Riot Games has unveiled Jhin The Virtuoso, and he's an odd AD carry who's all set to wreak some artistic chaos on the Fields of Justice in the League of Legends.
Champion Reveal: Jhin, the Virtuoso | https://t.co/2gSrpDidnr pic.twitter.com/iVJtLaQtz8
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) January 12, 2016
Dubbed as the "slowest marksman yet" to join the fray, Jhin's attack speed doesn't scale normally, and his critical hits deal less damage because of his passive skill Whisper, which is also the name of his weapon. Any item or rune that increases attack speed and critical chance boosts his attack damage instead.
On every fourth shot he dishes out, a critical attack is guaranteed, and it deals extra damage based on his target's missing health points. He needs to take some time to reload after firing each one, though. Also, every time he deals a critical hit, he gains a short burst of movement speed, where the value depends on his attack speed.
"[W]hen the murderous artist gets you in his sights, when he catches you off-guard, there's not much that'll save you from an inevitable, perfect death," Riot Games says.
Active Skills
Dancing Grenade
He hurls a canister that bounces from one enemy to another up to four times, where the damage is increased if it kills an enemy.
Deadly Flourish
Deadly Flourish also provides a passive skill that causes enemies to be marked for a short while when they're hit by Jhin's basic attacks, Captive Audience or any damage from his teammates.
It's a long range attack that deals damage to every enemy minion in its path and the first enemy champion. If it hits a marked enemy champion, his target is rooted, whereas he gains a burst of movement speed.
Captive Audience
Jhin lays down a trap that'll become invisible shortly after, and when an enemy champion walks over it, it'll explode after a few seconds, creating a slowing zone and marking foes with Deadly Flourish.
Curtain Call
Jhin takes aim and fire up to four shots, where they'll stop when they hit an enemy champion. The rounds slow enemies and deals damage based on his target's missing health points. Just like his basic attacks, the fourth shot is a sure critical hit with considerably increased damage.
Design
Chris Bratt of Eurogamer.net got ahold of Jhin's designer, August "gypsylord" Browning. They discuss how the "cowboy sniper" came to be.
Video Teaser
Riot Games released "Mind of the Virtuoso" to reveal Jhin, but it kind of left more questions than answers. At any rate, it's sort of reminiscent of a perfume ad that leaves a lot to the imagination.
Did anyone else get a somewhat creepy but exciting vibe? The eerie-looking mask appears to bear some similarities with the Guy Fawkes mask, which adds some mysterious and ominous feel.
Patch 6.1
What's notable about the patch is the implementation of the new champion select, where Team Builder will be saying goodbye to the game.
"[T]he launch of new champ select marks Team Builder's retirement. New champ select is a better answer to many of the problems we were trying to solve with Team Builder, so we're opting to replace Team Builder rather than having both queues exist together," Riot's Patrick "Scarizard" Scarborough says.
Of course, there are tweaks and balancing across the board of champions from Bard to Heimerdinger and items from the Warding Totem to Death's Dance.
Challenger Nidalee
The Challenger Nidalee skin is about to get sent to the Legacy Vault on Jan. 28 at 11:59 p.m. PST (Jan. 29 2:59 a.m. EST), so anyone who's interested in the javelin-throwing, cat-morphing champion's skin should hurry it up a bit. It's pegged at 975 RP.
Triumph with Challenger Nidalee | https://t.co/ABi22CeK0n https://t.co/dZVxotiKMt — League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) January 14, 2016
To boil things down, Jhin seems to be a pretty good addition to the lineup of AD carries that League of Legends has. Some perfectly timed fourth attacks could provide the upper hand in the laning phase.
"A fortuitous crit against a weakened enemy doesn't just give Jhin the chance to kill his target, but also the means to chase," part of his description reads.
It's only a matter of time for the artistic shooter to make a grand entrance to the Rift.
