Summoners are gradually becoming acquainted with Briar, the hungriest contender in the League of Legends roster. This distinctive diving jungler is bringing a slew of innovative mechanics to Summoner’s Rift, including an almost-global ultimate ability that effortlessly whisks you across the map to your next target.
League of Legends Champion Insight: Briar
In a recently published developer blog, several Riot Games developers delved into the genesis of Briar’s character, her initial prototypes, their preliminary forays into her lore and champion blueprint, and even some discarded concepts for abilities.
As an instance, Briar’s original ultimate power possessed a passive facet enabling her self-revival, like Aatrox’s former design. In this iteration, she would absorb vitality from surrounding enemies, ultimately reviving herself with a substantial amount of health.
“At one point she had a revive, similar to old Aatrox,”
However, the ability featured an added active component: Briar would inflict an astounding one million units of true damage upon herself, leading to her death, consequently triggering the revival passive, and sapping health from nearby enemies.
This configuration resulted in an exceedingly overpowered “suicide-self-revive-wombo-combo,” particularly when coupled with her formidable Blood Frenzy state. Consequently, developers recognized the necessity of altering or altogether discarding this ultimate ability.
Even in her existing ultimate state, Riot’s developers acknowledged the need to eliminate its genuine global range. This was due to the potential for Briar players to launch the projectile into the opponent’s base, forcing the champion to meet their end within the adversary’s fountain.
This adaptation ensures that her new ultimate still offers unique engagement opportunities from virtually any location on the map, while safeguarding the players from self-inflicted harm.
Interestingly enough, August Browning, Riot Games’ champion designer, also unveiled that Briar’s insatiable nature would drive her to even attack her own teammates. One of her abilities, Blood Frenzy, compels her to relinquish control and assail the nearest foe unrelentingly—an unprecedented effect among champions.
In her old design, she posed a greater challenge to balance, as her Blood Frenzy would indiscriminately impact allied champions, permitting her to initiate killing sprees among any player.
Swiftly, developers realized that while this concept held intrigue, it could foster more vexation than opportunities for showcasing skill. Consequently, they opted to mitigate her potency by reshaping the ability to solely target enemy champions.
In conclusion, the League community has largely embraced the arrival of the new champion, Briar, on her first day of reveal. Her distinct abilities truly set her apart from the rest of the roster. Hopefully, things will turn out well when the champion goes live.