The Spark of Zaun is here, ready to flash, trap, and zap her foes!
New Champion Zeri Abilities Revealed!
League of Legends has kicked off the new season, and with it the newest champion. Zeri has made her debut, and boy is it electrifying, Let's take a look at what the Spark of Zaun has to offer.
Today during the Season 2022 Livestream we learned a lot about the future of the game. But importantly, we were given the all of the details on the new Marksman Zeri and her kit. Let's check it out!
- Have you seen these new skins coming out?
So what actually are her abilities?
As you can probably guess, Zeri will be able to move lightning fast, and zap her enemies as she pleases. Equipped with slows, giant lazers, and very strong interactions with terrain, Zeri will surely change how the game plays!
Without further ado, let's what she does:
- Passive - Living Battery - Zeri gains Move Speed whenever she receives a shield. When she damages an enemy shield she absorbs its energy, shielding herself.
- Q - Burst Fire - Passive: Zeri’s basic attack deals magic damage, scales with AP, and is treated as an ability. Moving and casting Burst Fire stores up energy in Zeri’s Sparkpack. When fully charged, her next basic attack will slow and deal bonus damage.
Active: Burst Fire shoots a burst of 7 rounds that deal physical damage to the first enemy hit. Burst Fire scales with AD and is treated like an attack, with the first round applying on-hit effects. Its cooldown matches Zeri’s basic attack timer.
- W - Ultrashock Lazer - Zeri fires an electric pulse that slows and damages the first enemy hit. If the pulse hits a wall it fires a long range laser from the point of impact.
- E - Spark Surge - Zeri dashes a short distance and energizes her next 3 casts of Burst Fire, causing them to pierce through enemies. She will vault over or grind along any terrain she dashes into, depending on the angle. Hitting a champion with an attack or ability reduces Spark Surge’s cooldown.
- R - Lightning Crash - Zeri discharges a nova of electricity, damaging nearby enemies, and overcharges herself for a moderate duration. While overcharged, Zeri gains increased damage, Attack Speed, and Move Speed. Attacking enemy champions refreshes the overcharge duration and adds another stack of Move Speed. While overcharged, Burst Fire’s damage concentrates into a faster triple shot that chains lightning between enemies.
If you'd like to see these abilities in action go ahead and check out Zeri, The Spark of Zaun Ability Reveal to see real gameplay!
How will she play?
From what we can tell, Zeri is a completely unique Marksman. Her unique gimmick is that her auto attack is an ability, and her Q is an auto attack. This means a few things, namely her damage can be dodged, she has versatile itemization, and she is going to be easier to kite with.
Because her main source of damage is a low cooldown projectile, movement will be very important on Zeri. Constantly staying on the move and positioning correctly is the only way Zeri will be able to deal damage. Unlike other marksmen, Zeri's damage can be blocked by tanky frontliners in her path. Unless she has recently used her E, Zeri's only hope of killing targets she needs to to outmaneuver her opponents.
Due to the fact that Zeri's Lightning Crash, Ultrashock Lazer, and passive Burst Fire auto attack scale with AP, it is very likely that Zeri will build Nashor's Tooth to make use of these AP Scalings. It's also possible that she could build full AP in certain situations, giving her more of a Burst Mage/Assassin playstyle as opposed to her current Marksman playstyle.
One last important thing to note about Zeri's kit, is that due to her range, and her strong ability to kite enemies, Zeri will very likely find herself in solo lanes. Lucian and Tristana dominated the midlane for a long time, and there's no reason Zeri won't be the same. She has strong damage, plenty of slows, and decent mobility. There's no way Zeri wont be viable in Mid or Top lane.
When will Zeri come out?
Through the client we can see that her release date is January 20th. Zeri is currently on the PBE right now. So you can expect to see this electric ADC along with LoL Patch 12.02, which will come out on January 19th.
We hope you're as excited for this new champion as we are, make sure to try Zeri on the PBE if you're interested in testing her early. Otherwise look forward to a shocking new meta coming to League of Legends!
If you haven't already, check out some of our champion guides to help you dominate Season 12!