All about new LoL champion Nilah, her role, and release date

Nilah the Unbound Joy will be the next new League of Legends champion. Here’s what we know about her role and the release date when Riot will bring Nilah to live LoL servers.

Nilah looks to continue the recent trend of highly mobile champions with aggressive kits. The reveal trailer for Nilah cuts right to the chase when it comes to her kit in LoL, showing her sprinting across a body of water while chasing a kraken below. 

The focus then changes to gameplay, which shows this motif in action. Multiple abilities that flash her forward towards and around enemies were shown, hinting that she will be able to relentlessly pursue wounded enemy champions.

From a lore perspective, Nilah seems to be empowered by a water demon. It’s shown that her ability to run on water comes from this demon holding her up by the feet, and she interacts with the water demon in-game. This power manifests on Summoner’s Rift in the form of a watery whip that allows her to deal ranged damage to enemies.

The reveal of Nilah comes less than a month after the official reveal of Bel’Veth and just nine days after the release of Bel’Veth as a new LoL champion.

What role is Nilah in LoL?

New LoL champion Nilah is intended to be an ADC.

Though League of Legends players are known for taking whatever champion they want to any lane they want, Riot’s intent for Nilah is to have her be an ADC in the bot lane. It’s easy to imagine how her abilities could synergize with any number of supports and how she might fit in the role.

There have been plenty of other champions over the years that were introduced for a specific role, but ultimately settled into a good spot in other positions. In the short term, expect Nilah in the bot lane.

What is the release date of Nilah in LoL?

New LoL champion Nilah will hit League of Legends servers in 2022, but an exact release date has not been confirmed.

A developer video released in January dropped specific references to Nilah, with a water insignia similar to the demon who empowers her and puns related to whips. Unfortunately, there’s no hint about when she might actually come out.

It was suggested that Nilah will be the final new LoL champion of 2022, so it’s possible that her release date could be pushed back a few months to space out major content releases for LoL. There’s no discernable pattern to the champion release date schedule however, so it could be any time.