ROADMAP

Poolparty Sauron·Jan 31, 2018·32 votes·11,038 views

Champion Roadmap: January 2018 - Nexus

YOOOOOOOOOOO ITS HERE

133 Comments

RetraukJan 31, 201832 votes

Wait. A new ADC, linked to the void. Swain's voicelines mention Kassadin's daughter might not be dead...

OH SHIT SON.

FasmodeyJan 31, 201828 votes

So Nunu is next after Akali.

Killaburn, before dying from adrenaline, do you have any words?

ModCaptainMårvelousJan 31, 201829 votes

No idea what you're talking about.

I'm super excited that they're changing Ryze's overload to a snowball. He would make more sense as a frost mage.

ChuShoeJan 31, 201810 votes

GAH YOU BEAT ME TO THE JOKE I WANTED TO MAKE.

KillaburnFeb 1, 20187 votes

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

I'M VERY HYPE AF !! THANK YOU RIOT! THANKS GOD! THANKS TO THE PEOPLE WHO'VE SUPPORTED ME THROUGH OUT THE WAY !

I DO HOPE THAT ITS ACTUALLY NUNU, I'LL BE SUPER MAD IF RIOT PULLED A SHEN OUT OF ME LOLS

PS: I'LL WRITE A GRATITUDE LETTER AFTER I COME HOME FROM SCHOOL.

RiotReav3Feb 1, 201811 votes

I was wondering where you were

warpenguin555Jan 31, 201810 votes

Prays for Akali to lose her triple jump ult Riot: LOL

OurLestradeJan 31, 20189 votes

Void ADC from the look of things?

SharjoJan 31, 20188 votes

Oh definetly. That's some clear Void/Icathia/Sai Khaleek imagery there.

Malicious MetalJan 31, 201815 votes

Kassadin's daughter perhaps?

Glory to GodJan 31, 20186 votes

My first thought when I knew it was a Void champion. It's also been confirmed it's a SHE, and with the Swain interaction... yeah. Chances are big with this one.

Chromatic EagleJan 31, 20181 votes

Where did they confirm gender?

Glory to GodJan 31, 20182 votes

I believe it was on reddit, don't remember the source though. (And Redmercy with SpiderAxe refer to the champ as a she so)

Seba7290Jan 31, 20183 votes

{quoted}

Void ADC from the look of things?

Kassadin's daughter is my guess. They referenced her in Swain's VO for a reason.

Malicious MetalJan 31, 20187 votes

Called it. It's Akali.

Poolparty SauronJan 31, 20188 votes

bloodthirsty, greatsword-wielding Warlord.” We want Aatrox’s attacks and abilities to feel very heavy and powerful while still maintaining the duelist nature of a sword master

Well looks like you have someone to tie you over till Mord gets his turn ay :D

Malicious MetalJan 31, 201812 votes

You know what I feel is going to be really problematic down the line?

Mordekaiser's many themes being used in other VGU's.

Yorick got his Necromancy shtick

Swain got the whole soul-eating with his passive

And Aatrox is gonna be the Warlord with heavy weapons

Like, what's going to be left for Morde once it's his turn?

Poolparty SauronJan 31, 20186 votes

Giant Warrior clad in armour using all of the above mentioned Srsly thou i have no idea what they could use for Mord. Im sure Champion team will pull something out of their ass

MordepoolJan 31, 20186 votes

[{quoted}](name=Malicious Metal,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=V3ixEAPU,comment-id=000500000000,timestamp=2018-01-31T19:23:11.785+0000)

You know what I feel is going to be really problematic down the line?

Mordekaiser's many themes being used in other VGU's.

Yorick got his Necromancy shtick

Swain got the whole soul-eating with his passive

And Aatrox is gonna be the Warlord with heavy weapons

Like, what's going to be left for Morde once it's his turn?

Not thinking he'll get a turn bro

Malicious MetalJan 31, 20189 votes

Honestly, I lost all hope at this point. Part of why I decided to drop Mordekaiser for good.

It's just really disheartening, especially after the mess that was the Juggernaut update. It's been THREE bloody years already.

Poolparty SauronJan 31, 20185 votes

aw cmon ;-; The darker the night, the brighter the stars ^-^ Braum

FasmodeyJan 31, 20183 votes

All of them?

Kayn and Thresh collecting souls did not stop Swain to have one.

He can ONLY have redundant themes but in the end he would still be unique. And I have no doubt he will have at least 1 unique feature because in this era of LoL, that's how it works.

GreenLoreJan 31, 20182 votes

I'm pretty sure that Death knight and evil Overlord are still going to remain his themes.

I mean Yorick was already a necromancer before his update,

Aatrox was always supposed to be a demonic warlord(I remember that a lot of times rioters called his theme "demon commander")

And I always interpreted Swains current passive as Beatrice feeding on the souls of his victims.

RiotReav3Jan 31, 201822 votes

Morde is a Mace-, Death Knight, which is totally different then a greatsword, Warlord

ModCaptainMårvelousJan 31, 20186 votes

Aatrox = Blood DK Morde = Unholy DK

But who would be frost?

Malicious MetalJan 31, 20186 votes

Tryndamere VGU

CetriJan 31, 201816 votes

Pretty sure Willump is the frost Donkey Kong.

~~im sorry~~

SukishooJan 31, 20186 votes

Akali <3 and that Nunu tease <3

Late For TeaJan 31, 20185 votes

Great, a high risk-high reward ADC, a nightmare to balance. The issue with these champions is that the risk is significantly decreased for one-tricks who have a great proficiency with the champion. In their hands such a champion will blatantly become broken.

With ADCs already in such a terrible spot (balance wise), is this really the direction you want to be going Riot? Seems like Riot has given up on bringing any semblance of balance to this game.

SeaChangeJan 31, 20184 votes

I think theres a mechanic in their kit that punishes you fucking up though.

FlemmanJan 31, 20185 votes

the new champ sounds like quinn to me, another duelist marksmen impossible to balance betwenn overbearing when ahead and useless when behind [sg-janna]

Onkel MalteJan 31, 20184 votes

Well Irelia is next up and they got a fixed plan for her, that's good. Akali is getting a GP/Tristana Treatment so I might think that the update won't take the usual 6 months like the other VGUs The new marksman is probably Void-Related. Aatrox is finally in the works. Nunu is next up for the VGU slot.

I hope for Mordekaiser Update the most, to be honest, since I wanna have more Noxus related lore.

GreenLoreJan 31, 20183 votes

Looks like the next champ is gonna be void-related marksman(because lets be honest here,that is definetly a void rift in the image).

Irelia seems to get a pretty big overhaul to her kit after all,which honestly isn't very surprising as her current one barely used her "levitating blades"-theme at all.

Also we now know that Akali is the next VGU and after her will most likely come Nunu (I mean they did post a picture of a snowball after all).

It looks like they'll try to add some unique themes to Akali(judging by the picture she might be themed around smoke) and don't change her lore that much(granted her current lore has almost nothing in it,so there isn't really much to change)

From what we've heard so far,this would mean that there are only 1 or 2 spaces for another VGU this year left(kinda hope its gonna be Kayle and Morgana )

FasmodeyJan 31, 20184 votes

Or u mean, Mordekaiser, cuz Harrowing, cuz ughm, death and pain?

I know Harrowing is not necessary for a Mordekaiser VGU but that would the best for Mordekaiser IMO. As I remember, they released Yorick close to Harrowing too.

GreenLoreJan 31, 20181 votes

Well Yorick came roughly a month before the harrowing and Eve came roughly a month later,so it would definetly be fitting(and honestly I wouldn't be sad if we got a Mordekaiser rework,because I am looking forward to that too).

However we pretty much know already what to expect from a Mordekaiser VGU,after all Mordes lore got updated already and the direction seems pretty solid.

Meanwhile Kayle and Morgana have more or less no lore at all and riot will probably be unable to make any angel-related champions until they updated these 2.

FasmodeyJan 31, 20181 votes

But that is same for Akali too. Look at Akali, they are officially saying narrative wise it will be not a new Akali, just a expended one. As i would expect from Mordekaiser.

They are going with which theme we have the best in our hand right now than which champion needs the most.

GreenLoreJan 31, 20185 votes

There are 2 differences between the update for Akali and the one for Mordekaiser:

1.Morde has a pretty solid theme already,he is a death knight and an evil overlord.Those are cool fantasies that he doesn't share with anyone else in the whole roster.Meanwhile Akalis current theme is that she is a "ninja assassin" as riot stated it,which isn't really unique considering that Zed is pretty much the same thing only with the added bonus of using shadow clones as well. This means there will be a new element to Akalis theme that we don't know about yet(judging by the teaser it might be smoke related)

2.Mordes lore is far more detailed than Akalis,it gives us a lot of insight about his life before and after death,as well as his plans and goals.Meanwhile Akalis lores is one of the blandest in the entire game,its essentially just "she was trained by her mother and succeeded in her role as the fist of shadow". They can pretty much invent a new lore for akali and just add it on top of the old one,that'd be no problem.

DªyJan 31, 20183 votes

God its going to take forever till they get back to redoing Shen after they said they were unsatisfied with his thematic... I really cant wait a set amount of years.

TheySeeMeWardinFeb 1, 20182 votes

Imagine being a Karma main....

rip john shelbyJan 31, 20182 votes

CertainlyT makes Akali ^-^

Jeddy017Jan 31, 20181 votes

Okay, let me take a swing at guessing release windows. Please note: these guess are based on the idea that things run smoothly. There is a chance sonething could happen that delays Rito's work.

The new champ will likely be out in 1-2 months. Not to hard to guess that.

I still expect Irelia to be out in the Spring. Early spring if I have to be more specific.

For Aatrox , it's a bit harder. It sounds like they have a solid direction for his kit now. The fact that it's gameplay only means it shouldn't take as long as a VGU. But it's still going to require some time & I don't know how far along they are. Within the next 5 months at least.

Akali will likely be out sometime during the 2nd half of the Summer. Maybe a little later depending on how production goes.

Nunu (I'm 99.9% sure it's Nunu) will be out around the fall.

Welp, I made my most likely incorrect guesses.

Xodiathe4bdn1Jan 31, 20182 votes

There still three new champions and 2 VGUs that need to be considered in this guess

BrutusnessJan 31, 20181 votes

So will this ADC be Kass's daughter, or a straight up Void monster? Any bets?

GreenLoreJan 31, 20182 votes

While I hope for a void monster I think it is actually likely going to be Kassadins daughter with the recent comment on that from Swain.

SeaChangeJan 31, 20183 votes

Is that ONE quote the only reason everyone thinks it'll be her?

Warlord DienekesJan 31, 20181 votes

Woo, get a few more months with my main.

Poolparty SauronJan 31, 20181 votes

What main are we talking about?

Warlord DienekesJan 31, 20181 votes

The Spartan Pantheon

Valor BotFeb 1, 20182 votes

Probably another year, actually. We already know there are gonna be six VGUs this year, and most of them have already been confirmed: Swain, Irelia, Akali and Nunu (with the remaining two likely being Kayle and Morgana due to their appearance on Riot’s WAD files, and champion designer August confirming one of them as a female VGU). So, another year with your Spartan man, at least.