4/18 PBE Update: Midseason 2017, Maokai/Sejuani/Zac Updates, Dark Star Kha'Zix and Orianna, New Chroma, and Much More!

Here's Riot LoveStrut with a bugs & feedback thread for Dark Star Kha'Zix:

"Endless hunger." 

The vast reaches of space are Dark Star Kha'Zix's jungle. How many devoured planets will it take to sate his hunger?  

The Darkest Details  

• All-new model and textures (Terror has evolved.)
• All-new VFX (Slashing and leaping with the force of a collapsing galaxy.)
• All-new SFX (The usual chilling space-bug sound.)
• All-new animations (The predator slashes open a wormhole to hunt new prey.)
• Set to be 1350 RP (prices are subject to change)  

We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 

Thanks, cuties! <3"

Dark Star Orianna

Here's Riot LoveStrut with a bugs & feedback thread for Dark Star Orianna:

"So strange, they scream." 

Carefully examining and disassembling any planets she comes across is all part of Dark Star Orianna's haunting performance. The galaxies are her stage, and we are the unfortunate actors in her final scene.  

The Darkest Details 

• All-new model and textures (A galaxy swirls around the ominous ballerina.)
• All-new VFX (The black hole within her ball harnesses the power of a supernova.)
• All-new SFX (A symphony of space and screams.)
• All-new animations (Dark Star Orianna gracefully selects which planet has reached its finale.)
• Set to be 1350 RP (prices are subject to change.)  

We always love hearing your feedback and feelings! All bug reports and thoughts help us make these skins even more awesome, so please keep 'em coming! 

Thanks, cuties! <3"

New Ward Skin

We also have a new Dark Star themed Corruptant Ward skin.

New Skin Chroma

Three new chroma sets in this PBE cycle - Sandstorm Ekko, Warlord Shen, and Officer Vi!

Dark Star Game Mode

[UPDATE 4/19: Details on DARK STAR - SINGULARITY are up!]

[The upcoming Dark Star game mode has assets on the PBE but is not enabled for testing yet.]
In the new Dark Star themed game mode, everyone plays as Dark Star Thresh, and the mode is all about throwing hooks - looks like you need to push or pull enemies into the Dark Star in middle of map. This will be played on the Cosmic Ruins map. Summoner spells are disabled in this game mode.

Art Assets from LCU:

Strings:

• "Welcome to the Cosmic Ruins!"
• "Your opponents are cowards - have patience, they will be forced to enter the arena soon."

Tips:
Buffs:
A Thresh Announcer voiceover is also included for the game mode:


Another version of this Thresh announcer VO was added for lines used in Summoner's Rift/Other game modes -

Music

Look for more information and PBE testing later in the 7.9 cycle!

Midseason Updates on the PBE 

A very large set of changes are hitting the PBE this cycle as part of the Midseason 2017 update, including tank updates for Maokai, Sejuani, and Zac, item and utility contribution changes, and more!

[Midseason 2017 OVERVIEW]

Context & Discussion:

• Midseason Rift Herald Update from Riot Sotere
• Midseason Support Item Update - Live on PBE! from Limely and Riot Colin
• Midseason Update - Utility Contribution from Ququroon.
• Intro to Midseason 2017
• Maokai
• Sejuani
• Zac

Tank Update - Maokai

Maokai is one of three tank updates in Midseason 2017.including updated gameplay.

Gameplay Preview:

Abilities

Sap Magic [Passive]:

Maokai gathers magical energy from the nature around him. Every [X-Y] seconds, his next attack uses that energy to heal him for [15-134] + (8-11.5% of his Health). 

Each time Maokai casts a spell or if struck by an enemy's spell, Sap Magic's cooldown is reduced by 2.5 seconds.

• Cooldown (bugged as of 4/19?) 45/60/45/30/25/20 at levels 1/2/6/9/11/15

• Heal amount:

• Base: 15/22/29/36/43/50/57/64/71/78/85/92/99/106/113/120/127/134  
•  Scaling: 8/8.5/9/9.5/10/10.5/11/11.5% at levels 1/2/6/9/11/13/15/17

Bramble Smash [Q]:

45/45/50/50/60 mana
8/7.5/7/6.5/6 sec Cooldown 

Maokai smashes his fist into the ground, releasing a shockwave. Nearby enemies are knocked away from him and all affected enemies take 70/115/160/205/250 (+40% AP) magic damage and are slowed briefly. 

Twisted Advance [W]:

60/65/70/75/80 mana 

16/15/14/13/12 sec Cooldown 

Maokai transforms into a moving mass of roots, becoming untargetable and dashing to the target. 

Upon arrival, he deals 50/75/100/125/150 (+40% AP) magic damage and roots the target for 1/1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4 second(s). 

Sapling Toss [E]:

60 Mana
12 sec Cooldown 

Maokai flings a sapling, which stands watch for 30 seconds. Saplings will chase nearby enemies, detonating on proximity, dealing [35/55/75/95/115] + [6/6.5/7/7.5/8%] [+2% per 100 AP] Target Max Health magic damage and slowing enemies struck by 35% for 2 seconds. 

Saplings placed in brush last for 30/40/50/60/70 seconds and deal double damage over 2 seconds to all enemies hit. 

Maximum 300 Damage to non-Champions, doubled for brush.

Nature's Grasp [R]:

100 Mana
120/110/100 sec Cooldown 

Maokai summons a colossal wall of brambles and thorns that slowly advances forwards, dealing 150/225/300 (+75% AP)  magic damage and rooting any enemies struck for (0.6 to 2.4) seconds, increasing with distance traveled.

Updated VO

To go along with his update, Maokai also has an updated voiceover:


Updated Pick Quote: "The Isles will bloom again!" [link]

Updated Ban Quote: "Your reckoning will come either way." [link]

Skin Preview:

Updated skin splash art

[Not on PBE yet but Midseason page mentions upcoming new skin splash art for Festive Maokai, Charred Maokai, and Totemic Maokai.]

Tank Update - Sejuani

Sejuani is one of three tank updates in Midseason 2017, including updated gameplay & abilities!

Gameplay Preview:

Abilities

[Midseason page revealed a few new ability icons but they are not on PBE yet!]

Fury of the North [Passive]:

Frost Armor: After not taking damage for 15 seconds Sejuani becomes immune to slows and gains [100% total Armor + flat 100] Armor and [100% total MR + flat 100] Magic Resist. Frost Armor persists for 1/2/3 second(s) [at levels 1/7/14] after taking damage. Frost Armor refreshes faster as Sejuani moves. 

Icebreaker: Enemies stunned by Sejuani are frozen, causing Sejuani's first attack or spell against them to deal 15/20/25% of their maximum Health as magic damage (max 400 vs monsters).

Arctic Assault [Q]:

70/75/80/85/90 mana
13/12.5/12/11.5/11 sec Cooldown 

Sejuani charges, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+40% AP) magic damage to enemies and knocking them up for 0.5 seconds. The charge ends after hitting an enemy champion. 

Winter's Wrath [W]:

60 mana
7/6.5/6/5.5/5 sec Cooldown 

Sejuani swings her flail, dealing 12/19/26/33/40 (+1% total health) physical damage and applying Frost to enemies hit. 

She then lashes out with her flail, dealing 48/76/104/132/160 (+4% total health) physical damage and applying Frost. 

Winter's Wrath deals 20% bonus damage to monsters. 

Permafrost [E]:

20 mana
1.5 sec Cooldown 

Passive: Nearby melee allied champions' basic attacks apply Frost to enemy champions and large monsters. 

Active: Target enemy with 4 stacks of Frost takes 40/60/80/100/120 (+30% AP) magic damage and is stunned for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s). 

An enemy that has been stunned by Sejuani cannot gain Frost stacks for x seconds. 

Glacial Prison [R]:

100 mana 

120/100/80 sec Cooldown 

Sejuani throws her True Ice bola that deals 75/125/175 (+40% AP) magic damage to the first enemy champion hit and stuns them for 1 second. 

The bola becomes more powerful as it travels, doubling the damage and stun duration and creating a storm that slows other enemies by 30%. After 2 seconds, the storm deals 150/250/350 (+80% AP) magic damage and slows by 80% for 3 seconds. 

Skin Preview:

Updated skin splash art

Tank Update - Zac

Zac is one of three tank updates in Midseason 2017, including new gameplay and abilities!

Gameplay preview:

Abilities

[Midseason page revealed a few new ability icons but they are not on PBE yet!]

Cell Division [Passive]:

Each time Zac hits an enemy with an ability, he sheds a chunk of Goo that can be reabsorbed to restore x health [4% of his maximum health]. 

Upon taking fatal damage, Zac splits into 4 bloblets that attempt to recombine. If any bloblets remain after [8/7/6/5/4 at 1/6/10/14/17] seconds, he will revive with 10-50% health depending on the health of the surviving bloblets. Each bloblet has 12% of Zac's maximum health, and 50% of his Armor and Magic Resistance. This ability has a 300 second cooldown.

Stretching Strikes [Q]:

4% of current Health
12/11/10/9/8 sec Cooldown 

Zac's arm stretches and grabs the first enemy it hits, dealing 50/70/90/110/130 (+30% AP) magic damage and briefly slowing them. Zac's next basic attack is replaced with a long range smack that repeats the initial magic damage and slow effect. 

If Zac grabs a different enemy with each attack he'll throw them towards each other, dealing 50/70/90/110/130 (+30% AP) magic damage in an area if they collide.

Unstable Matter [W]:

4% of current Health
5 sec Cooldown 

Zac's body erupts, dealing 40/55/70/85/100 magic damage +4/5/6/7/8(+2% AP)% of the enemy's maximum health as magic damage to all nearby enemies. 

Absorbing Goo reduces Unstable Matter's cooldown by 1 second. 

Maximum health damage is capped at 200 versus minions and monsters. 

Elastic Slingshot [E]:

4 % of current Health
24/21/18/15/12 sec Cooldown 

First cast: Zac faces the cursor and charges up over 0.9/1/1.1/1.2/1.3 seconds. 

Second cast: Launches Zac towards the target location, knocking up nearby enemies and dealing 80/120/160/200/240 (+70% AP) magic damage. Zac spawns extra chunks of Goo for each enemy champion hit. 

Can be cancelled by moving, refunding half of the ability's cooldown and cost. 

Let's Bounce! [R]:

No Cost
130/115/100 sec Cooldown 

First cast: Zac squishes himself down, making him immune to Crowd Control for up to 2.5 seconds. Any enemies standing on top of him are slowed by 30/40/50%. 

Second cast: Charging for at least 1 second before recasting causes Zac to scoop up enemies on top of him, carrying them towards the target location. While flying through the air Zac is Unstoppable. Upon landing nearby enemies take 150/200/250 (+40% AP) magic damage and are briefly slowed. 

Reactivating before Zac charges up knocks back nearby enemies instead.

Voiceover

As previewed in this video, Zac's VO now becomes higher pitch the smaller he becomes!

Skin Preview:

Midseason Rift Herald Update

For Midseason, Rift Herald has been updated with a new look and new mechanics! Slaying Rift Herald now drops a usable item that summons Rift Herald into your lane. Rift Herald now also only spawns ONE TIME per game and spawns at 8 minutes in.

From the Midseason 2017 page:

"Rift Herald now drops the Herald's Eye item when defeated. Use the eye before it expires to bring Rift Herald back as a structure-smashing siege engine. 

As an ally, Rift Herald will push down the nearest lane, reducing enemy buildings to rubble unless forcibly stopped. Fighting against her in lane is similar to fighting her in the pit - poke her in the eye to send her crying home to the Void."

Riot Sotere hit the boards with an update on the Rift Herald Changes we will be seeing in the 7.9 PBE cycle:

"Hi all, 

In the SUPER near future we’ll be releasing an updated version of the Rift Herald to PBE. For the last year and a half she has been relegated to an afterthought in terms of objective importance. Her reward, while powerful and purposefully niche, didn’t encourage many teams to opt into the high risk of combating her. 

In revisiting the Rift Herald, we reaffirmed that there is value in having an objective on the top side of the map that is worth pursuing for players. We want the individuals and teams who devote their resources to capture her to feel well rewarded and empowered to take further action. In short, we want the Rift Herald to be an objective worth considering in the average game, and we want the slaying of this epic monster to have an epic feeling reward. 

I’ll get more tactical as to what we’re actually doing but will first throw out the usual caveat that much of this is subject to change and we’ll be closely monitoring PBE and player feedback. We’re treading in somewhat unknown waters, so we expect that even after launch, there will be substantial tuning and potentially large transitions to make. Now, to what’s changing: 

Art! 

It’s long been a goal to update Rift Herald’s visuals and polish her sounds so she feels like a natural inhabitant of the Summoner’s Rift (void corruption notwithstanding). The most immediately noticeable and probably most important change to the Rift Herald this midseason is her substantial makeover. New fancy lady: 

Still photographs hardly do the new version justice. She also has a set of brand new animations, particles, and sound effects as well. Check her out on the Rift to see her full new ensemble. 

The Encounter 

The Rift Herald on Live we’ve grown to know and love had some challenges with the encounter:  

• It’s super punishing. If you opt into the fight at a bad time, or alone, you’re probably going to die. 

• There are significant restrictions: outside very rare exceptions, you needed two people to beat the encounter. 

• Learnability of some of the mechanics wasn’t incredibly high. Eye-hitting was only discoverable with multiple people, and though we encouraged swapping aggro her leashing was pretty punishing.  

We approached these issues with some hesitance. Can we support a Herald who doesn’t chunk you down really fast? Can she be soloable? To increase the potential she’ll be viewed as a real objective, we’re answering in the affirmative to both of those questions. 

While duoing her should still be the best plan of action for ease and speed, lone champions will now have the opportunity to kill her. Her attacks are more plodding, giving a solo artist the capability to sneak around her and land attacks on her achilles heel (or eye). She doesn’t punish players quite as much if they start opportunistic attempts at her. Generally, if you die from the encounter now it will be due to the enemy team swooping in. We’ve also made her quite a bit more patient with enemy aggro swapping, so she won’t leash outside exceptionally gamey circumstances. 

We also wanted to play up her epicness: Dragons, Baron, and even Scuttle Crab have some variation to their combat pattern outside of throwing autoattacks and running away. We wanted to infuse her with a little more spirit and life. She’ll now charge at the first enemy who angers her, significantly damaging and knocking away anyone who dares get in her way. At certain health thresholds she’ll also get enraged and launch a larger conal swipe attack. Both additional attacks are threatening, avoidable, and should help opponents discover the effectiveness of bopping her in the eye. 

The Reward 

Anyone on the team who slays the Herald can collect the Eye of the Herald when she is captured. This item will allow the champion to summon her within a short timeframe to have the Herald do their team’s bidding. While the summoning ceremony takes time, the results of a good use are devastating. 

She hates turrets. No one knows why. There are stories (that I just made up) that the turrets on the Rift memorialize the visage of the Herald’s enemies from the Void. Perhaps they just look like tasty treats, a nice fit for her high sodium diet. Regardless of why, once she’s set to do a team’s bidding, she’ll barrel down a lane, knocking aside enemy minions and charging at turrets as soon as she gets in range. That’s where the real fun and destruction begins. 

While Herald can do decently pushing on her own, she is even more susceptible than she was in the pit. Hits to her eye do more damage, she can be stunned, and she’s generally not as tanky. If she is not protected by a squad of champions, the enemy will likely make quick work of her. But a team that picks their timing carefully and is dedicated to protecting the Herald could siege down multiple turrets. Importantly, the Herald mercenary does damage based on her current health. The more damage enemies do to her, the less she’ll do in return to enemy turrets. 

In Closing 

The version that first hits PBE will not be set in stone. We’ll be polishing her up over the course of the next few weeks and paying attention to any negative fallout that might happen. We do believe that this new reward will generate interesting gameplay and we are devoted to making sure it feels like an appropriate and epic reward. Let us know what you think!"

The new item goes into your trinket slot when picked up.
While holding Eye of the Herald you also get empowered recall:
Using the item summons the Rift Herald, who charges down lane to attacks turrets, inhibitors, and Nexus  using special attacks (damage based on her health) . She will also stop to attack minions but not champions.  When summoned, global sound and ping to that direction. 

Midseason Update - Utility Contribution

Here's Ququroon with a post on the Midseason Update - Utility Contribution:

"Hey all! 

In the Intro to Midseason we talked about highlighting the contribution of non-carry roles in League. This is the first step of many towards this goal, and it’s aimed at making supports and tankier champions feel more rewarded and recognized for their actions. It also comes with the added benefit of improving tactical clarity for both players and viewers. 

In this thread, we are looking for your feedback (as well as any bugs you may find) on these features and your thoughts on future additions, especially with regards to tracking additional stats. 

Crowd Control Name Display:

By giving CC states a more in-your-face treatment, we hope that players and viewers will be better able to track the flow of a fight and help teammates figure out when to follow up or turn tail. While CC is already appreciated when noticed, this new display works to improve that feedback loop so everyone can bask in the light of a 5 man Leona ult. 

The system follows a strict prioritization to deal with situations where multiple CC types are applied to a champion - after all, if you’re airborne or suppressed, being blinded as well is the least of your problems. 

As with many features of this kind, we found some inconsistencies as we worked on this, and while we hit most of them, there may be a few that still look a little off. Please keep an eye out for them, and let us know any you encounter. 

End of Game Stats: 

We’re getting more relevant stats onto the End of Game screen! Again, this is only our first offering - expect more in the future.

• Crowd Control Score, a sum of all the CC effects applied to champions during the game - hard cc is weighted higher than soft cc.
• Vision Score, a calculation of contributed vision over the course of the game - further details to come.
• Damage Dealt to Structures, the amount of damage dealt to towers/inhibitors/nexus.
• Damage Mitigated on Self, the amount of damage a champion reduced or blocked, through abilities or shields 

Please note that these stats are still in process of being implemented, as will have more updates as the PBE cycle continues. 

Better Item Feedback: 

Have you ever found yourself wishing how much damage you’ve blocked with your Locket? This change will add more of these stats onto active items, so you can better evaluate how well you’re using them. 

Please note this feature will not be showing on PBE for a couple of days, as we put in the remaining work to get it ready. 

Spell Attribution:

Have you ever been drive-by ignited, or you think you heard your lane opponent pop heal, but you’re not sure? We’re adding a new VFX trail from caster to target on most summoner spells and active items to make those moments clearer. There’s a visual for both enemies and allies, so it should be easier to discern who cast what in a skirmish. 

Death VFX: 

Our old death VFX (for those who noticed it), was slow and subtle. We are updating the effect for both enemies and allies to be snappy and more noticeable so the flow of a fight is more clearly communicated. 

Active Item HUD: 

Active items often contain a lot of power and gold-efficiency of an item, which is great when you remember to cast it, and awful when you don’t. This change adds a thicker and more prominent border to our major activatables, separate from consumables and trinkets."

Midseason Support Item Update

Here's Limely and Riot Colin on the changes to the starting support items we will be seeing on the 7.9 PBE:

"Hey, Guys! 

Limely and Riot Colin here to talk about the recent changes we’ve made to the Support starting items: adding Quests and Rewards, and reworking the Ancient Coin line. 

TL;DR - We want the Support player’s laning actions to be more interactive, meaningful, and drive towards a feeling of progressing through the game without simply piling on more gold, as it’s very easy to do more harm than good that way. There is still a lot more to do for Supports to catch them up to the other positions; adding quests and their rewards is just one of several steps towards improving the Support experience. 

Problem Statement / Solution Space 

Supports tend to lack meaningful points of comparison - they can’t compare scores like CS, and let’s be honest - “Wards Placed” is not necessarily indicative of good vision play. :P It’s even harder to compare performance when a subset of Support champions are played with an item that allows them to opt out of interacting with the lane if they so choose. 

To combat this we have added milestone quests to the starting gold items to allow the player to measure their success during the laning phase, with an impactful reward on hitting a goal - if you can get your reward before your opponent, how will you use that advantage? 

We’ve also made changes to the Ancient Coin passive in order to enable meaningful quest progression and encourage lane interaction. Our goal here is to add a pattern that allows opportunities for a higher payout, at a higher risk. 

Quest Details 

Once you have earned a certain amount of gold with your choice of starting item, the item’s quest is replaced with a unique passive.  

• Ancient Coin line: Gain an elixir that instantly grants a skill point when consumed. Takedowns on enemy champions spawn gold and mana coins. 

• You still have a max of 18 skill points per game - you’ll finish leveling your abilities at level 17 

• If your inventory is full, the elixir is automatically consumed (and you can choose a skill) 

• Relic Shield line: Gain a shield that regenerates out of combat. Executing minions accelerates the regeneration. 

• Spellthief’s Edge line: Tribute procs grant a short burst of movement speed. 

Ancient Coin Line Rework 

The old Ancient Coin passive created very stagnant gameplay, and limited our ability to tune its primary users as well as the player’s ability to excel in lane. Whether you were losing or winning lane, there was very little to no impact on your gold income. Here’s how we’re changing that: 

• When minions die near the player (but not due to the player), they sometimes drop a gold or mana coin for the player to pick up 

• Not Yet Implemented for PBE: Cannon minions always drop coins for a little more reliability 

• Mana coins restore % missing mana with a flat floor of mana restored 

• Ancient Coin items now have base ambient gold in line with the other two starting items 

There are still some clarity issues around having two Coin players in the game, as well as balance on the risk vs. reward of grabbing those coins, so if you have a chance to play around with it on PBE we would love your feedback to help us fine tune the experience. 

Anti-Poaching 

We understand that giving the Support starting items special power upon quest completion has the risk of making them more appealing to non-support players. We want to avoid poaching on these items - we want the rewards to be impactful, but if it becomes ideal to buy an item whose mini-game you don’t actually plan on actively participating in just to get the reward late game at minimal investment, it cheapens the experience for those who are opting into the gameplay. To limit the item to those who are interested in investing in the item for the item’s sake, the quest cannot be completed unless you have at least the second tier of the item (Nomad’s Medallion, Targon’s Brace, or Frostfang). 

Additionally, we changed the timing of spending charges on the Spellthief’s Edge line:  

• The cooldown on spending charges after a minion kill has been decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, but this is now per minion kill. This means if you are Sona and your Q accidentally takes a minion you are punished less, but if you clear a whole wave, don’t expect to be using any of your charges any time soon. :P 

• Frost Queen’s Claim and Eye of the Watcher are unchanged as the restriction is lifted. 

• There is now a delay after a Tribute charge is spent before the same spell can spend another. This means that abilities such as Morgana’s W and Miss Fortune’s E don’t 100% guarantee three stacks of damage/gold if your opponent moves out of the spell area. 

We know there are still a lot of improvements we could make to the Support position to make it more compelling and balanced with the other positions. There are some pain points that haven’t been addressed with these changes, but we plan to continue working on ways to give Supports more control over their own destinies. :3 

Please let us know what you think! We’ll be around to answer questions for a bit. 

Supporting Supports,
Limely & Riot Colin"

Miscellaneous 

• [Never know what you are going to find.]

Maokai

• [Has a large update on PBE as part of midseason 2017 / tank update. see individual section!]

Sejuani

• [Has a large update on PBE as part of midseason 2017 / tank update. see individual section!]

Zac

• [Has a large update on PBE as part of midseason 2017 / tank update. see individual section!]

[New] Adaptive Helm

[New] Gargoyle Stoneplate

Context & Notes

the most contextrifying wip in pbe entertainement

1) Meddler is back with his gameplay thoughts for April 18th, covering the start of the 7.9 PBE cycle today:

"Hey all, 

Mid-season stuff should hit PBE today! Really looking forward to seeing everyone's thoughts after it does. Some bits and pieces below in the meantime. 

Support Basic Attacks 

As part of our ongoing work on the support position we've got a mixture of both large and small changes planned. We've talked about the revised support starting items already, which is the largest support focused piece in mid-season. As a smaller change though we've also got some feel improvements to the basic attacks of various champions often played as support too. Those are generally champs who aren't very auto attack based. On one hand that means having a good feeling auto attack isn't as critical as it is on say a marksmen. On the other hand it's also tended to mean their attacks haven't received the same attention in past, so there's a lot of room for improvement. We've got some tweaks coming to Sona, Morg, Annie, Janna, Nami and Soraka in 7.9. 

Ancient Coin 

The ancient coin line changes will hopefully be one of the more interesting things hitting PBE today, at least for bot lane players. For anyone wanting to do a bit of early theorycrafting the stats we're currently testing on Coin at 22g at Tier 1 and 32g at Tiers 2 and 3 on gold coins, with 8% missing mana restored on mana coins. More details on our goals with those items to follow later today, we're hoping amongst other things to make Coin a more interesting and appealing choice on a wider range of champions. 

10 Bans in Ranked and Draft 

We haven't talked about ban changes for a bit, they're certainly not forgotten though. Should be able to get back to some details about that after mid-season, with work on the new client coming along well getting some needed pre-requisites out of the way. 

Poacher's Dirk 

We're also testing out some small tweaks to Poacher's Dirk in 7.9. It's an item that's under performed since its introduction that we've hesitated to buff because some of its likely potential users have been challenging to balance. We're at the point though where we think we can make at least some changes to make it a bit more attractive versus just buying a couple of long swords to upgrade later. We're looking at a lower cost and CD, paired with a bit less AD, as a result."

2) Here's mstronati on Maokai's new voiceover & the wood sounds processing that can be heard in game:

"Hi all, it's Matteo Stronati, sound designer for Maokai! Like someone else explained already, in order to get the full VO experience with him, you are going to have to play him in game. Listening to a youtube video with his voice won't do it. That is because his voice signal modulates the volume of wood sounds in real time in game, so that voice and wood really feel like one. This approach, also means that his lines never sound the same, because every time a line plays, a different wood sound is picked to go with it, making the whole experience feel more organic. Hopefully you guys enjoy his new voice in game!"

3) Asyrite mentioned smaller scope changes for Rammus are being looked into for the future.