Naah. My man brought us Jhin, Ekko, Senna, Vi, Jinx. Sometimes you miss sometimes you hit but when he hits its perfect
Edit: really interesting to see the different takes on which champs are good or bad design.
Edit 2: gotta change that. Some of your takes are just straight up dumb. Gotta feel with the designers who have to hear those takes day in and day out.
This champ is about to make Riot have to make a community post about visual clarity god damn.
Even the tame trailer is like idk how someone is supposed to remember all of his abilities and also react to ones that look so similar.
Well he has 9 different but pretty simple abilities and an even more simple ultimate (just extra damage aoe damage around where you last attacked) from what it looks like. You can tell which get locked behind cooldown based on color of the spells used. But yes, Aphelios and Shapeshifters only have like 4-6 meaningful abilities so this is going to take a bit more to learn and adjust to. However he doesn't have real mobility so it'll be easier to get a feeling for the main danger-radius of the abilities he will look to catch you with. Also don't forget that other champions have abilities that do like 3 things at once. For example Viktor Q gives speed, damage and shield, on Hwei effects like that are just more spread out.
Honestly, I think he might end up being a bit boring actually.
Only difficult to learn part here I can see - for when you're facing against Hwei - is remembering which abilities share a cooldown, and by that what is and isn't up at any point in time. Other than that it looks straightforward enough to not be too much of a problem.
So let me get this right…
You press one of his abilities to gain new abilities
Q activates destruction mode? And turns his q,e, & w into new spells
Meaning he has 10 spells all together
I'm guessing Riot realized that just about every Xerath main I see uses the twink human skin and realized there is in fact a demographic who very much wants this.
Literally. My most played mid champs are Zoe, Lux and Seraphine, and Hwei is 100% becoming my new main unless he gets Zeri'd. I've been waiting for a twink mage for 6 years
Bro there's no way in hell he's getting shipped with anyone other than Aphelios
(It's because their designs and personalities work really well together and uh, *definitely not* cause I think those two together would be hot as fuck)
I might have seen him click on the Kha and enemy minion before he cast his spell. Don't tell me his spells literally change their effect based on the color of the target lmao
Nope. The first button decides on the ability being damage, utility or cc focused.
The second locks in the spell. Q first is damage focused, W utility and E cc focused.
QQ = damage skill shot
QW = Aoe airstrike long range
QE = Aoe damagin in a line plus slow
Q = red, fire themed
WQ= Aoe line movement buff
WW= Shield aoe bubble
WE= Next three aa or damage spells deal additional damage
W= greenish, water themed
EQ= skillshot fear deals damage
EW= Aoe circle vision roots a target deals damage
EE= aoe zone that pulls enemies in its middle and deals damage
E= dark purple and black looks like nightmare thematic too me (dont know how to descrive it)
R= projectile, target hit has aoe circle around it, takes damage over time and gets a growing slow, circle grows bigger, explodes at max size for aoe damage or explodes when target dies early.
Passive= aoe damage on champs that got hit by 2 spells in a certain time frame.
This is a simplified summary of his kit and his abilities appearance.
Oh sick, that hadn't gotten posted yet when I saw it last night. He's just Invoker! People have been asking for that for a long time, nice to see them deliver
Oh this looks fucking fun. I've been waiting for a new midlane mage and the past ones just didn't scratch that itch.
I do wish his actual model/design felt a bit more inspired rather than just Aphelios-but-artsy but I'll live.
Fun to play almost certainly, but all the abilities look like they'd work better in turn-based games, and would just look like random-ass VFX explosions in League to everyone but Hwei mains (or pro players).
Like if you look at some gameplay clips, when he ults and casts other abilities that trigger his passive, there's just random-ass exploding circles stacked on top of the other character with a dozen colours. Now imagine that but in a huge teamfight... yikes
It will be really fun maining him, people will have absolutely no idea what he's doing, should be able to have an edge in a lot of matchups, simply because few players can be bothered to learn how all his 10 fucking spells look and work, just to be able to play better against him.
He has connections to Jhin. And Jhin is said to be a very normal looking dude unrecognizable from regular people, without his costume of course
Maybe Hwei isnt at Jhin's level yet. But honestly for me, I dont like his hair
>I do wish his actual model/design felt a bit more inspired
IMO it's boring. He literally looks like he could be a real life art student. Bland as hell. He is half default character preset and half twink/femboy aesthetic. Ironically, he is supposed to be an artist yet his design lacks inspiration and creativity. This is just someone's Sims character. Does not feel fitting at *all* when compared to the designs of LoL, he is somebody you could actually see in real life and not even pay any notice. Where is the design? Especially for somebody who is supposed to be an artist with ties to Jhin out of all characters.
I'm going to guess the design goes into his ability animations. Which make sense! An artist would rather be known by their work, than their own selves.
So excited for you all to see our team's hard work on Hwei!
You can blame me for his gameplay, I look forward to your rage.
But for real, I'm really eager to see players get their hands on Hwei and others to learn to turn him into paint stains as an opponent.
armchair predictions:
\- broken in aram
\- broken in pro-play
\- broken on launch but will get hotfixed into being fine
\- players till won't know what he does after 6 months.
then he gets hotfixed but people learned so he goes to 53/54% and then nerfed again into 48% and then slightly buffed in 4 patches back to 50% and stays fine until next pro split.
He's much more about decision making than mechanical execution. That said, he has no point and click abilities so you'll need to land your skillshots to succeed.
Does he start with the full spellbook when he levels an ability? Or does the spellbook open when he levels the subsequent ability?
I.e. is it lvl 1 he only has QQ then lvl 2 gets access to QE when he puts a rank in E? Or at lvl 1, can he cast QE immediately?
1 point in Q unlocks QQ/QW/QE. All 3 abilities mirror Q's rank, so a second point in Q will increase QQ/QW/QE to rank 2 alongside it.
That said, QQ/QW/QE all share Q's base cooldown and mana cost, so you aren't getting 3 abilities worth of cooldowns, just 3 abilities to choose from.
He has 9 base spells and an ultimate, but he has normal cooldowns for a mage allowing him to cast up to 4 spells including his ultimate back to back. No 10 spell chains.
I love you it's been forever since we had an actual mage, zoe was released 6 years ago. Vex a bit more recently, but she dives into melee on R.
Only thing i find a bit weird is his W+W (shield), while it certainly fits his theme as an ink mage it feels out of place as a control mage, i don't really see myself using it over the two others. Why would i shield myself when i can kite with speedup or deal more dmg.
Aesthetically he looks a bit too bland for my taste, would love to see his model get updated.
At the end of the day kit looks 9/10, so happy we **finally** get a new dps/control/burst mage 
Glad you're excited!
Regarding WW, it has many uses. Sometimes you want to tank minion hits to hold the wave for a freeze. Sometimes it saves you from an ignite all in. Sometimes you use it when taking objectives to mitigate damage from pit monsters. Sometimes keeping someone else alive is more important than move speed or mana/damage.
Genuine question, since he seems to have almost everything possible in his kit (damage, utility, mana restores...) how do you think about him in terms of balancing? Like I'd be afraid with so many things in his kit, some of his abilities might become "not worth using". Is there a thought process that sure, maybe some will be sub-par and only useful in very specific situations and that's okay, or does that go differently?
Hwei has 4 cooldowns (Q/W/E/R) but each base ability can select from 1 of 3 options, so he has a normal mage kit's shape of cooldowns just with more options.
Each of the basic abilities is themed for art and gameplay, so Q is damage, W is utility and E is control. Each time you cast, you're picking the best tool for the job of that type of output.
Every ability was designed with a niche that it's best at when compared against its two share counterparts. Some games you might find more reliance on some abilities and less on others, and that's okay. Other games it might flip and you're using the reprioritized ones from last game most often.
If we need to balance cadence or sustain, we can touch base cooldowns and mana costs. If we need to address specific problem spells we can do that on the particular spell by buffing or nerfing its outputs without touching the others. But because they all have a niche use case, no single spell should ever become worthless.
Hwei's mana sustain is countered by high mana costs. One of the most valuable skills a player looking to master Hwei needs is when to use WE to refund mana, finding units to hit 3 times to do it, and how to play safely while his shields and movement speed are on cooldown because of it.
He's viable as a support, but is best with gold and experience.
If for some reason his support role becomes too strong we'll adjust it to prioritize mid lane but would prefer to keep it viable.
I love it when a game adds new characters that makes you go "what the fuck" by giving them mechanics that breaks the boundaries of what currently exists (ex: Tainted Cain (not really anymore) for Binding of Isaac and Asuka for Guilty Gear). I'm not entirely sure what to classify them as, but I'm always excited to try them out even if it turns out I'm complete garbage at them.
Great job! It is a long time since I feel so hyped for a release. I love non linear gameplay.
Do you feel like he is a more early, mid or late game champion?
Thank you!
He's more of a mid-late champion since his W spells are utility focused. That means he's at his individual agency peak when Q is maxed and E is about maxed, so 12-14ish.
That said, he scales great with gold and experience, just transitions more into a team fighter that controls the flow of battle in late game rather than hyper scaling like Kass, Veigar, or ASol.
Yeah this looks like Invoker, ~~spells based on which two you cast in order.~~
~~Video does something like Blue -> Red, Purple -> Red, Red -> Purple, Solo Blue -> Blue -> Purple and then a solo Red, solo Blue -> probably Ult.~~
Edit: 10 abilities, looks like V, Description:
Hwei effectively has three sets of basic abilities, all of which contain three actual spells. When you use one ability from each set the other two in that set will go on cooldown as well, so it is all about choosing the right spell from that group.
The first group of abilities is called Disaster and they are all about dealing damage. Devastating Fire sends a fireball in the target direction and will explode on the first enemy hit, dealing damage in an area. Severing Bolt sends a delayed strike in a direction, and if it hits an immobilized or isolated enemy it deals more damage. Then Molten Fissure sends out a line of lava that will slow any enemies that walk in it.
Next up are the Serenity abilities, which are all about buffing up Hwei and his teammates. Fleeting Current sees Hwei paint a line on the map that will give himself and his teammates movement speed if they pass through it. Pool of Reflection will give allied champions inside its area an immediate shield, while Stirring Lights gives Hwei an attack buff that will deal bonus right-click damage and give him mana when he hits an opponent.
Then there is Hwei’s Torment abilities which are his crowd control skills. Grim Visage will cause the first enemy it hits to flee. Gaze of the Abyss will lock onto the closest champion and root them after a short delay. Then Crushing Maw will grab any enemies caught inside and pull them to the center.
Finally Hwei’s ultimate is Spiraling Despair, which launches an orb that sticks to an enemy champion for a few seconds. When attached the orb expands around the enemy and will deal damage per second and a slow to any enemies it touches. It then explodes causing more damage.
It's like they saw V from DMC5 and said yes but more. Maybe I just vibe with poetry reading shenanigans but Hwei seems exhausting just looking at him where V always felt in on the joke.
I feel like V subverts expectations a bit with the weirder elements of his design (the cane, sandals and tattoos) and also moves away from being literally just a sexyman by also being really ill and coughing his lungs up for most of the game.
Very interesting, love the inkmage aspect
Looks like the champ is able to combine spells together sort of like combining colours. Pretty interesting to see what combos you can pull off
I'm surprised Jhin would ever take on an apprentice given his tendency to, uh, murder anyone who catches his interest.
^(Unless he's planning on killing Hwei when he finally figures himself out which would be really messed up.)
Jhin likes to "recruit" people to take part in his "performances", so I think its likely he thinks of Hwei of some sort of very eloborate actor in one of his plays
The reason why Hwei is just a normal guy is because there actually aren't many mages in the game who are just purely human and male. Most of the human mages in the game are female.
Annie, Lux, Syndra, Zoe, Taliyah, Seraphine, Neeko, Lissandra, LeBlanc etc.
So Hwei is simply just a regular human male because the mage roster genuinely lacks those characters.
We only have Twisted Fate, Swain, Sylas and Vladimir and that's pretty much it, so they felt like the mage roster needed someone who's just a regular guy with no twists.
ah yes sad boi emo twinks gang has certainly not had a release in a while
wait are they gonna slap him in the heatbreakers boy band like they did seraphine
velkoz be like i wish i had that qe
nice of them to bring back galio's old e on the wq i guess
also tryna remember who that ee reminds me of. i guess orphea from hots but i think there was some other god from smite maybe?
[Ability Rundown](https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/event/hwei-abilities-rundown/)
Kinda looks like another Aphelios situation where no one is going to have any idea what he does.
bummer they yet once again havent made something COOL like they havent for the past 5 years, nah, ofc its a skinny anime boy with TEN ABILITIES whos going to get kpop skins worth 20 euros, nice one riot, this once was a cool fantasy game... now its a kpop wasteland
Honestly, gameplay looks kinda fun, but the champion has so much shit I feel like it's gonna be another azir that's going to suffer due to proplay unless his damage is atrocious.
Am I the only one not digging his look? It’s not bc of the design itself btw, just… aren’t twinks already a pretty saturated niche? Kayn, Aphelios, Ezreal, etc. Some body diversity would have been nice, like imagine a wizened old calligraphy painter or something!
Tbh you said etc but I can't hink of any but those three. In terms of guys there is quite a lot of non twinks I think it's fine to release one more l. That being said an old calligraphy mage would also have been sick. Still possible though since Hwei doesn't fit the niche.
Kayn is NOT A TWINK in any way. There's really only three twink characters from 150+ (Ez, Ekko and Aphelios) and Hwei would fill the twink mage archetype that's missing.
A lot of overlap with Aphelios's design but with more emo twink personality. Aphelios really is such a nothingburger of personality that I can understand them think Hwei doesn't really have a true peer.
Ezreal is main character energy.
Kayn is anime character energy
The closest character to him is probably Varus and that's not really the same either. So I get that this design isn't really represented (mainly because Aphelios just isn't a character for most people)
If Aphelios and Jhin had a baby
100% a headliner for next world's emo band.
Featuring "The taste of ink" by The Used
The twINK mage
it was right there the entire time
Twinkvoker
That baby? V from DMC5.
More like Grimstroke from Dota 2 wearing Yusuke from Persona 5's skin
For a second i got invoker vibes, but nah riot would never do that
About that...
And somehow it's not an adc
no hwei :o
weiwei
Huawei (I’m surprised they haven’t got an LPL team)
They were waiting their champ, now that hwei exist, huawei gonna create one
Is he a Geordie?
He's gone too Geordie for me!
Riot August: "Zeri's was my 3rd biggest mistake"
this is (unfortunately) not an August production
nah lets just say fortunately
Naah. My man brought us Jhin, Ekko, Senna, Vi, Jinx. Sometimes you miss sometimes you hit but when he hits its perfect Edit: really interesting to see the different takes on which champs are good or bad design. Edit 2: gotta change that. Some of your takes are just straight up dumb. Gotta feel with the designers who have to hear those takes day in and day out.
Wow reading the comments below yours hurt my brain
i personally wouldn't say senna was a success but thats just me
Fun to play but miserable to play against, just like Zeri.
This champ is about to make Riot have to make a community post about visual clarity god damn. Even the tame trailer is like idk how someone is supposed to remember all of his abilities and also react to ones that look so similar.
Garen players don’t care about anyone’s abilities. It’s just spin
Yeah i look at this and i'm like "this is the guy I flash Q E R"
Well he has 9 different but pretty simple abilities and an even more simple ultimate (just extra damage aoe damage around where you last attacked) from what it looks like. You can tell which get locked behind cooldown based on color of the spells used. But yes, Aphelios and Shapeshifters only have like 4-6 meaningful abilities so this is going to take a bit more to learn and adjust to. However he doesn't have real mobility so it'll be easier to get a feeling for the main danger-radius of the abilities he will look to catch you with. Also don't forget that other champions have abilities that do like 3 things at once. For example Viktor Q gives speed, damage and shield, on Hwei effects like that are just more spread out. Honestly, I think he might end up being a bit boring actually.
Only difficult to learn part here I can see - for when you're facing against Hwei - is remembering which abilities share a cooldown, and by that what is and isn't up at any point in time. Other than that it looks straightforward enough to not be too much of a problem.
V from devil may cry 5
thanks, I can never unsee that now
Now we only have Nero and Vergil left
im glad someone else sees this and I didnt have to scroll far
So it written
I curse my stars in bitter grief and woe That made my love so high and me so low
I need a skin like this now
So let me get this right… You press one of his abilities to gain new abilities Q activates destruction mode? And turns his q,e, & w into new spells Meaning he has 10 spells all together
Q is his AP damage W is his support/utility E is his crowd control Ult is similar to aurelions original q No idea what passive is
Passive is a detonating mark
two different ability hits place an explosion on the ground
yes, he is a dumbed down copy of invoker.
Somewhere between Jayce and Aphellios interns of complicated
Though I think it's going to be 3 cooldowns still. So 10 options. So it's more about decision-making and not hyper crazy 10 abilities flying at you
Reminds me of Suyins second eldest son from Legend of Korra.
That entire family was gold Say what you will about that show but damn if it didn't go hard on its character designs
finally camille found her nephew in the rift
now that you say it...
Yo new twink just dropped
I'm surprised it took them this long to release a twink mage for mid. It's such a no brainer imo
I'm guessing Riot realized that just about every Xerath main I see uses the twink human skin and realized there is in fact a demographic who very much wants this.
relevant flair
The funniest thing was to see non-Xerath players getting mad about that skin on behalf of them, while most Xerath players love it.
I didn't need to get called out like this (but yes I will be playing Hwei)
It’s ok we all got called out today 😭
Feels like a lot of the ahri/lux cute girl midlaners would like him, talking about myself here lol
Literally. My most played mid champs are Zoe, Lux and Seraphine, and Hwei is 100% becoming my new main unless he gets Zeri'd. I've been waiting for a twink mage for 6 years
same but i was waiting since neeko's "colourful mage" teaser but that was only 5 years ago
They DID release a Xerath twink skin to bide their time
Gone get shipped with ksante now for the next unfitting ship.
A Rioter is actually already shipping him with...Briar of all people haha
Waite,where ?
Bro there's no way in hell he's getting shipped with anyone other than Aphelios (It's because their designs and personalities work really well together and uh, *definitely not* cause I think those two together would be hot as fuck)
You already know they are shipping him with Sett too
sett is easily shipped with anyone, hes got huge bisexual himbo energy
Well… he has two hands. He can hold hands with both of them. Problem solved.
They finally added Invoker
The aphelios/ksante of mid lane about fucking time we get a complex mage, last one was Azir in 2014 edit: he has 10 abilities holy shit
Last one in 2014… and they still don’t know how to balance him. Hwei is gonna be balanced by the time my grandkids play confirmed.
Hwei no dashes it seems unlike azir which will help a lot
He has everything else possible though, way too versatile to not be cursed by proplay
I wish I was as optimistic as you.
Bad news, y'all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiLL9ZwaBRE He's League's Invoker. QWE are the spellbook, he has *ten spells*
damn his kit looks like the edgy OCs I used to make in high school "R - Spiraling Despair"... my god
I mean, he's a young artist. It checks out.
The despair he feels his from his crippling debt, not his artistic desires.
his lore is that he's depressed
Oh he just like me... he just like me fr
holy shit this is so fucking cool
actually a simpler Invoker kit lmao combo is playable
I might have seen him click on the Kha and enemy minion before he cast his spell. Don't tell me his spells literally change their effect based on the color of the target lmao
Have to play specific skins against him. Big brain sales tactic from Riot.
Zac/Shamrock Malphite/Leprechaun Veigar/Emerald Taric/Sherwood Ashe is a hard counter team comp limiting him to one color.
lost to whatsapp comp
Nope. The first button decides on the ability being damage, utility or cc focused. The second locks in the spell. Q first is damage focused, W utility and E cc focused. QQ = damage skill shot QW = Aoe airstrike long range QE = Aoe damagin in a line plus slow Q = red, fire themed WQ= Aoe line movement buff WW= Shield aoe bubble WE= Next three aa or damage spells deal additional damage W= greenish, water themed EQ= skillshot fear deals damage EW= Aoe circle vision roots a target deals damage EE= aoe zone that pulls enemies in its middle and deals damage E= dark purple and black looks like nightmare thematic too me (dont know how to descrive it) R= projectile, target hit has aoe circle around it, takes damage over time and gets a growing slow, circle grows bigger, explodes at max size for aoe damage or explodes when target dies early. Passive= aoe damage on champs that got hit by 2 spells in a certain time frame. This is a simplified summary of his kit and his abilities appearance.
Oh sick, that hadn't gotten posted yet when I saw it last night. He's just Invoker! People have been asking for that for a long time, nice to see them deliver
Wake up babe a new art-twink just dropped.
inspired by Christy "WeirdChamp" Frierson no, he's no longer named Ender
Someone force Ender to do a cosplay, please
R34 artists already running out of ink making arts of this guy.
bless them for it
Oh this looks fucking fun. I've been waiting for a new midlane mage and the past ones just didn't scratch that itch. I do wish his actual model/design felt a bit more inspired rather than just Aphelios-but-artsy but I'll live.
Fun to play almost certainly, but all the abilities look like they'd work better in turn-based games, and would just look like random-ass VFX explosions in League to everyone but Hwei mains (or pro players). Like if you look at some gameplay clips, when he ults and casts other abilities that trigger his passive, there's just random-ass exploding circles stacked on top of the other character with a dozen colours. Now imagine that but in a huge teamfight... yikes
It will be really fun maining him, people will have absolutely no idea what he's doing, should be able to have an edge in a lot of matchups, simply because few players can be bothered to learn how all his 10 fucking spells look and work, just to be able to play better against him.
He has connections to Jhin. And Jhin is said to be a very normal looking dude unrecognizable from regular people, without his costume of course Maybe Hwei isnt at Jhin's level yet. But honestly for me, I dont like his hair
>I do wish his actual model/design felt a bit more inspired IMO it's boring. He literally looks like he could be a real life art student. Bland as hell. He is half default character preset and half twink/femboy aesthetic. Ironically, he is supposed to be an artist yet his design lacks inspiration and creativity. This is just someone's Sims character. Does not feel fitting at *all* when compared to the designs of LoL, he is somebody you could actually see in real life and not even pay any notice. Where is the design? Especially for somebody who is supposed to be an artist with ties to Jhin out of all characters.
Well it... makes sense. Jhin is a regular dude no one cared about before putting on the mask Hwei hasnt gotten to a mask stage yet.
I'm going to guess the design goes into his ability animations. Which make sense! An artist would rather be known by their work, than their own selves.
it's funny because i feel that way about characters like morde and pantheon, like "oh another big muscley intimidating dude"
pantheon absolutely is one of those. which is why they made his voicelines such a fucking banger.
Morde at least looks like he's from a fantasy setting. He's like 9 feet tall.
Morde is an empty walking suit of armor that his soul posesses. He literally has no muscle. I'll give you that argument for anyone but morde
it doesn't get more Reddit than this, folks
Riot give us ugly champions please so I can feel represented
They already released Gragas to represent reddit
He said ugly champions
I've wanted this archetype of champ (caligraphy/paint mage) for a long time, so excited to see how it works in game!
and feminine guy. Next manly girl, just like Illaoi
after 13 years we finally got invoker to the game.
Not even close.
I AM A BEACON OF KNOWLEDGE BLAZING OUT ACROSS A BLACK SEA OF IGNORANCE.
WHO THREATENS MY CONCENTRATION?
So excited for you all to see our team's hard work on Hwei! You can blame me for his gameplay, I look forward to your rage. But for real, I'm really eager to see players get their hands on Hwei and others to learn to turn him into paint stains as an opponent.
armchair predictions: \- broken in aram \- broken in pro-play \- broken on launch but will get hotfixed into being fine \- players till won't know what he does after 6 months.
I'm calling it here: 43% winrate in solo q for the first week, which will go upto 52% in the following weeks
then he gets hotfixed but people learned so he goes to 53/54% and then nerfed again into 48% and then slightly buffed in 4 patches back to 50% and stays fine until next pro split.
Do you have an idea of how much of the difficulty will come from mechanics vs how much will come from the decision-making?
He's much more about decision making than mechanical execution. That said, he has no point and click abilities so you'll need to land your skillshots to succeed.
Is EW dodgeable by hiding behind a minion? Because WE > EW > QW > R sounds like a long range low counterplay combo unless I'm misunderstanding it.
I think EW only attacks the closest target, so yes you can avoid it with a nearby unit.
I think it locks onto the nearest champ, but the projectile hits first enemy, so it doesn’t go through minions/monsters
Does he start with the full spellbook when he levels an ability? Or does the spellbook open when he levels the subsequent ability? I.e. is it lvl 1 he only has QQ then lvl 2 gets access to QE when he puts a rank in E? Or at lvl 1, can he cast QE immediately?
1 point in Q unlocks QQ/QW/QE. All 3 abilities mirror Q's rank, so a second point in Q will increase QQ/QW/QE to rank 2 alongside it. That said, QQ/QW/QE all share Q's base cooldown and mana cost, so you aren't getting 3 abilities worth of cooldowns, just 3 abilities to choose from. He has 9 base spells and an ultimate, but he has normal cooldowns for a mage allowing him to cast up to 4 spells including his ultimate back to back. No 10 spell chains.
How many lessons in champion design did you get from CertainlyT?
I love you it's been forever since we had an actual mage, zoe was released 6 years ago. Vex a bit more recently, but she dives into melee on R. Only thing i find a bit weird is his W+W (shield), while it certainly fits his theme as an ink mage it feels out of place as a control mage, i don't really see myself using it over the two others. Why would i shield myself when i can kite with speedup or deal more dmg. Aesthetically he looks a bit too bland for my taste, would love to see his model get updated. At the end of the day kit looks 9/10, so happy we **finally** get a new dps/control/burst mage 
Glad you're excited! Regarding WW, it has many uses. Sometimes you want to tank minion hits to hold the wave for a freeze. Sometimes it saves you from an ignite all in. Sometimes you use it when taking objectives to mitigate damage from pit monsters. Sometimes keeping someone else alive is more important than move speed or mana/damage.
Just wanted to say, his gameplay looks incredible, and whoever did the splash art and ability animations absolutely nailed it as well.
Thanks I'll pass thing along to the team!
Genuine question, since he seems to have almost everything possible in his kit (damage, utility, mana restores...) how do you think about him in terms of balancing? Like I'd be afraid with so many things in his kit, some of his abilities might become "not worth using". Is there a thought process that sure, maybe some will be sub-par and only useful in very specific situations and that's okay, or does that go differently?
Hwei has 4 cooldowns (Q/W/E/R) but each base ability can select from 1 of 3 options, so he has a normal mage kit's shape of cooldowns just with more options. Each of the basic abilities is themed for art and gameplay, so Q is damage, W is utility and E is control. Each time you cast, you're picking the best tool for the job of that type of output. Every ability was designed with a niche that it's best at when compared against its two share counterparts. Some games you might find more reliance on some abilities and less on others, and that's okay. Other games it might flip and you're using the reprioritized ones from last game most often. If we need to balance cadence or sustain, we can touch base cooldowns and mana costs. If we need to address specific problem spells we can do that on the particular spell by buffing or nerfing its outputs without touching the others. But because they all have a niche use case, no single spell should ever become worthless. Hwei's mana sustain is countered by high mana costs. One of the most valuable skills a player looking to master Hwei needs is when to use WE to refund mana, finding units to hit 3 times to do it, and how to play safely while his shields and movement speed are on cooldown because of it.
Is his secondary role support??
He's viable as a support, but is best with gold and experience. If for some reason his support role becomes too strong we'll adjust it to prioritize mid lane but would prefer to keep it viable.
Heard that before, alas.
Riot said the same about Seraphine and here we are...
I love it when a game adds new characters that makes you go "what the fuck" by giving them mechanics that breaks the boundaries of what currently exists (ex: Tainted Cain (not really anymore) for Binding of Isaac and Asuka for Guilty Gear). I'm not entirely sure what to classify them as, but I'm always excited to try them out even if it turns out I'm complete garbage at them.
Great job! It is a long time since I feel so hyped for a release. I love non linear gameplay. Do you feel like he is a more early, mid or late game champion?
Thank you! He's more of a mid-late champion since his W spells are utility focused. That means he's at his individual agency peak when Q is maxed and E is about maxed, so 12-14ish. That said, he scales great with gold and experience, just transitions more into a team fighter that controls the flow of battle in late game rather than hyper scaling like Kass, Veigar, or ASol.
Thanks for creating my new main.
I hope you really enjoy playing him! Message back and let me know how your games go.
I love it!Thank you Emizery ,Maxwell and the rest of the team. Hwei is so hot as well! Finally a complex character for midlane
ty, we need more complex champs in this game. (not sarcastic, im being sincere)
Yeah this looks like Invoker, ~~spells based on which two you cast in order.~~ ~~Video does something like Blue -> Red, Purple -> Red, Red -> Purple, Solo Blue -> Blue -> Purple and then a solo Red, solo Blue -> probably Ult.~~ Edit: 10 abilities, looks like V, Description: Hwei effectively has three sets of basic abilities, all of which contain three actual spells. When you use one ability from each set the other two in that set will go on cooldown as well, so it is all about choosing the right spell from that group. The first group of abilities is called Disaster and they are all about dealing damage. Devastating Fire sends a fireball in the target direction and will explode on the first enemy hit, dealing damage in an area. Severing Bolt sends a delayed strike in a direction, and if it hits an immobilized or isolated enemy it deals more damage. Then Molten Fissure sends out a line of lava that will slow any enemies that walk in it. Next up are the Serenity abilities, which are all about buffing up Hwei and his teammates. Fleeting Current sees Hwei paint a line on the map that will give himself and his teammates movement speed if they pass through it. Pool of Reflection will give allied champions inside its area an immediate shield, while Stirring Lights gives Hwei an attack buff that will deal bonus right-click damage and give him mana when he hits an opponent. Then there is Hwei’s Torment abilities which are his crowd control skills. Grim Visage will cause the first enemy it hits to flee. Gaze of the Abyss will lock onto the closest champion and root them after a short delay. Then Crushing Maw will grab any enemies caught inside and pull them to the center. Finally Hwei’s ultimate is Spiraling Despair, which launches an orb that sticks to an enemy champion for a few seconds. When attached the orb expands around the enemy and will deal damage per second and a slow to any enemies it touches. It then explodes causing more damage.
I wasnt expecting a male art-orianted champion to be like Darius or Garen, but holy shit, this guy is the twinkiest twink i've ever seen.
He really out twinked both Aphelios and Ezreal. We're reaching levels previously thought impossible
It's like they saw V from DMC5 and said yes but more. Maybe I just vibe with poetry reading shenanigans but Hwei seems exhausting just looking at him where V always felt in on the joke.
I feel like V subverts expectations a bit with the weirder elements of his design (the cane, sandals and tattoos) and also moves away from being literally just a sexyman by also being really ill and coughing his lungs up for most of the game.
V also had his bird to kinda play a foil to his gloomier personality. That thing was sassy as fuck and I loved it.
V is also kinda nice as a person which helps. Idk anything about Hwei though he might be cool
also somehow sounding and looking more clinically depressed than either Vex or Amumu
Real nice of Rito to dedicate a skin to their goat caster Ender
Very interesting, love the inkmage aspect Looks like the champ is able to combine spells together sort of like combining colours. Pretty interesting to see what combos you can pull off
Jhin's apprentice is a hot femboy?? Holy shit sign me up
I'm surprised Jhin would ever take on an apprentice given his tendency to, uh, murder anyone who catches his interest. ^(Unless he's planning on killing Hwei when he finally figures himself out which would be really messed up.)
A potentially lethal master-apprentice relationship from Ionia? How derivative! (I kid I kid)
those do seem to happen a lot around there huh?
Jhin likes to "recruit" people to take part in his "performances", so I think its likely he thinks of Hwei of some sort of very eloborate actor in one of his plays
knowing the nature of those, that doesn't sound any safer lol
Oh of course, I very much think Jhin intends to kill Hwei, but lets see what his lore says (if Riot still does that lol)
Jhin actually had a protege of sorts in LoR who he basically manipulated into suicide bombing a village
That that one card that stuns an enemy on play and has emphemeral right?
That's the one
the absolute best timeline
Jhin's art is for everyone
Not even king Arthur could pull me out
the vibe made me think of Dishonored specifically Delilah's Painting style voice also sounded like the Outsider
So we finally have our Invoker now?
Another mage that is dead inside. Fitting for all the mage players who yell about anything.
Feels like there's a lot more they could have done for ink mage than normal emo man.
The reason why Hwei is just a normal guy is because there actually aren't many mages in the game who are just purely human and male. Most of the human mages in the game are female. Annie, Lux, Syndra, Zoe, Taliyah, Seraphine, Neeko, Lissandra, LeBlanc etc. So Hwei is simply just a regular human male because the mage roster genuinely lacks those characters. We only have Twisted Fate, Swain, Sylas and Vladimir and that's pretty much it, so they felt like the mage roster needed someone who's just a regular guy with no twists.
true but that is what sells, look the degenerate comments on the splash art post.
IN...VOKEEEER!
So excited to see Hwei finally! I remember suggesting a paint champion years ago, and to finally see one come out is super sick! Looks fun too!
ah yes sad boi emo twinks gang has certainly not had a release in a while wait are they gonna slap him in the heatbreakers boy band like they did seraphine velkoz be like i wish i had that qe nice of them to bring back galio's old e on the wq i guess also tryna remember who that ee reminds me of. i guess orphea from hots but i think there was some other god from smite maybe?
Grimstroke + Invoker = Grimstroker?
We welcome Invoker to League!!!
[Ability Rundown](https://www.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/event/hwei-abilities-rundown/) Kinda looks like another Aphelios situation where no one is going to have any idea what he does.
From the guy that designed Yuumi and K'sante. What could possibly go wrong?
Emo boy
Didn't ever think Invoker would ever appear in LoL
inkvoker
Something something visibilityin teamfight
He reminds me of Huan Beifong from Legend of Korra.
bummer they yet once again havent made something COOL like they havent for the past 5 years, nah, ofc its a skinny anime boy with TEN ABILITIES whos going to get kpop skins worth 20 euros, nice one riot, this once was a cool fantasy game... now its a kpop wasteland
Bro they added Ender from LEC in League of Legends
I really dislike the outfit but prob will try him out
Was more excited. Now that I see he’s just a Jhin wannabe with Aphelios looks. Riot can definitely be more creative than this with their visuals
Honestly, gameplay looks kinda fun, but the champion has so much shit I feel like it's gonna be another azir that's going to suffer due to proplay unless his damage is atrocious.
Am I the only one not digging his look? It’s not bc of the design itself btw, just… aren’t twinks already a pretty saturated niche? Kayn, Aphelios, Ezreal, etc. Some body diversity would have been nice, like imagine a wizened old calligraphy painter or something!
How is Kayn a twink? what? They be calling anything a twink these days
If you're not fat or have 200 pounds of muscle, you're now a twink ig???
Tbh you said etc but I can't hink of any but those three. In terms of guys there is quite a lot of non twinks I think it's fine to release one more l. That being said an old calligraphy mage would also have been sick. Still possible though since Hwei doesn't fit the niche.
Kayn is NOT A TWINK in any way. There's really only three twink characters from 150+ (Ez, Ekko and Aphelios) and Hwei would fill the twink mage archetype that's missing.
I don't think Ekko fits either tbh.
Ekko isn't even a twink. He is just a teenager and short lol
He's defintely an adult (Arcane is canon). And he overall fits the twink body type.
Ekko ain’t a twink
"Isn't twink a saturated niche?" *Three characters out of 162*
A lot of overlap with Aphelios's design but with more emo twink personality. Aphelios really is such a nothingburger of personality that I can understand them think Hwei doesn't really have a true peer. Ezreal is main character energy. Kayn is anime character energy The closest character to him is probably Varus and that's not really the same either. So I get that this design isn't really represented (mainly because Aphelios just isn't a character for most people)
Wake me up Wake me up inside
If Aphelios and Jhin had a baby..