A new champion will soon be joining the League of Legends roster, Riot Games confirmed this week, and our first significant preview of the game’s latest marksman has us worried about the inevitable temper tantrums that Jhin will draw out of League of Legends’ least observant players.
Those who play League of Legends with any regularity is already well aware that Riot Games has been focused on the various marksman characters currently featured on the game’s roster. Prior to this week, that attention has come in the form of numerous character tweaks, delivered over the course of several League of Legends patches. But this week brought the introduction of the game’s latest marksman, Jhin, the Virtuoso, and the latest champion to join the League of Legends roster proves Riot is willing to make some interesting design choices to shake up the marksman category.
Here’s how Riot introduces the latest member of the League of Legends roster:
Jhin’s assembling his gun and orchestrating his grand entrance onto the Rift. He’s meticulous and calculating - League’s slowest marksman yet. But when the murderous artist gets you in his sights, when he catches you off-guard, there’s not much that’ll save you from an inevitable, perfect death.
Jhin’s passive ability, Whisper, is named after the marksman’s gun. Every four basic attacks, Jhin will need to pause for a moment to reload his weapon. But the last round in the chamber always crits and deals bonus damage based on the target’s missing health. Whisper also changes the way items affect Jhin, dumping all attack speed and crit chance gains into the champion’s attack damage instead. Critical hits also give Jhin a temporary movement boost.
Dancing Grenade will be troublesome for teams that rely on close proximity to be effective. After striking its first target, the grenade bounces to a nearby enemy and will continue to do so up to four times. Should the grenade kill anyone during the sequence, bounces that follow the death will deal extra damage; however, there doesn’t appear to be any way to increase the maximum number of bounces.
Deadly Flourish requires a bit more strategy to reach its full effectiveness. The skill gives Jhin a passive, which automatically marks any champion by Jhin’s basic attack, Captive Audience or any allied damage. Once the ability is activated, Deadly Flourish fires a single shot in a direction of the player’s choosing, damaging any enemy minions and the first enemy champion struck by the round.
Captive Audience is a trap ability, presumably designed to make it easier to line-up a shot up with Deadly Flourish. Enemy champions who activate the trap are instantly marked and surrounded by “a large slowing zone.” After a short delay, the trap explodes, dealing damage to anyone in the slow zone. And Curtain Call, Jhin’s ultimate ability, might be the strangest of them all. Once activated, Curtain Call reveals all enemy heroes in a massive cone. The player can then fire four shots, each of which slow the first enemy champion they strike and deal damage based on the target’s missing health. The fourth shot also deals “massively increased damage” and will always crit.
Given his slower-than-average speed, it sounds like Jhin will be deadliest against those who can’t be bothered to use the mini-map to keep tabs on enemy champions. Jhin isn’t going to be the marksman who pops out and takes you down in a handful of seconds. But, if the Virtuoso has time to set a proper trap, there might not be much you can do to escape.
As usual, there’s no word on when exactly Jhin will join the League of Legends roster. Typically, new champions are added to the game a few weeks after their champion reveal is published to the game’s site. For more on the latest addition to the League of Legends roster, take a few minutes to check out the full champion reveal. Then head down to the comments section and let us know what you think of the League of Legends next champion.
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