League of Legends Classic Is Back: Everything You Need to Know

With the upcoming release of the new 26.15 patch, League of Legends Classic will make its return, bringing together different early versions of the game into a single experience. It will introduce new features for newer players while also listening to the longtime fans.

    

CHAMPIONS:

This patch will feature a total of 60 champions for the time being: 40 of them are original champions, while the remaining 20 come from the period between 2009 and 2013. The official list has not been published, but Riot has released the version on its test server, the PBE, and the community has compiled the following list of champions:

Riot listened to its community, explaining that to obtain the old versions of the champions, you first have to unlock the champion itself using the in-game currency, or through whatever system they introduce, such as specific missions. If neither of these options is viable, there will be a free champion rotation available for a more immersive experience.

RUNES AND TALENTS:

Runes are returning to Classic in a different form. For longtime players, this is a huge dose of nostalgia, as classic Runes work as additional stats that are added to a champion's base stats, allowing you to make better use of a champion, push them to their limits, or completely change their playstyle. For example: "+5 Attack Damage per Level." The same goes for Talents. These were removed in later versions of the game, but the concept is essentially the same: they are bonuses applied to champions during the game. Here is a simulation of both systems:

Runes:

Simply by playing the game, you can unlock them. You will start with 3 pages already upgraded to level 3, meaning you won't have to level them up yourself. As you level up your account, you will unlock 2 additional pages, and you can use IP to purchase even more pages.

Talents:

As soon as you reach level 4, you will unlock the entire system. This means you will have access to all Talent pages and all the points needed to improve them. What combination will you choose to lead your team to victory?

SUMMONER'S RIFT:

The old Summoner's Rift is nothing like the one we have today, where you can move around almost anywhere with ease. Back then, jungle camps dealt a lot more damage, you had to help your jungler, there were different enemies, and overall, the lanes felt much rougher, dustier, and darker. Fortunately, the lighting, shadows, and overall visuals have received a twist for more frantic battles, without losing that nostalgic and indie feel. Here is a picture showing the entire map:

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SUMMONER SPELLS:

Summoner Spells are abilities you select before starting a game. You have two slots that you can fill with different spells for specific situations or playstyles, changing how your champion functions and how you play them throughout the game. For now, the community has done its thing and compiled the following spells:

We all know the most common ones: Heal, Exhaust, Ignite, and Flash. But I can assure you, you don't know these:

• Revive: As its name suggests, this spell would revive you directly at the Fountain. It was one of the most broken spells in the game. Thankfully, they removed it... right?

• Promote: You could promote an allied minion, greatly increasing its base stats, making it a powerful tool for ending games quickly.

• Rally: It empowered nearby allies by placing a banner that could be destroyed. The banner granted additional Attack Damage. In teamfights, this was incredible—you just had to make sure the banner didn't get destroyed.

• Garrison: It could grant a bonus to an allied turret, such as regenerating its health, or reduce the damage dealt by an enemy turret by 80%. This would completely change the way the game is played nowadays.

    

FUN FACTS:

Here is a section for those who weren't around during this era of the game, when everything was basically complete chaos:

• Did you know that Master Yi used to build AP and was practically indestructible? His W scaled with Ability Power, making him almost impossible to kill.

• Sion used to be played in Mid Lane. Nowadays, he is usually played Top and built as a Tank, but back then you would take him Mid and use an incredibly simple combo: Q + W. His Q was a point-and-click stun—you simply clicked on the enemy champion to stun them. Then you would activate W, which gave Sion a shield that scaled with AP and could be detonated to damage nearby enemies.

• There will be no ranked mode in Classic, but there will be a sort of point-based system, heavily inspired by the ranks from Ranked games. From the lowest possible rank all the way up to Challenger. Will you be able to make it to the global top?

• The old loading screens are coming back, and the old champion selection won't be exactly the same, but it will be very similar. Back then, you had to fight tooth and nail to get the lane you wanted, but thankfully, that won't be the case here. The game itself will give you the option to choose which lane you want to play before you queue up. No more Lux players trolling and intentionally going 0/10.

• Alongside the old models, the old abilities are coming back too. This is a huge change to the gameplay, because while some champions haven't changed much, such as Lux, others like Katarina, Kassadin, and Nidalee have several changes to their playstyle and abilities.

• A lot of old items are coming back to the game. Some items that were no longer available in the original League of Legends remained in other game modes, such as Arena. But now, there will be more than 70 "new" items for you to inspect and use to troll your games alongside your friends.

And that's the end of the article. See you next time, Summoner!