New League of Legends Champion 'Yone' Announced
Yone has officially been announced as the new League of Legends champion.
After much speculation, teasers, and even leaks, Yasuo’s long lost brother has now come back from the dead, with his own unique playstyle and personality.
Check out the cinematic trailer below.
Yone League of Legends Abilities Rundown
Passive - Way of the Hunter
Yone uses two blades, causing every second attack to deal more magic damage. His critical strike chance is also doubled, but his critical strikes deal reduced damage.
Q - Mortal Steel
Yone thrusts forward, dealing physical damage to opponents. On hit, he gains a stack of Gathering Storm. At two stacks, Yone can dash forward with a wave that makes enemies airborne.
W - Spirit Cleave
Yone cleaves forward in a massive arc, dealing a portion of the target's maximum health. After successfully hitting an enemy, Yone also gains a temporary shield. The shield's power increases per champion struck.
E - Soul Unbound
Yone can enter his Spirit Form, gaining movement speed and leaving his body behind. When Yone's Spirit Form expires, he'll snap back into his body and deal a percentage of all the damage he dealt while in Spirit Form.
R - Fate Sealed
Yone strikes all enemies in his path, blinking behind the last enemy hit and knocking everyone airborne towards him.
Click to enlargeYone League of Legends Ability Details
Q - Mortal Steel
His Q, “Mortal Steel,” is dedicated entirely to his human blade—think Yasuo’s Steel Tempest—but instead of summoning a tornado to knock up his enemies, he harnesses the wind to dash to them, knocking them up in the process.
But even with Yone’s new azakana-hunter persona, he’s still Yasuo’s brother, and they still share similarities. Yone’s Q has the same ramping mechanic that Yasuo’s has.
W - Spirit Cleave
And his W, “Spirit Cleave,” is dedicated purely to the azakana blade: a sweeping blow that deals magic damage to enemies in its path and protects Yone from harm with a shield.
E - Soul Unbound
Yone can literally tear his soul from his body, leaving his mortal form behind to traverse the spirit realm for a brief period of time. In-game, this manifests as his E, “Soul Unbound,” where he unleashes an onslaught on his enemies, marking them with stored damage that, upon returning to his body, expires and deals true damage. But unlike Zed or LeBlanc, Yone gets no choice in whether he returns to his body—he must go back when the timer ends.
R - Fate Sealed
Yone's ultimate, “Fate Sealed,” knocks up and pulls enemies in, giving every Yasuo the chance to land the perfect ult.
League of Legend's Yone Twin Blades
Yone boasts not one, but two swords, with one being an azakana blade.
Azakana have always been around, but they’re steadily growing in number in Ionia due to the unprecedented suffering in the wake of the Noxian Invasion.
Hunting down azakana isn’t exactly an easy task, even for a guy who managed to kill one and steal its sword. Oh yeah. That’s right. Yone stole an azakana’s sword.
Senior animator Adam Turnbull states “I really wanted to make each of Yone’s swords feel different. Although he has always used two swords, the weight and feel of the azakana’s blade is much different to his more familiar steel blade."
"To hint at this, we wanted to keep his steel blade attacks quick, while his azakana blade swings in large arcs, emphasizing its weight and size.”
Check out the video below for more of Yone's abilities.
Click to enlargeYone League of Legends Lore
Yone is the third champion to come out of the lore and onto the Rift, and his release comes with some unique complications. Up until now, Yone existed as a series of moments in Yasuo’s life. We saw him purely from Yasuo’s perspective, but that’s not enough to create a compelling champion.
So how do you turn a side-character into a protagonist (anti-hero?) while staying true to who they’ve been so far?
The League of Legends team realized that Yone needed to be his own person. And beyond that, he had to actually stand apart from his brother. Yone and Yasuo’s relationship has long been complicated. But before all the brotherly betrayal and murder, they grew up together and trained under the same master, which meant they should still share some similarities.
“Initially I wanted Yone to be sort of like an ‘echo fighter’ to Yasuo. We wanted to lower Yasuo’s pick rate, which sounds really weird! But it’s actually healthy for League,” says champion designer Jonathan “EndlessPillows” Fuller.
Yasuo is the highest played champion in League. Giving Yasuo mains another option with a similar playstyle helps increase champion diversity, and that keeps each game feeling fresh.
Yone will be unleashed in patch 10.16.
Images via Riot Games