In League of Legends there are special changes for the mid-season 2017. Supporters get cool quests and the Herald will destroy buildings on lanes.
For the mid-season 2017, the developers at Riot Games are planning special changes in their MOBA League of Legends. They are taking a look at some tanks, who after this revision will receive unique gameplay mechanics to provide more attractive tank alternatives. The candidates include Sejuani, Maokai, and Zac.
There are more changes for the supporters. Supporters will receive quests in the future that will buff them with powerful advantages when they use their items correctly.
New mechanics are also coming for the Rift Herald. It will soon be roaming as a battering ram, flattening buildings on lanes if not stopped.
Rift Herald – The Battering Ram
It has already been 1.5 years since the Rift Herald made its way to League of Legends, providing players with a goal in the early game. It was difficult to balance the Herald, as it either became too weak and thus an unattractive target or made champions so strong that they could not be stopped with the buff. The following changes aim to ensure a completely new gameplay experience:
- When the Herald dies, it drops the item “Eye of the Herald”
- This item remains in the inventory for a few minutes and grants champions holding it a reinforced recall
- If you use the Eye before it expires, the Herald returns to the game, but now fights for your team
- It will then start attacking a building on the nearest lane
- Initially, it will ram a building with massive force, causing a lot of damage
- It then keeps attacking buildings until they are completely destroyed
- If it destroys a building, it moves on to the next one
How to fight the Herald on a lane?
If you want to kill the Herald to prevent it from destroying your buildings, you should be quick and bring several champions. Because the Herald can take a lot of damage on the lane, you should focus on its eye. It will not attack champions, but will concentrate on buildings. Since it causes AOE damage, you should be careful and position yourself well.
The “Summoner’s Rift” makes the Herald vulnerable to crowd control effects. Use these abilities to keep it away from buildings. The damage of the new Herald depends on its health.
These changes add more variety to the game and ensure that teams need to react spontaneously when the opponent has the Herald under their banner.
Tank Updates 2017
With the updates for tanks, Riot aims to give many champions new potential in the Rift. Some champions are currently only suited for engage and drop off completely in team fights. This makes it easy to replace them with other tanks.
With new unique abilities, the developers want to make Sejuani, Maokai, and Zac more popular and provide you (more) reasons to play them.
Sejuani Changes for Mid-Season
The problem with the current Sejuani is that she is completely defined by her ultimate ability. Her other attacks play hardly any significant role in team fights. With the new abilities, Sejuani gains more control in fights:
- Her passive ability ensures that she and allied melee champions apply Frost to enemies. The difference to Braum’s passive ability is that Sejuani does not have to deal the first hit.
- If a target has reached the maximum stacks of Frost, Sejuani only needs to use Permafrost to stun the target. She deals significantly more damage to frozen targets.
- She is strongest in 2v2 or 3v3 situations, where there is a high chance to hit all targets with Permafrost.
- Frost Armor provides additional resistances and immunity to slows.
- Whirlwind of the North – Wrath of Winter is a wind-up and strike combo.
- Ice Prison (Ultimate) no longer stuns the entire enemy team, but turns the battlefield into a slow zone.
Maokai Changes for Mid-Season
Currently, Maokai is more of an average guy average tree, who is “a bit good” everywhere, but nowhere particularly good. The developers are reworking his saplings, his passive ability, and his ultimate.
- His saplings deal more damage when thrown into bushes. This provides new opportunities for “strong” wards on the lane and more power in the jungle.
- The passive ability Sap Magic will have a cooldown that Maokai can still reduce with his own spells. Opposing abilities only reduce it if they also hit Maokai (counts 1x per spell or dot). Against champions without spells, Maokai becomes vulnerable. Opponents like Corki, who rely on their abilities, will find it difficult with this tree in the future.
- The Ultimate ability is getting a strong rework. Root Catches summons a wall of roots that stretches across the entire lane and moves forward slowly. It holds the first enemy champion it comes into contact with. Because the wall moves slowly, Maokai must time the use well before a team fight.
Zac Changes for Mid-Season
Actually, Zac already has unique abilities like Elastic Slingshot and Cell Division in his kit. However, his other abilities are rather boring in this context and will be changed for the mid-season.
- Stretching Strikes will be completely overhauled and renamed Stretching Strikes. He will first launch his gooey hand, which sticks to the first enemy it hits. Then he executes another similarly sticky attack. After that, he slams both targets together.
- Let’s Bounce (Ultimate) will also shine in a new light. When Zac uses the ability, he transforms into a puddle and can charge up for a few seconds. If he does not charge, he bounces up and down in the same spot and knocks back nearby enemies (similar to his current Ultimate). If he charges this ability for at least one second, he grabs all enemies standing on him and transports them to a target location.
Quests for Supporters
Gold and experience points are two essential things in League of Legends that improve champions. In the past, developers tried to compensate for the gold shortage of supporters by giving them their own items. Because this led to problems in various situations, gold and experience will now be bypassed, and supporters will be rewarded with powerful advantages if they use their items correctly.
The new supporter quests are all structured the same: once you have earned enough gold with the unique passive property of the item, the item evolves and gains a new effect.
- Ancient Coin: You receive an elixir that grants you a skill point immediately upon use. Since there are only 18 skill points in the game, you must have used the upgrade by level 17. Killing enemy champions grants gold and also restores mana.
- Additionally, the passive property of the coin is changed. Enemy minions occasionally drop coins that grant you gold or restore mana. Once a coin type has appeared, the next coin is guaranteed to be of the other type. You must collect these coins to complete the quest.
- Relic Shield: Gain a shield that charges up outside of combat.
- Spellthief’s Edge: Movement speed can briefly be increased by activating Tribute.
That was our overview of some of the changes awaiting you in the mid-season. You can find all announced changes on the League of Legends website. Here are the mid-season changes for 2017 on LeagueofLegends.com
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