We recently saw the /dev diary drop for Wild Rift's Patch 2.2 Preview, giving us a preview of what is to come in the future.
The Americas Open Beta launch is on March 29, and to support the launch is the Wild Welcome! To help the new players get caught up with the other regions, the special, limited time event will allow players to earn champions and other content faster. This will be in addition to the bonuses gained due to playing League of Legends, by logging in with a Riot Games account.
In addition, Arabic support will be coming soon. This has taken some time due to having to rework the layout of the UI.
Champions
The next set of Champions coming are a little more monster-like. With a lot of Wild Rift's current pool being rather humanoid, the new additions are steering away to give a new flavour.
Galio is a living gargoyle, crafted from Petricite which dampens magic. The Colossus awakens whenever he senses the presence of strong magic. With abilities that allow him to disrupt opponents, as well as help allies across the map, he'll be landing onto the Rift soon!
Rammus is an Armadillo, speed balling his way around the map like Sonic the Hedgehog. This champion presents one of the first times that Wild Rift has impacted League of Legends, as the Wild Rift Rammus can jump onto the enemy team; it looks like this will make it way into the PC game, replacing Rammus' current Ultimate.
Renekton, The Butcher of the Sands, is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian tales, fitting nicely into the Shurima setting. With a strong early game, this Champion will dominate the starting stages of a game, but will likely drop off during the course of the game.
Kha'Zix and Rengar are hunters. The former is from the Void, and will eat its prey to evolve, allowing the Void Reaver to become the best predator. Rengar simply hunts for the thrill, filling a trophy cabinet with the heads of those he has slain. These two hunters met before, resulting in Kha'Zix taking Rengar's eye out. Now they are rivals, and this will be shown in Wild Rift's next major in-game event - Masters of the Hunt.
The Masters of the Hunt will 'throw you into the ancient rivalry between Kha'Zix and Rengar to determine who is predator and who is prey'. More details will be coming soon, but it seems like the Nemesis Duel could be similar to The Hunt Is On! which was featured on League of Legends.
Item Changes
Patch 2.2 will also be bringing new items, as well as some tweaks to existing ones, as the Wild Rift team look to flesh out the pool.
Frozen Heart, Force of Nature, and Sunfire Aegis are all on the list to be added to the game, coming from League of Legends, these are standard Tank items.
Other changes are coming to Sapphire Crystal, which will gain the Mana Charge passive; allowing players to start stacking as they wait to buy Tear of the Goddess. The Sapphire Crystal is also being removed from Sheen's build path, making it more suitable for non-mana users.
Ghost is being changed to match the League of Legends version, with a reduced top speed but lasting longer, as well as the boost being reapplied on takedowns.
Changes are also coming to Attack Speed, as having high amounts reduced attack animations too much; allowing for flawless kiting. The changes aren't known yet, but they will make life less forgiving for those with high Attack Speed.
Quality of Life changes
The Wild Rift team has been listening to the community, and are adding new Quality of Life changes to the game!
First up is more pings, similar to those found on League of Legends, to allow players to communicate more efficiently. This includes 'enemy is missing' and 'enemy has vision here' pings.
Players will also now be able to customise the dead zone, the bigger the dead zone, the harder is is to accidentally aim when using abilities.
There is also more clarity on when neutral objectives will respawn, and players can choose to hide player names; or display Champion names instead.
Position Preference is also being trialled, allowing players to order their preference on where they want to play. The matchmaking system will then try to find a game where you can play a preferred role. This system will only be in place for a short time so the developers can gather data, and will be tinkered with over time.
Wild Pass
Wild Pass will be introduced later in the patch, and will be a way to get more stuff just by playing. As you'd expect, players will level up as they play, and the pass will reward them with skins, currencies, emotes, icons, baubles and more.
Reaching Level 50 on the Wild Pass will reward the Hexplorer Jax skin.
ARAM
All Random All Mid will be making its debut on Wild Rift this patch too. A player favourite from League of Legends, ARAM is set on the Howling Abyss which is essentially a bridge in the Freljord; this means one lane instead of Summoner's Rift's three. The main hallmark of the mode is that players don't choose their Champion, they're assigned one at random from the ones they own.
This is a quick and fun mode, and will be available as a test for all regions.
The Stargazer skinline will be unique to Wild Rift, but not exclusive.
