.