New LoL Champion Briar: All Abilities Revealed

The new LoL champion, Briar, is going to be hitting the rift very soon and Riot has already revealed her abilities. This fast-paced and insane diver is going to strike fear into her opponents, you can be sure of that.

Briar splash art official
Briar, the new LoL champion, is here and she is looking quite scary. | © Riot Games

Briar, is the newest addition to the roster of League of Legends champions. She is going to be a jungler that can also be flexed into the top lane if needed, but most players will want to play her in the jungle to take over the meta.

Her kit will incorporate her fervent hunger, giving her a state of "insanity" in which she can only attack and nothing else. The key to playing Briar will be to know whether to engage. You will have to be patient and know some restraint when playing her.

New LoL Champion Briar: Abilities

As just mentioned, Briar is going to be a diver in the jungle. She will have insane reach thanks to her abilities with mobility and a lot of healing. Honestly, she kind of looks crazy and unlike any champion we have had before.

IconsAbilityDescription
Briar PassivePassive - Crimson Curse
  • Briar gains increased Healing based on her missing health and her attacks and abilities apply a bleed for short duration that stacks. The bleed deals physical damage based on the number of stacks and Heals Briar for a percentage of the pre-mitigation damage.
  • Briar has no base health regeneration and her abilities cost health to cast.

Her passive is pretty interesting. She will not have any base health regeneration, which means you, as a player, will want to fight, since she has very high amounts of life steal to heal up.

IconsAbilityDescription
Briar QQ - 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.

Now you might be wondering what 'Blood Frenzy' is, since this is the key abilitiy in her kit. Her Q is a simple stun and dash which will help Briar get around the map with ease. It can also be a great engage tool when she is coming in for a gank.

IconsAbilityDescription
Briar W1W - Blood Frenzy
  • 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 W2W - Snack Attack
  • 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.

Her W is going to be what you want to play around. It's also the most enticing ability to use, since it gives her a lot of power, but at the price of control. If you've watched the Briar trailer, then you know what this will look like on the battlefield.

The problem is that there is almost no way of stopping this frenzied state. Briar will either kill her target or be killed herself, so the key point here it so practice restraint before pressing that W button in a game. If your team isn't there to back you up.... then good luck.

IconsAbilityDescription
Briar EE - 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.

If you're in the frenzied state of your W, then this is the only way to get out of it. Make sure to keep your E ready, because this is what you will use when you try to get out of this self-taunt. It's also another dash in her kit that is able to stun them, if they are hit against a wall, which is always nice to have.

IconsAbility

Description

Briar RR - 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.

With her ultimate, Briar once again goes into a frenzied state. Only this time, she also has a dash that is near global. She is able to dash into a fight from halfway across the map with this ability, but once again it's important to know when to actually go into a fight, since it can go awry pretty quick if you are not on the same page as your team.

While Briar's kit has quite a bit of CC, it isn't as reliable as many might think. Her Q stun is strong, but quite short, therefore it's pretty restricting and her E is also difficult to hit due to the amount of conditions that have to be met to land it.

The E cooldown is also twice as long as the W, making it even more important not to needlessly use the Blood Frenzy on enemies without a way to get out of it.

So, what do you think of Briar's kit? She looks pretty insane, right? She is going to be a goofy and light-hearted champion in the jungle, something we haven't had ina long time.

Sabrina Ahn

Sabrina Ahn is the League of Legends and Riftfeed Lead. During her time at Concordia University in 2014 she fell in love with LoL and is playing it since – how she hasn't lost her sanity is still unclear....