Midseason 2017 Spotlight

Riot·May 1, 2017·8 votes·30,587 views

Sejuani, Zac, and Maokai get updates, Ancient Coin, Relic Shield, and Spellthief’s Edge now offer quests, and big changes to Rift Herald. More details can be found on the Midseason 2017 website!

114 Comments

girls are cuteMay 1, 201745 votes

"we're constantly updating and improving league of legends"

watches rift harold one hit turret hehexd!

CivilityMay 1, 20177 votes

Ah...I never knew his name before.

OhiknoMay 1, 20174 votes

HER**[slayer-jinx-unamused]* >:(

CivilityMay 2, 20172 votes

Is it a she? Woops. Harold is an odd name for a girl, though.

ModJikkerMay 2, 20171 votes

Is that like a bonus damage for spawning or is that default damage?

BladeniteMay 2, 20171 votes

First auto on turrets is a charge attack (True Dmg)

ModJikkerMay 2, 20172 votes

That's still a ton and basically guarantees a free turret it looks like

AvienalMay 2, 20173 votes

The herald eats half its health when it uses it so active laning could quickly wallop its health to greatly reduce the amount of damage it is going to pull out. Since it did not really show a 'level' though on herald and its still locked to only a few minutes before baron replaces it, that means its a decisive pick between using the buffs on the eye or burn them for a quick tower kill.

Sadly this is going to make snowball alot more prevalent and reward top lane forcing the enemy to back first to quickly have jungle and top pick it up and claim tower instantly or use it right after a tower is destroyed to quickly pick up the 2nd tower in the process.

Lets not even get started on 'super EZ' early game solo champs who could melt dragon, even before jungle item completion are going to 'enjoy' rush killing herald as long as top or mid lane get a short period to assist with the killing. [slayer-jinx-unamused]

XHAD1May 2, 20172 votes

Well you would have to kill the rift herald first which would be the equivalent of taking a tower it is just that way so that you can take an objective without the requirement of your minions.

frafdo121333May 1, 201713 votes

I'm actually really excited about this. But why give sej a point and click stun rather than using a "stun everyone with mark" system. I feel like it's more tedious than fun to play and takes away from the awe-inspiring power of her R

KoKobotoMay 1, 20174 votes

They took power away from her ultimate which was hogging up her kit and gave her a some what reliable stun instead. Yes it's more tedious and that's how it should be, it isn't free.

noraBoraMay 1, 20172 votes

Sona

Crimsonknight90May 1, 20172 votes

what does sona have to do with this ?

Church1984May 8, 20171 votes

no skill....err skillshots. just cycle her 3 spells and kill anything in range based on passive effect*[zombie-brand-facepalm]*

TyrekGoldenspearMay 1, 201713 votes

Zac Now Kiss! grabs and

DaDerpyPenguin2May 1, 201723 votes

item 3070 Taric

Sonicblaster33May 1, 20175 votes

Leg Day confirmed

Big LincolnMay 1, 20178 votes

"long needed kit upgrades"

[citation needed]

SNOW SOSMay 1, 20177 votes

I don't get the logic behind switching item 3001 and item 3102 . Why? This means mid laners are going to build a lot more and gain a spell shield, mr and ap in a lane where most people are ap casters(Am I the only one that sees this problem). A spell shield should be on a defensive item not one your building for dmg and cd, this is ridiculous. Also where's Malphite changes? He's the most outdated boring champ. Only useful for his ult and there are champions that have basically the same ability that isn't on a 60sec cd. Instead we get a Zac change when he was perfectly fine where he was. Now his ult seems rather useless unless in incredibly rare instances.

CivilityMay 1, 20176 votes

Malphite is "only useful for his ult"? Are you kidding? Malphite is great how he is, and very useful even without his ult.

SNOW SOSMay 1, 20175 votes

[{quoted}](name=Awkward Slide,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=iGt0820e,comment-id=00090000,timestamp=2017-05-01T20:11:08.851+0000)

Malphite is "only useful for his ult"? Are you kidding? Malphite is great how he is, and very useful even without his ult.

fake news

DicersonMay 1, 20172 votes

Alternative facts

CivilityMay 2, 20172 votes

It's just my experience with him. If you don't get that feeling when you play him, then I'd understand if you stuck to other champions. Malphite's ult can be very important at a given moment (and every champion's ult should be like that), but I get a lot of value out of him even without it. If you don't see that in the Malphs you play with, remember that you also don't see a lot of value in other champions depending on who is playing them.

LordXemnas23May 1, 20176 votes

He may be fine, but his kit really is boring to play with. In my opinion, his passive is really the only ability that makes sense on him. However, I'm pretty sure I heard something where they were eventually going to do a VGU on Malphite.

I'm personally loving the Zac changes. What is it with people and them hating the CC and mobility ultimates. Seriously, to League players, if it doesn't blow up enemies, it's useless. As a hardcore Bard main, I love the high risk, high reward ults, Kindred and Ryze are just a few examples of those. However, depending on how you use them, your team would either love you or hate you. And no, one mishap of an ult does not mean you go yelling at me because you were stupid enough to dive in for a desperate kill.

CivilityMay 2, 20172 votes

I guess I'd just say that I don't find him boring at all. I like taking the risk of engaging enemies and then trying to escape with a well-timed Q if things go sour, or using that Q to hold someone so I can finish a 1v1 kill.

I guess the active W and the E can be a little underwhelming, but they are definitely useful, and if they had more impact Malphite would probably be unreasonably powerful.

I'm sure they could adjust those abilities a bit and make improvements, but for myself, I don't feel a strong need for that.

As to Bard's ult: Bard players will probably never see full justice, but there are definitely times when a Bard ult can really ruin a situation. For example, it's happened to me more than once that I ult several enemies as Morgana, and then Bard ults me, allowing those enemies to escape and then possibly turn on me and kill me. Everybody makes mistakes, but some of those lend to a feeling like the Bard is trolling. I'll try to give Bard players the benefit of the doubt in the future.

LordXemnas23May 2, 20172 votes

Yeah, Bard ult is very hard to master. Even if you are good, sometimes you can accidently mess up your teams ults. Again, high risk, high reward. You will either be praised or hated by your team. In my opinion, It's easier to disengage fights with it than to engage. More opportunities to mess up when engaging.

Also, I'm loving his new passive rewards. Feels satisfying to have 6-7 meeps following you around.

Autrah FangMay 1, 20176 votes

"a spell shield should be a defensive item not something you build for damage" Riot obviously has other ideas. see item 3814 , if assassins can have an offensive item with a spell shield i don't see why mages can't.

also they considered Malphite for the midseason update, but they couldn't really find a way to go with him through this kind of update. therefore he's slated for a full scale VGU at some point.

MysticFlameHazeMay 1, 20176 votes

I'm really disappointed they're adding this rift herald change, why should someone be able to take a turret faster than a Nasus with 600+ stacks. I like the Sej changes she seems really strong, Zac's ult is really boring, and I don't know why you didnt listen to the community feed back on their dislike for his voice as it isn't cool, it's just annoying. I really like the additional stats for damage blocked, turret damage, and stuff and even the other clarity changes but the things i listed above I wish they didn't make, Just like how riot are players of the game like us I'm sure A LOT OF THEM would feel frustrated having the new rift herald explode their turret instantly in an already tough match, just more power to oppress the enemy and give the game no chance to turn things around.

LordXemnas23May 1, 20172 votes

The rift Harold is fine, did you notice how much damage the turret did to her in one hit? Sure that might've been a little bit too much damage she did to the turret though. She just looked overpowered as hell because no one was defending the turret. That's just called strategic timing.

MysticFlameHazeMay 2, 20175 votes

i think doing 2000 damage to a turret is overpowered

A7X KindredMay 2, 20172 votes

Ziggs yeah sure it is but her damage depends on how healthy she is, if she is full health she's gonna get to your nexus pretty damn quickly but if you defend and get her to half hp she won't go watch vandiril's video about her splitpushing power she can take around 2-3 tower by herself with no minions and she can get to your nexus if she has minions so this is definitely a great siege/decoy tool. As a jungle main i'll use this as a decoy so we can take baron or drake easily. sorry for my English but this is my third language have a nice day.

TamuutMay 1, 20175 votes

Golisopod incoming.

dark100dark100May 1, 20175 votes

Supports doesn't need quests. Really. Support needs items makes them relevant. E.g. items which increase the duration of CC-s, allows personal teleport to friendly turrets, whatever. Imagine you play with a support.

Or if you cannot invent anything relevant just reduce the gold for killing a support. Easy prey less gold.

JacobusSimonMay 1, 201718 votes

The problem with adding items with powerful effects like that is the potential for abuse from non-support players. An item that simply increases CC duration, for instance, would be devastating on a lot of mages. That's the point of the quests, gating that power behind something that non-supports generally aren't willing to invest in.

I'm sure there are ways to abuse a reduced gold reward for killing a support, too. Things like playing a lot of flex picks like Lulu top or having a five-man that queues as all-support could cripple your opponents' income for the whole game.

dark100dark100May 2, 20171 votes

Easy to solve that. E.g. just make a new item: elixir of support. You can only buy it before you leave the fountain at the first time. You also need to consume it soon (e.g. 1-2 min, so you can still sell it if you accidentally bought it). It should have a strong negative effect on standard laners, but allows buying support specific items. The idea of "killing a lane minion disables support specific passives for a time, and this cooldown could increase forever" seems good. You can also have other effects such as if you kill somebody, and there is an assist, he receives the killing gold (the kill still credited for you).

Just think about Overwatch. The supports there don't do much damage, but they have game changer abilities. And it works well, and people like playing supports there. In league items destroy roles, since even support champions can do damage with them. Take away the damage and give something in return. Something which allows helping to your teammates without giving you damage.

However the proposed changes will never make supports better. You need far more radical changes. If you play tresh or bard you already have a quest, now you will have two. Quests are fun to kill time, but they don't make the role better. If your team is always in trouble, and you have to help them, it actually makes the situation worse. I really don't like when you don't have time to collect chimes because your help is needed all the time.

shggfhdhMay 2, 20173 votes

the whole overwatch metaphor is good except you overlook one thing, overwatch has 23(?) heroes I believe. Lol has well over 100. Plus overwatch has hero swaps to counter your opponent mid match, the only counter in lol is in items or in champ select. Imagine not being able to build a zhonias against a zed while playing syndra... you would die every time he has ult because you have 0 protection against it. Now if you could switch mid game to a fizz who has an ability to dodge it then you would be fine but you cant... this isn't overwatch after all. Just pointing that out.

LordXemnas23May 1, 20178 votes

My boi, do you even play support? Do you know how hard it is not to take an easy kill just so your ungrateful adc can become fed?

The quests are adding something exciting for supports to do while helping their team. Your role as support is not to kill as many people as possible. Your job, is to protect your teammates and set up kill potentials for them. However, you probably won't be doing that every game because you may have a frozen lane. These quests give supports something else to do and give them rewards for helping out their team and making risky plays.

SleepySorceressMay 2, 20172 votes

If "securing" kills is the main concern here, why don't we add a unique passive to support items that lets them benefit from assists? Maybe higher gold reward on assists, or a stacking system (on relic shield for instance) that increases armor/magic resist/health for every assist. It's kind of like a support quest, but focused primarily on getting your ADC kills. I feel like this wouldn't really be abused by non-supports because buying support items would be like accepting they will be getting assists. It's not a flawless idea, but I feel like it would fix some major weaknesses of supports without letting other roles benefit heavily. Any thoughts?

LordXemnas23May 2, 20172 votes

Yeah, it would make a little more sense. I would imagine relic shield quest would give you a reward like reduced CD for it's active, or give two shields at once before it goes on CD. Spellthiefs would give you more slow opportunities. Ancient coin.... the extra level is nice, but it was really known for the amount of gold it gave you for each nearby death. Good for getting expensive support items sooner plus its speed boost active.

I agree that getting those three support items would be useless to other roles as that would distract you from your primary role. Perhaps if they made the main support items like the jungle items, they would be better. Then again, we still haven't tried it yet, so we can't judge the new system if we haven't even experienced it yet.

DarkeusMay 1, 20173 votes

Wonder when exactly this is all going down. Soon I would suppose.

paisyMay 1, 20175 votes

3rd

NotSoEvilDeadMay 2, 20173 votes

Ancient coin changes are absolutely terrible. Fine work Riot.

Scary DoorMay 2, 20172 votes

What's the reason to get Ancient Coin anymore?

Oh, right, there isn't one.

VulpineSpadeMay 2, 20173 votes

omg the new herald design she is beautiful! ♥

CivilityMay 2, 20172 votes

I still think that it would be good to give more XP to support champs with support items when they do support actions with a teammate, like healing, shielding, buffing, or impairing an enemy. Other laners couldn't get the extra XP without another friendly champion nearby, so the items couldn't be abused and wouldn't be better than standard lane items. The XP bonus should be higher if it results in a teammate getting a kill or prevents a teammate's death.