Gwen, the Hallowed Seamstress, will be the next champion to enter League of Legends, but in what role will she best be played?
It was a big day of LoL news when Riot released the first teaser and a gameplay trailer for Gwen right after each other. The first teaser gave a general look at Gwen and the lore behind her, while the gameplay trailer showed Gwen in action on Summoner’s Rift. The gameplay didn’t disclose what all Gwen’s abilities do exactly, but fans are already speculating. This leads on to what role Gwen will be, which Riot has already talked a bit about.
Gwen expected to be a top laner in LoL
Riot already teased for three new champions back in January during its first dev stream of the year. In this stream, lead champion producer Ryan “Reav3” Mireles teased the first three new champions of 2021, all of whom will be connected to the lore of Viego.
After Viego’s release on January 21, Riot teased the next champion to be an AP-based top laner. Most fans thought that this champion would be Viego’s wife Isolde, but it seems that Gwen was the one Riot teased all along. This is the first big indicator that Gwen will indeed be “tailor-made for top lane,” as Reav3 put it. This is a lane that currently doesn’t have many ability power options, so Gwen might end up as a great addition to the current meta.
From looking at the gameplay trailer, it’s also clear that Gwen will be a champion that likes to take on fights and skirmishes. She doesn’t look to be the usual beefy top laner, but instead a damage-heavy champion that wants to find the enemy backline in fights or maybe even split push.
Could Gwen work in mid or jungle?
During the latest champion releases from Riot, it’s starting to become clear that a champion tailored to a specific role doesn’t always mean that will end up there. Viego, Seraphine, and Senna are all great examples of this. While all these three champions are currently viable in their original role of jungle, mid lane, and support respectively, they have also found their way into other roles and lanes.
The same might go for Gwen, who could potentially be viable as a mid laner or a jungler. For the bot lane, it looks like Gwen won’t have a bright future as she is a melee champion and doesn’t look to bring a lot of supportive tools to the table.
For mid lane, Gwen might end up as a very viable champion. The fact that she is an AP fighter could go well in specific mid-lane matchups. This could be to counter picks without a lot of mobility or go up against melee assassins like Zed, Talon, or Qiyana.
To count in Gwen as a potential jungler is still very hard, as more info about her abilities is first needed. Gwen clearly has the damage and fighting potential to be in the jungle, but the question is if she has enough AOE damage to clear the camps and any way to pull off effective ganks.
Gwen is expected to hit the Public Beta Environment (PBE) in the upcoming weeks, so there will be plenty of time to test her in different roles.
When will Gwen be released in LoL?
Gwen still needs to be released to the PBE, which is expected after patch 11.7 goes live on the servers on Wednesday, March 31. The following patch 11.8 is on April 14 and might include Gwen but nothing is set in stone yet.
