Naafiri The New LoL Champion: Release Date, Abilities, Lore & More

The next League of Legends champion is going to be none other than Naafiri, who we know will be the first female Darkin on Summoner's Rift. She is also set to become a monster champion, something we haven't had in ages.

Recently Riot have also expanded the world of the Darkin across all their IPs with a huge influx of Darkin champions in Legends of Runeterra as well. But today we're going to talk about the only one we care about and that is none other than Naafiri.

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Naafiri - New LoL Darkin Champion: Everything We Know

Will Naafiri Be Human?

We know Riot is working on a monster champion. Sure, we all thought Bel'Veth would be that monster/creature champion, but she was once again a human-esque creature champion.

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Therefore, many believe Naafiri to be that monster champion we've all been waiting for. In the newest trailer she did show up as a pack of hounds, so this fits perfectly. Unlike Yuumi who was a cute little kitten, Naafiri is going to be a beastly creature from the Shuriman desert.

Is the upcoming Darkin going to end up on our list of annoying champions...?

What Will Naafiri Look Like?

In her trailer released on June 21, 2023, we can clearly see that Naafiri is going to be some form of hound from the desert. We can see how she hunts alongside her pack after they swallowed her Darkin blade. Overall, her design is going to be quite interesting.

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We can see daggers growing out of her fur, so this could signify some form of transformation as well. She is the biggest of all the hounds in her pack as well, which could indicate that she might be the biggest, since well we will likely be controlling the alpha of the pack and not each hound individually.

New Darkin Champion: Abilities

Naffiri's abilities have been revealed already by Riot and they look absolutely insane. She is going to be a mobiel assassin similar to Talon and extremely easy to play.

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Icons	Ability	Description
	Passive - We Are More	Naafiri spawns Packmates that attack the targets of her attacks and abilities.
	Q - Darkin Daggers	Naafiri hurls up to two daggers, each inflicting bleed, or each inflicting bonus damage if the target is already bleeding. Packmates leap to attack champions hit by this skill.

Thanks to her hounds she is going to be able to attack from afar with ease. Her Q simply has to land for her to do decent damage without doing too much. Her Q also causes her enemies to bleed.

Icons	Ability	Description
	W - Hound's Pursuit	Naafiri and her packmates dash at an enemy, colliding with the first champion hit and dealing damage.
	E - Eviscerate	Naafiri dashes and damages enemies in an area, recalling and healing her Packmates to full.

These are the abilities that give her all the mobility she needs. She is an assassin after all.

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Icons	Ability	Description
	R - Call of the Pack	Naafiri empowers her pack and spawns additional Packmates, gaining a burst of speed and vision and a shield when she attacks a champion. On first champion takedown, all effects are refreshed.

Her ultimate is a huge buff. It can also reset the speed and vision buffs. Sounds unfair, right? But every League champion these days has a reset in their ultimate.

Do We Know Anything About the Darkin Champions Lore?

Nothing has been revealed regarding the champions' lore, but that hasn't stopped fans from theorizing who this Darkin could be. Some have theorized that this Darkin could be Varus' sister Valeeva who is the fourth Darkin of the Great 5 Darkins left in Runeterra.

Unfortunately, this could just be theory. Since Naafiri does have a different name from Valeeva, but maybe she just forgot who she was due to being part of a pack... when she releases we will know more surrounding her lore.

When Will the New Darkin Champion Release?

Naafiri is going to be released in LoL Patch 13.14. With the trailer having come out on June 21, 2023 and the PBE for Patch 13.13 already live, it means that she should be coming out in the next patch which is 13.14.

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You'll be able to play Naafiri on the PBE server starting June 27, 2023 when the PBE for Patch 13.14 goes live. Then she will hit live servers three weeks later. Patch 13.13 is a three-week patch, which means Naafiri will be on PBE for that time during testing. She will be live July 19, 2023.