No, that’s not some weird purple photoshop of the Eye of Sauron or Shuma-Gorath. That is Vel’Koz, the newest champion in League of Legends. While this looker was leaked awhile back with pictures of his abilties and descriptions of them, the official announcement today delves into his gameplay a little bit more.
From Riot’s description, he appears to be a glass-cannon, medium ranged, facemelting machine who is incredibly vulnerable to direct confrontation. With interesting skill shots that range from a beam that you can reactivate to shoot out at 90 degree angles, to a delayed explosion that can hit twice, Vel’Koz looks to fit the bill of a classic, high damage AP Carry.
However, outside of a circular skillshot knock-up ability and slows on his high usage Q ability, Vel’Koz is completely dependant on positioning and his team to stay alive in 5v5 conflicts.
Without the exact numbers on his abilities, it’s hard to say how “viable” Vel’Koz will be. In unorganized public matchmaking, I do not see him doing very well since mobility and burst damage are king. However, in more organized and higher level play, I could see his ability to pump constant damage and CC out being put to great use.
Being incredibly vulnerable to gap closers and burst damage, I see Vel’Koz having large issues with popular mid lane champions at the moment such as Gragas, LeBlanc, Zed and even Yasuo.
For more detailed descriptions of his abilities and general gameplay, be sure to check out Riot’s official post here!
