I went and tried out pre-season.
Jungle far easier to sustain yourself in, no more levelling problems there. There is definitely a change in the atmosphere of the game itself. With much more gold income to supports and the load of the vision game equally distributed amongst the team, most of Bronze has forgotten warding exists entirely.
I'm 100% sure the Relic shield/Targon's/Face of the Mountain will go, or suitable adjustments made. Changes to the brush layout makes sense, although you still need two wards to reveal bottom brush if placed on the far end
Gameplay for other roles has remained relatively the same. Mastery changes have been nice, although I don't feel a noticeable difference. I mean, if we all have the same access to the same masteries, things across the board should be relatively the same.
tl;dr support and jungle are easier, everything else is the same.
Very hard to continue enjoying League, I've been in and out as well, as I have had very little time to commit to it. I keep getting to Bronze 1 (complete scrub) then dropping all the way back to 4. Slightly disheartening, and the team atmosphere, especially on Oceania is horrible. I much preferred North America, even with 240 ping.
On the other hand, most, if not all of my league friends are in silver heading to gold, one is already there. It's possible, but time vs achievement doesn't seem worth it. I'm happy to stay in the lower tiers and enjoy a game every couple of weeks or so