Introduction

Pengu and friends have been fighting the Black Mist for half a Set now. Or almost half a Set. Regardless, I’m sure their fight has been a real pane in the Skyglass. But it’s paid off, because the Dawn of Heroes is right around the corner, as long as Patch 11.15 is behind that same corner. For now, it’s time to go over the new Champions (yes, that includes Akshan) and Traits hitting the Convergence. If you're looking for info on the new mechanic, I hear the writer of that one is rather funny and good looking. For now, let's see who's hanging up their adventuring hats and who is gearing up to join your party in Reckoning: Dawn of Heroes. Onwards!

Retreating into the Shadows

With the forces of Order shining a new light across the Convergence spelling big changes for our Mid-Set mechanic, our Champion rotation is smaller in scope than Fates: Festival of the Beasts. That being said, a beacon of light and call to adventure brings new Champions, and including the big Vertical Trait, Sentinel, joining our roster. To make room for all these heroics, we’re swapping out a few shady characters and minor traits.

• Forget about some Forgotten - With the powers of the Black Mist ebbing, Forgotten Champions now gain their stacking bonuses after each victorious combat they participate in. Forgotten is also dropping down to a 2/4/6/8 Vertical. Go ahead and forget about the following:
  • Warwick
  • Viktor
  • Katarina
• Dragonslayers slayed - While the Dragonslayer trait will be leaving, Diana will stick around. Diana will retire from her Dragonslayer career, yet continue to slay anything but Dragons (Draconic champs and pets are still fair game). Say goodbye to:
  • Trundle
  • Pantheon
  • Mordekaiser
• The Coven has crumbled - No witchcraft can reconjure these sorcerers:
  • Lissandra
  • LeBlanc
  • Morgana
• Rearranging Rangers - There’s a new Ranger ready for action, which means we need to make some room, so give a good spirited farewell to:
  • Kindred
• Fiddeling with Abomination - Let’s see who drew the short end of the Stick:
  • Ryze
• The Verdant Wilt - Ashe and Kayle will be sticking around without their third trait, but you can say good Knight to your sweet prince:
  • Taric
• The Fall of a God-king - There is only one true God-King. And that one is not the loser:
  • Darius

New to the Adventure

With many dear frenemies departing we’re reloading the roster with new and mostly heroic Champions for Pengu and friends to drag in and out of Portals. In total, we’re adding 12 new champions and two new traits (excluding unique 5-cost traits).

Cannoneer (2/4/6) - Locked and loaded, every fifth shot, Cannonnear Champions deal a percent of that attack's damage in an explosion around the target as physical damage. Here’s who’s packing the heat:

• Senna: Tier 1 Sentinel
• Tristana: Tier 2 Hellion
• Miss Fortune: Tier 3 Forgotten
• Lucian: Tier 4 Sentinel

We heard you missed Fortune, but we already have Miss Fortune at home, and just like Fortune in Fates, she’s going to Make It Rain. Run Cannoneer as a splash in your Sentinel comp (more below), or dive deeper down the barrel running 4 Cannoneer with frontline that can amplify your Miss Fortune through Forgotten (Hecarim, Thresh) and hit 3 Sentinel (Irelia, Pyke, Rakan). Most of these units are 2 and 3 costs, allowing you to focus on rerolling as opposed to the standard curve in the big vertical, Sentinel.

Sentinel (3/6/9) - At start of combat, the Sentinel with the highest Health gains a shield that grants Attack Speed each time it is applied. When the shield is destroyed or expires it will pass to the ally with the lowest percent Health. The shield Health and the Attack Speed get bigger with more Sentinels.

• Olaf: Tier 1 Skirmisher
• Senna: Tier 1 Cannoneer
• Irelia: Tier 2 Legionnaire, Skirmisher
• Pyke: Tier 2 Assassin
• Rakan: Tier 3 Renewer
• Galio: Tier 4 Draconic, Knight
• Lucian: Tier 4 Cannoneer
• Akshan: Tier 5 Ranger

The Sentinels have mostly been pulled from the vanilla Runeterra canon, where with the help of Akshan, they’re poised to strike back against Viego and their own Black Mist dilemma. But on the Convergence, it's the Little Legends with all the power, and my Molediver doesn't care about the Sentinels beyond using them to take first! In fact, you can be sure to see me run Viego in my Sentinel comp to activate those sweet Skirmisher and Assassin bonuses. And just to add insult to injury for those Runeterran nerds (that’s me btw), I’ll slam a Sentinel Emblem on my Viego.

As a big vertical trait, the Sentinel comp gives carry options with Akshan and Lucian a bit late in the game, so keep an extra Cannoneer, or Skirmisher around to hold items for the two. And if you can make it to level 9, do try the anti-lore Viego addition.

The Stuff of Legends: New Tier 5 Champions

Gwen: Tier 5 Inanimate, Mystic

• Ability - Weaving her way through battle, Gwen dashes behind her target and performs 2 rapid snips in a cone in front of her, dealing magic damage, while healing for a portion of the damage dealt. If only one enemy is hit, Gwen will increase the number of snips by 1 for the remainder of combat.
• Inanimate - At the start of combat, Inanimate champions summon Hallowed Mist in the 1 hex surrounding them for a few seconds, granting all allies within damage reduction from enemies outside of the mist.
• Tailoring your Comp - Use Gwen if you come up against heavy magic damage to add Mystics to your composition. Gwen’s passive trait, Inanimate, allows you to protect most of your team at the start of each round. This makes Gwen fit seamlessly into Skirmisher comps due to their high number of melee carries that can stack with Gwen on the frontline.
• The Final Thread - Because Gwen’s ability heals from a percentage of the damage it does, she’s better equipped with resistances and Ability Power than flat Health. There’s lots of decision making involved in positioning Gwen. While melee comps benefit from placing Gwen in the center to maximize Inanimate, other comps might want to position Gwen on the flanks. Placing Gwen on the edges of the battlefield allows her to reap more damage from sewing in extra snips each time she hits only one enemy.

Garen: Tier 5 Dawnbringer, Knight, Victorious

• Get Wrekt Darius - The war of the God-Kings has ended. Night makes way for Dawn, and Garen brings an end to the Wolf’s Carnage with the momentum of change that has spread across the Convergence. There is now only one God-King, and he is Victorious.

• Victorious - When a Victorious champion scores a kill, their next attack is empowered to deal 40% of the target's missing Health as bonus magic damage.

Akshan: Tier 5 Ranger, Sentinel

Akshan swings in to save the day in Runeterra with the ability to shoot ropes to swing around, camouflage indefinitely near walls, resurrect his pals, print gold, shoot bullets, and shred armor. Sheesh, the crazy things people will do just to make a few friends. With all these heroic attributes, Akshan is the perfect fit for Dawn of Heroes, where for the first time ever, TFT is announcing the new Champion just a few hours before those Summoner Rifters get their QWER fingers on him. So what am I doing with this honor… squandering it by taking a moment to ruin every Akshan pun. Alright, let’s swing into it… heroically.

• Ability - Akshan rolls to the nearest edge of the battlefield, anchors his grappling hook to the center of the battlefield, then becomes untargetable, heroically swinging in a circle. While swinging he continuously shoots the enemy nearest to him, each shot dealing physical damage scaling with his AD, and reducing their Armor for 5 seconds.
• The Main AttrAkshan - The new Ranger may only be a frAkshan of the Sentinel crew, but I assure you, his charisma and ability will have you hooked. The Sentinel vertical trait provides frontline and peel, but being the rule breaker he is, Akshan’s mobility provides even more.
• Swinging into Akshan - Armor Shred on his Absolver (his gun), the Ranger trait, and a ‘get it done’ attitude make Akshan a great support for our sad boi Aphelios, who needs all the help he can get. But to make Akshan an Absolve-lutely powerful perfAkshan, stack AD items like he’s cosplaying as Samira from Fates. I’ll let you grapple with that mental image for a second.

And that just about covers it. We're excited to see what you make of all the new champions and mechanics. You'll start seeing everything on PBE July 7 and it will head to live servers with patch 11.15, early morning on July 21, with the Pass and Store Content activating later that day at 11 AM (PDT)!