Introduction: The S15 season matches have fully ended, and most players have been paying attention to the recent break period. With the main rosters of top teams now announced, Riot Games has officially released the S16 season patch details. This time, the changes feel quite significant, having once again adopted vision mechanics inspired by Honor of Kings. Learning from the top-tier regions is definitely justified. At the same time, Urf the Manatee has been removed, and Baron Nashor's spawn timer has reverted to 20 minutes, completely solving the lane swap issues. Most notably, nine brand-new items will be introduced this season, with the "Silent Stick" name amusing many players.

S16 Patch Reverts Changes and Removes Urf the Manatee

Most players are quite familiar with League of Legends, which as an esports title has grown tremendously over more than a decade. In recent years, the game's popularity has sharply declined, and the developers have been continuously tweaking the game to retain fans. Recently, Riot released the S16 season developer notes, revealing major updates. The first theme of S16 will focus on Demacia, and the map’s color scheme is expected to be less vibrant compared to the previous Noxus theme, as many players found the Noxus map too harsh on the eyes.

Next are the map updates, with jungle changes being the most significant. Players will enter combat faster, as the minion spawn time has been moved up by 35 seconds—from 65 seconds currently to 30 seconds in S16. Additionally, Urf the Manatee has been completely removed. This epic monster added much variety to S15 and caused frequent lane swaps. The Baron buff respawn has also been set back to 20 minutes. This change aligns with the storyline, where Urf has been defeated. Of course, this also feels like a rollback, since Urf was not widely demanded this season.

The patch also adopts vision mechanics inspired by Honor of Kings, adding a new Warding Spirit system. Placing wards at special map locations will grant extra vision range. To speed up gameplay further, turret crystals will gradually accumulate stacks over time. Attacks from champions consume all stacks at once, dealing bonus damage to turrets. The most anticipated change is the introduction of nine new items: Silent Stick, Full Entry Article, Blood Orb, Assassin Gear, End of Days Codex, Frost Bow, Dominance Engine, Half-Day Cloak, Savior Mana Bell + Super Bell, Hextech Gun, and Stormrazor.

The brand-new active item End of Days Codex is highly popular. When activated, it temporarily boosts ability power but increases mana consumption, while reducing cooldowns. For burst mages like Ryze, it’s like a magic machine gun returning—almost feels like a Faker-exclusive item. Frost Bow is another ADC favorite; after a kill, it boosts attack damage based on distance to the target and increases attack range for a certain time. Late-game marksmen like Jinx will love it. The tank item Savior Bell evolves from Tear of the Goddess, providing healing and shields based on your mana. Once upgraded to Super Bell, it heals the lowest-health nearby ally every second.

Farewell Thoughts

The S16 update brings numerous changes: map tweaks and new items that have impressed many players. It’s likely that once the season starts, many veteran players will return. Currently, the official can only rely on such measures to regain fan interest. After many adjustments, the lane swap mechanic has finally been completely removed in this major patch.

What do you all think about this?