So Just How Badass is League’s New ADC?

We finally get a look at the newest champion coming to League of Legends, Kia’Sa: Daughter of the Void. Not only are we getting another void character, but possibly the daughter of Kassadin, another champion in the game.  Hopefully, this means we will finally get a glimpse into the backstory of everything going on with the Void lore-wise. Not only she is the newest ADC to add to the roster, she will also have extremely interactive gameplay, but require proper decision making to play properly. Design-wise, she looks pretty similar to Project Vayne mixed with Samus Aran, so I won’t complain there because she looks amazing. She appears to be more of an AD caster champion who relies on her abilities to chase down her opponent and depending on what you build, receives bonus effects on her abilities. Kia’Sa was lost to Void and was forced to adapt to survive the horrific monsters that live there. Now she’s an apex hunter torn between two worlds.

Starting off with her Passive: Second Skin, which has two parts to it. One part called Caustic Wounds, it says basic attacks apply stacks of plasma that deal bonus magic damage to an enemy. After five basic attacks, the plasma ruptures dealing a burst of damage based on the target’s missing health. Having to get five stacks is more than they normally do with these types of abilities, but it does say that nearby allies immobilizing effects add stacks of plasma. There’s nothing too new or crazy with this part, but the second part called, Living Weapon, is where it gets a little more interesting. Living Weapon is Kia’Sa symbiotic suit that adapts to what type of items that you buy (attack speed, attack damage, or ability power) giver certain abilities permanent effects. Those will become more clear once we get into her kit more. 

Kia’Sa’s Q, Icathian Rain, releases a swarm of missiles that are distributed evenly among the closest enemies. There really isn’t much more to this except this is where the Living Weapon part of her passive kicks in. If you build an additional bonus attack damage on her, it will permanently increase the number of missiles fired from 6 to 12. This is probably the most basic abilities in her kit, and it doesn’t really interact as much with her other abilities besides the Living Weapon part of her passive. The damage is distributed evenly to all enemies around her including minions and jungle monsters making it less reliable in team fights in those areas, but has potential do tons of damage.

Next up is her W, Void Seeker. Extremely similar to Rek’sai’s Q only a much higher range and damage. Kia’Sa fires a long-range beam, giving vision and revealing the first enemy hit also applying 2 stacks of plasma. On the surface, this doesn’t seem too impressive, but the power behind the ability is how it interacts with her ultimate. Going back to her passive, Living Weapon, once she has received 100 additional bonus AP, it permanently deals bonus damage, applies 3 stacks of plasma, and partially refunds the cooldown. This really caught me by surprise when I saw the AP part, but maybe this means she can be built hybrid to maximize her damage output. So, we can expect to see some full AP build once she hits the public beta environment.

Moving right along to Kia’Sa’s E, Supercharge which briefly charges up and increases her movement speed but is unable to use basic attacks until fully charged. After charging up she gains a burst of attack speed for a few seconds, basic attacks reduce the cooldown of Supercharge. With Living Weapon, once Kia’Sa has built up and additional 100% attack speed, Supercharge grants invisibly while charging up. This is easily much favorite of all her abilities. It creates outplay potential with the invisibility, similar to Vayne’s ultimate, it helps apply stacks of her passive quickly without any assistance, and also gives her 1v1 power which means we could see her played in the Mid lane or even possibly in the Jungle.

Lastly, we have her ultimate, Killer Instinct (bonus points for the name). This is the move that really ties her whole kit together; it says, Kai’sa dashes a long range to a location near an enemy champion marked with plasma and briefly gains a damage-absorbing shield. This move does not deal damage, but it is what helps her get to her targets reliably. It has a longer cooldown compared to other dashing ultimates in the game, but the range on it is incredibly long, Plus, in combination with her W, Void Seeker, it makes her almost assassin like if she gets on top of a squishy enemy. It also makes an excellent ganking tool which is why I believe she wouldn’t make a half bad jungler. This ability is where the decision making is going to become crucial, knowing when to dash in and when not to will make or break team fights.

Overall, Kia’Sa is shaping up to be real high-risk high reward champion with an interesting kit that adapts to what is being built. This is very fitting to her hunting theme and I can’t wait for her to come to the PBE servers so we can see how she plays, along with all of her interactions in-game. Will she be strictly and ADC in the Bot lane or will she be able to go Mid or even Jungle? Be sure to let me know what you think of the Daughter of the Void in the comments below. Thank you for reading and until next time, keep up the hunt.