Update (June 22nd 2022): Nilah’s abilities have been revealed as Riot officially announces the latest League of Legends champion to hit the rift.
As rumoured, Nilah will join the Rift in patch 12.13 and she’s a melee skirmisher for the bot lane that enhances herself and her allies when positive effects are cast near her. This makes her the center of attention as her team rallies around her to massacre the entire enemy team.
Nilah’s quote is: “I will face the great villains of myth, and live forever in song.”
Nilah’s official description is as follows:
“An epic-seeker and woman of unflinching, bombastic glee, Nilah is a warrior ascetic pledged to a legendary order, known for repurposing the power of the ancient demon of joy to right wrongs and slay great evils.”
“She practices a strict code of rite and ritual that connect her to this demon, its power appearing as shimmering, incandescent water from the spiritual lake that serves as its prison. Though on an epic quest to find those who sealed Viego within her country’s borders, she senses the imminent return of an even greater threat, and resolves to face these myths of the old world as only she can.”
The news comes after the most recent League of Legends champion, jungler Bel’Veth, was officially announced one month ago.
Nilah abilities
Passive – Joy Unending
If Nilah last hits a minion she and the nearest allied champion gain 50% of the experience that would normally be lost from sharing with nearby allies.
Nilah gains additional effectiveness from heals and shields given to her by allied champions. When a nearby ally casts an ability that heals or shields Nilah or themselves, Nilah grants the additional benefit to both herself and her ally.
Q – Formless Blade
Passive: Attacks and ability damage against champions ignore some of their armor and heal Nilah for part of the damage dealt. This effect scales with crit chance and can overheal, granting Nilah a shield.
Active: Nilah strikes in a line damaging all enemies hit. Hitting an enemy increases Nilah’s attack range and attack speed for a few seconds. Additionally her basic attacks will splash in a cone, dealing additional damage.
W – Jubilant Veil
Nilah envelopes herself in mist, causing her to briefly gain movement speed, reduce incoming magic damage, and dodge all incoming basic attacks. Touching an ally champion hides them in the mist, granting them the same bonuses for half the duration.
E – Slipstream
Nilah dashes through a target unit, damaging all enemies she passes through. Nilah can hold 2 charges of Slipstream at once.
Nilah can cast Formless Blade (Q) during Slipstream to pull a wave in her path, dealing damage and activating her empowered attacks.
R – Apotheosis
Nilah spins her weapon in an area around her, dealing damage and pulling enemies in toward the center with a final burst. This damage heals Nilah for a portion of the damage dealt, converting excess healing into a shield. The healing and shielding scales with critical strike chance and is shared with nearby allies.
Original article (June 6th):
Another month, another new League of Legends champion has supposedly been leaked. This time it’s apparently a melee ADC known as Nilah.
Several YouTubers and Twitter accounts are reporting that this new water-themed champion will arrive “soon”, possibly in patch 12.13 or 12.14 with the upcoming Star Guardian event later in June.
Known leaker Big Bad Bear said in their YouTube video: “Her name is Nilah and her launch skin is Star Guardian Nilah. I’ve researched a little and discovered that Nilah is an Arabic name associated to the “water hyacinth” flower and Nila is an Indian name that means the “blue” colour. For her appearence, it’s still uncertain what she’s going to look like.”
And the r/Nilah and r/Nilahmains subreddits have already been created by PixelButts, the person who made r/Belvethmains in advance. PixelButts explained the situation in this thread:
While details on the actual champion are slim right now, if it’s true that Nilah will be a melee ADC (attack damage carry), this would make her one of the more unique new champions to hit the rift.
There aren’t many champions in League of Legends that naturally fit the melee ADC role. Some like Yasuo are picked in this role, but it’s not a usual pick, with players usually going for ranged ADC marksmen in the bot lane. Nilah has also been compared to Yasuo in terms of her supposed playstyle.
Some channels have leaked Nilah’s supposed abilities:
The report comes after Riot released its latest champion roadmap in April 2022.
Riot hinted at the next champion, mentioning ‘a colourful but deadly stranger who came to Runeterra from a land across the seas’, a ‘land of a thousand colours’.
Riot said: “The champions team would love for all of you to join us down at Oyster Bill’s Oyster Shack! Grab some of the best oysters in all of Runeterra while you listen to one of Oyster Bill’s tall tales!
“Oyster Bill claimed some Noxians were getting rowdy and one of them accidentally knocked over the stranger’s oysters. The colorful one laughed a most joyous laugh as they stood up from their table. The Noxian looked confused at first, then, thinking the stranger was making fun of her, got in their face. The rest of her war band stood to join her, grabbing their weapons when mist suddenly filled the restaurant.
“Oyster Bill said all he heard was joyous laughter and the sound of splashing water. When the mist cleared all ten of the heavily armed and armored Noxians were dead and the stranger was nowhere to be seen.”
The champion roadmap also touched on updates for Udyr, Aurelion Sol and Skarner, as well as hinted at ‘The Pride of Nazumah, a new high skill top lane tank from a region of Shurima that hasn’t been seen yet’.
The news comes as Riot announces patch 12.11 changes, with other water-themed skins set to launch on June 9th 2022. These include Ocean Song Ashe, Nidalee, Yone, Zeri and Seraphine (plus a prestige version of Ocean Song Seraphine will be available until July 14th).
The most recent champion to arrive in League of Legends is void jungler Bel’Veth, who will also be getting a Battle Boss skin in patch 12.11.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
