The Differences Between League of Legends and Wild Rift

With the start of the Open Beta for Wild Rift next week, many new players will be playing Wild Rift for the first time. They come from a number of different games. Starting from other Mobile MOBAs such as Mobile Legends and Arena of Valor, or PC MOBAs such as Dota 2 and of course League of Legends.

This article will look at 5 differences between Wild Rift and League of Legends. It will show you the different parts that new summoners should know about. Readers who have never played Wild Rift before may also have older versions of Wild Rift in their minds. An example is the ward system, which has reverted to being the place-anywhere system it was in the PC version. Without further delay, here are the differences between Wild Rift and League of Legends.

Several Changes for Mobile

To be able to bring League of Legends gameplay to the mobile platform, Riot uses a dual stick control system. Other mobile MOBA players must be familiar with this system, where the left thumb controls the character. On the other hands, the right thumb activates and directs skills. PC players will definitely have to adapt to this scheme to play Wild Rift.

Apart from that, there is one more system that was implemented to make Wild Rift more mobile-friendly. The map reverse if the summoner plays on the red side. This system makes players more comfortable playing using a dual stick because important parts will still be visible on their screen.

Due to this change, the bottom lane will become the top lane and vice versa if playing on the red side. To ensure there is no confusion, Riot changed the terminology from bottom lane and top lane. The dragon lane and baron lane, depending on which epic monster lair is closest to that lane.

Faster Game

Wild Rift is a mobile game, therefore the playing time of one match must be modified to suit the platform. A League game usually takes 30+ minutes to complete, while Wild Rift games now take 15-20 minutes. This is due to all the minor system changes that Riot has implemented.

Smaller maps, level cap down to level 15, ultimate first level down to level 5, lower cooldown, and champions always get gold when minions die near them (albeit less than last hit).

Besides that, Baron’s spawn time is also faster, the turret doesn’t have plates so it’s easier to destroy, and the nexus doesn’t have a turret to protect it but will attack itself. All of these changes increase Wild Rift’s pace compared to League.

Less Champions and a Little bit Changes

Currently Wild Rift has 42 champions, with 7 new ones coming soon, compared to 150+ champions in League. In addition, some of the Champions in Wild Rift have received minor changes compared to their League versions. One of the most notable changes is Ashe’s ultimate which can control her direction, but that’s not all.

Vi’s Denting Shield skill has swapped places with his passive, Blast Shield. Ultimate Lux now has global range. Safeguard Lee Sin doesn’t need units to perform his jumps, giving him more opportunities to perform ‘Insec’.

Summoners coming from the League will have to adapt to the shallower ‘champion pool’ as well as learn all the subtle differences in all of Wild Rift’s champions.

Diffrent Rune System

As in League, Wild Rift has a free rune system that can be used in its entirety after a certain level. In Wild Rift, the last rune will be unlocked at level 10.

Wild Rift has 8 different keystones, and summoners can use whichever keystone they want. But not all of these keystones are also in the current version of League. Kleptomancy has been superseded in the League, and the Font of Life is just a secondary rune.

Unlike the League, choosing a secondary rune does not depend on the choice of keystone and second color. In Wild Rift, after choosing a keystone, the summoner will choose three keystones of three different colors or paths.

So even though the selection of each secondary rune slot is wider than in League, summoners can only use 3 runes compared to 5 in League. Also, not all secondary rune Leagues come to Wild Rift (R.I.P. Presence of Mind).

Less Items

Many items come to Wild Rift with the same effects and possibly newer icons. But not all League items can be used in Wild Rift, including some important items. Besides that, Wild Rift only uses one activable item that functions as a shoe upgrade.

First of all, the important types of items that are missing in Wild Rift are Support and Jungler items. There is no Spelltheif’s Edge or Relic Shield that support can use to increase their gold amount. Riot hopes that the last hit system change will earn them enough gold so that the absence of these items won’t disrupt all support.

Junglers will feel the loss of Skirmisher’s Saber and Stalker’s Blade with their added effects on Smite and the different enchantments they can build for these two items. Riot’s solution was to strengthen Smite by giving the user bonus XP from jungle monsters, lowering Smite’s cooldown (with all other summoner spells), and giving Chilling or Challenging Smite upgrades just by killing four large monsters.

For activable items, Wild Rift only has one and they can be obtained by upgrading champion boots. Any boots are fine as long as they are Tier 2. Items in this category already count as enchantments like the previous jungle items and include items such as Quicksilver Sash (Quicksilver Enchant) and Zhonya’s Hourglass (Enchant Stasis).

Finally, there are Wild Rift special items that weren’t available in the previous League. Some of the items in this category are Awakened Soulstealer, Harmonic Echo, and Infinity Orb. The items that a League summoner will buy may or may not have been changed in Wild Rift, so they have to adapt and learn new item builds.