With Worlds wrapped up we can now look ahead to the preseason and all the changes that accompany it. While there is plenty to dig through and discuss, I want to start with the new outer turret plating system and its potential effects on the bottom lane. Bear in mind that from here on out, this is mostly conjecture and theorizing. All stats and values are subject to change and I am also sure that much more talented people than me will find better uses and exploits.

That being said, let's take a look at these changes. All outer turrets will begin the game with five plates, all with their own miniature health bar displayed above the main health for the turret. The objective of this is to make the lane phase last a bit longer and reduce the amount of times a turret will be taken after one kill or even a poorly timed recall. Each plate will have 1000 hp on top of the newly buffed 5000 hp for the turret itself. 10k health may seem like allot but the towers themselves no longer have their own resistances, with all their resistances coming from the plates themselves. So once you finally peel away each pate, the last 5000 health will fall quite quickly.

Each plate will grant 160 local gold split among all players near tower when it falls in addition to the turret first blood money, adding up to 1750 gold for the team that gets them all. However simply five manning a tower down will no longer be a viable strategy.Once a plate falls the next plate will get twenty seconds of additional protection called “bulwark” if more than one player is attacking it, this will probably eliminate the current strategy of bullying the enemy laners off turret and calling your mid or jungler in to rush the turret down.

I feel Riot has done a good job with this new system. Aggressive lanes can still push, and while they are delayed, they will receive additional gold for their time spent in lane.While a hyper carry gets to enjoy more time to farm and scale to their power point without being rushed into the inevitable mid game fights. I’m also thinking that if you’re playing as a roaming support, you can feel better about going to gank mid, without worrying that your turret will be gone before you get back.

Although with the added times spent in lane, it’s possible that early game ADCs like Lucian might suffer due to the fact that currently, a Lucian can leave a winning lane with at least one item. While his opponent, let's say a Caitlyn that has been pushed under turret all lane phase and has struggled to keep up in farm, will leave with only components. A Lucian showing up to mid game skirmishes with a Blade of the Ruined King is much more effective than a Caitlyn showing up with a BF sword and a dagger. But under this new system, even though Lucian has “won” lane and gotten turret and all the accompanying gold, Caitlyn will have had more time to farm and come out of lane on more even footing.

As far as supports go, true support mages like Janna and Lulu might make a comeback since they operate best when paired with a hyper carry to utilize their ardent censor empowered shields on. But like the carries, there is a flip side to that coin, all the extra time afforded to a Janna to passively collecting gold while stuffing gank attempts is also extra time for roaming supports to be going for ganks themselves or racking up that vision score.

This is only one small part of the sweeping changes coming with preseason, but it seems like this has the potential to open the floor for all types of strategies and comps. League of Legends has never shied away from changes large and small in the name of keeping the game fresh for its players and audience. And season nine preseason seems no different, but if the meta winds up as wide open as I think this change will allow, it’s sure to be a great season.

Source: Stat Values