League of Legends has just hit version 3.03 and the ping system has had a huge overhaul.
League of Legends is often criticised for having no in-game microphone support. Although Riot have not yet added this function, they have been listening to the summoners and a very important communication function has been improved upon.
So, without further adieu let’s go into detail about the new Smart Ping function.
Smart ping takes the generic blue and yellow pings that summoners are used to and improves upon them in every way. When in-game summoners will be able to hold either G,V, Alt or Crtl and click location to gain access to a new radial menu. The menu features a host of new pings that you can send to your team at any point within the game by either using the map or terrian you’re looking at. These pings are:
- Danger
- Enemy Missing
- On My Way – (when used shows the path the summoner is taking to the destination of the ping)
- Assist me
The best way to explain this system and show how it will be beneficial to players is through the use of an example situation. Take a read of this:
You’re playing as Ahri in mid lane and notice that your lane opponent, Malzahar, has gone missing. You quickly issue the Enemy Missing ping so your team can be on guard, followed up with a Danger ping alerting your teammate Twitch in bottom lane to the imminent threat. You issue an Assist Me ping near the jungle to set up for a counter-gank as Malzahar moves past the dragon pit. Twitch responds with an On My Way ping and moves into position, scoring an easy kill for your team, all without typing a single letter.
Now that’s teamwork.
As always, there are more changes within the patch associated with balance issues for champions such as Xin Zhao (finally) and Taric, but they are all explained within the full patch notes. However, if reading isn’t your style Riot have produced another patch preview to explain all of the important changes:
That’s about it for this patch. As always, i’m going to jump straight into LoL and take this new Smart Ping system for a test drive.
(source: LoL forums)
