League of Legends: Breaking Down Gwen’s Kit & Abilities
By Josh Tyler
Just a few days after Riot revealed the newest League of Legends champion, Gwen, the Hallowed Seamstress has had her abilities revealed by Riot. Today, players get a look at her full kit to start to theorycraft what type of champion she will be.
In looking at Gwen’s abilities, we’ll examine how she might itemize, what role she might play within League of Legends, and how she might play within a team comp. Let’s take a look at the full kit for Gwen, the next League of Legends champion.
Passive – Thousand Cuts
"Gwen’s basic attacks deal bonus on-hit magic damage based on a percentage of her health. Basic attacks against champions will heal her for some of the damage dealt."
The key words that stand out are “basic attacks,” “on-hit,” “magic damage,” and “percentage of her health.” This means she wants to auto attack and wants to build on-hit. Immediately, this makes me think her itemization will be something close to Kayle, Kog’Maw, or Vayne.
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However, the “percentage of her health” is a bit tricky. It does not specify whether that is a percentage of her max health, current health, or missing health. I suspect it would be current health, but which one it scales off will impact how tanky she might want to build.
Q – Snip Snip!
"Gwen rapidly snips her scissors between two and six times, dealing magic damage in a cone. At a minimum, Gwen will snip twice, adding one snip per basic attack Gwen has landed on an enemy (up to four for a total of six)!Enemies in the center of each snip take true damage, as well as the bonus magic damage from Thousand Cuts."
Again, this ability will scale off how much she auto-attacks, so an on-hit/attack speed build is probably going to be the way to go with Gwen. We’ll also have to see how long it takes for these stacks to fall off and whether they fall off altogether or one at a time, as that will impact her trading pattern.
Take a look at all Gwen’s abilities!
Also, the fact that enemies in the middle of the snip take true damage really lets Gwen deal with tanks (hint, top lane). If she is able to build AD and get some mixed damage (like a Warwick) that could be extremely strong.
W – Hallowed Mist
"Gwen spins up the Hallowed Mist to surround her for five seconds, gaining some armor and magic resist when in it. Enemies outside the Mist cannot target Gwen or hit her with any abilities. The mist will move to follow Gwen the first time she tries to leave it, but will dissipate the next time."
So this is her tanky ability and the fact that she gains armor and MR makes her building health a bit more appealing (health scales better and if she gets resistances for free she could skip them altogether depending on the cooldown). What stands out is that enemies cannot hit Gwen with any abilities. I assume this also means skillshots, which basically means she is untargetable while inside the Hallowed Mist. I wonder if this will be broken by her attacking the enemy, though.
E – Skip ’n Slash
"Gwen dashes a short distance and empowers her attacks with increased range, speed, and on-hit magic damage for four seconds.Attacking an enemy during this time refunds 50% of this ability’s cooldown."
Again, on-hit magic damage when her E is active pivots her towards attack speed builds. This is Gwen’s only mobility tool, so she’ll have to be careful when to use it and get the cooldown refund.
R – Needlework
"Gwen can cast Needlework up to three times, but needs to hit an enemy within 8 seconds to unlock each subsequent cast.Each cast fires needles in a line that deal magic damage, slow enemies, and apply Gwen’s Thousand Cuts bonus magic damage.The first cast will fire one needle, the second fires three, and the third cast fires five for a total of nine needles and nine applications of Thousand Cuts to enemies hit."
So this is the big magic damage ability and will probably be the reason she builds more like Kayle than Vayne. The fact that each needle she hits applies the Thousand Cuts damage is huge as she can apply it up to nine times with each cast. It’s important to note, though, that she will need to hit an enemy to re-cast, so this could be a problem if you’re trying to finish off mobile enemies. However, in a teamfight, this ability should be very strong on Gwen.
Conclusion
Gwen’s abilities lead me to believe she will probably be a solo laner. She might be able to build magic damage, depending on her ratios, but she will primarily prioritize attack speed and on-hit builds.
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I would guess that her preferred Mythic would be Divine Sunderer, so she can get more out of the on-hit, but she could go Eclipse as a Mythic item if she doesn’t really need tankiness. However, if her abilities have strong AP scaling, she might just want Hextech Protobelt or Everfrost to keep the distance with her targets and get more auto attacks off. Liandry’s Anguish could also be a good pick for her into certain matchups.
For Legendary items, I’d guess that she will want Guinsoo’s Rageblade and/or Nashor’s Tooth. She probably could also like items like Zhonya’s Hourglass, Riftmaker, Ravenous Hydra, Blade of the Ruined King, Lich Bane, Trinity Force, Night Harvester, Chemtech Putrifier, Wit’s End, or Horizon Focus. Unfortunately, until we see her full kit and see how her ratios look, it’s hard to speculate further.