League of Legends’ newest champion can chain together one kill after another

It’s been a while since League of Legends had a new Yordle, but with its latest champion, Riot is finally bringing Runeterra’s tiny residents back to the roster. League of Legends’ newest champion is Vex, and she’s a Yordle mage with an attitude.

Vex is an emo Yordle, whose too-big sweater has too-long sleeves for her to drag as she walks. She’s adorable, and her emo nature makes her the perfect antidote to the rest of the overly friendly Yordle population. Part of her general gloom seems to be caused by her Shadow, a sentient force that’s always following her and does her bidding. Think of the shadow a little bit like Venom (from Spider-Man, that is).

As for her gameplay, Vex is (thankfully) a lot more straightforward than some other new League Champions. Her simple ability set seems to leave a ton of room for creative play.

Vex is a mage Champion, which means she is all about casting high-impact spells. In this case, that means doing a lot of damage. Vex has three different damaging abilities, which all do area-of-effect damage and interact with her two passives — which are, naturally, called Doom and Gloom.

Doom causes abilities to periodically fear enemies, while Gloom marks them with a damaging ability that Vex can detonate if she hits them with another ability. Vex also gets a particularly scary Ultimate ability that throws her Shadow out to an area. If Shadow hits a champion, Vex can recast the ability to have Shadow pull her to it. If the champion hit by Shadow dies shortly after that strike, then Vex can use her Ultimate again for a short time.

Vex will be released later this month in patch 11.19, after a short test period in League of Legends’ Public Beta Environment. But before she arrives, here’s a look at all of her abilities:

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Vex full ability kit

Passives

Doom — Periodically, Vex becomes empowered by Doom, causing her next basic ability to interrupt dashes and Fear enemies.

Gloom — Whenever a nearby enemy dashes or blinks, they becomes marked with Gloom. Vex’s next basic attack against a marked enemy detonates the mark dealing bonus damage and refunding part of Doom’s cooldown.

Q — Mistral Bolt

Vex launches a wave forward, dealing magic damage to enemies it passes through. After a short delay, the wave accelerates but has reduced width. Mistral Bolt detonates Gloom on any marked enemies it hits.

W — Personal Space

Vex gains a shield and emits a shockwave, dealing magic damage to enemies around her. Mistral Bolt detonates Gloom on any marked enemies it hits.

E — Looming Darkness

Shadow flies to a location, increasing in size as it travels. On arriving, Shadow deals amgic damage, slows, and marks enemies hit with Gloom.

R — Shadow Surge

Shadow flies forward, marking and dealing magic damage to the first enemy champion hit. Vex can then recast this ability to have Shadow pull her to the marked target, dealing additional magic damage. If the marked target dies within a short time of taking damage from Shadow Surge, Vex can cast Shadow Surge again within a few seconds.