Briar Abilities Revealed in PBE

Briar Abilities are finally revealed, so after the controversies, we finally know what the new jungler is capable of!

While League of Legends already has 164 champions, Riot Games are still coming up with new designs and abilities for their game. After Naafiri, the 165^th character in League of Legends will be Briar, the vampire jungle teased months back. After the controversy regarding her splash art, Briar has been already the topic of many talks – which won’t stop to be the case, as her abilities have finally been revealed. Without further ado, let’s look at the abilities of League’s latest champion!

Briar Abilities

Briar’s Passive – Crimson Curse

• Briar’s attacks and abilities apply a stacking bleed that heals her for an amount of the damage it deals – this applies to minions as well.
• Briar also gains increased healing based on her missing health, but she doesn’t have health regeneration of her own.
• If an enemy would die while bleeding, Briar still heals for the bleed remaining on her target.
• While not strictly a part of her passive, Briar won’t have mana, but instead will use Health to cast her spells.

Briar has been hailed as a vampire champion – a true vampire, not a hemomancer like Vladimir. This passive feels very flavourful for her, but we’ll have to see the numbers to decide if it’s broken or not.

Briar’s Q – Head Rush

• Briar leaps to a unit, dealing damage to enemies while also reducing their Armour. This leap can be used on allies and is point and click, just like Jax’s Q.

A fairly straightforward ability which helps Briar close the gap toward her targets while also get out of harms way if an ally is nearby. It also interacts with her W, which is one of the most interesting abilities in the game.

Briar’s W – Blood Frenzy

• Briar jumps forward breaking her binds, entering a Frenzy which makes her attack the nearest enemy, prioritizing champions.
• During the Frenzy, Briar has increased Attack Speed and Movement Speed, while also dealing splash damage around her target.
• By reactivating this ability, she takes a bite out of her target, dealing additional damage and healing based on the damage dealt.
• This ability has a 400-unit range, can be used to jump over walls, can be cancelled by your E, and stops prioritizing champions if you jump to a minion with your Q.

This ability is a unique twist on League of Legends, as one of the games most important aspect is having agency over your character. Blood Frenzy takes that away for a hefty steroid, which will make Briar a formidable enemy, but also very hard to control. It will be interesting to see this ability in practice!

Briar’s E – Chilling Scream

• Briar channels, then unleashes a powerful scream that damages and slows enemies.
• While charging, she takes less damage and heals a portion of her health.
• If you fully charge the scream, it knocks enemies back, stunning them if they hit a wall.
• This ability also snaps Briar out of her W, Blood Frenzy.

If you need to regain control of Briar, this is the ability for that, but it’s also an incredibly strong CC and chasing tool. Just by the basic abilities, Briar seems like a frightening champion – but her ultimate makes her even more scary.

Briar’s R – Certain Death

• Briar kicks a hemolith with almost infinite range, marking the first enemy champion hit. Afterwards, she rushes to her prey, fearing nearby enemies, entering Frenzy. She will chase her target until either them or Briar dies, gaining Armour, Magic Resist, Lifesteal and Movement Speed on top of the Blood Frenzy bonuses.
• This ability has global SFX akin to Jinx and Sion ults.
• You can use your E to cancel the Frenzy.
• If your target becomes untargetable, Briar will chase something else until their original prey becomes targetable again.

If her initial kit seemed broken, with her ultimate, she can find targets from across the map, but she doesn’t need to – if you launches the hemolith point-blank, she gets the same effects.

Briar seems like an incredibly interesting champion with a very unique kit who will most likely be very strong after her release. After the mixed reception of Naafiri, it’s good to see a champ who’s a bit more special – hopefully, she won’t need that many hotfixes after she hits the live servers. Don’t forget to follow ESTNN for the latest new regarding League of Legends and it’s newest champion, Briar!