League of Legends is getting another new champion this season, this time in the AD carry role. Named Samira, she’s probably the last champion for this season according to Riot Games’ Champion Roadmap.

She will be released in patch 10.19, along with the second batch of PsyOps skins.

Appearance

“Pirate” is the first word that comes to mind. Originally from Bilgewater, the color of Samira’s outfit comprising red and grey armor is the same as Darius, revealing her Noxus associations.

Her most distinct feature is the eye patch over her right eye. She also holds both gun and sword, has tattooed arms, and seems to really like gold — all of which relate to her abilities.

Her name has middle eastern origins, and is a common Arabic and Persian female name, which adds more diversity to the League of Legends line up.

Credit: Riot Games

Everything has been made to look more futuristic in PsyOps Samira. She retains her two piece outfit, with an added cropped jacket that gives her even more edge. Notably, her eye patch glows together with her lilac, almost neon hair that has been let loose from the tight braid in her original splash art

Abilities

Looking at how impactful Riot’s last AD carry was, you can bet that they’ll continue to push the creative bar for champions in this role. Samira is no different, especially since she has both gun and sword — a feature that was unique to Gangplank.

Passive – Daredevil Impulse

  • Chaining non-repeating abilities (and basic attacks) increases Samira’s Style grade by one letter, from “E” to “S” rank.
  • Every Style grade gives her bonus movement speed. Samira can also damage enemies at range with her guns or with her sword in melee range; the latter dealing bonus magic damage.
  • Samira can also juggle enemies who are movement-impaired by her allies in the air, extending the displacement.

Q – Flair

  • Samira fires a shot at her enemies directly when at range with her guns. Enemies in melee range will instead be damaged by a slash of her sword.

W – Blade Whirl

  • Samira slashes the area around her with her sword, damaging enemies in the vicinity twice and destroying any enemy missiles in the area at cast and that enter the area after the fact.

E – Wild Rush

  • Samira dashes through an enemy or ally, dealing magic damage to any enemies passed through and gaining bonus attack speed for a duration. Takedowns of enemy champions reset Wild Rush’s cooldown.

R – Inferno Trigger

  • Samira unleashes a torrent of shots from her weapons, wildly attacking any enemies around her 10 times over a duration. Each shot deals physical damage, applies lifesteal, and can critically strike.
  • Samira can only cast Inferno Trigger if her current Style grade is at “S” (the max grade).

The most particular feature about this supposed marksman is that Samira functions at range and melee distances. Looking at how she also has active dashes through her E like Yone, which resets with takedowns like Katarina, and Blade Whirl that functions like Yasuo’s Wind Wall, and a moving Death Lotus for an ultimate, it’s no wonder that Nick “LS” De Cesare calls her the love child of these two assassins.

In the Champion Roadmap, Riot specifically wrote “Do you enjoy stringing together abilities, creating stylish new combos?”, which lives up to the variance on this new champion. However, based on her kit alone (without knowing her numbers or ratios at this point in time), she seems viable in every other role except support.

One interesting aspect that hasn’t been revealed in the champion trailer is Samira’s taunt, which is not only a skill shot, but also costs one gold to use. That’s where the coin in her original splash art comes in: It does one damage to anything it hits.

So taunt wisely, Summoners! Don’t spam control + F2.

For now, at least on the PBE, players have feedback that she is currently a little too strong.

Lore

Based on her tag line, Samira is “The Desert Rose“, a phrase all League of Legends players would associate with LeBlanc, which refers to a secret organization in Noxus that she is a part of.

A refugee of Bilgewater after raiders tore her city apart, Samira and her street performing parents retreated to a port city in Noxus. There, she heeded the call to join a Noxian warband.

While she was clearly great at combat, she was too rebellious for standard military, and joined a private warband instead led by Captain Indari.

On a mission, an explosion caused her right eye and Indari’s legs to be permanently damaged. From then on, Indari worked behind-the-scenes, while Samira “undertook missions meant for entire warbands—and thrived”.

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