It’s time to swing into action as Riot Games reveals Akshan: The Rogue Sentinel, League of Legend’s latest champion. Akshan was revealed as the latest champion across social media on July 7th, giving us details of the stealthy new character.
Akshan: The Rogue Sentinel is League of Legend's newest champion. Check out his abilities here! (Image via Riot Games)
The latest League of Legends champion looks like something straight out of the mouth of Scheherazade, a swashbuckling hero evoking the look of Aladdin or the Prince of Persia in his base splash art. First revealed as a character in the Season 11 Rise of the Sentinels update teaser, Arkshan is now set to make his debut as on the rift later this month.
Akshan’s Lore
Lore and details about Akshan are currently limited, but what we do know is contained in the Rise of the Sentinels video:
As the narrator of the video, Akshan reveals details about Viego’s back story and recaps Thresh, Senna and Lucian’s lore. He also lets slip that he’s able to resurrect people from the dead. And that the clearly humble champion saved the entire world.
Akshan Abilities
Akshan’s range of abilities are geared to do massive damage and give incredible utility for his team.
Passive: Dirty Fighting
A standard three-hit passive, every third attack Akshan deals extra physical damage and gains a shield. The third attack also triggers a second attack, similar to Lucian. However, if Akshan cancels this attack by moving or any other method, he gains a burst of movement speed.
Q: Avengerang
Akshan’s Q is his basic harassment ability. A ranged physical attack which extends in range each time it hits an enemy. Think of it as a Sivir Q or Gnar boomerang with more stuff going on.
W: Going Rogue
This is where Akshan’s kit really gets good. W first has a passive, marking enemies as “scoundrels” whenever they kill one of his allies. If Akshan kills this “scoundrel,” he gain bonus gold and resurrects any of his teammates killed by the scoundrel at the allied fountain.
As an active, W becomes camouflage for a short period, or indefinitely if he’s near terrain. This also grants him the ability to see trails leading directly to those marked as scoundrels. Think Twitch with Rengar ult vision.
E: Heroic Swing
E is Akshan’s swashbuckling mobility move. Firing a grappling hook that embeds in terrain, he can recast the ability to swing around. His E is a fantastic engagement or escape tool, as a second recast causes Akshan to jump in the direction of the shot and fire a final show. Shades of Camille. This ability also resets on kills and takedowns.
R: Comeuppance
Akshan’s ultimate ability is comeuppance. A channel which locks on to enemies, after releasing the ability or the cast completes a barrage of bullets. These strike the first object hit (minions, towers, champions) dealing physical damage based on missing health. Although this is a channel, Akshan can move and cast his E normally while using his ult.
Akshan Gameplay
A marksman designed specifically for middle lane, Akshan looks poised to make an impact in both solo lanes anyway. But the roguish champ could equally duke it out in bottom with a support, thanks to his range and utility.
Describing Akshan’s playstyle, the official Riot Games release described the desire to make a true mid-lane marksmen: “While champions like Lucian, Corki, and Tristana have seen play mid, none of them feel like they were made specifically for that position.” In their detailed ‘Champion Insights’ post they further described his purpose in the game. “We felt a marksman designed for mid would both add a unique champion to the roster and could also be pretty appealing to a lot of mid lane assassin and skirmisher players.”
Riot game design lead Jeevun “Jag” Sidhu went further. “When thinking about Akshan as a midlane marksman, I couldn’t help but think about how much I hate playing with them,” admits Jag. “Top lane, too! Either they kill their opponent at level two, snowball, and just carry the game and get all the credit… Or they fall behind and are totally nonfunctional. They don’t provide the CC a mage can, and they take longer to scale. Basically, solo lane marksmen can be terrible game experiences for teammates. I didn’t want that to be the case with Akshan. I love creating champions that remind players that working together is fun and has rewards… And it makes sense for who Akshan is as a person.”
Overall, Akshan is ready to take over the role of Corki, Ezreal, Tristana and Lucian, who’ve often take the role as midlaners, due to their ability to both win lanes, and roam and create problems. The champion offers a mix of the high-risk high-reward Assassin gameplay style, with the more measured and formulaic marksmen mid style. And perhaps, a pocked pick for AD players who find themselves auto-filled into the middle lane.
Akshan is due to release on patch 11.5, which is scheduled for release on July 21.
