Originally Posted by Mantarz420

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
all of this
there are no options. you are expected to run them if you dont want flak from your team and if you want to compete on the same level.

Originally Posted by FeralPony

We won't be doing Synergy as there are a few issues with it that Morello talked about in a previous post. Most of the gold pressure reduction is going to be outside the mastery changes through a number of smaller adjustments (gold flow changes, items like the Sight Stone Xypherous revealed earlier etc).

The one mastery we are adding specifically gold related in Utility is a mastery called "Pickpocket" that grants gold upon attacking an enemy champion. This will allow active supports a bit more gold while harassing their opponents, while also being useful for other character types that spec into deep into Utility.

Originally Posted by FeralPony

Good point! Currently we have different gold amounts for Ranged and Melee champions, and we'll continue to adjust these values as needed. We want to reward melee champions for the additional risk they take in any engagement from this mastery

Originally Posted by FeralPony

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FeralPony here with an update on the mastery changes coming this preseason. We had a lot of goals for the coming rework, so I wanted to take a moment to explain a few of them to you. Mostly they’re aimed at providing you with more options, greater build diversity, and upgrade paths with fewer “wasted” points to get to the masteries you want. We started this process with our first mastery redesign at the start of Season Two, but since then the game has continued to evolve and we’ve identified a some areas we can continue to improve. Here’s an in-depth look:


Increase diversity within builds

In the preseason you’ll find a number of new options in each tree to allow for more diversity in your builds. There are now more choices within each tree so you can spec out and optimize your champion however you choose. This includes new, more focused options at each level of the tree so that you have more options to select bonuses that specifically benefit your individual playstyle.


Make each tree more useful to more champions

In Season two, masteries were a bit too targeted toward specific roles. AP and AD carries took Offense, tanks took Defense, and supports took Utility. While these straightforward options will still be good in the preseason, we want you to have additional incentives to dive deep into trees that might not be the obvious choice for your role. For example, a jungler interested in applying a lot of early game pressure might find the bonus starting gold from the Utility tree useful for picking up early Boots of Speed. Likewise, an AD carry with limited escape skills might find the bonus tenacity available in the Defense tree allows him to refocus his early itemization. In short, we want you to have more options.


Move or replace out-of-place masteries

There were a number of Season Two masteries that didn’t really fit well into their trees. Masteries like Siege Commander (which reduced the armor of nearby enemy turrets) didn’t really belong in the Defense tree, so we replaced it with a more appropriate mastery called Tower Shield that reduces incoming damage from turrets.


Indomitable is gone and Tough Skin has been updated

You’ll notice the absence of a few of the previous masteries, most notably Indomitable. We also changed Tough Skin so that it no longer grants reduced damage from lane minions. These two masteries trivialized early game minion damage when combined, allowing players to easily “freeze” lanes. Freezing lanes contributes heavily to snowballing and limits the viability of certain champions, so we wanted to make it a more risky proposition.


Reduce “wasted” points

There are a number of popular builds where you might find you have to waste points on masteries that don’t really benefit you to reach the masteries you want. We’ve changed up the dependencies so you can now reach the end of each tree without wasting any points.


Improve the Utility Tree

In Season Two, the Utility Tree wasn’t all that appealing to the majority of champions. We’ve made adjustments to ensure this tree has more useful options for champions in all roles. Champions like manaless casters who currently have to waste a lot of points to get to the bottom of the tree can now make it down 21 or more points in Utility and be rewarded for doing so.