Last week, Riot Games finally gave us a proper look at League of Legends’ latest champion: Vex, the Gloomist. Now, Riot has dropped the deets on Vex’s abilities, as well as the splash art for her launch skin. But what is Vex’s release date? Well, Vex will be making her way onto the Rift to spread nothing but negative vibes on September 23.
The first yordle to hit the Rift since Kled charged in back in 2016, Vex is marketed as “a mid lane mage who hates sunshine, happiness, and champions who dash all over Summoner’s Rift.”
From the looks of things, we were pretty close to the mark on some fronts with our ability predictions following the release of Vex’s teaser video – particularly with regards to how her ultimate ability, Shadow Surge, operates. However, Vex’s passive, Doom ‘n’ Gloom, is a far more intriguing way of implementing crowd control than what we initially imagined.
While in Doom, Vex periodically gains the ability to interrupt dashes and Fear enemies with her basic abilities. On the other side of the passive, Gloom marks nearby enemies who dash or blink, punishing them for daring to move with a chunk of damage when the mark is detonated by her basic abilities. As such, playing Vex into mobile compositions to maximise Doom ‘n’ Gloom’s uptime will be the key to unlocking the yordle’s potential. Without further ado, here are Vex’s abilities.
League of Legends Vex abilities
Passive – Doom ‘n’ Gloom
Doom – Periodically, Vex becomes empowered by Doom, causing her next basic ability to interrupt dashes and Fear enemies.
Gloom – Whenever a nearby enemy dashes or blinks, they become marked with Gloom. Vex’s next basic attack against a marked enemy detonates the mark, dealing bonus damage and refunding part of Doom’s cooldown.
Q – Mistral Bolt
Vex launches a wave forward, dealing magic damage to enemies it passes through. After a short delay, the wave accelerates but has reduced width. Mistral Bolt detonates Gloom on any marked enemies it hits.
W – Personal Space
Vex gains a shield and emits a shockwave, dealing magic damage to enemies around her. Personal Space detonates Gloom on any marked enemies it hits.
E – Looming Darkness
Shadow flies to a location, increasing in size as it travels. On arriving, Shadow deals magic damage, slows, and marks enemies hit with Gloom.
R – Shadow Surge
Shadow flies forward, marking and dealing magic damage to the first enemy champion hit. Vex can then recast this ability to have Shadow pull her to the marked target, dealing additional magic damage.
If the marked target dies within a short time of taking damage from Shadow Surge, Vex can cast Shadow Surge again within a few seconds.
Alongside her abilities, Riot has also released the finalised splash art for Dawnbringer Vex – a truly regal skin for a champion who, as the Sentinels of Light event taught us, couldn’t care less about any of that stuff.
We’ll be keen to see how Vex plays out on the PBE over the coming weeks, and even more eager to get our mitts on her – especially into an Irelia matchup.