League of Legends devs reveal first look at Volibear’s reworked abilities

Riot Games have revealed a detailed first look at the Freljordian Demigod, Volibear’s upcoming visual and gameplay update in League of Legends.

League of Legends developers held a community vote in 2019 for fans to choose which of current champions needed a rework most. After it was revealed that both Fiddlesticks and Volibear had been chosen by players, Riot quickly got to work on revamping the pair.

Following the massive Fiddlesticks VGU on April 1, Riot revealed that Volibear was also nearly ready for a new look on the Rift and revealed part of the Thunderous Bear’s reworked model and ability kit.

Despite not straying too far from the ursine champion’s original look, Riot’s latest blog post explained that the new version of Volibear is much more feral and better aligned with the Demigod’s lore.

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League of Legends gameplay designer Nathan Lutz revealed that they were inspired to make the champion feel “relentless” in-game and implement “modern takes” on Volibear’s old kit to help him keep up with some of the new releases.

“He still runs on all fours and locks down a single target,” Lutz said, explaining that they did not stray too far from his former kit, “He still has a targeted bite, rampaging attack speed and chain lightning, only now it lasts for as long as he remains in combat.”

However, they also gave fans a sneak peek at his new ‘E’ ability and the VFX behind it, which creates a “shockwave flash” before leaving a “glowing crater” behind.

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Despite not revealing what exactly this new ability does, many have suggested that it could be used to slow enemies struck by the “shockwave” similarly to the skill it is set to replace.

They later revealed that Volibear’s ultimate would also be receiving some significant changes and despite not revealing too much they hinted that it would be in line with his title as the “Freljordian god of storms” and offer some utility that the champ “has never had before.”

Riot has not revealed a release date for the Volibear VGU as of yet but explained in the post that from the time of the announcement, “Voli’s release will be shorter than it was for Fiddlesticks,” suggesting that he would be making his way to PBE servers within the coming weeks.