1.2 Livestream Recap
Greetings Champions!
Missed our Livestream earlier this week? Here’s a handy breakdown (with timestamped links to the stream VOD) of everything we revealed that’s coming soon to Predecessor!
Winterfest 2024
It’s almost time to wrap up warm again Champions, with the return of Predecessor’s annual Winterfest event!
This year our teams have been hard at work on significantly stepping up the event, packing it full of more content, more rewards, and more polar polish than ever before.
Explore a beautifully frozen battlefield and keep warm in the heat of battle by working through an all-new 5 week Winterfest Battlepass!
That’s right, this year’s Winterfest event is chock full of rewards for you to earn, spread across 30 levels to battle through. There’s both premium and free tracks, giving you flexibility to take part in a way that works for you. Take on the free track for select cosmetics and some free overhead emotes (more on those later) or jump into the paid track for exclusive skins, variants and even more festive cosmetics.
Winterfest will run from early December to early January. Don’t miss out!
Ranked Mode
Ranked Mode has been similarly worked on and we’re excited to share some big changes coming soon as well as touch upon further changes that will be coming in the new year.
Firstly however some of you might have seen discussions about a Season 0 split. Originally we intended to split this season but after much thought and hard work from the teams, we’ve decided to keep it splitless, instead resetting when Season 1 hits the game in a subsequent update.
Season 1 will run for much of 2025 - split into 4 periods (splits) - and it’ll feature a number of changes and improvements based on feedback and data from the current period of Ranked Mode.
On top of this we’re working on new systems that will let you swap your position, Hero and even Role in Draft, giving you unprecedented flexibility. We’re also working on a second Ban Phase, adding a further layer of strategy, and a slow decay system for players sitting at higher ranks to encourage a more competitive rank ceiling that ticks away at players who get a little too comfy or choose to rest on their laurels.
For update V1.2 we’re removing promotion matches in mid-tier divisions. For example, if you’re in Silver 2 and your next match will take you over the VP threshold for Silver 1, a win will take you straight into that tier rather than needing to win a specific promotion match. This does not apply when going up divisions though; promotion matches are still in place for getting from Silver 1 to Gold 3 for example.
We’ve also heard your feedback on server locations, particularly surrounding a North America Central (NAC) server for those taking part in Ranked Mode in that region. We’re exploring this possibility and will share more news on this at a later date.
Lastly we’ll be building on the changes announced in this week’s Toxicity Blog, including higher VP penalties for players who AFK, while implementing a system that mitigates VP loss for players who find an AFK’er on their team.
EA Skin Bundles
Earlier in the Season we asked the community for input on how we could make good on our promise to make the exclusive EA skins available to those who played in Early Access but didn’t have access to the bundles at the time.
Thanks to your great feedback we’re excited to share that that new variants of these skins will be arriving soon!
These skins will be free to anyone who already had the original exclusive and available to buy for everyone else who didn’t have the chance earlier in the year.
We’re currently aiming to ship these skins in 1.2.X, but this is subject to change.
Buffs
We’re excited to announce significant changes to the various Buffs in the game!
River Buffs
Up first we have Evolved River Buffs. These are more powerful versions of their early game counterparts with each River Bug evolving as a fight goes on.
Evolved River Bugs are larger, have more health and most importantly, offer stronger versions of their Buffs when killed:
GREY: Increased Movement Speed and Out of Combat Movement Speed
PINK: Ability Damage and Ability Haste
GREEN: Shield and the Shield now explodes on depletion, damaging and Slowing nearby Enemies
ORANGE: Attack Speed and Omnivamp
River Bugs evolve at the 21 minute mark, becoming a viable power spike in the mid game.
Our goal is to make these mini-objectives more meaningful as points of contest throughout the game, encouraging more combat at these locations later in the game.
Buff Transfers
Jungle Buffs are also seeing some mechanical changes soon too!
The Red and Blue Buffs will be able to transfer to whoever kills the Buffs' owner, offering opportunities to gain these buffs in new ways while helping protect against early Jungle invasions, giving players the chance to recover a stolen buff.
Empowered Orb Prime Recall
We’re also adding a new type of buff called Empowered Orb Prime Recall which, you guessed it, you can get from taking down Orb Prime or a Mini Orb.
Once an Orb Prime has been dispatched, all living allied Champions with the Orb Prime Buff gain this new empowered recall for the duration of the Orb Prime buff, whereas for Mini Orb it’s only for the Champion who last-hits the Mini Orb who gets it.
With it you can return to base in half the time of a usual recall (just 4s!) using a unique new recall effect. We hope this will help players more strategically and quickly redeploy while retaining more momentum on the field.
Projectile Speed Changes
Following feedback we’ve increased the speed of projectiles, making them roughly 3x faster.
This should make basic ranged attacks feel more reliable, making it easier to land shots without having to lead them quite so specifically.
Map Adjustments
We’ve made a few small tweaks to the map, mainly focusing on the Jungle for 1.2.
Spaces around objectives have been opened up a little bit more, to make some areas feel less cramped and to remove some choke points that could be camped. Half walls now make it easier to see who’s engaging in some areas of the jungle, which can also be more easily traversed by Heroes who have access to verticality.
Objective pits like Fangtooth and Orb Prime have been flattened to make for a wider space for team fights and engagements while similarly making it harder to miss a blink when trying to escape the pit.
Teleporters
In one of the biggest shakeups to Predecessor in years, we’re adding Runic Teleporters to the game!
Runic Teleporters are new map structures that allow players to quickly travel from one side of the map to another, creating more strategic depth when it comes to map control, creating complex interactions between lanes and adding a little more risk to each of the side lanes.
In 1.2 there will be two Runic Teleporters, one in the Offlane and one in the Duo Lane. These new structures live on the outer edges of the lanes and feature runic circles on the ground that when stood on for a short period of time, will launch the Hero across the map to the other Lane’s Runic Teleporter.
Each Teleporter comes online roughly 10 minutes into a match, and takes a couple of seconds to charge up before it’ll launch you (and any allies within the circle at the time). Once you’ve used a teleporter there’s a short personal cooldown before you can use it again.
If an enemy steps onto a Teleporter while you’re charging it up, its charge progress will pause until that enemy steps off again.
Once a Teleporter has been used or stepped off of it’ll begin to discharge for the same amount of time it was charged for. You can leverage this discharge time to get off a quicker teleport than if you stepped onto a fully discharged Teleporter!
Runic Teleporters aren’t subtle. You’ll be sent hurtling across the battlefield in a bright aerial arc, obvious to anyone on the map who might be looking up at the time. Likewise you’ll get a dramatic view of the fight from above, giving you a brand new strategic perspective!
This new traversal mechanic adds a substantial amount of depth and strategy to both outside lanes. We can’t wait to see how you use it!
Brawl Mode - All Heroes
Ever wanted to 5v5 all Iggy on Brawl Mode? Us neither, but now you can!
We’ve opened up Hero selection in Brawl Mode to allow for multiple repeat Hero picks.
Brawl Mode has always been at it’s core a quick and casual game mode with an emphasis on, well, dumb-fun. It’s a great place to let off some steam, try out new things and ultimately to not take things too seriously.
We’re excited to see what unhinged team compositions you can come up with!
Toxicity Improvements
In case you missed it, earlier in the week we published a new Toxicity report.
It revealed a number of new features, changes and improvements to AFK detection, player reporting feedback and more.
If you missed it, check it out here!
Quality of Life Changes
We’ve all been there. A cool new skin just dropped but before you know it a game has popped and now it’s too late to pick it up, leaving you to stare at a skin in the Draft screen that you want but can’t use.
To combat this we’re making it easier than ever to grab those cool new skins you keep forgetting to pick up by making skins buyable in the Draft menu (and giving folks a little extra time too).
We’re also delivering the highly anticipated 'Extras' tab in the store, a new destination for spending Amber and Platinum on little bits and bobs outside of bundles. This will include sprays, overhead emotes (more on that in a moment), icons, recall and jump animations and more.
Our goal is to make our currencies more useful and flexible while giving you greater control of your own spending decisions. In the market for a new spray but don’t want to splash on a whole bundle? The ‘Extras’ store has you covered!
Emote Wheel
Last but not least we’re pleased to share a new Emote Wheel system coming in 1.2.
This new customisable wheel offers you multiple slots to equip different sprays and emotes, adjustable in the system menu.
Not only is this feature highly requested, but with so many sprays in the game already it’s impossible to pick just one to use in each match! Now you’re free to express yourself more freely, and we can’t wait to see how you use more sprays!
This new system also debuts with all new Overhead Emotes.
Overhead Emotes are new form of communication that let you select a small icon that you can display over your Hero’s head. You’ll be able to use them to wave at allies, goad enemies and just generally express yourself like never before.
Overhead Emotes are mostly earned through level up right now, but in the future we’ll be expanding the system based on your feedback and requests.
That’s pretty much everything revealed so far for 1.2 and beyond!
What are you looking forward to most? Let us know over on Reddit or Discord!
- Kari, Community Lead & Steggs, Senior Community Manager
