Naafiri is the next champion coming to League of Legends, and Riot Games has released a very brief rundown of her abilities.
Riot Games revealed their next champion on June 21st, as Naafiri gets set to pounce into battle and tear her enemies asunder. “Alone I starved, but together we feast”, is the perfect line to sum up what is probably going to be one of the most intense junglers which we have seen in League of Legends for some time. Naafiri is not just a singular, but the Darkin hunts down her prey with a pack of ravenous dogs, working together in one hivemind to bring down any that stand in her way.
On June 22nd, Riot confirmed the abilities of Naafiri, giving us further insight into the pack-mind, and a time for her release too. Below is a brief rundown of her abilities, which all work together to chase enemies across the map – enemies who are more than likely about to meet their demise as soon as the howl of the pack is heard.
Passive – We Are More
Naafiri spawns Packmates that attack the targets of her attacks and abilities.
- This one is fairly basic but works well with the champion’s overall design. When the main champion attacks, the pack attacks or hits with an ability, the same target.
Q – Darkin Daggers
Naafiri hurls up to two daggers, each inflicting bleed, or each inflicting bonus damage if the target is already bleeding.
Packmates leap to attack champions hit by this skill.
- Chasing down champions seems to be the main aspect of Naafiri, and with this ability, she can constantly keep her pack on an enemy.
W – Hounds’ Pursuit
Naafiri and her packmates dash at an enemy, colliding with the first champion hit and dealing damage.
- Not only does this give Naafiri yet another way to stick on an enemy, or get into a fight, but this ability can also traverse small amounts of terrain – following champions that may attempt to escape with Flash or other abilities, similar to Warwick’s Q ability, Jaws of the Beast.
E – Eviscerate
Naafiri dashes and damages enemies in an area, recalling and healing her Packmates to full.
- Although we do not currently know what the health of the Packmates will be, this ability shows that they can be killed off, meaning that from the jungle, Naafiri will have a constant way to keep them healed up, while giving her good clear speed too.
R – Call of the Pack
Naafiri empowers her pack and spawns additional Packmates, gaining a burst of speed and vision and a shield when she attacks a champion.
On first champion takedown, all effects are refreshed.
- For an ultimate ability, Naafiri essentially hunts down her prey with a massive pack at her side. The range of the ultimate vision could be small, but this makes it similar to Rengar’s ultimate, where they can both hunt an enemy down – except a pack of hounds chasing you down is far more intimidating.
In the gameplay trailer above, you can see Naafiri’s abilities in action, chasing down enemies over terrain, as the pack joins her on the hunt. With their abilities announcement for Naafiri, Riot Games added that she would be coming out in patch 13.14, which should be released around the second half of July 2023.
