What Do I Need to Know About Season 3?

There have been a lot of changes to start off this new season but as of right now everyone is still trying to figure things out and so there isn't really a set Meta but these are the main things that I think you need to know. 

Actives Are Now Relics

• Instead of having to buy active and upgrade them throughout the game you get your first relic at level 1 and your second at level 12 both for free.

• Relics Cooldown timers and abilities are somewhere in between their Active Tier 2 and 3.

• Beads are less useful because they no longer provide 3s cooldown reduction.

The Most Useful Relics (In My Opinion)

Purification (Purification Beads) - removes Crowd Control Effects and makes you immune to new ones for 2s. Cooldown 160s.

Blink(Greater Blink)- Allow you to teleport short distances instantly. You must have not have taken damage for 5s before it can be used. Cooldown 120s.

Curse(Weakening Curse)- Reduces all enemy gods ground speed by 40% in a 55 foot radius around you for 5 seconds. Their healing is also reduced by 65% for the duration. Cooldown 

150s.

Sprint (Heavenly Agility) -Increases your ground speed and allies within 55 by 40% for 6s. It also makes you immune to Slows for the duration. Cooldown 120s.

New Items/Item Balance

-Offensive

• There are a lot of new items that give power, movement speed, and penetration items along with some balancing of older items.

-Items You Should Look at:

Spear of the Desolation +130 Magical Power, + 20 Magical Penetration and its passive is: If you kill an Enemy God all of your cooldowns are reduced by 8 seconds. This cannot activate more than once every 30s.This makes it a very strong item for mages but it is cost 3100 gold so if you get it it should be as a last item to get a late game power spike.  

Executioner +30 Physical Power, + 25% Attack Speed and its passive Basic Attacks against an enemy reduce your target’s Physical Protection by 8% for  3 seconds. (max. 4 Stacks). You hit harder,faster and shred everyone.

Qin’s Sais + 40 physical power + 15% Attack Speed On Basic Attack hits, deal Physical Damage equal to 4% of the target's maximum Health. This only affects gods. This is becoming a very popular item on hunter builds and allows you to hit harder, faster and and you can kill a lot faster.

Defensive

• Defensive Items have been changed so that they give you a lot of health or a lot of protections not both like in Season two. If an item still gives you protection and health then both are reduced to make the game more balance.

• CC: Some items now have CC reduction a newer, stat that caps out at 60%, it is introduced to balance CC since Purification is very different compared to season 2 Purification Beads.

-Items You Should Look at:

Gauntlet of Thebes +350 Health +15 Hp5 and its Passive: increases all healing received by 20%. This is extremely useful on healers or gods with a self heal especially if you like playing aggressively.

Mantle of Discord +60 Physical Protection, +60 Magical Protection +15% Cooldown Reduction and its passive: If you take damage below 30% health you unleash a shockwave that stuns all enemies within a range of 20 units for 1s and gain CC immunity for 1s. This effect cannot trigger more than once every 90s. This is a very useful defensive item and works well on supports to make you as tanky and annoying as possible and is a very good item in general if you are going for a tanky build.

New Maps
Joust

Season 3 Joust Map

• Joust received a completely new map.
• New Jungle Boss Bull Demon King that will stun the enemy's tower or Phoenix (depending on which is up at the time) and give you fire giant buff if you clear it.
• The jungle now has a mana buff on each side and a damage buff near the middle instead of the 3 buffs on each side of the lane.
• 1V1 League is renamed as Duel.
• New 3v3 Joust League. 
• I don't play Joust that much so I can't really judge the change but it looks really cool.

Conquest

• The map is made more open throughout the jungle.
• Buffs camps now have 3 entrance so that it isn't as easy to get caught by an invade.
• The Speed/Yellow buff has been removed
• Mana/Blue buff is now where speed buff used to be 
• Attack Speed/Purple buff and the old blue buff area are now replaced with xp camps
• There are 3 elementals (minions) near the fire giant that give xp and gold.