Meet Rell, the latest Champion to make her way into League of Legends from Riot Games. One thing is for sure is that she’s no dainty princess.
Rell, also known as the Iron Maiden, has a horrific backstory that proves her resistance. According to Riot Games, she is “the product of brutal experimentation at the hands of the Black Rose. Rell is a defiant, living weapon determined to topple Noxus. Her childhood was one of misery and horror, enduring unspeaking procedures to perfect and weaponize her magical control over metal until she staged a violent escape, killing many of her captors in the process.
“Now branded as a criminal, Rell attacks Noxian soldiers on sight as she searches for survivors of her old “academy,” defending the meek while delivering violent death to her former overseers.”
But who is Rell in terms of League of Legends? She’s a new Support character with connections to LeBlanc and Samira. Hailing from Noxus, the powers behind her capture have labeled her as a dangerous criminal. Even the Trifarion Legion is worried about her should she come after them.
Did we mention that she’s also only 16 years old?
A story bred for vengeance and justice, Rell is an incredibly interesting addition to the growing Champion roster, but what does she bring to the table play-wise?
While a Support character, Rell is incredibly powerful (which is nothing new for Support) and she is built to lead. Check out her abilities set below to catch a glimpse at how she plays:
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Passive – Break the Mold
Rell attacks very slowly but temporarily steals a portion of her target’s Armor and Magic
Resist dealing bonus damage based on the amount stolen. Additionally, Rell can siphon resistances from multiple different foes to grow extremely tanky.
Q – Shattering Strike
Rell stabs forward with her lance, breaking any shields and damaging all enemies hit (damage decreases after the first target). If Rell has an ally bound with E – Attract and Repel, she and that ally recover health for each champion hit by this ability.
W1 – Ferromancy: Crash Down
(Can only cast while mounted) Rell leaps into the sky and transforms her mount into heavy armor, gaining a huge shield that lasts until destroyed or remounting. Upon landing, she knocks up all enemies around her. Rell can cast E – Attract and Repel and R – Magnet Storm during the transformation.
Rell has increased durability, low movement speed, and a movement speed cap while in armored form. After the transformation, this ability changes to Ferromancy: Mount Up.
W2 – Ferromancy: Mount Up
(Can only cast while in armored form) Rell rushes forward and transforms her armor into a mount, gaining a burst of movement speed. During her next attack, she charges her target to deal bonus damage and flip them over her shoulder.
Rell has increased movement speed while mounted. After the transformation, this ability changes to Ferromancy: Crash Down.
E – Attract and Repel
Rell magnetically binds a piece of her armor to a target allied champion, granting them bonus Armor and Magic Resist while nearby.
Rell can recast this spell to break the bind and stun all enemies around and between her and her bound ally.
R – Magnet Storm
Rell erupts in magnetic fury, yanking nearby enemies toward her. She then creates a gravitational field around her, pulling nearby enemies in for a few seconds. The field doesn’t interrupt her enemies’ other actions.
“We really loved the idea of creating a tanky support. It’d been a long time since we’d made one—Braum was actually the last,” says senior concept artist Justin “Riot Earp” Albers. “But unlike Braum, we wanted her to have a darker past and personality. I explored a few different options, but everyone was really attached to the metal bending concept. After we landed on that, we just had to decide where Rell came from.”
“The Black Rose, who run Noxus’ clandestine operations, are interested in some horrible things to further the empire’s expansion and power,” explains narrative lead Jared “Carnival Knights” Rosen. “Demon calling, Void magic, resurrecting and controlling dead gods… A little of this, a little of that. And one of the things this group of crappy 1000-year-old aristocrats have discovered is sigil magic, which has the ability to rip the magic out of living things and then forcibly put it into someone else.”
With each foe taken down, she grows stronger. Rell is the “ultimate weapon,” something that the devs had a lot of fun with. “The magic from the other kids is placed into Rell with the sigil magic, which empowers her own latent powers,” explains Riot Earp. “But the process is incredibly painful, for both Rell and the other students. I focused a lot on adding the sigils to her arms—especially the one that holds her lance—to make sure it’s clear when playing her. I wanted the pain that she underwent to be clear to players, so they understood her past.”
“I wanted to make Rell the tankiest tank the world has ever seen. I had this idea of a heavily armored character who sunders the ground she walks on, making the earth beneath her collapse from her might,” says game designer Stash “Riot Stashu” Chelluck. “Unfortunately that’s hard to display in League, and I still needed to make sure she thematically felt like she was manipulating metal. I was looking for neat ways to map her ferromantic powers into her gameplay, to really make her feel powerful and hard hitting without feeling like a mage.”
With such a twisted backstory, the reason behind her mount is actually a little more light-hearted. The first thing I thought of when I heard Rell was a teenager and had a mount was a coin-operated horse ride—like the ones outside of grocery stores,” recalls davehelsby. “I’ve seen teenagers ride them a lot. And it’s so interesting because you see a person on the cusp of being an adult, but there’s still a bit of kid in them. I just feel like that made sense for Rell. She has a lot of adult responsibilities on her shoulders, but she’s still a kid, and she deserves a little fun.”
Rell will be joining the League of Legends roster as the newest Champion with patch 10.25.
