League of Legends: Qiyana releasing with patch 9.13, abilities revealed

League of Legends’ next new champion Qiyana, Empress of the Elements is expected to arrive with patch 9.13. In the meantime, check out her abilities.

With League of Legends patch 9.12 out now and introducing a reworked Mordekaiser, you’re probably wondering when we can expect Qiyana to arrive. Revealed last week

, the Empress of the Elements is a highly mobile AD burst assassin who “draws power from her environment to set up royal plays.”

Sounds intriguing, right? Ahead of her impending release, Riot Games has officially detailed her abilities, and she’s definitely a character with a high skill cap. First, let’s take a look at her abilities:

"Passive: Royal Privilege: The first attack or ability against an enemy champ deals bonus damage. This cooldown resets when she draws a new element.Q – Edge of Ixtal: Qiyana slashes the area in front of her dealing damage. If her weapon is using an element, her weapon hurls forward as a projectile and explodes.River – Roots opponents on hit.Wall – Deals bonus damage to units with low health.Brush – Leaves a stealth trail that gives movement speed.W – Terrashape: Targeting an element, Qiyana dashes forward to gather its power. While enchanted, she gains movement speed near the element, attack speed, and bonus damage.E – Audacity: Qiyana dashes a fixed distance towards a target, dealing damage to them.R – Supreme Display of Talent: Qiyana creates a shockwave, knocking back enemies. Any River, Brush, or Wall hit by the shockwave then explodes dealing damage and briefly stunning enemies."

So at first glance, Qiyana looks incredibly complicated, but her abilities actually flow quite nicely into each other. Basically, her Terrashape (W) sets up Edge of Ixtal (Q). Riot wasn’t joking when they said Qiyana’s power is drawn from the elements.

You’ll want to be completely aware of your surroundings as they will determine the secondary effect of Edge of Ixtal. Targeting a river with Terrashape, for example, will allow you to root an enemy when you successfully land Edge of Ixtal.

But let’s say the enemy is already low on health and you’re looking to finish them off. You may want to target a wall with Terrashape so that you can gain the bonus damage with Edge of Ixtal.

The ability to master Qiyana’s Q, W, Q combination is seemingly key to effectively playing as her. Situational awareness will be key to pulling off amazing plays.

Similarly, her ultimate, Supreme Display of Talent, also requires awareness of your environment as you can score some extra bonus damage and stun enemies with the shockwave that results from using her ultimate near a river, brush or wall.