LoL: Ranking All Champion Releases In 2023

Champions 19-12-2023 11:27

Riot added four new champions to the roster in 2023. Lets see which of those were really good and which missed the mark.

Winterblessed Hwei splash — Hwei is the most recent champion in League of Legends. | © Riot Games

Riot has released four champions in 2023.

Milio (23.03.2023)
Naafiri (19.07.2023)
Briar (14.09.2023)
Hwei (05.12.2023)

All of these champions are very distinct from one another and pretty unique for League of Legends overall. They feature new mechanics and spells that we have never seen before.

But how did that play out in-game?

Ranking All Champion Releases In 2023

4. Milio

Milio faerie court — Milio was a breath of fresh air but got stale pretty quickly. | © Riot Games

Milio is an Enchanter Support with loads of shields and decent peel. His W “Cozy Campfire” increases the autoattack range of champions inside the AOE. He was frequently played with Lucian and is still a great pair with Kog'Maw and Jinx. Milio was super oppressive in solo-q and really strong overall. Riot Games decided to nerf him pretty harshly, and now his laning phase really isn't good anymore. Overall, the champion was insanely broken on release and now is just meh. Easy number 4.

3. Briar

Briar teaser 2 — Briar is definetly one of the champions of all times. | © Riot Games

Briar is a jungle bruiser with a deep hunger for fighting. She has a very interesting life steal mechanic where she only heals if she damages enemies or monsters. Basically, at all times, she is fighting for her life. Briar has a global ultimate skill shot that allows her to gank lanes from seemingly out of nowhere.

Overall, it's a very fascinating champion with some great lore and fun gameplay. No other champion plays like her, so in the early release days she seemed kind of weak. After players got a bit better at her, it got very obvious that she is not balanced at all. She was also nerfed pretty hard, but can still be played. It can be very frustrating to play against her, but she has obvious weaknesses that can be countered easily.

2. Naafiri

Naafiri splash header — Whos a good dog? They are! | © Riot Games

Naafiri is the most recent monster champion. After a long streak of humanoids, we finally got that dawg. And it's not just one, it is a whole pack. Naafiri is an AD Assassin that specializes in quick assassinations and getting out even quicker. She has quite a bit of sustain and good gap closers. While she isn't the most popular assassin, there's not a lot of people that dislike Naafiri. This might be because she isn't as strong as other meta assassins.

Naafiri is a dog…with more dogs…and you can pet her. Easy second place.

1. Hwei

Hwei Splash Art cropped — Just released and already a classic. | © Riot Games

Ding ding ding. Our Winner. Hwei is the most recent champion and has been out for the least time. And still he managed to be my favourite champion release this year. He ties into the lore perfectly, is an amazing character and has an absolutely insane kit.

He has 9 different spells and an ultimate to top it all up. Hwei is super fun to play and while he might be challenging at the start, once you get to practice and learn his combos he feels very rewarding. Hwei does it all. He has damage, crowd control and even supportive abilities. Overall, just everything works with this character.

Who was your favourite champion this year, and why was it Hwei?