Riot revealed a long list of brand new champions and updates in the latest Champion Roadmap earlier this month. Since then, we’ve been left to speculate on the possible and exciting new changes that are coming. What do we think Ezreal’s new W will be? Will Morgana keep her Black Shield? Speculating is all we can do, though, as the only official reveal since then was the newly updated duo of Nunu and Willump, who should come out later this week with Patch 8.17.
Lead champion producer Ryan “Reav3” Mireles added more kindling to the bonfire late last week by commenting on a post on the official League forums. It wasn’t just one comment, though. Reav3 kept going and going, answering the community’s questions and outlining what he believes are the best candidates for visual updates, full redesigns, and more.
Here’s a list of the champions mentioned in his comments, as well as what exactly he thinks each of them need. Take this with a grain of salt, however, as these comments merely reflect his opinions and observations and don’t confirm any concrete plans for updates.
- Blitzcrank
- Kennen
- Jax
- Veigar
- Morgana (confirmed)
- Udyr
- Corki
- Kog’Maw
- Ezreal (confirmed)
- Mordekaiser
- Volibear
- Quinn
- Fiddlesticks
- Nocturne (maybe)
- Skarner
- Cho’Gath (low priority)
It’s a long list and can be a bit difficult to digest at once—but keep in mind there’s a high possibility they won’t all happen, or at least they won’t all be completed anytime soon. For this amount of large-scale visual updates, and some gameplay updates, it would take Riot several years to finish at the earliest.
Some of the champions on this list are extremely exciting, particularly the high priority ones. Mordekaiser is the only champion left in the game with the dreaded pizza-shaped feet, and if that isn’t an indicator that he needs a new design ASAP, we’re not sure what is. Volibear has the potential to be a hulking behemoth, a Freljordian demigod, and right now he just feels like a goofy polar bear that has a Singed flip and a mini Garen ultimate in his bite. Don’t get us started on Fiddlesticks.
Reav3 did reveal something about Riot’s plans in this series of comments, despite them being mostly filled with his opinions. He said that next year’s design cycle is going to be split roughly 50-50 between updates and new champions. That’s closer to League in 2017 rather than this year, as 2018 has had a heavier focus on updating champions, instead of releasing new ones.
With Nunu and Willump’s update going live this week, we’re hoping to see the next confirmed updates soon. Those updates are going to Ezreal, Morgana, and Kayle, as per the Champion Roadmap, and we can’t wait.
