Season five of "League of Legends" ended the moment SKT was declared champion during the LoL Worlds 2015. Now, season six has started, and with every new season comes new meta, items and masteries.
During the start of season 5, support and jungle champions were highlighted with the item changes and warding mechanics. Come mid-season, mages were given focus through balances that enhanced AP champions. Then, near the end of season 5, it was the juggernauts that received a lot of buffing.
Avid fans and gamers thought marksmen champions were getting left behind, and fortunately, so did riot. Come season 6, the changes bring marksmen back to the table.
The new season mainly focuses on AD crit and health differential damages. Cool down reduction is on a roll too, helping many AD skirmishers pave the team's way to victory. A few examples of items that have received great changes are the "Essence Reaver" that has a passive that gives CDR scaling with critical strike chance; the "Last Whisper," which has become a tier 2 item, upgradable to two paths that each helps chip down juggernaut health points; and the "Runaan's Hurricane," which has been changed to make the bolts crit.
Masteries are also highlighted, which is something that has always been a great part of the league's gameplay dependence. Every year there are minor tweaks in masteries that affect the gameplay and players. This season, however, a shift is made from the standard 21-9 masteries distribution to 18-12, according to League of Legends.
Players see the difficulty in this change. Still, the change aims at improving gameplay mechanics, and even professional gamer Phreak said on one of his video streams that the masteries for this season are set to improve gameplay, compared to the masteries of the previous seasons that were only helpful in improving late game potential.
