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.