One of the most familiar things in the lives of players today is playing the classic summoners rift game mode that everyone all grew up with. Needless to mention, too much of a good thing will render people bored of League of Legends’ classic game mode. Riot Games also releases temporary game modes to change up the game fans all know and enjoy in order to keep it exciting. When it comes to game modes, URF is unquestionably the most popular.
What is URF?
For short, Ultra Rapid Fire, or URF, is a League of Legends game mode that first launched on April Fools’ Day 2014. The game mode includes dramatically decreased skill cooldowns, a 100 percent decrease in ability cost, and a substantial reduction in map timers. Essentially, this game mode encourages players to go wild and skillfully assault their enemy without needing to care about the tactical side of the game.
Short History of URF
Originally planned to be a one-time game mode for April Fool’s Day 2014 (dubbed URF Day in honor of Urf, the manatee), URF has become a staple during the April Fool’s Event every year owing to its success among League of Legends fans. The LOL gaming community has gone so far as to suggest that Riot Games “bring back URF” outside of the event era.
As URF rose in prominence, Riot Games agreed that it needed to make sense, considering its absurdity. They changed the game to even those summoner skills and powers, enabling any champion to shine in this game mode. Other improvements have been introduced in lieu of summoner abilities, which were disabled in order to make the game more balanced.
URF Game Mechanics
Ultra Rapid Fire mode, which uses the 5v5 3-Lane structure like a standard League of Legends game, takes place in Summoner’s Rift. The matchmaking mechanism operates similarly to a ranking game, where players can select and ban champions. It’s also worth mentioning that revolving game modes typically have little impact on a player’s MMR, so they don’t have to take the game too seriously if they are having fun with their friends.
Skills And Abilities
As implied by the name Ultra Rapid Fire, the key feature of this game mode is that players are granted the luxury of spamming their abilities in the game. That’s why it’s a bummer when players are offered a champion who doesn’t need to use expertise like marksmen or tanks. Nonetheless, character skills’ cooldowns are decreased by 80%, and player skills and abilities no longer absorb energy or mana.
Summoner Skills
The cooldown reduction impacts summoner skills as well, which ensures players can free spam their summoner skills when they are on cooldown. However, owing to the Champion Cannon’s inclusion, Teleport is no longer usable in this game mode. There is no such thing as a wasted flash in this game style since the cooldown timers would arrive before players know it.
Champion Cannon
The champion cannon is perhaps the game mode’s most special feature. It’s a giant cannon concealed behind the nexus that can fire a player halfway around the map. When units are launched from the gun, they become invincible before they hit their goal. Plays are only permitted to remain in the cannon for 10 seconds before being forced out.
Jungle Changes
In a standard game of summoner’s rift, jungling is not the same as it is in the URF. There’s typically no reason to pick up the blue sentinel as the first boost because of the substantial rise in cooldown reduction and unrestricted energy. In this game mode, jungling isn’t appropriate at all since most other players choose to place two players in the top lane.
Smite’s cooldown has been greatly shortened, making it simpler to achieve goals early in the season. By spawning at the 10-minute point, Baron Nashor removes the Rift Herald. When players beat the Baron, they will earn the Hand of Baron buff as well as the Eye of the Herald.
What Makes URF Unique?
Like other game modes, Ultra Rapid Fire is structured so that players can concentrate on having fun rather than being competitive. This is why, in most game modes, variables like MMR have a little significant effect on the outcome of a match. The opportunity to grant players creative control through the game mode’s infinite possibilities makes for a truly enjoyable experience.
Furthermore, the game mode encourages players to totally ignore every rule that usually controls a League of Legends game, such as lane positions, item builds, and in-depth tactics for winning games. The most important part of playing a URF game is that players and their teammates have fun because it doesn’t matter who has the most kills/deaths or who is winning as long as that player is having fun.
Significant Changes to URF 2021
Ultra Rapid Fire, or URF, in League of Legends is one of the most satisfying and stress-free game modes in the MOBA. Game modes like the URF and One For All, on the other side, are not often available in the League of Legends client, unlike ARAM, TFT, and Co-op vs. AI.
However, as URF returns this time, it will be followed by a slew of new changes. Reina “Reinboom” Sweet, League of Legends’ principal software designer and lead game designer of modes, tweeted about some of the improvements heading to the game mode in its next update.
With this next run of URF, there will be quite a few changes to better embrace the preseason item rework. These changes are intended to let you engage with the item system more fully without hitting clear traps.
Changes include: (1/3)
— Reina Sweet (@ReinaSweet) January 21, 2021
Patch 10.23 of League of Legends rendered a variety of improvements to the item system and how itemization functions in the game. New Mythic Items were added to the game, but Cooldown Reduction was renamed Ability Haste to best suit the new framework. It’s not shocking; then, that the next time URF reaches the client, it’ll add a slew of improvements to the game’s base stats and gameplay.
Arurf or normal urf?
Honestly arurf feels better as the lasy time the meta was established really fast and you saw all the champs over and over again, even tho i wanted normal urf as first urf felt insane i think is better to rotate between both— Mirrowfox (@Mirrowfox1) January 21, 2021
Season 11 will have the following updates to League of Legends URF, according to Reinboom:
- There will be some improvements in the next run of URF to help fit the preseason item rework. These improvements are intended to encourage players to interact with the item method while preventing apparent traps completely.
- Players now have +300 Ability Haste instead of 80 percent CDR. In combination with other sources of Ability Haste, Ultimate Hunter, and Lethal Tempo, these functions are no longer impaired. If a player is a mana champ, bonus mana is converted to HP at a rate of 40%, and bonus mana regen is converted to HP at a rate of 40%. (100 percent rate).
- However, the gold per ten items would be disabled. The minion gold penalty they enforce is so serious that it’s difficult to imagine that not making them available will contribute to better experiences in the long run, particularly for newcomers to URF.
Despite the lack of a definite release date for the next URF mode, League of Legends fans are anxious to test it out for the latest Mythic framework.
