Early this morning, the teaser for Volibear’s rework officially aired, and Riot Games also revealed that tomorrow, they will host a special livestream to welcome this Freljord demigod back. Before the official broadcast, Riot Lutzburg – the designer responsible for the Volibear rework – wrote a lengthy post on the Volibear main subreddit to thank players and share some new details about this champion.
Summary of Riot Lutzburg’s post:
“Hello everyone, this is Lutzburg, and soon our bear will have a very important debut, and I want to take a moment to share my thoughts with you. I hope it will help you prepare for the big storm that is about to hit.
The first thing is to thank you all for making this small community (the Volibear main subreddit, a.k.a. those who enjoy playing the bear) so wonderful. The second is that you will be completely surprised tomorrow. The marketing team has prepared some really crazy stuff to bring to everyone, and I am very happy that our bear is a part of that event.
However, not everything is perfect; there will always be criticisms, so I want everyone to understand that some features and effects of the original Volibear will not be included in this rework. For fans of this champion, that may be disappointing, but the team has worked hard to make Volibear’s gameplay modern and, importantly, much more diverse than before.
When Volibear launches, Riot will have additional data on him within 24 hours. If there are any issues, such as the champion being too weak, too strong, or too reliant on a specific playstyle… we will fix it immediately. In the end, the entire design team has worked incredibly hard to bring Volibear back, and we are proud of what we have accomplished and hope you love this champion as much as we do. Thank you everyone, see you at the stream tomorrow, and you will be in for a very big surprise!”
One of the trademarks of Volibear in League of Legends is the simplicity of his skillset; currently, all of this bear’s abilities are self-targeted or directly aimed at opponents. With Riot Lutzburg’s revelations, it is very likely that Volibear will have skill shots that require higher player skill to use accurately.
Furthermore, the appearance is definitely the most noteworthy aspect of the upcoming update, as Volibear’s current design is overly “cute” and somewhat… more adorable than fearsome. Meanwhile, the lore describes Volibear as a powerful demigod, fighting evenly with Ornn, the creator of the Freljord region. Hopefully, the “very big surprise” that Lutzburg promises will truly be worthy of leaving players stunned.