League of Legends 2018 Mid-Season Update to be Smaller than Last Year
The upcoming 2018 mid-season update for League of Legends will be smaller in scale compared to its predecessor in 2017, as announced by Riot Games lead gameplay designer Andrei “Meddler” van Roon today.
Last year’s update included three major ability updates for vanguard tanks Sejuani, Maokai, and Zac. However, this year’s update will not feature anything of that magnitude. Riot attributes this to the large changes made during the preseason update in November. The balance and design teams are still catching up with the extensive new rune system introduced at the end of 2017, so their focus will remain on that during the mid-season update.
Unfortunately, the yearly excitement and anticipation for this update is lacking this time around, and players may not notice much of a difference initially. Riot has decided to release all the major updates that typically come with the mid-season update much earlier this year. Patch 8.4, which will be released tomorrow, includes a significant number of new AP items and major AP item changes.
This season has seen more major changes than usual, making it especially challenging for professional players whose success relies on understanding the meta. A month ago, Sightstones were removed from the game in Patch 8.2. Tomorrow’s patch will also bring more changes to support items, new runes, and a few champion reworks. Patch 8.6 will introduce another Keystone rune, and there are future plans for significant changes to the jungle item system.
If this trend continues, as it likely will, there will be so many new features, items, and runes to learn that the mid-season update will feel no different from any other patch this year by the time spring arrives.
Nevertheless, Riot still aims to use the mid-season update to expand the champion choices in the bot lane. According to Meddler, this update is expected to arrive with Patch 8.9 on May 2, following the regular patch release schedule.