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  • Whether it's with new champs,

  • major reworks,

  • game-changing items,

  • or even full-scale class updates,

  • we're constantly updating and improving League.

  • Midseason's our chance to make big changes

  • that might otherwise get bumped to preseason.

  • This year we're upgrading three old-school vanguards,

  • making items more rewarding for supports,

  • and giving Rift Herald a big, terrifying makeover.

  • We'll talk about her first.

  • Until now, taking Rift Herald hasn't

  • felt worth the risk for many players.

  • We're changing the bad beetle's style,

  • so beating her grants a reward that actually matters.

  • Rift Herald's new look and attack patterns will make fighting her feel a little more epic,

  • but you'll see the real changes after you've taken her down.

  • Once defeated, the Herald is trapped in a magical relic

  • which grants the wielder a Baron-empowered recall

  • for as long as they hold onto it.

  • Using the relic destroys the item,

  • releasing the Herald from her prison.

  • Once summoned, she'll join your team, sieging the nearest lane and tearing through towers

  • like a horrendous purple wrecking ball.

  • As always, her eye is her weak point, and teams that focus on it will take her out more quickly.

  • Vanguards are tanks that lead the charge for their team,

  • catching enemies out of position

  • so allies can follow-up with heavy damage.

  • This midseason we're giving three vanguards

  • Maokai, Sejuani, and Zac

  • some long-needed kit upgrades

  • so they can start fights and contribute something useful once they're in the fray.

  • We've also got a couple new items that'll give tanks more options in battle.

  • Zac's always been great at engaging teamfights from huge distances,

  • but he's traditionally lacked ways to make a splash after the first dive in.

  • To solve this, we're giving the Secret Weapon some sticky new powers.

  • Now, when Zac uses his Q, "Stretching Strikes,"

  • he flings out a gooey hand that sticks to

  • the first struck target for a few seconds.

  • If he then uses a basic attack on a different target, he'll grab hold of them both

  • and slam them together.

  • Awww! Now kiss!

  • Zac's new ultimate turns him into a pancake-shaped alien abductor.

  • Instead of bouncing around wildly, he now becomes immune to crowd control

  • and spreads out flat on the ground.

  • Any enemies still inside after a short cast time get trapped into his warm embrace

  • as he bounces away.

  • Perfect for kidnapping squishy targets!

  • And finally, the most important change:

  • Zac's new voice now scales with his health.

  • When he's taken a lot of damage and shrinks,

  • he'll sound higher-pitched!

  • Sejuani's a boar-riding warlord that leads her team into battle.

  • We're giving her some new ice-cold powers that'll let her keep control of battlefield

  • once things get going.

  • Sej's new passive, Frost Armor, makes her immune to slows and improves her defenses.

  • Taking damage will break the armor, but she can rebuild it by roaming around out of combat.

  • Sej's new E, Permafrost, causes her basic attacks to passively apply "frost stacks"

  • to struck enemies.

  • Any of Sej's nearby melee allies will also apply these stacks with their own basic attacks.

  • When her enemy is fully frosted, Sej can activate Permafrost to freeze 'em, then shatter 'em

  • with an attack or ability for bonus damage.

  • Sej's new W, Winter's Wrath, lets her make 'em frosty faster with a few whacks from her mace.

  • Maokai is a very old, very angry nature spirit who's pissed off

  • about the destruction of his homeland.

  • To better capture his personality in-game, he's getting a full voiceover update

  • and two new abilities that make him a terror in the jungle.

  • First, Maokai s saplings now grow and become empowered when thrown into brush.

  • This helps out with his jungle clear and lets the Twisted Treant control areas of the jungle

  • by booby-trapping the shrubbery.

  • His new ultimate now creates a slow-moving avalanche of roots about the width of a lane.

  • Each root snares the first enemy it catches, giving Maokai a tool for turning around teamfights

  • or for uprooting the lane to make enemies run for cover.

  • So unless you're grabbing pentakills and topping the damage charts,

  • League doesn't do a great job of recognizing your contributions.

  • Supports in particular get less experience and gold than their allies,

  • which prevents them from feeling the impact of the work they do for their team.

  • We want to give support players rewards other than gold so they can power up in new ways.

  • Ancient Coin, Spellthief's Edge, Relic Shield, and their upgrades now offer quests.

  • For instance, once you've earned enough gold with Spellthief's Edge,

  • it'll begin granted you a movespeed bonus whenever you proc its Tribute passive.

  • New visual effects also make it more clear who's done what in teamfights.

  • Now, whenever a summoner spell or item is activated, a mist-like tether forms between

  • the caster and the recipient, so everyone knows when you've dropped a sick burn the enemy.

  • Also, new team-specific death visuals help you keep track of the carnage.

  • And spelled-out crowd control effects above champion health bars

  • add a touch more clarity to teamfights.

  • The new items and visual effects give everybody more ways to get recognized for individual

  • achievement in-game, but we also think we can do more

  • to recognize your contribution once the game's ended.

  • That's why we're updating the end-of-game screen to recognize valuable stats like

  • "damage mitigated on self,"

  • "damage to towers,"

  • and new "vision" and "crowd control" scores that

  • improve as you place key wards and lock down baddies, respectively.

  • We'll keep adding more stats throughout the season.

  • As always, you can catch us in the patch notes

  • to see specifics on the midseason changes,

  • including stuff we haven't covered here,

  • like updates to tank items.

  • Keep an eye out for other upcoming changes,

  • including our rework of honor...

  • and the new 10-bans system.

  • Check out this link for more details

  • on this midseason's changes.

Whether it's with new champs,

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