i love these deep-dives explanations into why Riot designs abilities in the way they do for new champs! please keep making videos like these for future champion releases

After playing her today, yes she feels really well made and cohesive. She's a mid to longer range battlemage with decent poke at the cost of less scaling ratios and no easily accessible hard cc. But she makes up for her ratios with her passive which means she can actively punish every dash someone makes making her incredibly stupid into Yasuo but fairly useless into juggernauts and tanks due to her low damage without the passive. But then the best part of the kit, the ult W combo, my god. It's like playing ap Malphite who actually has good follow up. I love it and she's definitely staying in my mid pool.

Yasuos hate her and immobile top laners love her, find out how today

What you said as a red flag shows one good thing about her. She doesn’t need an ability cut out of her kit, only numbers adjustment. And that is a sign of a good designed champion

I like that she doesn't have one defined combo. She can either E and hope that the enemy stays in the circle for long enough to be feared and then Q them for big damage and to pop Gloom, or she can Q, use the fear to get off her E easily, and then auto attack to hopefully proc Gloom. It's very nice to actually have options for how you hit things instead of having one bread and butter combo

Don't forget that all 5 of her abilities do damage. Even if her scalings are a bit below average, other mages often only have 3 or 4 abilites that deal damage. Annie has her E, Ahri has her passive etc. I think her damage will be pretty good

Vex literally feels like a modern day Annie: a bursty mage with a cc passive and a shield for survivability. Vex just has a bit more agency thanks to her ultimate

Vex is not strong since she loses hard to juggernauts and tanks in general. She is also a breathe of fresh air when all we had were flashy champs eith overloaded kits. A bit of an adjustment may be needed but not required such as the shielding.

9:02 kai'sa is technically 5 since she needs 4 and then another to proc it, she just doesn't only rely on autos to apply it since cc by teammates can apply it and w gives 2 stacks (3 when upgraded)

Vex is an example of good champion design: cohesive in all aspects and, most importantly, without unnecesary or too many things on her abilities and passive. I have no issue with long descriptions if the champions makes it worth, like Aphelios. Akshan has too many things for instance on his passive, that's the problem, not the long description of it. It is a pity Riot did not launch an artillery mage, but at least made a good battlemage. And that mix of Annie+lissandra (a bit of nocturne) feels nice.

In the one game i got to play her i built her full ap and just threw around qs. I had enough burst to oneshot a squishy with one rotation but it meant i didnt really have any way of living when a bruiser got onto me. She seems fine. Her gameplay was pretty intuitive and her damage was neither good nor bad. I also like her style and voicelines so i‘m already a fan, anyway

Vex reminds me of the "good ol' days" of league. Back when champions had basic designs and it was player creativity that pushed them to be something more than they were. Akshan (and pretty much every other modern champ) fail in their design in my opinion because their kits are just designed to make plays and be flashy. A "Cool play" for Akshan is the norm not the exception. I'm super excited to see Vex videos because I know they'll be highlights of players coming up with extraordinary uses for her otherwise ordinary abilities.

i love how the only concerning thing about this champ is the numbers, its so refreshing to see a champ thats only concerning thing is numbers,

i would love too see more of these first impression videos. while Huzzy, Ross and RedMercy are great at explaining abilities in their first impression videos--i'm naming those cause they get fastest access, especially Huzzy--they don't really have knowledge over classes and mechanics as much as you do. you'd basically be filling a empty hole of content from different angle. thanks for good quality content. keep up the good work. wish you well.

Tried to post this in live chat but her chief counters would be around timing. She has to make sure her W and passive are up at the right time otherwise she can get bursted down like any other mage.

I want another void monster, demon, ascended champ

As a Nocturne enjoyer...finally a champ that i can ult without her being able to dash 34 screens away

"Vex is that edgy kid in school that thought they had some secret power they were trying to keep hidden from the world or something." - Vars at the official Vex Champion Spotlight

There are only 2 things I don't like about vex: her ult is literally what she should hate, and she hadn't any kind of portal magic (she has in the lore). Then, I love everything about het: the kit, the passive, Dub and what she says. I also like the fact that she is available both as a hard counter (yasuo, riven, irelia) and a "first pick" due to her long range

I really liked what you said about empowered abilities, and it's essentially one of my favorite things in League, and one of those things that I wish DotA had more of (though that game compensates for it with its abilities being a little more "crazy", go look up Techies if you'd like to see it for yourself). There are quite a few empowered ability champions, and I play a bunch of those because of the whole reward/punishment system that is based on fast but clever thinking is extremely satisfying when used well, but is also pretty fair all things considered. The champions that have this are: Annie, Brand, Heimerdinger, Karma, LeBlanc, Pantheon, Qiyana, Renekton, Rengar, Rumble, Ryze, Seraphine, Sona, Twisted Fate, Zyra, and of course, Vex. There are also a lot of different versions of this, as you have Viktor, Kayn, Gangplank, Kha'Zix, Kai'Sa and Syndra who have to make their decisions with their passive empowers proactively, forcing them to predict what will help them the most in the future. Aphelios has to constantly think about which guns he wants to set up for a fight, and what order does he want, as having a good or a bad combo can be the difference between getting an ace, and getting aced. There is Elise, Jayce, Nidalee and Rek'Sai, who basically have access to two weaker forms with different kits that excel at different things, and picking the right kit for the right moment is the key to success on these champs (Shyvana has two forms but the dragon one is always just a buff, Gnar has two forms, but there's a bit less player control when it comes to managing his two forms, and Kled is even more wild). Jinx has the rocket launcher and the minigun that she constantly has to think about. There's Lissandra who has to decide between ulting an enemy or herself, same deal with Tahm's ult that can be used on teammates or enemies. There's Rell, who has to switch between her different W forms accordingly. Udyr has to always choose the correct stance because he's physically unable to just mash his stuff. There is Zilean and Lulu, who both have two abilities that can be used on allies or enemies. And lastly, there's Sylas, Viego and Zoe who all have the potential to make a huge play by stealing the right thing, or instantly failing by stealing the wrong thing. So as you can see, there are a BUNCH of champions that have to make choices within their kits. I absolutely love the idea behind these, and I think it would make for a great video idea, where you can talk about choice based champions, and what you think about the different types of them.

It has been a long time since I've seen a champion and thought "that looks fun to play as and against." (Last one was probably Sett). Even after I saw how long her ulti range was (I initally thought it was 1/2 as long) I still didn't bat much of an eye. Good champ, hopefully Riot will continue with this.

after seeing your comment in her reveal on skinspotlights, I knew we were gonna get a video on vex. To be honest, thanks. I really like the champ too.

Just want to say Vars, the fact that you continually get me to sit through 15 minute videos on a game I play very rarely shows your talent as a KZfaqr. Good content but also great finer details, the music etc.

Vex is the first champion since Lillia's release that I am very happy about. Some other champions were kinda cool, some were stupid, some were uninteresting. But Vex is the first champion in quite some time that makes me excited, whether I see her on my team or the enemy team

People saying that she needs adjustments because of the fact that she's not very good into Juggernauts and tanks are missing the point. Every champion theyve released even somewhat recently is good into tanks... That's all people have been complaining about.. and now there is a champion that counters the vast majority of antitank champions, and people say she needs adjustments. Am I missing something, or did people just forget that YOURE SUPPOSED TO DESIGN CHAMPIONS WITH DISTINCT WEAKNESSES. It's like the scourge of no counterplay bullshit has made people expect no counterplay bullshit, and gripe when a new champ has any fucking counterplay. Edit: Rell is the only new champion that doesn't shitstomp tanks. Seraphine has too much utility and zone control for tanks to reasonably do anything.

Really cool episode btw. The fact that you're able to make such a clear and thorough analysis this soon after release speaks to the strength of your framework of interpreting design.

This champion just griefs me in voice chat with friends, because I think they're talking to me, but nope, not Vechs, just Vex. :|

It is undeniable that compared to what we've been having, Vex is a big improvement, but her ult bugs me really hard is that she feels like Lissandra, but better. Vex's base kit is fine, but her range is much longer. Her ultimate, meanwhile, feels like Lissandra's engage but unlike Lissandra who's very slow, telegraph and relatively low range, Vex's is, as you've mentioned, Lee Sin's Q on steroids that resets. While Lissandra has a slow engage and has low range to work with in the neutral game, Vex has acess to not only a better engage, but when she don't have to engage, she also has strong range.

Her Q initially hits all around her due to the hitbox, so that also synergizes with the up-close path

That was a wonderful analysis of the new champion Vex. Love the chill narrative tone in which information is transported.

Vex, I feel, is a perfectly designed champion.

My man, I'll watch anything you upload. I have only watched one minute but I know it'll be 100% great and worth my time :D

I liked the video a lot, I'm happy to have some idea of new champions

Riot deciding to make Vex in a nutshell: "Dashes are OP, nerf them" - Drake no "Dashes are OP, make champion that counters dashes" - Drake yes

Fun Fact:The guy that started the '200 Years' meme also designed Vex

Vex also reminds me of your video on champion lore-in the way she plays it makes sense that she's a yordle but she's not the happy-go-lucky type that you'd expect from bandle city.

You should make a video about Crowd Control, buy more specifically, obscure Crowd Control. Like Victors W has what i believe is the rarest type of CC, not the stun, but along with the stun it is a Knock Down, knocking down enemies who are knocked up. I cannot think of 1 other ability that does this, i could be wrong, but i'm fairly certain it's the only one.

vex is 200 years for 200 years champs, and perfectly designed for those who aren't.

I love the way her kit is built as a whole, simplistic but allows for a ton of permutations in her ability rotation, complexity through simplicity grants really interesting depth.

the fire emblem music in these videos never fail to give me a bit of nostalgia

Im surprised theres no content on Gwen id love to see a video about her. If im correct she has a low wr and i feel like shes not really noticeable and doesnt have much impact like Viego and the other new champs.

This is before she was released. The ult reset is very OP imo

Liked this ideia of video, there's a Brazillian channel that has a similar series, so I like this idea of first impressions (and also, loved Vex, she looks awesome)

It’s funny that the champions you mentioned about skill empowerment are all my favorite champions, despite not realizing they all had that in common. Hiemer, vex, rumble renekton, funny

I like your reactions and analysis, so this video was actually pretty great to watch! I think you can do one for each new champion, after all it's fun to hear your opinion.

Her w actually fears and damages before the animation making it an instant cast ability. The frame you press w is the same frame damage and fear is applied.

I'm just glad I can watch her champion spotlight and understand her abilities afterward, unlike some champs. *cough cough* Aphelios

Hey, Vars. Found your channel a few days ago and just finished binging almost all your League content :) Great stuff. I think your the best person to answer this question Ive had for awhile and can give you another new series to add to your big lineup. Who are the best champions to main/one trick? In each role, who are a few of the champions who have the most build versatility, skill ceiling, most favorable matchups, safer even in bad matchups, most useful in the most stages of the game, Buff/nerf/Meta resistant, etc, etc. I play mostly Top and Support, occasionally mid and what Im thinking is Volibear, Pantheon, Malzahar, Senna, and Thresh (and Leona because I just love her so much). These are the Champions I plan to focus my time into to maximize how infrequently I play league now compared to a few years ago when I played everyday for many hours. Interested in your opinion and thoughts on the topic.

Great video Any plans on continuing this format with Zeri?

Although, one critique: I know you've brought this up before but I don't think your argument about yordles is very strong. By that I mean, I think a lot of champions have unique annoying abilities in this game. Maybe they're not the same level of changing everyone's playstyle as Teemo's shrooms or Evelynn's invisibility, but a lot of champs have some ability that makes them stand out as something to watch out for. It's not really unique to yordles. I just don't think yordles are really tied together gameplay-wise. It's more of a visual design decision to have a champ that may look small/cute but packs a punch. (Like Vex being small, almost encouraging divers to dash after her and then she throws that in their faces.) Or be cartoonish for better readability like Kled since he's in the thick of fights dismounting and remounting - his animation needs to be exaggerated. Just my two cents.

Great video! Loved the in-depth explanation. Would love to see more of these future champs videos. The only suggestion I can make is maybe try the champ on pbe and give your opinion on the gameplay?

One thing I like about Vex (haven't played her, just based off of impressions) is how she can really benefit from all 3 mana mythics to very high potential. If you're against a team of tanks, Liandry's burn works very well with her ranged aoe abilities. If you need the burst, Luden's will help with her low-ish damage and a full rotation can probably catch people off guard and lead to chain kills with her R. And if you can remember to use activated items, Everfrost will provide you with extra disruption when diving into the enemy team!

I love the analysis on vex. I can't wait to hear what comparisons you'll make between vex and the new champion briar, both of their ultimates do basically the same thing but briar is missing a reset on the cool down but the both of them pop their ult , dive head first into the enemy/enemy team and fear everyone around.

great video, hope you keep the formula for new champs :)

I came back to League after not playing for around 1 year. I instantly fell in love with Vex. She's super fun to play.

I think her fear isn't that bad since it has a rly long cool down and once used champions like riven and Irelia can just engage again before her fear is off cool down, plus her early game damage is abismal without her passive making her reliant on her E fear + Q combo for significant damage

Vex's ability description: i do this, and that. yeah. Akshan's ability description: *THE HOLY BIBLE*

I been hitting all your videos, but it's funny that voli's E keeps being brought up. I sure miss it as well

Coolest champ since Sett in my opinion. Also helps she's a "monster" champ and not the conventionally attractive stereotypical eboy/egirl flashy OP trash riot has been putting out

9:49 That if/and one got me. XD

that nice to do a frist impression on new champ continue plz

She kinda sounds like a good support ngl. She can peel for her carries, stop ganks with passive, and enough fear to match the cc of other supports. She can engage with ult + w, get a kill, and make use of that reset in a duo lane.

To me Vex seems to be a mid-range mage for the most part. Most of what I played her was on URF, but I played her in a normal too and what I felt was a very passive and defensive champion early on, who needs to combo her E and Q for any real damage, with a W that you mainly use to keep yourself from being popped if a melee gets on you. She seems to be a mid game powerspike champion though, in that once you finish one or two items and get ult and max rank Q, you start to hurt. - Waiting on your passive to be up and all your cooldowns ready, any squishy is prime real estate for a combo. - She's awesome to burst with, but you have to rely on the enemy not seeing your R coming or being unable to react, and when people are low health they tend to be very alert, so ironically you're better off hitting a higher health target, so long as it's not a tank or bruiser. - Then fly in with an instant W to fear, and that gives you enough time to put your E-Q combo on them, to proc gloom and deal the solid damage, with E being near-instant in melee range. Also, you can use this to initiate team fights, since an R-W is about as good to break enemy focus and set up an ace as a Malphite Ult that homes on a target, or a Fiddlesticks R with four times the range. - Or you can chain her ultimate resets to clean up after a teamfight if you were late to show up. She's very versatile, then, but only if she benefits of her Ultimate, otherwise it's dangerous to get in. As for items, my favorite for her so far was Everfrost, into Archangel's to solve mana issues and then Rabaddon for the insane AP. - This lets her burst as well as wave clear, and solves her mana hunger issues, as her costs can be pretty ridiculous. - You could go Haste on her, sure, but you'd still want a tear in there. - From there I usually take Horizon Focus for her 4th item, as it sinergizes well with her ult as well as her passive, and gives massive AP, and then round it all up with a Rylai, which gives both HP and a slow. - So later on you put a bit of beef on you, so you have an easier time diving into those game-ending teamfights and causing the most amount of damage, plus that the additional slow from Rylai makes it way easier to land your E-Q combo on a target, even if you don't have the Doom passive on hand just then. - And yes, I know E slows by default, but its a very well telegraphed ability, and slowing an enemy with your R and W before you toss the puddle under them makes it way easier to apply your full damage, which will be very impactful as well as crucial later in the game. - Boots I tend to go Sorc's, since I'm building so much into burst. - Everfrost can be swapped out for Luden in theory, but I find the additional crowd control as well as the HP very useful, and with Everfrost the build actually reaches 1000 AP with blue pot quite consistently. Also, 2nd ability max I see a lot of people going E, but it has no cooldown scaling, and the base damage is pretty mediocre either way, E is mainly useful as a tool to apply Gloom in an E-Q combo. Meanwhile the AP scaling on both the shield and the AOE damage on her W is insanely good, and it actually has a lower cooldown as you rank it up, iirc. Runes are up to you, really. - Harvest if you're feeling confident, or Comet if you want to play it safe. - Ultimate Hunter I find is a very useful thing to have, and Manaflow Band with Transcendence helps as well, as that mana will go into AP. - If you're going to build her with Liandri, though, you're going to need both Manaflow and Presence of Mind, so... There's no real one-set way to build her. And I like that. - You can tailor her to your needs, adapt to the game and to your play style. She's fun because the tools being so simple allow you to use them in creative ways. All in all, I really thing Rito did a great job with her, but.... She's going to get nerfed, I'm sure, specifically hitting her passive, but... who knows? I'm not a master dev with 220 collective years of Game Design under my belt.

Great Video Enzo

Hey vars what do you think of the guy who makes videos just like you but for valorant? He is called jitters or something i think. I think he will run out of agents to talk about

Also, she brings some nice ideas for the future Nocturne rework, and maybe for Annie (IMHO, both are still enjoyable, but borderline functional in actual standards).

good and interesting video, keep up!

Been 2 years and I just remembered Zoe existed thanks to this video. Wow, don't remember seeing her in season 10 and 11 at ALL.

Im playing vex pretty regularly and here is my thoughts: She is a late game mage assassin with a decent early game and a 2 item power spike: Ludens/Everfrost and horizon focus. Her early game is quite weak when vs ranged champions who has more reliable damage like ahri, cassipopeia etc. because she needs to land her e and go for an auto which draws a lot of minion aggro. Her level 4 all in is quite strong with a flash w fear and it basically guarantees or q and e will hit, really hard to predict and dodge. at level 6 she just pops off with her ultimate, and here is the down side: Her ultimate is ludicrously slow, it is extremely easy to dodge if the champion you are planning against has any dash or blink, i.e. ahri, kassadin, zed... If you missed your ult, unless you have flash or they are very low, don't think about killing them, because you have 0 pressure if you don't have ult, so make them count, especially mid game if you are behind, because one good skirmish or team fight with you aoe fear can turn the situation around. Now, late game :)..... Yeah, her late game dmg is kinda insane, the highest I have ever seen, its more reliable than kassadin, because vex has self peel with her shield and fear, when she has 4 items, she can press r, r, and w and the adc would get oneshot, if not, add a guaranteed q for safety measure... Conclusion: Vex's kit is simple, but useful, she brings a lot to the table, she's not mobile by any means, but she has self peel with quite a high cool down as a counter balance, if you take anything away from vex's kit I would be very sad, she is definitely not a 200 year champion, but a perfectly designed, well balanced kit. of course the number need to be worked on, tune down the dmg ratio on her w and change first ult cast ration to 30% from 20% and lower the second cast to 40% from 50, this keeps the damage but lowers her burst so the enemy's team mates can react to it.. and so she can actually use other abilities to oneshot other than her r and w Perfectly designed champion, fun to play, great champion for comeback games, great skirmishers, teamfighter, and overall fun to play well done riot, finally perfected a champion in a long time

The thing I really REALLY like is that she is(as far as I know) the only mage who has fear as a cc(excluding ap warwick 😎) and that makes her unique. Don't know why just like it ahahah interesting choice imo.

I enjoyed this video and would watch future versions.

this was actually a very well made video

I love this champ. A new champ that isn't overloaded, has a clear goal that is realized, and has clear strengths and weaknesses. I'm all for complex characters, but this is better than a complex, overloaded character. Vex feels just right.

Thanks for using my fave theme from fire emblem ;)

Me watching people argue about what dashes can and can't be blocked knowing all the answers.

I honestly like Vex for the sole reason that she quotes Lethal League's Dust and Ashes with her ult quote "Shadow do the thing"

Vex is really good design and amazing how expressive she is!

I think she's absolutely brilliantly designed. Another thing you missed is that E and Q are designed such that they *still* fulfill the typical mage-type ability fantasy, but unlike almost all mage abilities they're carefully designed such that they're *also* good against people who get on top of her; this is a trait practically no other mage has, and the attention to cohesion and detail it shows is just wonderful. I think the people who designed Vex can't be congratulated enough. In this day and age, to come out with a *simple* and yet brilliantly effective champion that *also* fills a crucial role in the game (a mage who does well against dash-spam) my god it's just pure genius.

I was skeptical of Vex at first, but she is hella fun!

Everything sounds very valid, except for the fact the quote 'she needs some buffs after being released'

I haven't played her yet but I'm really excited to!

There is also something that ppl dont take into account when enemy are gloomed you basic attack become non projectile wich mean cannot be windwalled or samira blocked

Before I play vex I gotta put on an MCR shirt for good emo luck.

What I love about her is, that she isnt a disney princess (looking at you, lilia, seraphine, zoe, neeko) and she does not have a complex kit where you have to have a PHD to understand it (looking at you, Aphelios). She basically is a simple champ but what makes her special and challenging to play is that she is not simple as in button smashing like garen or tryndamere. She does have simple abilities but the clue is how to use them in each situation. Perfect champion design in my opinion. 10/10.

I don't like how the gave the "anti-dash champ" A resetting dash lol

I’m just happy that her kid isn’t made of 6 dashes with a crap ton of lifesteal

Zwag footage! Nice Choice!😄

Riot did a good job making Vex and she's a breath of fresh air from what we've received year round. One thing to say is she'll more than likely adjustments/nerfs to make her weaknesses more apparent and obvious. At the moment, she feels like she counters everything and i'm not saying she's overpowered, but definitely not in the right place

she's also make me feel good to play mid (which is the lan I don't really want to since the only mid lane champ I know how to play is Ryze)

I doubt her CC times will actually be an issue. She doesn't have any good tools to deal with Juggernauts, especially the ones with movement speed buffs like Garen, Olaf, and Udyr. They have enough health to handle her burst-centric kit and she doesn't have anything that would allow her to easily take advantage of anti-tank mage items like Demonic Embrace and Liandry's Anguish. It'd be about as awkward as trying both items on Ekko. Most importantly, Juggernauts tend to have exceedingly high tenacity which will easily shrug off 1.5 second fear timers. That said, every other class does have a level of vulnerability against her due to her engage range and damage output tied to her easy to land disruption. While she wouldn't be able to easily kill divers due to the same reasons as Juggernauts, at least her disruption would be instrumental for getting the lockdown on them during teamfights. Tanks would also suffer the same issue. They might be harder to kill, but they will still have the same issues as divers in having a hard time pinning her down. The squishy classes would struggle by simple nature of her damage output, potential reach, and disruption. She would only be a problem if her gimmick was abusable in a way to dps high health targets down. Like if some chads somehow figured out a way to make ADC Vex work with Blade of the Ruined King + Kraken Slayer. As long as she doesn't innately have a health shredding tool, she should be easily manageable by fed Juggernauts.

If league of legends keep dropping this kind of champions, I will definitely go back to playing it

6:45 just played a game where my riven would go in on the enemy vex, die, have a meltdown, repeat.

What I love about vex is that there is no reused abilities at least not that i see the description and think, wait wasn’t that this champion thing?

As a Vex main on Wild Rift I veiw her as an upgraded version of Ziggs. Most people play her as an assassin but if you build her for sustain, utility & cool down she can become a really hard to deal with, Yes, Artillery. You say she isn't artillery but I disagree, Vex's ability to close in also lets her keep near her team and deep strike a heavy preasure load into the enemy backline while everything else is going on. Even with Ziggs you are best when you can launch deep strikes and unlike his alt, Vex's alt gives you precision. She *is* litterally her own artillery shell. That superior positioning and ability to adapt to fights with high mobility champions keeps Artillery a relavant roll. Dealing with the issues that makes Ziggs kit outdated- aside from tower assassinations- if you play Vex like you would Ziggs, she can fill the same roll but with much better over all utility & survival.

That disruption is so strong I wonder if her support game is any good.

Please keep making these videos. 🥳

I thought it was a shame that her champion doesn't really capitalise on her event lore very much. In the story she could create portals with her shadow, and she seemed to have this big slowing effect on people who walked into her shadow (like the battle in Freljord), but nothing about frightening people. Also, her shadow was made to seem like this kind of living, controllable creature in the story and even in her voice lines and emotes, so I'm a little disappointed that they sort of abandoned that idea in favour of generic projectiles and circles for her abilities. The champion's gameplay is fine and fairly well-designed, but I feel like they could have made something much more unique that actually felt like the Vex from her backstory.

Vex is actually one of the few champions I genuinely love.

My only complaint with Vex is that I wish her empowered E did a grounding effect ontop of the fear, but I guess that would be too OP.

I liked the video and wanted to watch more on other champions like Tristina