Riot Games just announced their newest champion for their long-running flagship MMOBA League of Legends - Naafiri: The Hound of a Hundred Bites. To accompany the announcement, Riot has released a gameplay trailer and a cinematic trailer to help get players hyped for the upcoming release.
Naafiri is introduced as one of the Darkin, ancient warlike demons who inhabit cursed weapons and possess their wielders. Naafiri is a mentally damaged Darkin who takes the form of a dagger, one day she possesses a pack of wild dogs rather than the normal sentient humanoid of other Darkin, this choice allows her broken and aggressive mind to heal while spread out in a hive mind-like pack.
So what is Naafiri like when it comes to mechanics? First and foremost, Naafiri is an assassin-like champion all about bursts of damage and life-stealing from damaging enemies. The design goal with Naafiri was all about making sure opponents should feel uneasy and fearful of an assassin sharing the Rift with them. For players that are interested in learning more about Naafiri, they can go to the Naafiri Champion Insights article or the Naafiri Abilities Rundown article. In addition, the full skill description of Naafiri's abilities and passive is listed below.
Abilities
Passive - We Are More
Naafiri creates a Packmate after an amount of time that will attack enemies that she targets for physical damage, which is increased after she uses an ability. Hitting champions with abilities or killing enemies reduces this ability’s cooldown.
Q - Darkin Dagger
Naafiri hurls Darkin-tainted blades, dealing physical damage and inflicting a bleed for a few seconds. This ability may be recast. If enemies hit are already bleeding, instead deal the remaining bleed damage plus bonus physical damage and missing health physical damage. If the target was a champion, Naafiri restores some health. Packmates will leap at the first target hit, prioritizing champions and attacking them for a few seconds.
W - Hounds’ Pursuit
After a brief delay, Naafiri dashes at an enemy, dealing physical damage and briefly slowing her target or the first champion she collides with. This ability gains range based on ultimate rank. Packmates become untargetable and dash alongside Naafiri, dealing additional damage per Packmate.
E - Eviscerate
Naafiri surges forward, dashing and dealing physical damage to enemies she passes through, then explodes outward, dealing additional physical damage. Packmates are recalled to Naafiri and are healed to full.
R - The Call of the Pack
Naafiri prepares to hunt, empowering her Packmates and spawning bonus Packmates for a short duration. Naafiri then gains a burst of out of combat Movespeed, vision, and the first time she hits an enemy champion, she gains a shield. On the first champion takedown, all ultimate effects are refreshed.
League of Legends is available on PC via the League of Legends website.
