Finally, after days of waiting, the most anticipated champion of the year – Akshan: The Marksman of the Rifts, has officially debuted in League of Legends, and here are the details of this champion’s unique skill set:
Passive – Double-Cross
Every three attacks or damage skills from Akshan will deal additional physical damage. If activated on a champion, Akshan also gains a shield.
After attacking, Akshan will fire a second attack that deals less physical damage. This attack can be canceled like a basic attack. If Akshan cancels this attack, he gains a burst of movement speed for a brief moment.
Q – Signature Boomerang
Akshan throws a boomerang that deals physical damage and reveals the enemy hit, increasing its range if it hits an enemy. Enemies can be hit twice on the way out and back.
W – Vengeance Stealth
Passive: When an enemy defeats an ally of Akshan, they are marked as “The Scoundrel.” If Akshan participates in defeating The Scoundrel, he receives bonus gold, and all allies slain by The Scoundrel will be revived at the base, while the Scoundrel’s mark is removed from all other enemies.
Active: Akshan disguises himself for a short time, or indefinitely if near a wall. During this time, Akshan can see trails leading to The Scoundrels and gains movement speed and energy regeneration when moving toward them.
E – Heroic Hook
Akshan fires a hook that latches onto the first terrain it hits. Once latched, he can reactivate to swing around that terrain in the specified direction, firing shots that deal physical damage to the nearest enemy. While swinging, he can reactivate again to jump down in the specified direction and fire a final shot.
The cooldown of Heroic Hook is reset each time Akshan participates in defeating an enemy champion.
R – Lasting Shot
Akshan locks onto an enemy champion and charges up, starting to accumulate ammo for his gun. When the charge time ends or upon reactivation, Akshan fires the accumulated shots, each dealing physical damage based on the lost health to the first minion, champion, or structure hit.
Akshan can move freely and use Heroic Hook while charging and firing with Lasting Shot.
Thus, it can be seen that all the unique traits of Akshan lie in his W – Vengeance Stealth. Not only does it grant him the ability to disguise himself, turning this champion into a marksman-assassin hybrid, but the unique teammate revival mechanism combined with the “profit from the deaths of allies” feature is expected to make Akshan one of the most unpredictable champions to date.
Furthermore, having both a mobility skill, a shield, and damage based on % health from his skill set also raises concerns among gamers about Akshan’s balance. For those who are “experienced”, we can already predict Riot’s plans to nerf this champion, especially targeting the W skill, even before Akshan officially launches globally.