League of Legends (LoL) developer Riot Games recently revealed the abilities of the game’s newest champion: K’sante the Pride of Nazumah.
Confirmed as the first black LGBTQ champion on the roster, K’sante was revealed as a top lane tank.
His kit includes shields and tools usually available for tanks, as well as bruiser and skirmisher abilities, with plenty of mobility.
That being said, K’sante has a unique identity in that his abilities have both elemental and empowered forms. Additionally, many of his abilities seem to be a mix of different champions like Renata, Vi, Mordekaiser, Irelia, Qiyana, and even Poppy.
The developers have confirmed that K’sante’s kit is one of the most difficult to decide, with his weapons and his kit changing form once his ultimate is activated.
Here’s what his skill set looks like and how it works:
All Out (R – Ultimate)
K’Sante smashes his ntofos, dealing physical damage and Knocking Back the enemy champion. Enemies that hit the wall take increased physical damage, are knocked back over the wall, and are briefly stunned. K’Sante then rushes after the enemy and goes All Out for an extended period of time.
All Out K’sante loses percentage of maximum health, bonus armor, and bonus magic resistance. K’Sante gains attack damage, omnivamp and transform abilities.
Unlike other ability summaries, we start with K’sante’s ultimate ability. His ult allows him to change forms and affects all other abilities in his gear, including his passives.
His dual-wielding blunt weapons called Tonfas, T-shaped melee weapons from Okinawan martial arts, also transform into sharp twin blades after he kicks and follows an enemy.
The wall also has no range, so it’s like Poppy ult’s with unlimited range, except it follows the enemy it knocks back.
This ultimate also turns it into a skirmish. His tank stats morph into skirmisher stats, with his armor, magic resistance, etc. becoming attack damage, attack speed, omnivamp, etc. This form lasts roughly 30 seconds, which is the average length of a team fight.
This allows him to sometimes pull an enemy bruiser out of a teamfight and potentially take down that targeted enemy champion one-on-one.
Fearless Instinct (Passive)
K’Sante’s devastating abilities will mark enemies hit for a short time. Attacking a tagged enemy consumes the tag and deals damage plus maximum physical health.
All Out: Attacking a marked enemy deals physical damage and additional maximum true health damage instead.
K’sante’s passive sounds quite similar to Renata’s passive, Leverage. It has not been confirmed if K’sante’s marks only increase his own damage or if they also help his allies. In any case, this passive synergizes well with the rest of his abilities.
Once his ultimate, All Out, is activated, it becomes even more painful for tagged enemies, dealing physical damage and additional maximum true health damage.
Ntofo Strikes (Q)
K’Sante slams his weapon, dealing physical damage in a small area around him and briefly hitting Slow targets.
If an enemy is hit, K’Sante gains a stack for a short time. At 2 stacks, K’Sante instead fires a shockwave that pulls in enemies.
All Out: The cooldown of this ability is reduced and it no longer slows targets hit.
The common form of this ability is more for tank utility, with crowd control effects like stuns and slows.
This low cooldown ability gains stacks and at two stacks becomes a quick move like Mordekaiser’s Death Grasp (E) and a shockwave a bit like Qiyana’s Supreme Display of Talent (ultimate).
Path Maker (W)
Start charging: K’Sante raises his weapons defensively for a short time, becoming unstoppable and reducing incoming damage.
Issue: K’Sante charges forward, dealing a percentage of maximum physical health, Knock Back, and Stun enemies he passes through for a short time based on charge time.
All Out: The cooldown of this ability is restored, the damage reduction is increased, it deals an additional amount of physical damage based on the charge time, and the charge and dash speed are doubled.
Begin Charging is a great way for a team to get into the front line and protect carries, while unleashing acts like Sion or Vi’s ult to knock down enemies.
This is a perfect way to set up a high damage gank or incoming ult from other teammates, which is important in teamfights.
As for Path Maker’s version of All Out, Irelia’s W seems to mix with Sion’s ultimate and is a great follow up to his ult.
Footwork (E)
K’Sante dashes and gains a shield for a short time. If they rush towards an ally, the distance increases significantly and they are also protected. Additional spells can be cast during this ability.
All Out: The speed of this ability is increased. Run to a targeted location has increased range and can go through walls.
Footwork is an ability that gives K’sante tank-like mobility. This allows him to dash in any direction and shield allies when he charges into them.
The All Out version gives him more options to escape, especially since his skirmisher version is more nimble than his normal form.
What do you think of this new champion kit? Are you excited to try it out?
K’sante will be tested on the Public Beta Environment (PBE) and will be released to the servers in Patch 12.21 in November.