Riot Games presents everything you need to know about the Champion Masteries changes.
Champion Masteries Update
How are you all! I’m Evan “Riot Revenancer” Humphreys, Lead Systems Designer on the Motivation team. In a dev video released today, I announced that we will be updating the League Champion Mastery system later in the year. This article helps explain this change in more detail.
Goal
Champions League is at the heart. Everyone has their favorites and the game has a mastery system to showcase these passions. It’s also a way for many players to show their progress, especially those who don’t play in ranked mode.
The current champion mastery system has received some improvements to make it something truly satisfying and an integral part of the game. Levels are limited, so many have already maxed out their favorite champions (Riot Games has seen releases on adding level 8). A mastery score is nice, but doesn’t provide as much as additional levels. Additionally, the champion and the game itself are constantly balanced, but the mastery system doesn’t change. There is no way to indicate if mastery was achieved during a certain period of time (eg breaking everything with your mage when the meta is tank support oriented).
Riot Games therefore wanted to make some changes. It’s a very popular system, so they needed to establish some basic principles to redesign it.
- Mastery levels are designed for everyone, regardless of mode or rank.
- It reflects real success, not just hard work.
- Players always want to increase their skill level, so the system must be adapted.
This is starting to get too philosophical, let’s move on to the changes!
level changes
The first and most important change is the removal of the maximum mastery cap. This means you will always be able to level up. The current level system, which combines experience and special achievements, appeals to riot games. So they’re going to keep it, but they’re going to make some changes. From now on, you will always need the same mastery score to level up. A new mechanic will replace the S rank token system. These are “symbols of mastery”.
Symbols of mastery will represent feats unique to each champion. Initially, you’ll be able to achieve them by showing off your abilities during each segment and getting high ratings with the champion in question (which is more or less the same as the current system). Over time, Riot Games intends to expand on this mechanic and assign symbols to specific feats for each champion.
How it works:
- Play games to get a mastery score, as always (higher rating = higher score).
- Complete achievements from each champion’s new rewards track to earn Mastery Emblems. Each segment of the track is reset.
- Level up when your mastery score (experience with champions) is high enough and you have enough mastery symbols (feats).
| proficiency level
| Required symbols
|
| 1-4
| no one
|
| 5-9
| 1 per level
|
| 10+
| 2 per level
|
If you have a huge mastery score, don’t worry! Progress will not be reset. When the new system launches, you will collect bonus symbols based on your score. So you’ll be able to take on multiple levels at once to properly reflect your dedication to your champions.
New Mastery Badges
Who says new levels also mean new badges and new emotes! And since Riot Games is adding new ones, they took the opportunity to revamp the somewhat outdated mastery badges already present in the game. For the new badge, they took inspiration from Mount Targon. The challenge of climbing a mountain is similar to mastery level climbing. They wanted the new design to reflect this. In addition to the visual overhaul of badges for levels 1-7, they’ve created new ones for levels 8-10, as well as an evolving representation of your level.
Segment expertise
Earlier, Riot Games talked about a “reward track that resets every segment”. You may be wondering what this means. When Riot Games started working on Mastery again, they wanted to make some changes to how you think about progression. First of all, an endless system can feel like you have to grind. So they wanted to create something that reflected short-term achievements. Something that shows your expertise in championing a particular season or segment.
Next, Riot Games wants to change how you can collect Mastery rewards. In the current system getting a hextech chest through an S rating can be hit or miss and difficult to predict. These awards now work on progression by segment. This means that it is easier to get chests voluntarily and there is no longer a limit to the number of chests you can get.
How it works:
- In each segment, each champion will be allocated an award track at 4 levels.
- To reach a level, you have to play and get higher and higher mastery score. At least one big score is required to complete each level.
- Completing a tier earns you emblems of mastery, as well as other rewards.
- Once the 4 levels are completed, a new, more difficult repeat level will be available for the most motivated people or OTP.
- 4th level will also unlock champion titles (such as “The Sword of the Darkin” for Aatrox). You can use it until the end of the segment!
| seasonal level
| Note is required
| Awards
|
| 1
| Grade B x1, Grade D- and above x4
| Mastery symbol x1
Hextech Chests (up to 6 per segment)
|
| 2
| Grade A x1, Grade D- and above x4
| Mastery symbol x1
|
| 3
| S rating x1, D- rating and above x4
| Mastery Emblems x2
Hextech Chest (no limit)
|
| 4
| S rating x1, D- rating and above x4
| Mastery Emblems x2
Unlock the champion title until the next segment
|
| 5+ (infinity)
| Rating S x3, Rating D- and above x7
| Mastery symbol x1
|
Expertise sets
In addition to dedicated reward tracks for each champion, Riot Games wants to reward those of you who want to level up the mastery of various champions. That’s why they also create what are called “mastery sets” for each player.
The set is a champion list, a mix of your favorites and the ones you should like, plus a few we’ve picked. Completing tiers for champions in a set will grant additional rewards related to that set. Complete enough levels with these champions and you can earn more rewards, including overstocked Mastery Chests!
final words
We know Masteries are important to you, and we want this update to be just right. Please feel free to share your thoughts on these changes. We’ll talk to you again about it closer to its release in early summer!