ONE of the most highly anticipated mobile games of the year is finally here. Riot Game’s League of Legends: Wild Rift, the mobile spinoff of the popular MOBA League of Legends, just entered Open Beta in the Southeast Asian Region, which means Filipinos can now get the game without the wait for their beta keys.
Don't have it yet? Get it by tapping here.
After Spin.ph tried out the game during its closed-beta stage, here are what new players can expect getting into Wild Rift for the first time.
It’s League of Legends in every sense...but with some small adjustments
League of Legends fans, rejoice. Wild Rift is everything you know and love, but on your smartphone. Everything from the champions’ abilities to the map is the same – minus the two Nexus turrets and inhibitors at the base.
Riot did give some champions slight changes: Lux’s ultimate now goes from base to base, Ashe’s Ultimate can be controlled (though it’s a bit hard to pull off), and Lee Sin’s second skill now doesn’t need a ward/champion to dash to. Yasuo players can rest easy knowing he’s the same irrita — we mean, broken champ you know and love.
Another adjustment is the rotating map. Wild Rift follows the typical team-versus-team play found in the typical MOBA. But to ensure that there’s no top-down or left-right disadvantage, Riot decided that if you’re on the red team, lanes will just be mirrored.
This change was made so that, whether you’re red team or blue team, your base will always be on the bottom left of the map, and the enemy base will always be on the top right. This will hopefully avoid any potential arguments of top-down disadvantage, especially for players on the red side.
However, this means that the “top” and “bottom” lanes are switched, depending which team you’re on. In fact, the usual “top” and “bottom” designations have been renamed as Dragon and Baron lanes, as we will go over later.
Thankfully, before the start of every game, a pop-up will tell you which direction to go.
Roles are the same from League of Legends
Wild Rift’s roles are similar to that of League of Legends. There are five different roles depending on which lanes you want to go to.
The Dragon Lane is where the Attack Damage Carry (ADC) and Support champions go. The ADC is the team’s main carry, and typically use Marksman champs. Supports, meanwhile, use either tanks or mages, who will either buff or shield the ADC, or be the initiator in team fights.
The Mid Lane operates the same as in other MOBAs. The champ who heads here is usually the second carry, and usually the first one to roam to open up the map for the other players.
The Baron Lane is perfect for either the main initiator or the second solo carry of the team. Depending on your composition and experience, League solo laners typically enjoy the role of a fighter/ lane pusher that can be left alone for the most part of the game.
The most unique role in both LoL and Wild Rift is the Jungler. The Jungler is a player who thrives in the jungle part of the map. As a result, all jungle resources are pooled to him early on in the early game. His main role is to gank the lanes to give his team an advantage in skirmishes, as well as secure the two most important jungle objectives: the element drakes, and the Rift Herald/Baron which gives the whole team temporary or permanent buffs.
Last hitting mechanics and Ultimate changes
If you’re coming from the PC, Wild Rift will be a massive change from the mouse or keyboard you’re used to. If you’re coming from Mobile Legends or Arena of Valor, then you’re already familiar with using the joystick and attack button combo when last hitting. Wild Rift uses the same last hitting mechanic from those two popular mobile MOBAs.
If you’re a PC player, you may find last hitting a bit easier in Wild Rift with the game instantly auto-locking on the lowest health minion and champions, prioritizing champs if they’re in range.
Auto-locking is also available for Champ skills, targeting champ or minion with the lowest health within range. You can also override this by aiming the skill instead of just pressing it, like in Mobile Legends.
You can make plays faster in Wild Rift. Champion ultimates are unlocked as early as level 5 rather than level 6 in the original LoL or Dota 2. This change allows the mid-laner and the top or jungle to roam early and find fights throughout the maps.
Minions drop more gold and items are a bit cheaper
When Riot Games announced details on Wild Rift a few months back, one of the many goals they had was to make the games run quicker. One of the ways they did this is by making you earn gold even though you don’t last hit, and making the minions much more alluring to kill.
Items are cheaper to build as well. Items only need two-ingredient items to be built (except TriForce) and are way cheaper compared to PC League. They also operate a bit differently. You also can’t change Boot upgrades once bought, so you need to choose wisely before locking it in.
How runes and pregame buffs will work
If you’re coming from League of Legends or Mobile Legends, chances are you already know the mechanics of some pre-game buffs. In League, these are called Runes — and are adopted into Wild Rift, but in a much simplified version.
Wild Rift already has a predetermined Rune setup for each champion, but you can change it up before each game if you want. You can even make your own rune comp for each champ in the loadout menu. Runes are a bit more complicated for newer players, so we’ll reserve that for another guide. Or better yet, experiment and see what you think is right for you.
Spin fans unite at the Spin Viber Community! Join the growing community now and complete the experience by subscribing to the Spin Chatbot.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
