Some League of Legends Roles Will Earn Less XP in the Preseason

League of Legends players who try out the preseason changes on the PBE next week will find that their preferred role might be earning in-game experience a bit slower than before. Riot Games is moving forward with plans to reduce the rate at which experience is gained in the bottom lane and in the jungle which means that three different roles will take a bit longer to level up during matches. Conversely, champions who thrive in solo lanes in the middle and top of the map will find themselves leveling up quicker.

The adjustments to experience gained in these roles is something that's usually restricted only to the jungle as camps like the Krugs, Gromp, and Raptors are commonly tweaked during the preseason and at other times. It just so happens that this preseason will affect more roles than just the jungle though with experience gains being adjusted across every position.

A post on the League of Legends boards from Riot's design director Riot Meddler gave a preview of what these changes will look like once the massive preseason update goes live. Those in the solo lanes should expect around a 2 percent increase in the experience gained while those in the bottom lane and jungle will see a 2.4 percent and 4 percent decrease, respectively.

"As discussed we're taking some XP out of duo lanes and the jungle, then adding a bit to solo lanes," Riot Meddler said. "We're not going for a huge swing there though. Solo lanes are up 2%, duo lanes are down 2.4% and jungle is down up to 4% (less if you're getting catch up XP, so hard to quantify as exactly). We've kept level 2 breakpoints the same for both solo and duo lanes, so no one will need to relearn those. Jungle pathing should also be a bit more flexible, with XP removed from Krugs and added to Gromp to open up pathing more."

While the change isn't a massive redistribution of experience, it'll take some getting used to when you're not hitting your third or fourth level as quickly as you're used to. Champions should still be hitting their level six spikes in the same order as before, they'll just be doing it slightly faster or slower with these changes.

Like any preseason, the jungle is probably going to be affected the most by this change as junglers look to optimize their paths based on the changes. Everyone will still be hitting level two at the same time they normally would though, so those early-game advantages will still be important.

League's big preseason update heads to the PBE servers starting on Tuesday.