League of Legends champion breakdown: Yuumi, the Magical Cat

League of Legends has introduced a brand new champion to the Rift. What can we expect from Yuumi, the Magical Cat?

With the announcement of Yuumi, the Magical Cat, many have already begun to speculate where the newest League of Legends champion might end up. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait too long for her ability descriptions to come out.

Riot announced the basics of Yuumi’s kit today, along with the release trailer we broke down earlier. What unique abilities does the Magical Cat bring to Summoner’s Rift?

"Passive – Bop ‘n’ BlockEvery so often, Yuumi’s next attack against an opponent restores mana and grants her a shield. If Yuumi is Attached, the shield protects her ally. The shield protects Yuumi or her ally until it’s broken."

Immediately, this screams a support’s kit. Giving Yuumi a shield on her passive which can be used on an ally is obviously something a support would like. However, getting free mana in lane, considering she isn’t going to invest in items like Lost Chapter early, also kind of pigeon-holes her into the support role.

"Q – Prowling ProjectileYuumi fires a missile that deals magic damage to the first enemy hit. If the missile is in flight long enough, it deals bonus damage and slows enemies.While Attached, Yuumi fires a missile from her ally’s position and can direct the missile’s flight path with her mouse."

Reminds me a lot of Lulu’s Q – Glitterlance and how it interacts with Pix. Now, though, instead of firing a missile off an ally with Pix, Yuumi will fire a missile off an ally she is attached to.

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It’s unclear how exactly the Attach mechanic will work and how it will function differently firing from an ally than just off her. Either way, this is another indication that Yuumi will be more of a support champion because of the similarities to another traditional support champion.

"W – You and Me!Passive: While Attached, Yuumi and her ally gain a percent of each other’s AD or AP converted to Adaptive Force.Active: Yuumi starts with a point in her W. She dashes to an ally champion and attaches to them. While Attached, she follows her partner’s movement and is untargetable by everything except tower damage. Yuumi’s abilities fire from her ally’s location, and she can’t attack enemies. She can Unattach after a cooldown or Attach to another teammate with no cooldown."

So first to tackle the Attach state, it seems like this will largely be Yuumi’s default setting (kind of like how Taric attached to another champion with Bastion most of the game. She needs to actively detatch and can re-attach with the active, but it’s unclear how this works with the movement and untargetable status (i.e. when is she untargetable and how long does it last).

Giving her bonus Adaptive Force based off the Attached ally’s AD or AP really pinches her more towards support, again, since she will want to stay around the hyper carries (usually the ADC) to give them a bit extra damage. It also means that she’ll probably build as an off-support (like a couple supportive items like Ardent Censer, Redemption and then more AP items like Athene’s, Twin Shadows, or the like). Empowering your ally and empowering your own shield will likely incentivize her to have a riskier playstyle.

"E – ZoomiesYuumi heals and gains a burst of movement speed. If Attached, her ally is targeted by the spell instead. This spell has two charges."

Again, support-focused ability here as she can speed and heal an Attached ally. So if she’s Attached to her ADC in lane they get a mini-Heal for free on her kit.

It will be interesting to see the exact numbers on this, as well as how casting the ability interacts with the Attach mechanic. For instance, if she can instantly Attach to a different ally in a teamfight and heal them, that could be quite strong.

"R – Final ChapterYuumi opens Book, launching waves of magic damage that root enemies after multiple hits. While using her ult, Yuumi can move, attach to ally champions, and heal."

So this looks like a combination of Amumu and Sona’s ults, but better. The big key here is going to be how long the root lasts and whether you can root the same enemy multiple times in the ult’s cast.

Again, how Attach works and interacts with abilities will be quite key because if she can dart around mid-ult to reposition her R – Final Chapter Yuumi could be quite strong. I’m envisioning this as almost being like Rakan+Sona, but that seems like it would be way too strong.

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What are your first impressions of Yuumi? Let us know in the comments!

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