Riot Games reveals yet another aggressive Assassin Champion. This time with the League of Legends patch update 13.14, Naafiri joins the hunt.
Champions in League of Legends are introduced with some of the most detailed lores. While some have the heart of pure gold, others are of a more nefarious nature. And Naafiri, the Hound of the Hundred Bites, falls in the latter category.
Born out of a God-Warrior Darkin’s relic, a pack of Shuriman dune hounds becomes the vessels of Naafiri. And through this pack, she looks to exact revenge and bring salvation onto the Rift. The creation of Naafiri came to be due to an ancient thought process. Her existence finally fills a gameplay hole that the devs at Riot looked to fill a long time ago.
The development of Naafiri
The creation of Naafiri is something that has a unique angle to it. It stems from Riot’s Champion Design Lead, August Browning, ‘s old analysis. According to his analysis, two significant roles exist in the current Champions in League of Legends.
- High Skill Tank
- Simple and Beginner-friendly Assassin
The existence of K’Sante filled the first role and bolstered Browning’s ideologies. But there was still the missing part of an Assassin. And thus, Naafiri came to mind. While the name was set, the embodiment was yet to be considered.
If you go through the Champion releases, it has been quite a while since an actual creature Champion was introduced into League of Legends. While there are many creature-like Champions, they all have a humanoid touch to some extent.
And, in the process of creating an actual creature Champion, Naafiri’s principal narrative writer, John “JohnODyin” O’Bryan, wanted to bring forth the very embodiment of fear into the game. He said,
Everybody who’shad a bad experience with a dog knows that if you run, it’s probably just gonna make things worse. Running makes the dog more excited. They match your energy. We wanted to create achampion who sort of called back on that experience. A dog who wants things to run. When Naafiri sees things run her bestial instincts take over.
However, Naafiri isn’t just a dog. She is a collective hivemind, a pack of Shuriman dune hounds. And to quote Riot, Naafiri is a pack that hunts together, thinks together, and survives the harsh Shuriman desert together. A pack that shares consciousness as a collective with an ancient God-Warrior, Darkin.
The story of Naafiri
You might ask how a Darkin finds itself trapped within a pack of hounds. Well, the story is quite intriguing. Like any other Darkin, Naafiri’s spirit is bound to an ancient throwing dagger. And this dagger was locked away in a crypt somewhere within the Shuriman desert.
And it stayed that way until one curious crypt-diver chose to awaken the dagger and Naafiri’s spirit from its deep slumber. Knowing that touching a Darkin weapon infuses the spirit trapped within you, making you the vessel, the diver chose to take good care of not touching it.
But, it ended up becoming his demise. On his way back from the crypt, a pack of Shuriman dune hounds attacked the diver and tore him and his horse apart. And in this process, one of those ended up touching the dagger. And thus, Naafiri came into existence. While it should usually infuse her spirit to the hound touching the blade, in her case, it was different. The hounds already being a collective mind, the spirit was bounded within every hound, making one of them the Alpha.
But it was never about the Alpha. Even Elan “Qulani” Stimmel, Narrative Director, explained that the main focus of this Champion is the symbolic nature of a pack rather than an Alpha.
The inspiration behind the Hounds
When asked about why a dog and not any other ferocious creature, the Art Director Gem “Lonewingy” Lim said,
We picked a canine because that’s a very clear creature fantasy. A lot of people own dogs, gamers and non-gamers alike. But we had to different canine archetypes and different breeds.
After creating so many dazzling human Champions like Zeri, Sett, Qiyana, etc., it sure was a challenge to create a canine Champion. But he never shied away from a fight. And in the team’s adventure of canned inspiration, they found many such figures in fantasy genres, ranging from Dark Souls’ Great Grey Wolf Sif to Okami Dog Warriors.
In the beginning, the team flirted with the idea of a blade-wielding Drakehound from Noxus, a Cerberus-inspired Watcher pup from the Freljord, and a Targonian Retriever with sun and moon forms. But soon enough, they settled upon the idea of a demon dog followed by its not-so-cute puppy offspring.
What makes her the simple, easy-going Assassin?
As explained before, the idea behind the creation of Naafiri was to bring forth a simple and beginner-friendly Assassin. But it would be pretty difficult if there was more than one entity to control. Her abilities have to be straightforward to use. And to that, Stephen “Riot Raptorr” Auker says,
Making sure the other hounds behave like you would expect a pack of dogs to behave was critical. We didn’t want them to feel like mindless minions like Yorick’s ghouls or Bel’Veth’s summons. We wanted them to feel like your packmates who are helping you out, and like they matter throughout the entire game.
To create simple mechanics for controlling herds, the developers did some research. They looked at how other genres dealt with herd mechanics. They said, “The main design difficulty was to bring the feeling of having an RTS-like swarm at your disposal into League, while also having this be a simple champion to play.”
And to address that issue, the team created a tech that landed the Champion’s herd controls somewhere between Age of Empires’ formation method and Starcraft II’s quick-to-action movements. And thus, with little ease, Naafiri becomes one of the easiest to control Assassin in League of Legends.
Abilities of Naafiri
The new Champion released with the game’s patch update 13.14 has a total of four active abilities along with a passive one. These abilities are as follows:
We Are More (Passive)
This ability allows Naafiri to spawn her packmates. The spawn rate is set, and the ability keeps spawning up to four packmates, depending on her level. These packmates will attack the enemy Naafiri attacks or casts an ability on.
Darkin Dagger (Q)
This is a point-target ability. Upon usage, Naafiri hurls daggers (up to two) toward the target. The ability does bonus bleeding and damage if the target is already bleeding. Additionally, her packmates also leap to attack the target hit by Darkin Dagger.
Hound’s Pursuit (W)
This directional ability makes Naafiri and her packmates leap toward the set direction. If a Champion is hit in the path, Naafiri will collide with them, dealing damage to the Champion.
Eviscerate (E)
This ability allows Naafiri to dash toward the enemy dealing damage to them. In the process, she heals her packmates to full HP while recalling them to her.
The Call of the Pack (R)
This is her ultimate ability. Upon usage, all packmates and Naafiri fuse into a being and create additional packmates. The Champion gains bonus speed and vision during the ultimate. When attacking an enemy Champion, she gains a shield. If you succeed in taking down the first Champion that Naafiri attacks, all effects will be refreshed.
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