The latest patch in League of Legends, Patch 11.2, came with some new and exciting changes to the game. Most notably is probably the addition of League’s newest champion, Viego, The Ruined King. There are plenty of players that are itching to play him, saving up their blue essence so that they can buy him as soon as they can and get some games on him for experience. However, the issue with this is that some players are so focused on playing a new champion that they don’t stop to think about what his kit offer and what role they should be playing him in.

It is always nice to be able to try out a new champion, but for many players, they will pick up a new champion and lose a few games and assume the champion is bad, when that is not always the case. Learning a new champion takes time and skill that can take games to get a hold of. Most players can’t simply pick up a newly-released champion and assume they will always win with it. Because of that, it is important to take a step back and analyze this new champion and what he does, what he offers, and what he lacks. In this article, we will go over exactly that. We will discuss Viego’s abilities and how they work as well as what are some of his strengths and weaknesses. First, we will go over Viego’s abilities, what they do, and talk a bit about their interactions in the game.

Let’s start with his passive ability, Sovereign’s Domination. This ability is fairly unique, but takes a page from Sylas’s ultimate ability, so it isn’t totally foreign to players. However, most passive abilities are not overpowered since they are stagnant and, for the most part, do not work on high cooldowns. That being said, Viego’s passive is fairly strong right out of the gate. What this ability does is, upon killing or assisting in a kill on an enemy, for a short time Viego can possess that enemy while healing them for a bit of the champion’s maximum health. For the duration of the possession, all of Viego’s non-ultimate abilities become that of the deceased champion as well as receiving bonus movement speed toward enemy champions.

So, this ability is obviously interesting and fairly powerful, but how powerful is it? To determine that, we will look at other powerful champion passives or other abilities similar to it. First, let’s go over the obvious. This ability is very similar to Sylas’s ultimate, which allows Sylas to steal other champion’s ultimate ability. This is an ability that has been proven to be quite strong, so putting it onto a passive can be fairly powerful. Now, let’s look at a passive like Lissandra’s. This ability is similar to Viego’s passive because it turns deceased champions into a frozen thrall that moves toward enemy champions and explodes after a set time, dealing AOE damage. Now, unlike Sylas’s ability, this passive is not nearly as strong, since Lissandra’s passive doesn’t do as much damage as most abilities would and it usually only reaches its maximum potential on rare occasions. That being said, Viego’s passive, while somewhat similar, is much more powerful than Lissandra’s ultimate. Perhaps if he did less damage during the possession the ability would be a bit more balanced, but the only way to be sure is to wait for more gameplay of the champion.

Next is Viego’s Q ability, which harkens to the item Blade of the Ruined King, is called Blade of the Ruined King. This ability has two parts, one is its passive and then its active. The passive of this ability allows for Viego to deal a percentage of a target’s health upon attacking. Then, if he attacks an enemy he already damaged with an ability, he attacks twice, and this second strike siphons health from the enemy instead of doing damage. The active of this ability allows for Viego to lunge forward with his weapon, dealing damage to all enemies hit by it.

Now, this ability is certainly much more basic. It allows Viego to deal some extra damage to enemies as well as heal him for a bit, which allows him to be a part of slightly longer fights or to stay in lane a bit longer with the sustain it offers. This ability is similar to a Yasuo or Yone Q ability, because it offers an auto attack-like ability as well as a bit of a bonus upon meeting a certain requirement. This ability doesn’t seem overpowered, but it is certainly a great bread and butter skill that offers a good amount of versatility.

Viego’s W ability, Spectral Maw, is also a rather interesting ability. This ability requires Viego to slow himself and charge up to dash forward a short distance, but not through walls. While charging, Viego prepares a blast of mist that, upon impact on an enemy, stuns and damages the first enemy struck. Already, this ability reminds me of Vi’s Q ability but a bit toned down. Both abilities need a charge and both allow the user to dash forward to an enemy, do damage, as well as stun. Viego’s ability, however, is much more balanced because he cannot get over walls. Viego may be looking like a strong champion so far, but this really helps balance him out.

The fact that Viego cannot go through walls is a good check that Riot put in from making him too strong. Champions that have a dash are always valued because they can easily engage or escape fights, but without any way to escape, it can be difficult for the champion to survive. Because Viego needs to commit with his ability really gives him a chance to shine at the right time, but only in certain circumstances. Because he can heal in fights and do extra damage, he gets some big points, but without any setup from his team or planning, he can really be in trouble if he uses this ability prematurely.

Viego’s next ability, Harrowed Path, is rather interesting in what it does. This ability allows Viego to spread his black mist around a targeted wall. Then, while he is in his mist, he becomes camouflage as well as receives a bonus to his attack speed and his movement speed. This ability really makes him a bit of an interesting champion and really makes him seem like a jungler. With this ability, fighting in a jungle is ideal because he can easily kite out his enemy and overpower them with ease.

This ability reminds me of quite a few different abilities, but mostly, it reminds me of Akali’s W ability, which creates a similar effect, but on a smaller scale that Viego. The fact that Viego has this sort of evasion can be very powerful, but the fact that he can only use it on a wall makes it seem a bit more unique, but not necessarily more balanced. Because it is bigger than Akali’s ability and covers a wall, he can easily steal enemy jungle camps and get out alive. Or, he could be in an unfavorable position in a jungle, either because of an invade or a fight, and can easily make it out alive. This really helps with his strong engage, because he can make those commitment plays in the jungle, or maybe even in lane at the right time, and make it out alive. The potential here is big because it helps him cover up some of his weaknesses, like his lack of disengage.

Lastly, the ability that players are always the most excited to see, is Viego’s ultimate ability. This ability, called Heartbreaker, works in excellent synergy with his passive. Heartbreaker allows for Viego to leave his current possessed champion and blinks forward a short distance to deal a huge amount of AOE damage to all nearby enemies and knocks back all but one enemy that is in the blast radius. The target of Viego’s ultimate is dealt bonus physical damage and is slowed. This ability is really an interesting one and reminds me a bit of Vi’s ultimate ability, where she can target an enemy to deal bonus damage to. That being said, this ability truly is unique to Viego and can’t be completely compared to another champion.

This ability really allows for Viego to make the most of his kit. Earlier, I said that there is little escape for Viego if he enters a teamfight, but with his ability he can easily go in to make a pick, control an enemy, and use his ultimate to either dash out to safety or double down and go back in for a huge amount of damage. That being said, he still needs to be careful doing something like that. Because Viego will mostly be building heavy damage, he will be fairly squishy, so he has to be sure to have a kill lined up before trying that.

The best way to understand this new champ is, for when he is available to play and not banned, definitely play some test games in normals to really get a feel for him and understand how he works. Then, once you’ve really gotten a hang of him, he would be an interesting champion to take into a ranked match and see how well we can really perform under pressure.