For the first time in almost 10 years, League of Legends’ ping system will be revamped.
Matthew “Phroxzon” Leung-Harrison, lead game designer on the Summoner’s Rift team, appeared in a recent developer vlog to tease changes coming to the game itself at the start of next season, including those to pings and vision.
Smart pings were initially released in season three, and almost a decade later, the system will be seeing its first overhaul with the launch of the 2023 preseason.
Being able to communicate with teammates with one keystroke and the flick of a mouse was a game-changer. The updated ping system will include “expanded vision options,” according to Phroxzon. “We’re also thinking about ways to emphasize pings with teammates, plan macro strategy for objectives, and keep track of where pings are on the map, even if they’re off your screen,” he said.
Now, more options are being added to the existing ones, including, “engage,” “harass,” “freeze,” and “push,” on the bottom right, bottom left, top left, and top right, respectively.
These individual changes are part of a more far-reaching plan to bring systems up to modern standards over the next few years before doing updates on the scale of, to use the examples Phroxzon mentioned, Runes Reforged, Elemental Rifts, or the recent Mythic item changes again. Under the banner of “communication and vision,” these changes will be the first to drop, along with jungle accessibility changes, and a new take on the Chemtech Drake, all coming in the 2023 preseason.
On the vision side of things, the goal of the changes is to make the system more intuitive, from the idea of swapping trinkets to placing wards themselves. This should continue to lower the barrier to entry for new players by not requiring them to have certain unintuitive game mechanics down that other players have just from years of trial and error.
When hovering where to place a ward, a visual representation of the ward’s vision range, as well as its landing place, will appear. This should help eliminate the guesswork as to whether that ward over a wall will in fact appear over the wall.
