Riot Games finally teased League of Legends’ next champion, Naafiri and her Hounds of Iron, with a spectacular cinematic on June 21. In both lore and on the Rift, Naafiri is an assassin who stalks and attacks her target as a pack of Dune Hounds.
With the champion release coming soon, Riot has also released a Dev blog on her Champion Insight about how the champion is developed throughout the times.
Champion Insight Naafiri
There are a few principles that must be considered while designing a champion. Each champion must have a fleshed-out backstory, powers, appearance, and a niche in the game that is not already occupied by another champion.
The Darkin’s story begins similarly owing to their necessity to take mortal bodies in order to interact with the material universe.
She is, however, a pack of hive-mind desert dogs, as opposed to the other Darkin. And, contrary to popular belief, she is more than just the pack’s alpha. This champion embodies the whole pack, which is her distinctive trait.
Naafiri is a pack monster, and the developers intended to recreate the experience of commanding several units from RTS games while keeping the gameplay basic and easy to learn.
After creating the abilities, it became clear that the pack of hounds that comprise Naafiri would require new technology, allowing them to function more intelligently than Yorick’s ghouls.
So, when she is introduced, we may anticipate her gameplay to fall somewhere between AoE formations and quick-to-action mobility mechanics.
Aside from the reasons stated above, where Riot intended to emphasise dogs in League of Legends, there is another, more specific reason why Naafiri became a pack of dogs.
Most individuals, if not all of us, have experienced the dread of confronting a wild dog when alone, triggering our fight-or-flight reaction. The Darkin Assassin design is intended to evoke that precise emotion.
After all, assassins in League of Legends are feared champions, and Riot wanted players to be terrified of Naafiri. The frightening part is that we are not terrified of a single hound, but the entire pack.
After experimenting with numerous demonic dogs, linking Naafiri to Shurima felt like the greatest choice, and the primary influence for the dune hounds of Shruima were African wild dogs.
So prepare your fear, cause Naafiri is expected to arrive in League of Legends live servers in patch 13.14 on July 20.