After a week of leaks with intriguing teasers of the new champion, even a fan outrage from her feet, these last few days we have received much more details.
Details involving deep analysis of her creation progress (Champion Insight), her abilities along with explanations of the overall kit, and even PBE gameplay to look over ahead of her upcoming release.
Who’s Briar in League of Legends?
She’s the new League of Legends champion, the third release along with Milio and Naafiri. Announced back in January in the champion road map.
The promised vampire jungler is finally here. Courtesy: Riot Games
Briar is a living weapon created from hemomancy aka blood magic by the secret organization Black Rose. She got imprisoned after failing to fulfill her duties as a weapon due to her uncontrollable thirst for blood causing too many extra… casualties.
To not get too much into her lore, to control her impulses they imprisoned Briar in a Pillory (Medieval punishment device) with an hemolith gem in the center. The Hemolith device is what restraints her frenzied state and allows for a sense of mindfulness in Briar, a curse and a blessing at the same time.
The Pillory that imprisons Briar. Has a Hemolith gem in the center.
You can check Briar’s Champion Insight to learn more information about her backstory, the creation process, and much more details on Briar.
Let’s jump into her kit and abilities.
Briar Kit and Abilities
All of the abilities descriptions are sourced from League of Legends Official Briar Abilities Rundown.
Passive - Crimson Curse:
Briar’s attacks and abilities apply a stacking bleed that heals her for a portion of the damage dealt. Gains increased healing based on her missing health but has no health regeneration.
She will also heal for any remaining bleed damage when a bleeding enemy dies.
Q - Head Rush:
Briar leaps to a target, Stunning them for a short duration, dealing physical damage, and reducing their armor.
Briar will stop prioritizing champions if she casts this Ability on a minion or monster during Blood Frenzy.
W - Blood Frenzy/Snack Attack
Briar leaps to a location and enters a Blood Frenzy, self taunting to the nearest enemy (prioritizing champions) for a period of time. While in Blood Frenzy she gains Attack Speed and Move Speed and her attacks now deal physical damage around the main target.
Briar can Recast this ability to empower her next attack. It deals missing health physical damage and heals Briar for a large percentage of the damage dealt.
E - Chilling Scream
Begin Charging: Briar removes Blood Frenzy and gathers energy, gaining damage reduction and restoring health.
Release: Briar unleashes a scream that deals damage based on time charged and Slows for a short duration. When fully charged the scream knocks back, dealing additional damage to enemies that hit a wall and Stunning them.
R - Certain Death
Briar kicks a hemolith and flies to the location of the first champion hit, marking them as her prey. On landing she deals a large amount of physical damage to everything nearby and causes nearby enemies to Flee. She then enters an empowered Blood Frenzy and will pursue her prey until one of them dies. During this time she gains Armor, Magic Resist, and additional Move Speed.
Briar Kit
Briar has a very a unique kit with easy but hard-to-master gameplay. First, she’s the first champion that puts CC on itself, this is due to the use of her abilities that make her go berserk (W and Ultimate).
The second unique aspect is that she does not have health regen, instead, she heavily relies on attacking constantly to heal up with her inherent sustain.
To balance her enraged craziness, she can break from that state by using Chilling Scream (E), so be weary to save it in important fights or hopelessly watch yourself walking to a certain death.
In regards to her playstyle, she was designed to fit a bruiser jungle role similar to the likes of Warwick or Vi, but we can’t really tell until trying her… although there is some gameplay footage from the PBE.
Skins Spotlight video showcasing her abilities
Briar Gameplay
Released in the PBE a few hours ago, there's plenty of footage already from content creators trying her… and she kind of looks very OP in the right hands, on the contrary, she feels kind of feast or famine.
Most gameplay revolves around snowballing and getting a ton of kills, like most videos when a champion is released. That’s why until she’s live on the servers we cannot exactly grasp her true strength.
When will you be able to play Briar in League of Legends?
Briar's release date is set for the upcoming League of Legends Patch 13.18, which will be live on September 13. Until that, you can read more information on her Champion Insight, or simply look at your favorite streamers playing her.
