We already knew that there were three League of Legends champions in the pipeline, each of whom would be tied to Viego, the Ruined King, in some shape or form thanks to some announcements from Riot Games back in January. The first of those has made their debut, of course, with Gwen, the Hallowed Seamstress. Now, the studio’s dropped some more insights and teases about who the other two might be.
One of the new characters was initially described as a grumpy Yordle champ – a “gloomy new artillery mage who would prefer if we just didn’t even bother her at all”. Beyond that, details were scarce, but Riot has now given us more of a snapshot of what’s she’ll be. “As her gameplay kit [has] developed, she’s moved away from being an artillery mage and is now closer to a classic mage,” lead producer of champions Ryan ‘Reav3’ Mireles explains in the new April 2021 roadmap.
“She still gets annoyed as hell with hyperactive champions dashing all around her, that hasn’t changed one bit. It’s enough to make her get serious and start clobbering all lifeforms full of irritating happiness dashing around her like pesky flies.” This champ was due to drop next after Gwen, but Riot has now decided to push her arrival back a bit, as the devs feel they “needed to create some new tech to visually sell her source of power”.
As for the other – the one initially described as a Sentinel of Light marksman “planned for a non-traditional position” – Riot’s now explained this champ will be hitting the Rift this summer. Noting the current absence of marksmen specifically designed for the mid-lane, Mireles explains the team “felt a marksman designed for mid would both add a unique champion to the roster and could also be pretty appealing to a lot of mid lane assassin and skirmisher players”.
There are no other details beyond this on who the champ will be, exactly, but there are some teases: the dev says “there’s a lot more to grapple with”, alongside a picture showing a glassy turquoise grappling hook on a rope. Hmmm. So, seemingly a hint at this champ’s kit, perhaps.
For now, that’s all of the information we’ve got on the two new champions, but there are some other additions on the way to look forward to, too. Mireles also announces the devs are “pretty close” to launching Dr Mundo’s rework, and there’s an update on the upcoming Udyr VGU rework, too. For the full rundown, head to the League April 2021 roadmap here and be sure to check out our League of Legends patch 11.9 notes to see what’s coming up next for the game, as well.