New free champion rotation: Akali, Lucian, Viktor and more!

Riot·Jan 14, 2017·1 votes·24,357 views

Greetings Summoners!

Here are this week's free champions:

Akali - the Fist of Shadow

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Assassin

Evelynn - the Widowmaker

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Assassin

Secondary Role Mage

Ezreal - the Prodigal Explorer

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Marksman

Secondary Role Mage

Jax - Grandmaster at Arms

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Fighter

Secondary Role Assassin

Karma - the Enlightened One

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Mage

Secondary Role Support

Leona - the Radiant Dawn

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Tank

Secondary Role Support

Lucian - the Purifier

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Marksman

Singed - the Mad Chemist

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Tank

Secondary Role Fighter

Skarner - the Crystal Vanguard

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Fighter

Secondary Role Tank

Viktor - the Machine Herald

Attack

Defense

Ability

Difficulty

Primary Role Mage

Wondering how we picked this week's free champions? Read up on it HERE.

See you on the Fields of Justice!

69 Comments

72409691_DELJan 16, 201715 votes

Singed is finally free but where is Taliyah she hasn't free for 7 months already and also Kled

FlameKing101Jan 19, 20173 votes

I am also waiting for Taliyah but she never shows up. I really want to try her out!

The Last ZicaJan 16, 201712 votes

So how many weeks has it been since we've seen much of anything on the Support-being-underplayed and poorly-played issue? [slayer-jinx-unamused] I remain very disappointed we're back to no additional Supports; only 2 just isn't enough for good team compositions with the playerbase League of Legends has, ESPECIALLY WITH AUTOFILL ENABLED. While Brand and Blitzcrank were bad picks for the list, the rest of the list was pretty solid and made for better games IMO, especially Sona Sona and Taric Taric which are relatively new-player-friendly and don't lend themselves to stealing CS. While a full extra 10 isn't necessary, I think at least 2-6 extra slots to provide a better variety of Supports and account for the ever-increasing number of champions is a really good idea that should be implemented permanently.

I think simply fixing the # of champions in the free rotation at 10% rounding up of the number of total champions would strike a good balance going forward. 14 for now with 6 of the slots dedicated to serious Supports, rising to 15 sometime in 2017-2018 when champion 141 comes out. Probably keeping the % of Support slots roughly proportional... around 3/8ths perhaps? Attention should probably be given to ensuring there's always a tank Support, a heal-ally Support, a strong shield-ally Support, and a Crowd Control-heavy Support (it usually won't take 4 champions to fill all these slots since there's a fair bit of overlap, such as with Morgana being strong in both CC and shielding,) and that at least 2 of the 6 Support champions are highly new-player-friendly.

I believe this will strike a fair balance between consistently giving users enough options to play Support when they get Autofilled while still selling Support champions to people who grow attached to them. That's the main reason I'm not suggesting keeping the rotation at 10 Supports long-term (though I'd be OK with that) - there aren't really enough Support champions to fulfill quite so many without severely devaluing buying any of them. That is something however that needs addressing itself - there need to be more good Support champions in the next few new champions released! I do definitely want to see the rotation permanently raised at least a little from the previous 10 total to fit a greater variety of Support champions in and improve the average team comp. Either that or Autofill absolutely needs to be turned off, permanently, because attempting to force people to play Support when they'll just dodge because they have no good options handy and have no desire to spend IP/RP on buying any when they don't want to play Support in the first place is CLEARLY NOT WORKING and only further increases queue times due to dodges. The bottom-line is Riot needs to encourage people to want to play Support, not try to force them to. Autofill does not work, especially not without a lot of free Supports. Either the number of free Supports must be raised again or Autofill has GOT to go. At least some of the Supports should also be made available in Ranked unless Autofill is removed, too. Sooner or later Riot's going to have to address these issues, even though they decided to largely ignore it through the end of 2016. Remember, the rotation applies to Normal Draft Pick, where people practice and learn for Ranked, and which has assigned positions and Autofill.

NaymlissJan 16, 20176 votes

How the hell would that help people who play ranked?

The Last ZicaJan 16, 20174 votes

Read the post before commenting and you'd know. It's literally just a few lines above your comment at the moment.

SufyKappaSufyJan 16, 20174 votes

I agree with the bs autofill thingie, I usually do draft picks just to get the lane I wanted. I mean whats the point of doing draft, when you can't get the lane you wanted, and because of that, I have been accidently feeding since I get autofilled in to support. Blitz has almost always been banned and thats the support I have the most experiance with so if I get support and no blitz, its like we've lost the game. I usualy got top/jg and knowing that i can't get the lanes I am asking for just fkes me up real hard. And when you add the auto-fill thing they gotta make sure that the supports are all aready banned. As you said, we can't buy champs for a role we dont want to play, so they have to have the extra supports if they want to keep this autofill ish running. Its kinda bullshit and real gamers such as rossboomsocks and others are having bad games because of this auto-fill ish. this is really annoying. well said btw

The Last ZicaJan 17, 20173 votes

Thanks, and likewise.

shggfhdhJan 17, 20173 votes

Try out tahm, taric, or alistar. they have similar playstyles to blitz while not being banned. And if you need a healer, try raka. Shes very easy and I got her level 6 just from her being my back up for support. Just some reccomendations till the auto fill thing is fixed. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

NaymlissJan 16, 20173 votes

My point still stands.

"At least some of the Supports should also be made available in Ranked " No. The whole point of ranked is to play to win and to play to the best of your ability. If you play a champion you are new to in ranked, it essentially would be a throw on your end.

"Remember, the rotation applies to Normal Draft Pick, where people practice and learn for Ranked" People play blind pick to practice and learn for ranked. The only difference is the ban/ pick phase, which isn't really something that needs practicing, as a bunch of randoms don't really have much synergy as is.

The issue, if you could call it one, isn't the free rotation, it's the role in general. Right now the role only appeals to certain people, and it is a smaller group than other positions appeal to. We need to change this if we want more people to play the role. However, I believe it is fine as it is. If people really hate the fact they got autofilled, they can dodge. No big deal.

The Last ZicaJan 17, 20174 votes

And if you get filled to Support or some other role and have no champions suited to it? What then? And someone doesn't have to own a champ to have played it a fair bit when it was on rot before.

Why would you practice in Blind when Draft is closer to real Ranked in gameplay and still doesn't affect your rank?

Seriously, your point makes no sense. And dodges raise queue times.

NaymlissJan 20, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Last Zica,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=0x68XNid,comment-id=00030000000000010000,timestamp=2017-01-17T00:35:14.485+0000)

And if you get filled to Support or some other role and have no champions suited to it? What then? And someone doesn't have to own a champ to have played it a fair bit when it was on rot before.

Why would you practice in Blind when Draft is closer to real Ranked in gameplay and still doesn't affect your rank?

Seriously, your point makes no sense. And dodges raise queue times.

Ok? Que times are raised. Whoop dee frickin doo da. At least people are comfortable with their roles.

shggfhdhJan 17, 20171 votes

Since it won't let me comment on the next post, I will post it here.

When you que up for ranked, I agree that autofill is dumb af and needs to be fixed or have the option to reject autofill and accept the longer que time. Until that happens however, when you que up for ranked, I expect you to be ready to play ANY role it gives you. I know some people will disagree but its what you should be doing anyway if you want to improve... I bet you faker CAN play support or jungle. He just prefers to play midlane.

So, until the autofill "issue" is fixed, I expect every player to have at least 1 pick for each role. If you need ideas, as an adc main with top as secondary, my support tank is tahm, healer is soraka, midlane mage is veigar, midlane ad (if we have ap top and jg) is zed or if hes banned, I take corki, my ad jg is master yi, my ap jg is evelynn, and my tank jg is reksai or chogath.

This is just how any top laner should have a tank up their sleeve incase you get a caster support, and how any jg should have an ap backup incase you have an ad midlane.

HeureuxianaaJan 17, 20176 votes

just saying can you stop commenting this on every free champ rotation post

The Last ZicaJan 17, 20175 votes

Can Riot actually address the multiple points raised so I don't need to? I didn't write it for fun. I wrote it to try to get some problems solved in a constructive way.

Aeros SineJan 17, 20172 votes

Hi. :3 For the past few weeks or so, I've seen you around since probably the patch including permanent autofill. I read the message you are trying to convey to Riot, each time posted, thinking more fully on it.

I'm a relatively new player, since last year in August, I've stuck to support. I only had the cheaper champs such as Soraka or Annie so I played those and plus the f2p champions that were around. I grew fond of Soraka over time, even though I struggled constantly and still struggle today with support. I haven't really found a support that just "clicks", if you understand. Its primarily, "I need these skills, so I'm with you". Sona is my current support as I am low in the skills I need to improve and she has the ones I need as a beginner to become better. It not fun per se, its just doing the role.

A few more champions would be nice. Since I play support, I'm rarely autofilled. More support champs like Zyra would be good since she is at the high range of IP and will take a while to get, but reading your post, she leads herself to cs and for me, I don't know what I'm doing so maybe she isn't a good champ for me. Although, I'm not complaining. Just, commenting.

shggfhdhJan 17, 20173 votes

I just want to say good for you on adapting to the team (not many players nowadays do that when they should) and I want to propose an Idea that you gave me.

I think Riot should, instead of putting supports on free week, LOWER THE IP PRICE... I have been playing right in that range where I have tried almost every champ, but I don't own all of them. I own alot but not all of them. For supports that I wish were cheaper, the staple supports persay, would be tahm kench, thresh, and then maybe like Bard? Soraka is the starter healer, but the starter tanks are all easily countered or have almost no skill, just BE A MEAT SHIELD. That is the tank role for support tanks now. Riot has reworked some like alistar and taric but blitz is a hook bot that basically has 1 ability, and many other tanks don't work in support because they either need cs (nasus) or they have no "protective aspects" (tahm kench devour, taric's whole kit, even alistar has his passive). This has made me try out new "supports" like sion, malphite, even rek'sai. I look for champs with cc, and sustainability or raw tank stats. I have been flamed so many times for playing "off meta".

Now I'm rambling, sorry, but back to the point, I think riot should lower the ip cost or have more giveaways (tristana etc). I understand that these are newer champs but when you make it so that the new champs are making older tank supports pale in comparison, then you need to make it possible to get those with out saving ip for a month to get a 6300 ip champ.

FlameHalbrdOkidoJan 18, 20173 votes

people really need to get off this flaming for other's trying off meta stuff, sure there are trolls, but if u are earnestly trying something new that u think has a decent chance of working if peeps work together, then they should be more accepting, or at least more tolerant. League is supposed to be fun.

I am tired of how stale it can get, and thats not even RIOTs fault, its the players fault for so stubbornly sticking to and enforcing the meta instead of being ok with other's trying new things.

So go ahead and play ur Sion, Malphite and Rek'Sai. Additionally ALL 3 of those champs have a at least 2 things more to offer in the Support area that Brand, who for some reason is considered a Support and for some reason players are ok with that? All Brand has is a stun, a slow (on a long CD) and damage that is more likely to make hims KS. Those other 3 champs u named have tons more to offer.

So if anyone challenges u playing them as a support, ask them if they consider Brand a support, and if they do, pls tell them to SERIOUSLY reconsider their argument as to why u shouldn't play Rek'Sai, Malphite or Sion, because they are all pretty much better supps than Brand.

shggfhdhJan 18, 20172 votes

Thank you for being a good person.

Sincerely, KogMaw A kogmaw main

FlameHalbrdOkidoJan 18, 20171 votes

Annie Supp and Jhin ADC is disgusting to play against... You should try it some time, im sure it was tons of fun for the people on the other team

shggfhdhJan 18, 20172 votes

Another fun combo is jhin and morg. The root chains are fun. about 6 seconds of cc. Plus your ults combo pretty well too.

FlameHalbrdOkidoJan 19, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Another fun combo is jhin and morg. The root chains are fun. about 6 seconds of cc. Plus your ults combo pretty well too.

nice, id try that

FlameHalbrdOkidoJan 18, 20174 votes

there need to be more good Support champions in the next few new champions released!

agreed

Hungry CancerJan 18, 20174 votes

Thank you very much for making a rational argument and not just bitching about autofill because you don't like it. As a support main, I do however disagree with the point about getting autofilled to support being all but a guaranteed loss because people don't have viable supports, there are many cheap "meta" supports like Soraka, Janna, Annie, and Zilean that don't cost much to have on hand and are almost never banned. Also people tend to think that only Enchanters (Janna, Soraka, etc.)or wardens (Braum, Thresh, Blitzcrank, etc.) are viable as supports, but that's simply not the case, there are plenty of supports that can appeal to solo laners, like Brand, Zyra, Vel'koz, Sion, Veigar, Anivia and Annie who are great supports for solo lane mains, though some of these can be a bit tricky at first. I personally would love to see more people trying and learning "off meta" champs for any role because that's how the meta grows and evolves. One of the keys to a mage support is spellthief's edge which allows a support mage to farm by poking and fighting the enemy which I find way more enjoyable than last hitting. I personally main more damage oriented supports like the ones I just mentioned because for solo queue I prefer having the ability to carry if my ADC happens to suck or doesn't know what his job is as the ADC (destroying towers), and I like the "poke farm" style. So it is not hard at all to be prepared to play support, and it's very easy to have fun doing so especially with "off meta" champs and I fully expect anyone who queues up to be fully prepared to play any role. Just as a tip if you occasionally queue as a support to practice then your next game will not have autofill enabled so you're guaranteed to get your roles after a practice round as a support, which I feel is a great feature for encouraging more people to learn support. Sorry if my post was a little long or jumbled it's been a long day, but I just wanted to give my two cents and some advice.

Talon GerrardJan 17, 20178 votes

Akali Rip sideboob Evelynn Was rejected for the lead roll in the Now You See Me movies. Ezreal Ezreal as it gets. Jax A real weapon wouldn't help. Karma Shields for dayz. Leona Countered by sunglasses. Lucian Oh sure. Give the first black champ the driveby ult. Singed Deadliest game of tag you'll ever play. Skarner SKAR SKAR SKARNER! Viktor General Grievous?

5000000000000000Jan 16, 20176 votes

Fun 1v1 Rating Akali The two-hit passive means that carefully managing your passive and checking for the enemy's passive is key to winning trades. All-ins are not very likely to happen pre-6. I give her 2/5 fun for 1v1. Evelynn Avoiding Q and using keystones (I recommend Fervor or Thunderlord's) properly is key to Evelynn 1v1. The passive allows you to regenerate mana, and potentially ambush the opponent after tricking them into thinking you've backed. I give her 4/5 fun for 1v1. Ezreal Long range poke wars. Low waveclear means that they must split focus into farming/pushing and poking, and W-E combo in all ins can be very powerful. I give him 4/5 fun for 1v1. Jax Mostly stat check, but using E properly to get full damage off will be the key to this matchup. I give him 3/5 fun for 1v1. Karma She can poke but also shield, and they have the same range for the tether. It'd be similar to the Ezreal 1v1, except the range is shorter, and the poke damage can be shielded. I give her 1/5 fun for 1v1. Leona Nobody can proc the sunlight passive. Attacking while the opponent is stunned is how to win trades. No sustain and situational defensive steroid means all-ins are the only ways to go. Still, in an all in situation most of the damage is targeted, so I give her 2/5 fun for 1v1. Try doing a 2v2 with bots instead. Whoever gives their ADC a kill wins. I give this version a 4/5. Lucian This doesn't need explanation. 5/5 Singed This 1v1 requires a special setup. You can't just 1v1 in lane. Make it a proxy Singed 1v1, and whoever gets to a certain number of CS (higher than the standard 100 recommended) wins. Don't worry about kills. You know it's never going to happen. For lane 1v1, I give him 1/5 for fun. For proxy 1v1, I give him 5/5. Seriously, try this. Skarner Skarner is the strongest near the crystal pillars, but in lanes pillars don't exist. This means that Skarners can't fight at their maximum potential. The ranged slow into stun is the key to winning, and that's skillshot based? So I give him 3/5 for fun. Viktor Kinda like Karma 1v1, but actually decent. Choosing between pushing and poking at the right time, as well as using the shield properly (use it to both do damage and block damage) is important in this 1v1. I give him 4/5 for fun.

PaffWasTakenJan 17, 20171 votes

Ranks evelyn 4/5 for 1v1 and 2/5 for Akali http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/007/784/what-year-is-it-robin-williams.jpg

grarrrgJan 17, 20174 votes

Singed is finally off the list (for now), who's next? Taliyah > ~32 weeks since last free Xin Zhao > ~25 weeks Cho'Gath > ~21 weeks And, as usual, honorable mentions to Tristana and Alistar

God RaijinJan 17, 20173 votes

Evelynn DIFFICULTY LEVEL 10!?....Idk about that one....She has one of the simplest kits in the game

PureSilvrrJan 17, 20172 votes

Have you ever played evelynn? her kit is simple, but its hard to play her right

God RaijinJan 18, 20171 votes

Looking at my match history I have 37 games on her. Sure, I'm not saying she it the #1 easy champion of the game or something, But for riot to give her a TEN out of TEN difficulty, basically stating that she is in the elite upper echelon for difficulty of the champions that they have created is absurd. Go play Viktor Rumble or maybe Orianna at a decent level and tell me that eve is harder to play well than them.

PaffWasTakenJan 17, 20171 votes

It's kinda hard to play decently a champ that hasn't been anything near decent for the last 4 years...

God RaijinJan 18, 20171 votes

She's been plenty strong and "in the meta" many times over the last 4 years. She doesn't nesc stay there for long periods of time, but she seems to pop up when the current items favor her. For example right before the item 3152 nerfs she was seeing a lot more play. Also, Remember Runeglave?? That basically mini- item 3100 jungle item, she was very popular/good when that was around.

PaffWasTakenJan 18, 20171 votes

Runeglaive? You mean Ezreal mid meta right?

God RaijinJan 18, 20172 votes

yeah that item

KitsuneChaos18Jan 16, 20172 votes

Finally. Viktor is free. Time for some fun!

the weeabooJan 17, 20172 votes

Skarner - the most forgotten champion in League

PaffWasTakenJan 17, 20171 votes

...and actually the champion who holds the record of the longest time having the best %winrate in the game

AeszarckJan 18, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Skarner - the most forgotten champion in League

That is in fact correct; have you done this quiz? He's the most forgotten - I think Mordekaiser ranks just above him. Funny thing is, Galio gets memed about more about being forgotten that he actually gets remembered more than Skarner.

the weeabooJan 18, 20171 votes

That's what I was thinking. Galio and Urgot are receiving VGUs so they at least get some press. Last time I saw a Skarner or even saw him mentioned... months at least.

ReaGamJan 16, 20171 votes

is anyone else not able to play these champions?

grarrrgJan 17, 20173 votes

The are announced the day before, not the day of.

DbBested342Jan 17, 20171 votes

when is this live?

ReaGamJan 17, 20171 votes

should be today but i cant seem to actually play them or see them in the games free rotation

Zagger22Jan 17, 20173 votes

They are active on Tuesday

grarrrgJan 17, 20171 votes

Always announced the day before they become free.

Cösmic LightningJan 18, 20171 votes

Why does Rito decide that putting immobile champs (mid especially) against mobile champs for the same lane. This week Akali Akali vs Viktor Viktor , a few weeks ago TwistedFate TF vs Yasuo Yasuo , like is Rito challenged or?