With over 150 champions in League of Legends and plenty more on the way, it’s easy to get lost in Riot Games’ plans for adding more characters to the popular MOBA.
These updates vary depending on what kind of changes the developer is introducing. Sometimes, it’s only a visual update; other times, Riot focuses on bringing a champion’s gameplay under the scope. And from time to time, it does both.
This approach allows the developer to constantly keep the game fresh. New champions shake up the meta and open additional gameplay opportunities for players, while the updates breathe new life into beloved champs without taking away their main aspects and mechanics.
Still, with multiple updates and new champs in development, the timeline of upcoming champion updates can get confusing. Don’t worry, though. If you’re looking for a list of changes to League champs in the future, search no more, as we’ve got you covered.
Latest new champion: Hwei, the Visionary
The latest legend to arrive in League of Legends was Hwei. He made his appearance alongside patch 13.24.
Hwei is arguably one of the most complex champions in the game, with numerous versions of his abilities. While that makes him incredibly fun to play, and his massive pick rate shows it, he still might need some tweaking from the developers. The Visionary has a horrible win rate of only 41 percent, the lowest, so far, across all the League champion roster.
Hwei is particularly potent in team fights, but not so great at staying alive on his own. Positioning and carefully choosing the appropriate abilities and when to use them will be especially important for anyone wanting to master Hwei.
The next new champion: Smolder, the Fiery Fledgling
At the beginning of 2024, Riot announced the first addition to League’s roster this year, Smolder.
The Fiery Fledgling looks and acts like he’s the cutest creature in the game, but his abilities are more than deadly. Contrary to Hwei, Smolder will feature a simple kit, making him a perfect fighter for many occasions.
Smolder is making his way onto PBE servers on Jan. 9, hinting that he’ll be launched in the second patch of the year, 14.2. This one is expected to be added to the game on Jan. 24.
The next, next champion: A Vastayan solo laner
In early 2024, Riot confirmed the champion following Smolder’s release will be a Vastayan solo laner mage, following its first tease at the end of the October 2023 Champion Roadmap. There’s almost no information to go on at this point in time, but we know it’s coming.
“Looking further out, there is another Vastayan solo laner not too far away in the alpine forest of the Freljord. Her passion led her to travel, discover, and investigate across her home. She has a natural ability to see what others think is not there. Not too many spoilers this time. Stay tuned!”
The reveal at the start of 2024 didn’t add much besides the fact it’s going to be a solo laner, mid-range mage. Therefore, if we’d have to guess, we’d predict it will be a mid-lane champion, but it’s all just speculation at this point.
The champion to be released in 2024: Ambessa Medarda
In the 2024 Look Ahead, Riot also confirmed an Arcane character, Ambessa Medarda, will be added to the game this year.
Hardly anything else was said about her addition, but looking at the first season of the show, we can make some guesses. Firstly, she hails from Noxus, so she’s expected to have an aggressive gameplay, like most champions from that region. On top of that, with Arcane season two release slated for November this year, we expect her to be shipped around the same time.
Next visual update: Lee Sin, the Blind Monk
The latest Riot’s Look Ahead shed some light on the upcoming visual updates. The first one to come out this year will be for Lee Sin, one of the original League champions, who is, more importantly, in a dire need of an upgrade.
Lee Sin’s new look is set to launch in May.
The next, next visual update: Teemo, the Swift Scout
Riot also updated players about the upcoming visual update for Teemo. The Swift Scout is still months ahead as the dev needs some more time to give him proper attention, but it’s on the way nevertheless. Riot also released a picture of the new Astronaut Teemo, proving the visual update is worth the wait.
Riot claimed it’s going to update us in the future regarding Teemo whenever it has more details.
Next champion rework: Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard
Skarner won January 2022’s VGU poll, with the community choosing him as a clear-cut favorite to receive a visual and gameplay update. Since then, Riot has been working tirelessly on updating Skarner’s looks and gameplay, which has obviously excited Skarner mains. Unfortunately, there’s still a small wait before its eventual release.
Skarner’s VGU has been said to be “ready for his release in the first half of this year.” That’s a lot to cherish for his mains and fans, since it will have been more than two years after Skarner won the VGU poll at the start of 2022.
In the developer blog from March 2023, the team revealed a bunch of issues when reworking the jungler, both gameplay and lore-wise. They underlined how they’re aiming to make him an exciting champion to play while still staying true to his identity as a scorpion. They also pointed out they wanted to rehash his lore and mentioned identity but have failed to find an idea on how to do that, at least up until the point of that blog being published.
Then, in the October 2023 Champion Roadmap, the team shared even more of the work that’s been done to Skarner. Calling him “The Problem Child Scorpion,” it seems that development of Skarner’s rework has certainly been a bumpy road. However, his complete revamp finally seems to be scuttling closer to release. Hopefully it will be enough to satisfy and revitalize Skarner mains.
The early 2025 champion rework: An unnamed champion from Arcane
In the latest Look Ahead, Riot revealed two other VGU’s are coming to League. The first one is for an unnamed champion who plays “a pretty big role in a show you might have heard about.” The show is obviously Arcane.
Nothing else was said about this champion VGU, so we’re all left in the field of speculation. There are 10 champions that make their way to the first season of the Netflix’s animated series. So, the list isn’t that big, and it goes as follows.
- Jayce
- Ekko
- Caitlyn
- Vi
- Jinx
- Ryze
- Heimerdinger
- Singed
- Viktor
- Warwick
Almost every one of these champions plays a major role in the first season, excluding Ryze, Warwick (unless you count Vander), and Singed. It narrows the field to seven, though, without any details, we can only make guesses.
The 2025 rework: Shyvana, the Half-Dragon
Last but not least, it was also confirmed Shyvana will be getting a VGU after the Arcane season one character VGU. “We’re thinking about refining and progressing who she is and tuning up her gameplay, instead of a complete overhaul of her narrative and themes. Think more Udyr and less Skarner,” the devs teased in the Look Ahead video.
Out of all three mentioned VGU’s, Shyvana’s will be the latest to release. Taking that and Riot’s workflow into consideration, we wouldn’t expect the Half-Dragon update to launch before mid-2025.
This article will be updated periodically as new information is released.
Published: Jan 8, 2024 04:15 am