Samira, new League of Legends champion, abilities fully revealed

Today, Riot Games gave an official full reveal of the abilities for the latest League of Legends champion, Samira. Focusing on style and variety, the new champion has a lot to look at.

Samira, the Desert Rose

She's a boss with a blade and a master of gun fu. Think you'll be able to score those S-rank Style grades and cut your enemies down to size?

Learn how in her ability rundown ? https://t.co/S6sInrg7Ff pic.twitter.com/K6HvdoGV7j

— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) September 1, 2020

Samira Abilities

Known as the Desert Rose, Samira is a master of the gun and sword, using both melee and ranged attacks. Thanks to her passive, she boasts a skillset similar to Riven and Aphelios,

Samira Passive – Daredevil Impulse

Chaining non-repeating abilities (and basic attacks) increases Samira’s Style grade by one letter, from “E” to “S” rank. Every Style grade gives her bonus movement speed. Samira can also damage enemies at range with her guns or with her sword in melee range; the latter dealing bonus magic damage. Samira can also juggle enemies who are movement-impaired by her allies in the air, extending the displacement.

Arguably the most complicated part of the new League of Legends champion, Samira’s passive is what makes her identity. Introducing a new mechanic, Style, she grows faster with each attack. When attacking an enemy in melee range, she attacks with her sword instead, which deals extra magic damage. So while she can be played safely at range like an ADC, Samira works just as well close range.

Daredevil Impulse also provides an ability similar to Swain’s passive. Enemies who are movement impaired can be targeted to briefly knock them up.

Q – Flair

Samira fires a shot at her enemies directly when at range with her guns. Enemies in melee range will instead be damaged by a slash of her sword.

Her simplest ability, Flair lets Samira throw out a damaging skillshot. When targeting further away from her character, the attack is a simple ranged projectile shot. If players target in front of Samira, she instead slashes with her blade in a cone shape. Flair is best used as an auto-attack reset or poking tool.

W – Blade Whirl

Samira slashes the area around her with her sword, damaging enemies in the vicinity twice and destroying any enemy missiles in the area at cast and that enter the area after the fact.

Swinging her sword around in a circle, Samira damages enemies and destroys enemy projectiles. Blade Whirl works just like Yasuo’s Wind Wall. By negating any thrown abilities or ranged attacks, this will be what creates major outplay potential. The right timing can protect players from any dangerous crowd control or lethal ability. Understandably, Blade Whirl holds a long cooldown of over 24 seconds at rank 1.

E – Wild Rush

Samira dashes through an enemy or ally, dealing magic damage to any enemies passed through and gaining bonus attack speed for a duration. Takedowns of enemy champions reset Wild Rush’s cooldown.

Wild Rush is Samira’s mobility and lets her easily get in range of her targets. She can pass through both enemies and allies, making it more useful in the bot lane. Wild Rush also gives a boost in attack speed and resets cooldown upon a takedown. This is what will help Samira players pop off with combos after each kill or assist.

R – Inferno Trigger

Samira unleashes a torrent of shots from her weapons, wildly attacking any enemies around her 10 times over a duration. Each shot deals physical damage, applies lifesteal, and can critically strike. Samira can only cast Inferno Trigger if her current Style grade is at “S” (the max grade).

Compared to Reaper’s ultimate ability in Overwatch, Inferno Trigger creates a huge advantage for Samira. The ability applies lifesteal and can crit. On top of hitting all enemies up to 10 times, it’s possibly stronger than a Katarina ultimate. Inferno Trigger can only activate if Samira’s Style grade is at S. Maxing out her Style grade takes some skirmishing and attacks so players should watch out for long trades or fights.

In particular, Samira and her ultimate ability synergize very well with the Conqueror rune. Samira players will want to increase her Style to get the most value from her skillset and guide teams to victory. Longer trades and fights will do this, so taking Conqueror can bring the extra damage she may need.

Thankfully, the new champion Samira will be released later to where she won’t impact the League of Legends esports scene. With how complicated her kit is, players will need lots of to master her. The variety and utility her moves offer will soon make her a pick or ban champion. Fans are excited to see her in action after her release date.

Written by Justin Amin