League of Legends' Newest Character Naafiri Adds Twist to Assassin Gameplay

An updated roadmap for League of Legends focuses on the upcoming character Naafiri. While the assassin was first revealed earlier this year, the next champion for LoL will fundamentally change the role of assassin characters.

The development team at Riot Games presented a dev update for the remainder of 2023. Among the top focuses for the MOBA title is introducing Naafiri to players. While little is still known about the upcoming character, lead producer of gameplay, Ryan Mireles, revealed a bit more about the assassin, well assassins.

Who is Naafiri?

Naafiri is described as a champion for "people who like dark and scary monsters." Instead of another cat character, the team wanted to make Naafiri a monster that is meant to be easier to play as an assassin. To be more precise, the team describes her as a pack of assassins. So, it sounds like she may be a single champion made up of multiple other entities.

What does Naafiri do?

Where Mireles was featured in a video showcasing future features,  Lexi "Riot Lexical" Gao put together an entire post about Naafiri herself. As an assassin, Naafiri is meant to attack when enemies are weak. Players should prepare to get the upper hand on their opponents and use Naafiri wisely by striking when an enemy is hurt or running away. This also means players should focus on being creative and using the terrain to their advantage. She may not be the strongest but once she finds an opening, she'll hit hard and be able to run away to fight another day.

Upcoming Changes

To ensure she isn't too overwhelming for players, the team is looking into making her abilities more streamlined and less mechanical.  "We hope to lower the burden of that execution and allow much more concentration on the macro plays with Naafiri."

Her release will also impact how assassins, or at least how she'll work in League of Legends. Along with working on her, they've created new tech to utilize her unique skills in the game. In doing so, this could affect other champions upon her release.

What does Naafiri Look Like?

No one quite knows what Naafiri looks like yet. The roadmap ended without showing a single picture of the champion. Typically new champion teasers come with some sort of art but not this time around. Artist Ionia is working on a piece but it's not ready to be revealed quite yet.

While you wait for the art for Naafiri, you can check out the official League of Legends stat tracker. You'll find top leaderboards, rankings, and insights into characters.