Welcome to the 2016 Midseason Spotlight.
Normally we save enormous meta-changing updates
for the preseason, but this year we're shaking things up.
Our big goal for 2016 is to make every game of League
feel unique, so we're putting on a half-time show
to introduce big changes to mages, items,
and the river's most monstrous inhabitants.
It's time for some Midseason Magic!
Let's start by checking in on our old pal Dragon,
who's gone from elementary to eleMENTAL.
He now embodies one of four elements
when he spawns, each of which grant permanent
stacking buffs to the team that takes him down.
Fire Dragons give you extra spicy damage
against champions.
Water Dragons yield juicy health and mana regen.
Earth Dragons let you quickly take down
epic monsters and turrets.
And Air Dragons turbocharge
your out-of-combat move speed.
These stacks become even more important
in the late game, when the Elemental Dragons
flee the Rift and the Elder Dragon appears.
Slaying this big, bad, daddy dragon temporarily
amplifies all the existing dragon buffs you've acquired
and applies powerful burn effects
to your attacks and abilities.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the river,
our bug-eyed buddy the Rift Herald is also
looking a little different these days.
The big purple critter now spawns only once per game,
but packs one hell of a buff inside that tough little shell.
Crack open the Rift Herald and pick up the buff
to become corrupted, granting extra dueling power
whenever you're away from your allies.
Best of all, the Herald's buff is clingier than
your average barnacle, and sticks around
even through death.
It also lasts a long, long time.
Over a dozen spell slingers are getting some touch-ups
in the midseason update, but we're giving
six wizardly warriors a serious makeover.
Malzahar is still the single-target lockdown master,
but now now he's figured out how to bring
extra void puppies along for the ride.
Voidling Swarm, his new W, spawns his little
purple pals, which multiply as they fight
and start to frenzy once there's enough of 'em.
We're also gifting Malzahar with a new
damage-reducing passive, so The Prophet of the Void
can occasionally ignore big playmakers
and slip right past the enemy frontline.
Vladimir is the slippery blood mage with insane
lane sustain, and we're escalating his ability
to leverage his health bar to lay down the hurt.
Tides of Blood can now be charged up
to form a massive sphere of AOE sangre sauce
that he'll then hurl at opponents.
This ability uses up a serious chunk of
Vlad's available health, so he'll have to heal up
between bloody onslaughts with
his newly-tuned Transfusion.
Zyra is the control mage with the greenest thumb
in League, and her new passive lets her
spread even more flora across the Rift.
Garden of Thorns causes seeds to periodically sprout
around her, and casting spells like her newly-fertilized
Deadly Spines produces an army of deadly plants
to surprise attackers.
Brand's midseason changes are about cranking
up his ability to set the world on fire.
Brand's passive, Blaze, now causes a massive
area of effect detonation whenever he lands three spells
on the same target.
When enemies huddle together for safety,
it's time for the Burning Vengeance to light
'em up and set off a chain-reaction.
When the enemy team is fleet of foot,
Cassiopeia is the serpent with a solution.
The venomous vixen's W, Miasma, now applies an
entirely new type of debuff that we're calling "grounded."
Enemies who are grounded are unable to flash,
dash, or even take Thresh's lantern.
Cass's new passive grants her movement speed
per level, but this doesn't stack with boots.
In fact, she's not even allowed to buy boots in the shop.
She can't wear them.
How is she gonna put them on?
Vel'Koz is the tentacled geometrist to call
when you need long-range magic damage.
In addition to deconstructing enemies,
The Eye of the Void's basic abilities now apply stacks
of "research" to his opponents.
This upgrades his Life Form Disintegration Ray to deal
100 percent, Grade A, void-approved
true damage to all researched targets.
It's not just the mages who are getting a
magical midseason transformation.
As with the marksmen itemization changes
earlier this year, we're altering AP items
to augment how you contribute to the fight.
We've loaded some extra ammunition into
the Hextech Revolver, so it deals bonus magic damage
and upgrades into a trio of end-game items.
The new Hextech Frost Cannon slows swift-footed
killers with a spray of icy shards,
while the Hextech Rocket Belt lets you dash forward
and hose 'em down with flaming bolts.
To complete the set, our old friend the Hextech Gunblade
has a tweaked active effect that blasts
baddies with instant damage.
We're also making changes to familiar tools
like Tear, Chalice, and Catalyst to alter the way
champs utilize their mana pool.
We'll save the full item breakdowns for the patch notes,
but the idea is that high-uptime utility champions
will lean more heavily on mana regen,
while heavy damage dealers will want
to build a big stockpile of flat mana.
This is just a high-level overview,
and we'll need your feedback to help keep us headed
in the right direction.
Check out the 6.9 patch notes for a more complete
list of the midseason changes.