League of Legends Reveals Aurora's Tricky, Agile Abilities (2024)

League of Legends' newest champion is Aurora, a mage that players will typically see in the middle or top lanes assuming players stick to Riot Games' plans. The Vastaya champion looks like a human with rabbit ears similar to how other Vastaya character blend humanoid and animalistic properties to create different looks, but unlike some of the other assassins or marksmen that make up that race in League's roster, Aurora fulfils the role of trickster mage. After teasing the champion numerous times in things like the in-client Hearth-Home experience, Riot has finally unveiled what Aurora can do. On top of that, we've got hands-on experience with the champ to offer insights into how she plays.

But before getting into those insights, what do Aurora's abilities actually look like? During our visit with Riot to try out Aurora, lead champion producer Lexi Gao and lead gameplay designer Matthew Leung-Harrison categorized her as a mid-range mage, so not quite as long-distance as Xerath or Lux. Her abilities are quite linear in nature which makes her a relatively straightforward champion to play as even if her trickster playstyle makes her difficult to keep up with if you're playing against her.

Aurora's Abilities

Passive – Spirit Abjuration

• If Aurora damages an enemy 3 times with her spells and attacks, she will deal magic damage and exorcise a spirit to her, entering Spirit Mode and gaining movement speed and empowering her healing for 3 seconds.
• For every additional spirit following Aurora, the bonuses from Spirit Mode are increased by 5%.

Q – Twofold Hex

• Fire a blast of cursed energy in a direction, dealing magic damage to enemies hit and marking them with spirit energy.
• Recast: End the curse, drawing back the spirit energy to herself, dealing magic damage to enemies passed through.

W – Across the Veil

• Hop in a direction. Upon landing, enter the spirit realm, becoming Invisible and entering Spirit mode for several seconds.
• Takedowns on enemy champions reset the cooldown of this ability.

E – The Weirding

• Send out a blast of spirit magic dealing magic damage in an area and slowing them.
• Aurora will hop backwards slightly on cast.

R – Between Worlds

• Send out a pulse of spirit energy that deals magic damage and slows enemies.
• The area merges with the spirit realm, granting Aurora an empowered spirit mode, and allowing her to travel from one end of the area to the other.
• Enemies who try to cross the threshold will take magic damage, be slowed, and be pushed back toward the center of the area.

Aurora Impressions

With what she does out of the way, how's it all work together? For those familiar with the champions, Aurora plays like a mix of Neeko and Xayah which both happen to be Vastaya characters themselves.

Like most champions' Q abilities, hers is pretty simple. It's an ability shot in a straight line which hits everything it passes through instead of stopping on contact, and every target hit gets marked. Pulling the energy out hits everything between the targets and Aurora, so you can imagine how much damage Aurora can put out quickly if a champion tries to engage on her and she hits them and the minion wave behind them before recasting to pelt the champion with multiple recalled spirit streams.

Both her Across the Veil and The Weirding abilities largely served as repositioning tools to play around Twofold Hex. By hopping around with W and being invisible, you can put yourself in a more advantageous spot to recall your Q, but it can also be used simply to outwit people like you would with Neeko's clone. Her E does big damage compared to her Q, and the slight hop backwards plays nicely with her ultimate.

That ult will take some getting used to for Aurora players and those against her. The circle it creates is based on where you want to set the spirit realm boundaries as opposed to targeting a champion like Jarvan's ult or Camille's, so imagine you're putting down a giant Veigar cage. This means that you can catch enemies immediately on the edge if you're quick to damage, slow, and push them all at the same time, but you run the risk of missing them entirely by doing so.

Her mobility and invisibility come into play her since she can teleport from one side of the barrier to the other by touching its boundaries. So, if you were to hit a champion with a Q while they're tried to fight you in your ult, you can hop backward while dealing damage with E, touch the rim of the circle, and reappear on the complete opposite side of the spirit arena so that you have more time to plan your Q recast. The ultimate only lasts a few seconds, however, so if you spend too much time planning and playing around the boundaries, you could find yourself on the wrong side of the lane once it ends.

When outfitted with Electrocute, Aurora's burst damage became apparent thanks to her Q, the recast, and the E alone, though Phase Rush also has potential to further enhance her mobility. She seems to follow a pretty typical mage path in terms of itemization, though it's easy to see some on-hit potential like Neeko thanks to her passive.

During a brief jungle test run to see what Neeko's clear looked like, her multi-target damage, the heal, and the mobility as well as the ability to hop short walls showed some promise. Riot said that that's not really the intent for her, however, since she doesn't have much gank potential, so if end up seeing jungle Aurora only used to farm and catch people with ult, Riot said it'd take action to push her back into the preferred roles.