League of Legends introduced a brand-new melee marksman in the form of Nilah, The Joy Unbound. Since the League of Legends Nilah release date arrived, Nilah has become a potent force in the arena, thanks to some gnarly abilities and cunning playstyles that players have crafted for the character.
When Nilah was initially revealed, Riot Games said that its goal was for her to “be the star of the team, cutting through teamfights and dealing massive amounts of damage”, all while being enhanced by her supporting allies. So, if you’re wondering what abilities she has and what Riot Games had to say about her potential, we’ve got you covered.
League of Legends Nilah release date
The League of Legends Nilah release date was on July 13, 2022. Prior to the release of patch 12.13, which included Nilah, developer Riot Games confirmed in a press release that the character would be headed to the game.
According to Riot Games’ official website, Nilah is “is an ascetic warrior from a distant land, seeking the world’s deadliest, most titanic opponents so that she might challenge and destroy them.” Nilah gained her abilities by defeating a “long-imprisoned demon of joy”, rendering her emotionless going forward.
League of Legends Nilah abilities
With a focus on skirmishing up close and personal, Nilah’s abilities offer her enough tools to survive traditional ranged matchups, while giving her and her support ample opportunity to trade back.
(P) 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 two charges of Slipstream at once.
Nilah can cast (Q) Formless Blade 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 centre with a final burst. This damage heals Nilah for a portion of the damage dealt, converting excel healing into a shield. The healing and shielding scales with critical strike chance and is shared with nearby allies.
League of Legends Nilah gameplay
In a Riot Games developer Q&A in July 2022, lead gameplay designer Blake Smith said that, although Nilah shouldn’t be blind pickable outside of the bot lane, he said that there may be matchups outside of it where Nilah can win out.
Additionally, Smith said that, although Nilah will be best paired with an enchanter like Janna or Lulu due to how they interact with her own kit, she will be perfectly fine when played alongside a different style of support. Smith said that while working on Nilah’s passive, she initially received copies of all positive buffs cast by her allies, but the studio tapered it down to just healing and shielding because it was too much.
The developer noted that Nilah struggles against classes that can continually harass her, like mages. “She doesn’t have the greatest all-in potential that mages are normally weak to,” he said, “and they can put out a lot of damage since she’s closer in reach than them. This is where she needs to rely on her support to either zone off that person for her, or sustain her through it.
“Another weakness she has is that, being melee, she is a little more susceptible to some CC, so she can have a difficult time sometimes with tanks that can CC and disrupt her from doing what she wants.”
According to Smith, Nilah is a late-game champion who has a weaker early game than other skirmishers because the team doesn’t want her playstyle to devolve into constant all-ins from the get-go. “I don’t think she reaches the highest levels of damage like Vayne or something like that,” he says, “but she is high-damage late game, and she has a little more survivability than some other ones [high-damage marksmen].”
League of Legends Nilah inspiration
Lead gameplay producer Ryan ‘Reav3’ Mireles noted that one of the goals for Nilah was to “do a champion that was designed for that role from the ground up for people who wanted something more unique”, having seen how popular skirmishers like Yasuo who are not endemic to the lane are.
Thematically, Nilah draws heavily on South Asian culture. Reav3 said that diversifying League’s roster culturally has been a “big goal” for the team in recent years. “Early on, we got excited around this urumi water whip. We really wanted to do something South Asian-inspired, and once we had the team gravitating around that, we looked for inspiration.”
Nilah’s name naturally comes from those cultural influences, though with all of League’s champions, Reav3 said that the studio mixes in fantasy elements to produce something that is more Runeterran.
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