League of Legends has officially revealed their newest champion. Meet Vex, a Yordle mage designed to keep those pesky dash spamming champions under control. Vex was first teased in the Champions in Season 2021 development video at the very start of the year. Riot Reav3 describes her as a “gloomy artillery mage” who dislikes all of the skill shots, dashes, and hyperactivity around Summoners’ Rift.
Our next teaser for Vex came in the April Champion Roadmap post where her paragraph was headed with “Life Can Be So Vexing.” In this article, Riot mentions that Vex was originally planned to release before the new marksman, now known to be Akshan. However, her kit took more time to develop as a result of tech limitations and a shift in class from artillery mage to classic mage.
A couple of months later, the first images of Vex were shown to the world via the Sentinels of Light event storyline. As promised, she appears to be the first Yordle champion released since Kled way back in mid-2016. She looked to be a darker take on Yordles who was involved in the Ruined King story due to her relationship with Viego and his Mist.
Vex’s first appearance was in the Sentinels of Light story event. (Image Credit Riot Games)
Fast forward to September 2 and Riot has released the first gameplay trailer for Vex. As it turned out, the tech limitations were due to her use of shadows and how the League of Legends engine handled them. Vex’s shadow appears to be an independent entity, acting as everything from her auto attacks and spells, to her homeguard animation and taunts.
Vex Abilities
This exciting first look at Vex’s kit provided a number of insights into what her abilities would end up being. We can see skill shots, damage marks, area-of-effect damage, a fear on two separate spells, and an ultimate that allows Vex to jump around with reset potential. On September 7, Vex’s official ability reveal was released.
Passive – Doom N’ Gloom
Doom: Periodically, Vex becomes empowered by Doom causing her next basic ability to interrupt dashes and Fear enemies.
Gloom: Whenever a nearby enemy dashes or blinks they become marked with Gloom. Vex’s next basic attack against a marked enemy detonates the mark dealing bonus damage and refunding part of Doom’s cooldown.
Q – Mistral Bolt
Vex launches a wave forward, dealing magic damage to enemies it passes through. After a short delay, the wave accelerates but has reduced width. Mistral Bolt detonates Gloom on any marked enemies it hits.
W – Personal Space
Vex gains a shield and emits a shockwave dealing magic damage to enemies around her. Personal Space detonates Gloom on any marked enemies it hits.
E – Looming Darkness
Shadow flies to a location increasing in size as it travels. On arriving, Shadow deals magic damage, slows, and marks enemies hit with Gloom.
R – Shadow Surge
Shadow flies forward, marking and dealing magic damage to the first enemy champion hit. Vex can then recast this ability to have Shadow pull her to the marked target, dealing additional magic damage. If the marked target dies within a short time of taking damage from Shadow Surge, Vex can cast Shadow Surge again within a few seconds.
Vex Gameplay
Overall, Vex has a simplistic kit. Her abilities are all able to be explained completely in just a couple of sentences, unlike many of the recent League of Legends champions released. The only intricate part of her kit comes with her passive. Champions like Yasuo or Irelia have the potential to receive tons of extra damage and crowd control against a Vex constantly proccing Doom N’ Gloom. Vex will be at her best when there are enemies constantly dashing around her.
Additionally, the fact that Vex can proc her Fear on any of her basic abilities means that she can bring a lot of utility to a team. A Doom empowered Personal Space can be amazing disengage for a backline comp. A Doom Mistral Bolt can be used for chasing down a pick. Even a Doom Looming Darkness makes great follow-up engage when placed on a crowd-controlled target.
With all of the dashes and mobility present in modern-day League of Legends, Vex is a very nice addition that will likely receive her fair share of play time. Her unique personality to the game and her place in the lore should also help to amass popularity among the player base.
Vex will be hitting the PBE in the coming weeks. Her official release date is not yet final. Check back at Hotspawn for more information on League of Legends‘ newest champion as it becomes available.
