Riot Games is bringing a new champion with Naafiri to League of Legends. The special thing: the champion belongs to the class of heroes that are usually the hardest to play. However, among assassins, he is said to be the easiest to learn. Naafiri is a very bad dog for the midlane.
This is how the champ was created: Riot Games says (via lol), they looked at what was still missing among the more than 150 heroes in LoL and came up with the idea that there was a need for a ‘beginner-friendly assassin.’
Additionally, they wanted to bring a real monster hero again: the “Stingray Void Monster Bel’Veth” has also been in LoL for a year. Although Warwick and Nasus go in the direction of dogs, they are more human than animal, which is why Riot decided to bring a dog creature.
Then they thought further: A dog by itself is not dangerous: It’s the pack that you are afraid of. Dogs love to hunt. Hm, there had to be something to be done about it.
LoL gets ‘bad dog’
What came out of these considerations? Naafiri is a demonic dog creature that hunts in a pack. Her abilities revolve around summoning pack members that are AI-controlled to attack enemies together with the player.
This allows the player to throw 2 daggers that make the targets bleed. The pack members rush in to attack the targets.
With other abilities, the player jumps towards enemies with the dogs or heals the dogs after a charge.
Her ultimate “Call of the Pack” summons additional pack members and increases movement speed and vision.
Ultimately, these are all rather passive abilities that require relatively little skill from the player and after use, the AI does the work.
Why is this something special? “Assassins” in LoL are usually heroes for experts that require great skill. They are “glass-cannons” that deal a lot of damage but can hardly take any hits: The midlane assassins are meant to eliminate enemies within seconds and retreat from the fight, or they die.
The player must constantly weigh risks and rewards, keeping an eye on when cooldowns are up, when they can use their skills again, and land their combos. Once the abilities are out, they are vulnerable for a few seconds.
Normally, such assassins are only intended for people who really know what they are doing. But Naafiri seems to be intended for beginners, a kind of midlaner moving towards ADC.
“Finally a champ that reflects the LoL community”
What are the first reactions? The comments on the gameplay trailer are positive and characteristically sarcastic. League players want “unusual monster champions” and not just to play humans, however, Naafiri will also strongly rely on “dashes,” short sprints to get to opponents. Many do not like these dashes in LoL:
- “So refreshing, finally seeing more non-human champions being played”
- “Finally a champion that reflects the LoL community.”
- “Didn’t think there’d be room for more dogs at Riot beside Nasus and the board. Been proven wrong.”
- “Finally a champ with more dashes. Great!”
When is the bad dog coming? Naafiri is set to appear on the test server on June 27, with the live servers expected in July 2023.
This was one of the last new champions:
LoL presents new champion K’Sante, who combines tank and damage roles – Here’s how that works
