League of Legends’ next champion is the skirmisher bunny mage, Aurora

Riot is unveiling its latest champion to hit Summoner’s Rift today, and it’s one they’ve apparently been trying to make for quite a while. Aurora is a new mage add to the League of Legends roster, utilizing mobility and even some trickery to own the lane.

We got to go hands-on with a preview version of Aurora recently, as part of a look at what’s next for League of Legends. While you could probably take Aurora into the top lane or even the jungle, she seems best-suited to the middle lane, where her spirit powers and skillshots can do some damage.

Aurora is a vastaya able to see into, and move through, the spirit realm. Her whole vibe is about helping troubled spirits, and she’s also unique in representing an autistic character within League of Legends.

Here’s a rundown of what Aurora can do in combat:

• Passive: Spirit Abjuration
  • If Aurora damages an enemy three times with her spells and attacks, she will deal magic damage and exorcise a spirit to her, entering Spirit Mode and gaining movement speed and empowering her healing for three seconds. (For every additional spirit following Aurora, the bonuses from Spirit Mode are increased by 5%.)
• Q: Twofold Hex
  • Fire a blast of cursed energy in a direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit and marking them with spirit energy. Recast: End the curse, drawing back the spirit energy to herself, dealing magic dealing to enemies passed through.
• W: Across the Veil
  • Hop in a direction. Upon landing, enter the spirit realm, becoming Invisible and entering Spirit Mode for several seconds. Takedowns on enemy champions reset the cooldown of this ability.
• E: The Weirding
  • Send out a blast of spirit magic dealing magic damage in an area and slowing them. Aurora will hop backwards slightly on cast.
• R: Between Worlds
  • Send out a pulse of spirit energy that deals magic damage and slows enemies. The area merges with the spirit realm, granting Aurora an empowered spirit mode, and allowing her to travel from one end of the area to the other. Enemies who try to cross the threshold will take magic damage, be slowed, and be pushed back toward the center of the area.

In my time playing as Aurora, I found her to be interesting, though not exactly my type of mage. She’s able to pull off some tricky moves, mainly around her two mobility options—the hops on her W and E—and also “detonate” for extra damage on her Q’s recast. A good damage combo would see her throwing out a Q, hitting the opponent with E and proccing her passive, then recasting Q for maximum damage.

Aurora’s ultimate has interesting teamfight implications, controlling a lot of space and possibly letting her dive into a backline. I’m not much of a mage player, admittedly. But I could see someone who enjoys tricky, mobile fighters with a surprising amount of lane power digging Aurora.

Even if she’s not my new main, though, I really do enjoy Aurora’s style and design. Her designers told us during the preview event that the bunny design has been in the works for some time at Riot, through several different iterations. And now, this version of Aurora is what’s ultimately seen it through.

Aurora joins the League of Legends roster in patch 14.14.

_{Travel accommodations for this preview event were provided by Riot Games.}