League of Legends Roadmap Teases New Champions, Reworks

League of Legends players were surprised this week with another Champion Roadmap, and as is the case with most of these, we’ve gotten a nice mix of teasers for new champions and older ones that are in need of updates. Four new champions were teased, in fact, with two existing champions getting various updates in the future be they for visuals and animations or for gameplay overall. Some teasers were dropped in the Champion Roadmap as usual, too, to offer insights into what kinds of abilities new champs might have, but we still know only crumbs about the new characters.

New League of Legends Champions

The first new champion teased as Naafiri, a Darkin assassin who’s been talked about several times in the past. If you recall Riot teasing players with a picture of a dagger that has an eye, that’s Naafiri’s weapon. From the sound of it, it seems Naafiri may have some sort of canine or at least animalistic aspects to her.

“With the change to assassin gameplay that Naafiri brings, we also built a lot of new tech to accommodate her unique gameplay thematic that should help make it feel more alive, dynamic, and decluttered,” Riot said. “We’ll be sure to take time to paws and evaluate the results to see if there are other champions who could benefit from a more extensive dive into doge tech during her release!”

Another champion teased was Briar, a totally new character who appears to draw inspiration from a mythological creature suffering from “an uncontrollable hunger.” This champion is meant to be more of a diver and a skirmisher and hails from Noxus, but other than that and knowing that the champion’s all about eating others, not much else was said. The teaser below was offered, too.

Third, there’s the artist from Ionia. This champion is a midlaner, and he sure sounds like he’s a mage, but he had the least teasers shared in terms of what his abilities might look like. The phrase “highly complex execution” was used, however, which will likely manifest in his kit in some way later on.

Towards the very end of the Champion Roadmap, Riot teased one last “creature marksman who’s slowly hatching,” but that’s all that was said about that character.

Champion Reworks

Following our last look at Skarner, Riot unfortunately told players now that there’s no set date for when the champion’s rework will be ready. It’s not going to be this year, with Riot saying that the plans are to put out his update “early next year,” though there will be more updates on him in 2023.

Rounding out the champion reworks is Jax who’ll be getting an updated model, animation, VO, VFX, and new splash art. His gameplay will not be changing, however. Jax has been rising in popularity in the competitive scene to take on other top-lane champions like K’Sante and has always been a staple of normal play, so it makes sense that he’d be due for an update that’ll release later this year.