As we witness the best teams in the world duke it out for international fame and fortune, the mid-season intermission that follows is about all of us taking a deep breath and reflecting on how far we've come and how far we have to go. This mid-season, significant updates will be rolled out to our most magical roster of champions, sorcerous new items will be introduced, and the elemental dragons are taking flight. How do my enemies want to win, and how do I stop it? Now, more than ever, League is about playing your opponent as you play the game.
It's Mid-season Magic!
Mages are one of League’s most established classes but, over the years, their strategic identities have become muddied and their gameplay hasn’t kept up with evolving standards. Much like our work on the juggernauts and marksmen, we saw the opportunity to update a ‘roster’ of champions to ensure the class as a whole is relevant and satisfying to play. Ultimately our goal is to bring distinction, cohesion and, yes, game health to the mages, giving them a unique reason to be picked.
This mid-season, the mages are taking center-stage!
Tibbers now viciously mauls Annie's stunned targets.
Decrepify now sends Beatrice to a targeted location to cripple enemies.
A new passive means if Fiddlesticks stands still for a moment, he'll gain a movement speed boost.
Satchel Charge will execute turrets when they're under a certain amount of health.
An updated passive allows Syndra to spawn—and pick up—more Dark Spheres!
Barrages that successfully hit enemy champions grant an extra barrage, up to a maximum. Gains more barrages as he ranks up Rite of the Arcane.
Glacial Storm now expands over time and deals bonus damage at maximum size.
A new passive grants Veigar Extreme Evil (Ability Power) for hitting enemy champions with spells, killing minions, and takedowns.
Hand-in-hand with the mage update, their sorcerous apparatus are undergoing a bewitching transformation. Before, mages would turn to items just for the stats they need, with minor changes in their build path as a game unfolds. Now mage items are focused on their tactical impact, with each enabling or augmenting how a mage contributes to a fight. Choose how your power manifests and watch what your opponents do in kind.
We saw that early to mid objectives (aside from turrets) were struggling to stay relevant in many games, and so began investigating ways to augment those decisions during mid-season. When we came to Dragon, we realized that most individual buffs would simply shift its balance back and forth between “nice to have” and “mandatory,” so we instead set out to create a unique ecosystem of adaptation that augments a variety of team compositions and strategies.
The elemental dragons are taking flight!
For the first 35 minutes of the game, one of four elemental dragons will spawn. The moment you take that one down, the minimap will indicate the elemental type of the next.
Both sides will always know which dragon spawns next, and multiple elemental buffs will stack on each other, making you even stronger in that aspect. In this way, you may want to think twice about giving up those two Earth Dragons—that might just cost you all of your base turrets!
Increases champion killing power. Augments your dueling and team fighting abilities.
Increases turret and epic monster damage. Augments your ability to take objectives.
Increases health and mana regeneration. Augments your ability to siege and poke.
Increases out of combat movement speed. Augments your ability to outmaneuver opponents on the map.
After 35 minutes into the game, all future dragon spawns become Elder Dragon spawns. The Elder Dragon far more difficult to kill than his elemental counterparts, but taking him out grants a powerful burn-over-time on spells and attacks and a buff that is stronger for each elemental stack you have.