Riot Games officially revealed the latest champion to enter League of Legends‘ now extensive roster, with Locke’s arrival on the scene set to shift things in the mid lane in a big way. Historically, very little disrupts the current meta in the MOBA quite as much as the arrival of a new champion, and Locke’s entry into the game could easily do just that once again.
So who is he, and what’s he all about? Well, in short and simple terms, he’s an assassin with a ton of burst potential, who should set up in the mid lane in a similar way to existing champs of the same ilk. While he doesn’t appear to have quite the same movement tech as a character like Akali, he comes complete with plenty of ways to get in and out of a fight quickly. It also seems like the skill floor may be quite high for those hoping to play him competently in lower ELO, though not so much that Bronze, Silver, and Gold players should avoid him entirely.
In terms of abilities, the full breakdown for Locke is as follows:
- Passive: Silver Stake – Locke pins enemies’ souls with his attacks dealing bonus magic damage On-Hit, increased based on the enemy’s missing Health.
- Q: Ritual Nails – Locke readies a set of Soul Nails to throw forward dealing magic damage, marking enemies hit. The nails apply a slow based on stacks. Attacking the enemy consumes the Soul Nails dealing magic damage per stack. Restores a portion of cooldown and mana for unspent Nails.
- W: Soul Ignition – Locke releases his own seals gaining Move Speed decaying over time. While this effect is active, he suffers % health true damage per second but heals back a portion of damage taken plus an additional amount based on missing health and time passed. The seals remain unbound for a few seconds and can be Recast to end early.
- E: Ashen Pursuit – Locke blinks to a location, dealing magic damage around him. After, his next attack dashes to his target dealing magic damage to all enemies in his path. Each of these hits consume Soul Nails. Cooldown resets on takedown.
- R: Purgatory – Locke kicks a binding artifact to a location that opens on arrival, shooting chained Soul Nails at enemies in the area dealing magic damage and slowing. Marked Champions that are brought below a threshold are pulled inside and killed. If a Champion is executed, the duration of the binding is reset on other affected Champions. After a few seconds, the artifact seals itself and is left on the ground if a Champion was sealed. If Locke picks up the artifact, he permanently increases the execution threshold and refunds a portion of his current cooldown for each Champion sealed.
The big, obvious thing here is the immense teamfight potential of that Ultimate ability. Those who are still convinced that Mel’s execute is overpowered may have similar feelings here, but the reality of the latter’s win rate in competitive games should alleviate any major concerns that Locke’s big salvo is too busted.
Locke’s E has shades of characters like Irelia or even Ezreal in terms of what it looks like to play, while a simple Q skill shot and a simple cast W complete what looks like a very well-rounded kit. Obviously there is still the potential for it to be massively overpowered on launch, but that’s much more likely to be a case of tuning, rather than anything built into the abilities themselves.
Locke is confirmed to be releasing into the game on June 24, as part of the 26.13 patch. The Ashen Exorcist certainly looks like one of the coolest additions to the roster in a long time, so expect to see it crop up a lot in your games over the first few weeks after his initial arrival into League of Legends.
- Released
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October 27, 2009
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
- Engine
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Proprietary
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer