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I complained to Riot about Ambessa's strokes and they responded

I complained to Riot about Ambessa's strokes and they responded
Posted on | Posted on angela

I started playing League of Legends right after the beta and haven't stopped, so I like to think I'm a good representative of the community.

I had the chance to play Ambessa before it hit the PBE servers in a media preview at Riot HQ, and on behalf of everyone, I preemptively gave the game developers my feedback in person. You're welcome.

Let me put this into context: League of Legends was pretty good before Yasuo came out. Sure, Rengar and Kha'Xiz were a pain, but Yasuo is built differently.

Important LoL splash hard with Vi, Senna, Yasuo, Volibear and Lulu
Photo credit: Riot Games

He has a lot of sprints, puts up a wall that blocks game-changing projectiles, and can even throw us into the back row and kill us (I'm a support main, so this is my safe area). This was a huge turning point for the League of Legends community.

He paved the way for even more mobile champions to join the roster. Conveniently, he also has a brother.

League of Legends champions with lines – why do they even exist?

These “stroke champions,” as the LoL community likes to call them, are very much on our minds as we play. In recent years we've had a few who have made it onto highlight reels – Gwen, Viego, Samira, Yone, Qiyana and Pyke, to name a few. If you ignore Viego's original release, none of them were particularly groundbreaking until 2022.

What happened in 2022? K'Sante happened along with Lil Nas and the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup finals.

LoL Tank Champion K'Sante base spray pattern
Photo credit: Riot Games

Shiny gold, shimmering sparkle and star walkin' will remain etched in our minds forever, put together to welcome a fabulously dressed LGBTQ+ member to the LoL roster. The release of a champion has never been such a spectacle.

Riot Games has done their best with K'Sante, not just in his grand entrance but also in his base stats, as he can handle practically everything.

“This is K'Sante, a champion with 4,700 HP, 329 Armor and 201 MR, Unstoppable, a shield and who walks over walls. Has Airborne and the cooldown is also only one second. It costs 15 mana. The W-CD even refreshes when it transforms. His passive deals real damage. Then, as he stacks armor and MR, he also gains ability speed, ability speed to his Q, and spell casting speeds up. Then he has an AD ratio, so his W…AAAAAAAAAAAAAA,” Heo “ShowMaker” Su commented on the stream, which has since become a staple LoL meme.

Official PC wallpaper of Heartsteel K'Sante
Photo credit: Riot Games

Because of this, K'Sante has never completely left the meta since then. In Season 13, he was picked 401 times by top lane pros in the Major Leagues and suspended 175 times, for a 60.4% exposure according to gol.gg. The LPL and LCS were the top regions he played in.

In season 14, his popularity grew even more. Shocker. He was picked 856 times and suspended 378 times (64.7% attendance) and his win rate improved from 48.6% to 50.9%. During the MSI he was particularly popular with an attendance of 81%.

One professional player is associated with him more than others – Kim “Kiin” Gi-in currently has an 80.6% win rate against the champion. We call him Kiin'Sante.

Two years later, in 2024, while the League community is still dealing with the aftermath of K'Sante, we not only have a new champion with dashes, but also a champion who can dash after every ability cast without the constraints of mana.

Who wants to bet that she'll be another top lane fixture that never leaves?

I expressed our concerns to Riot about Ambessa's moves – this was their response

Official splash hard wallpaper of League of Legends champion Ambessa Medara
Photo credit: Riot Games

I flew 15 hours to Los Angeles to visit Riot HQ for Arcane Summit, only to discover that Ambessa has way too many dashes. Her design, attitude and personality are super badass and cool, but her mobility? Maybe not like that.

Aside from abilities, her movement is based on her passive Drakehound Step:

If you enter an attack or move command while casting an ability, Ambessa will sprint
short distance as soon as the ability is cast. Casting an ability grants her next attack bonus range, damage, attack speed, and returns energy.

In other words: it is constantly moving. Unlike every other champion in the game, Ambessa is all about sprint, attack, sprint, attack, sprint, attack, rinse and repeat.

“We are aware of what we are doing,” game designer Max “Riot Yelough” Perlman responded to ONE Esports. “We recognize that we have given her a very powerful tool that we know will attract a lot of attention.”

Mel's mother, Ambessa Medarda, from Noxus, makes her first appearance in Arcane Act 3 Episode 8
Photo credit: Riot Games, screenshot by Amanda Tan/ONE Esports

He believes the community will respond positively to it because they really enjoy playing. On the other side of the rift on the opposing team, players will likely say, “Why is she running after me forever?” Please stop.”

Riot Yelough admits that K'Sante also taught them some lessons. “We are aware when a character has more tools than they should have, or when the tools are configured in a way that causes great frustration and creates these types of memes.”

“We're generally pretty good at making sure characters have the tools to do what the experience we're trying to convey requires, and we don't want to give them more tools than they need.” Riot Yelough explained. “I think Ambessa's strokes are kind of the flagship of her equipment. Everything is built
around them.”

Arcane Key Visual featuring the full list of League of Legends champions in Arcane and the episode in which they appear
Photo credit: Riot Games, Fortiche

He hopes their gear will make League of Legends players feel “relentless,” like “tyrant in your face” when you play them, which is expressed through their dashes. After all, it's designed for the hardcore OG League of Legends player.

“You understand the game. You're here to be a hype beast, to run over people and die trying. So we believe their skill level is actually reasonably high,” Riot Yelough said.

LoL players will also notice that she lacks many tools in her kit that a typical fighter doesn't have – she doesn't have hard crowd control (just slow), she's forced to build aggressively rather than defensively, and Apparently is their team fighting performance is not very strong.

“Our players are allergic to the word ‘dash’ to some degree, and that’s exactly what it is. “But that doesn’t mean we should stop our characters from being dashing, and it doesn’t mean we should stop including things in our character kits that are exciting and feel really great,” concluded Riot Yelough. “We just have to make sure we do it in a sensible way.”

READ MORE: Exclusive: Why do you love Arcane so much? The creators reveal behind-the-scenes secrets

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