Ekko
In 2015, Ekko created a shockwave in the League of Legends community with his ultimate skill “Chronobreak.” At the time this skill was introduced, most of the community was extremely confused because it seemed too… overpowered. How would the time reversal mechanism work? How does Ekko interact with the recall action? Would other players continuously fall for the “trap”? A series of quite “tricky” questions kept popping up in players’ minds back then.
Even after his release, Ekko remained a puzzling challenge for the community. Dominating pick and ban rates across many seasons, Ekko boasts an extremely high win rate due to his highly mobile transformation, the ability to stun like an assassin, damage scaling with percentage health, and of course, his ultimate that can truly outplay opponents.
Qiyana
With Qiyana, Riot successfully achieved the task of making the community feel “depressed” by releasing action-movie-like teasers. In these teasers, Qiyana continuously goes invisible, engages in fierce battles, and seemingly stuns the entire terrain, making her impossible to catch and even harder to control. At that time, many likened Qiyana to the “Invoker of League of Legends” due to her extraordinarily mystical skillset that could blink in and out, with her first skill being able to secure kills instantly.
A very powerful assassin mage, moreover, she is the first champion to interact with different terrains on the map, leaving the League of Legends community in awe and somewhat fearful. To this day, she remains one of the most challenging champions to control in the game and is not for the “faint of heart.”
Aphelios
It would be remiss to not include this champion, who wields the most weapons in League of Legends, on this list. Most champions’ skill sets can be summarized briefly, but Aphelios is an entirely different realm. Just explaining the different types of weapons, how to use them, how to switch, and the firing mechanics takes up a clip of dozens of minutes, and I bet that not many would understand much after watching it. Mastering the Weapon of the Moonlight requires a lot of focus, discipline, sharpness, and also… memory.
“Aphelios rotates through his 5 weapons, each of which has a different basic attack. He primarily attacks with his main weapon but always carries a secondary weapon to switch to when needed using the W key. Aphelios cannot choose which two weapons he will use at any given time. Each of his weapons has 50 bullets (‘Moonlight Bullets’), and whenever he runs out of ammo, he will receive the next weapon. The weapon that just ran out of ammo goes to the back of the queue to wait for reloading.” – A small excerpt from the 1500-page “Aphelios Encyclopedia” published by Riot.
Seraphine
The new champion in League of Legends also needs to be mentioned in this list. Besides a meticulously prepared and grand debut, Seraphine became the first champion in League of Legends history to have an Ultimate skin right at launch, and her Ultimate skin is even predicted to surpass Lux’s Elementalist in value. Furthermore, her skill set has also sparked considerable debate as it has been likened to “Sona 2.0.”
Seraphine’s skill set also has elements that confuse players, as the chord effect will rotate depending on the skill used afterward, further interacting with one another. Many are confused about whether she will be used as a mid-lane mage – as Riot intended – or will be pushed into the support role, sharing the same fate as Sona.