Riot testing “more RNG” in LoL Arena in 14.9 patch plus other massive changes

LoL Arena is getting some big changes with League of Legends Patch 14.9, as developer Riot is testing out a major revamp of the mode to appeal to more casual players.

LoL’s Lead Gameplay Designer, Matt ‘Phroxzon’ Leung-Harrison, outlined the myriad changes potentially coming to the mode, as well as the team’s thought process behind the decisions, on social media.

The specific changes Riot is testing for Patch 14.9 are:

• Moving the first possible elimination from R5 >>> R6
• Swapping the round that players get their second augment from R6 >>> R5
• Adding 500G to Stat Shard rounds to help players engage more with the item system later in the game
• Prismatic Anvils: 3750g >>> 4000g

Phroxzon said the mode’s changes and future tweaks are to reach a more casual audience, like people who play League’s other less intense modes like ARAM and Normal matches. The Riot head explained previous iterations often had “sweaty” lobbies where players were constantly skill-checking each other and had a similar player base to League’s ranked ladder.

To combat this, the developer wants to add more chance elements like it has in one of their other major titles, Teamfight Tactics.

“Playing consistently for 1st will be more RNG than in previous versions of Arena. However, we still want Arena to be skill-testing enough that a better Arena player will be both higher rated and have higher average lobby placements than a weaker player in the same situation. Apt comparisons here would be Poker, TFT, etc; making the best out of the circumstances that you’re presented rather than being fully in control of them,” Phroxzon said.

These changes are for testing purposes on the game’s public test realm at the moment and aren’t a guarantee to appear with Patch 14.9 when it ships next week.

However, it gives some valuable insight into how Riot is approaching making LoL Arena a permanent mode and what players can expect when it returns to the client on May 1.