Riot Games officially revealed Samira, a marksman champion, who brandishes one sword, two guns and a tun of references from franchises other than League of Legends.
League of Legends' next champion now has a trailer showcasing her abilities but it doesn't specifically describe them. Thankfully, the data mining folks over at Surrender@20 did that and we can see Samira's kit before it makes its way to PBE.
Her passive is Daredevil Impulse. It has a style meter, reminiscent of a certain devil's gameplay mechanic, and it has six grades with E being the worst and S being the best. Each grade increases Samira's movement speed.
On top of that, the passive causes the marksman champion to deal additional magic damage in melee range which gets increased further by the amount of target's missing health.
You thought that's all the passive does? Nope, there is more. It will also cause Samira's attacks to knock up targets who are immobilised and deal more damage over six separate attacks. It also causes her to dash towards targets slightly outside her attack range.
Flair (Q) is a bit simpler though. Samira fires a shot that deals physical damage to the first enemy hit. Casting it in melee range will instead cause a sword slash that deals a different amount of physical damage. These attacks can crit but the modifier is stuck to 25 per cent bonus damage.
Blade Whirl (W) is like a mini Xin Zhao ulti. Samira swipes her sword in a circular motion, destroying projectiles around her. The duration is one second though so reflexes will be crucial here. If any enemies are hit by the sword, they will take physical damage from each of the two swipes.
Wild Rush (E) is a dash that goes through an ally or enemy. If it passes through an enemy, Samira slashes them and gain attack speed. If Flair was cast during Wild Rush, Samira will hit them upon the dash's completion. Killing champions resets the cooldown.
Inferno Trigger (R) is only usable when Samira reaches S rating from the passive. She then starts whirling and firing wildly at anything around her over two seconds with each shot dealing damage and applying lifesteal. All of these shots can crit.
With the abilities behind use, let's dive into references, easter eggs and inspiration themes that are visible from the trailer above and Surr@20's data-mined info .
Most of the references are to Devil May Cry series and especially Dante, who is usually the protagonist. Just like the white-haired devil, Samira wields a sword and a pair of guns. Similarly, they are all named but instead of Ebony, Ivory and Rebellion, she is wielding Blaze, Thorn and Vanquish.
The main differences between Samira and Dante's loadouts is that Dante wields Ebony, the black gun, in his left arm and Ivory in the right while League's new champion has Blaze, the black gun, in right and Thorn, the chrome one, in the left. Also, Ebony and Ivory look a bit like altered 1911s while Blaze and Thorn are revolvers.
Both Dante and Samira are all about style points. In the case of Dante, they mostly just mean more points while Samira's most powerful ability hinges on her being able to keep the style up.
Speaking of the most powerful ability, it is a reference to both Dante from DMC series and Reaper from Overwatch. Its name, Inferno Trigger, is highly similar to Devil Trigger, which makes Dante much more powerful for a limit period of time.
The ability also has a rose as its icon which is likely a nod to Reaper's ulti, Death Blossom. Connecting those two dots would normally be a stretch but the two ultimates literally work the same - gun kata, AoE damage and lifesteal. By extension, it is also a reference to Equilibrium, where the gun kata was featured prominently, as well as John Woo, who popularised Gun Fu in the first place.
Stepping further away from the Devil May Cry references, Samira's outfit is highly reminiscent of what Luz wore in Machete movies. One still , in particular, has Luz wearing an almost identical outfit and they both wear a right-side eyepatch.
Samira's joke animation is poking fun at '80s and '90s action movies where the characters would shoot obscene amounts of bullets without ever reloading. Even some modern action movies are guilty of this sin but it is not seen as often these days.
