The new League of Legends champion revives the strongest part of Aatrox's old kit and mixes it with Xin Zhao's

As a squishy support main, I'm scared of top laners. K'Sante. Jax. Ornn. As soon as I see one of them in my games, I die a little inside (and on the Rift). But perhaps my least favorite champion to play into is Aatrox, the one top laner who simply endures. Never truly out of the MOBA's meta because of his raw kill potential, the Darkin Blade haunts my every waking moment, threatening to crush my Janna, Senna, and personal resolve. So imagine my face when I saw the new League of Legends champion, Zaahen. Blending Aatrox's chase-down melee combat with Xin Zhao's stacking damage, he's already pretty scary, and then you realize that his passive includes a revive and you want to uninstall the game. Some things should have stayed dead.

Lead gameplay designer Blake 'Squad5' Smith describes Zaahen as a "tougher, top lane melee character" that's "inspired by Xin Zhao, and other Darkin in the game. We tried to make something that felt
like he hit similar notes but at the end of the day was uniquely his
own thing," he says.

With dashes, pulls, and double strikes, Zaahen's kit is very similar to Aatrox's on paper. But it also throws in a passive that includes a system that's similar to Xin's stacking AD, and an Anivia-esque revive to top it off. Smith admits that the latter is pretty ironic, given that Riot removed Aatrox's revive passive from League of Legends with patch 9.14, but it's back either way.

League of Legends Zaahen abilities

Here's a full breakdown of Zaahen's abilities, so that you too can lose sleep for the next few weeks.

• Passive - Cultivation of War: Zaahen's attacks and abilities against enemy champions grant him stacks of Determination, gaining bonus Attack Damage per stack. When filled with Determination, Zaahen gains increased Attack Damage and can revive.
• Q - The Darkin Glaive: Zaahen slashes twice on his next attack, dealing bonus damage and healing himself. Zaahen can recast this ability to have his next attack deal bonus damage and knock up his target.
• W - Dreaded Return: Zaahen stabs in a direction, damaging enemies hit and pulling them toward him.
• E - Aureate Rush: Zaahen dashes to a location and slices around himself.
• R - Grim Deliverance: Zaahen rises then stabs downward, damaging enemies and healing for a portion of the damage dealt.

Zaahen's kit itself makes a lot of sense: stack damage until you hit the Determination power spike and revive, then go all-in. His dash is more akin to Xin's than Aatrox's, while his W is reminiscent of Aatrox's Umbral Chains. Timing your aggression is going to be critical, with that revive really coming in clutch.

"Zaahen has a ramping combat gameplay style. The longer that Zaahen is able to fight, he builds up power, until eventually gaining a large spike that lets him take down his opponents or revive from death," Smith says. "One of the biggest aspects to pay attention to, both playing as and against Zaahen, is that his abilities can stack his passive multiple times if he hits several champions. A Zaahen who multi-hits his W, E or R is going to get his full passive much quicker than one only hitting one enemy."

While Zaahen terrifies me purely by being a top laner, his kit doesn't feel as oppressive as some other characters. He reads as easily kiteable (which as a speedy Janna and Nami player should be doable), and if you're a mobile ADC you should be able to do a decent chunk of damage before he gets on top of you. His ult can certainly reposition him, but it doesn't have the knockup of Galio's Hero's Entrance or knockback and immunity of Xin's Crescent Guard. It can heal him back up, which isn't always ideal, but antiheal should help shred through that health bar.

The new League of Legends champion, Zaahen, arrives with LoL patch 25.23, currently scheduled for Wednesday November 19. He's primarily built to be a top laner, but may also see play in the jungle. As long as he's as far away from bot lane as possible, I'm okay with it.