The more information that comes out about the new champion Briar, the more fans are looking forward to the day they can experience this champion directly in matches on Summoner’s Rift. Briar’s skillset is described as having an extremely wide impact, nearly covering the entire map. Additionally, Briar has a skill that clearly demonstrates her “vampire” nature: a powerful lifesteal ability.
Among them, Briar’s Blood Frenzy skill can help her charge at the nearest target for a certain duration, while also increasing her Attack Speed and Movement Speed. If the target is standing next to allies or other objectives (minions, jungle monsters…), the damage will spread to surrounding targets. When Briar reactivates this skill, she will deliver a strong bite to the opponent, dealing damage based on the percentage of lost health and healing herself.
However, according to Riot, Briar’s initial Blood Frenzy skill could even affect… allies. Simply put, Briar would attack any unit closest to her, regardless of whether they are allies, enemy champions, minions, or jungle monsters… Riot August stated: “We only removed this skill after witnessing Briar pull off a quadrakill in a bot gank situation.” According to the lead engineer of the champion design team, League of Legends, it is possible that in that scenario, Briar took down both the enemy bot duo and an ally.
Many players expressed regret that Riot removed this interesting mechanic. However, if Riot hadn’t done so, Briar might never have made it into normal matches or even ranked games—where there are always plenty of trolls ready to pick this champion to frustrate both allies and opponents. In fact, even in professional play, Briar’s usage is uncertain. Moreover, this could cause even more bugs in League of Legends, similar to cases with champions that have special interaction mechanics with others like Sylas or Viego.
Briar will soon be released in the near future. However, the chance of Briar appearing at the 2023 World Championship is still uncertain.