Everything You Need to Know About Aurora and Her Official League of Legends Release

Aurora stole the world's heart, as the Vastayan bunny-witch that travels to the Freljord is the first person to ever make a friend of Ornn. Not just due to her lore,her looks (there has been a lot of thirst for her), but also because of her unique abilities. Much like we did with Hwei, here's everything you need to know about the Witch Between Worlds!

History

Starting off, let's talk a bit about what Aurora was. Believe it or not, this champion has been in development for six years, now, and her history has been quite broad. She first started as a summoner (no, not capital S Summoner — those are long-since extinct!) who could bring in companions into battle. Then, she became a mage who could understand what constituted a spell just by looking at it, and then replicating it. She was a spirit witch with a bubbly personality who traversed the Spirit Realm...

...and all of it was picked apart. Her magic-stealing abilities went into the champion we now know to be Sylas. Parts of her personality became the lovable deer, Lillia. Everything about the Spirit Realm became the groundwork for Yone, Spirit Blossom, and even Fiddlesticks' new lore, and it seemed like all hope was lost. But when Riot Lexical became the Champions Team Lead, Riot wasn't ready to let go of Aurora — not until they could do it once more. They just needed to start from scratch.

The New Aurora

Gameplay Design, History, Lore, and More

Aurora may be one in a long line of Vastayan characters that are now out (Sett, Xayah, Rakan...), but one thing that the team wanted to work with was her prey nature. Unlike others, she is the very first one who plays a more submissive role in the animal kingdom, being an animal and all. And so, the team created a more fast-paced kit for her, with kiting, agility, and quick capabilities to out-manoeuvre the opponent (very much like Lillia).

With this in mind, her kit slowly grew outside of the typical gameplay elements, and many things inspired her abilities (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Lost Woods being the inspiration for her ultimate), and her more magical and Spirit Realm connections came form them wanting her to be more than just originating from Vastayashai'rei (now known as Ionia). So, her premise was simple: a Vastayan witch who may have originated in Vastayashai'rei but grew up in the harsh Freljordian climate (which is perfect for the Bryni, considering her furry complexion).

This is how Aurora became Ornn's friend. Best friend, even, if you ask her. As many other champions, the team wanted to shine a light into different aspects of the League of Legends universe with the newest champion, and by pitching in, she became the quirky character that she is now, connected to the Spirit Realm, a new take on Vastayans, and built with prey mentality. She is also the first officially autistic character in Runeterra, with many members from Riot Games sharing their experiences as people on the spectrum.

What IS Aurora?

Now that we've gone into her history, it's time to delve into everything else. She is a mid lane mage-assassin with unique abilities and traversal opportunities that'll give her great roaming opportunities. She has a lot of movement options, with in-and-out-style abilities that give her the safety that she needs as a relatively short-range champion, with poke and Riot's favourite mechanic in the world: three-hit stackable passives.

In her overview, she's a squishy champion with high damage and mobility, medium crowd control, and minimal utility and defence (unless you count death as utility, I guess!). Her unique quick-paced style will give high-tempo players the opportunity to make plays across the whole Summoner's Rift map, with reasonable wave clear in the form of a couple of AoE abilities.

Spirit Abjuration

Passive

Let's start with her passive. Spirit Abjuration is the capability to exorcise spirits from the enemies that she damages. Much like Vayne's, Ekko's, Gnar's, Xin Zhao's, Vi's... (the list goes on)'s passives and spells, After hitting three attacks on a champion, she can take a spirit from the enemy that she damaged, which increases her movement speed and heals her, giving her some sustain in lane (and the capability to chase thanks to the increased movement speed!).

This passive will reward players for proccing it with a small heal, and it will make her a great trading champion to the characters that she out-ranges, rewarding waving in attacks and auto attacks in her combos. It's the typical three-hit style that's become so famous across League of Legends kits.

Twofold Hex

Q

Her signature ability (let's be real; most Qs are the signature abilities aside from champion ultimates) is her Twofold Hex, where she can throw out missiles that hit enemies in the path and create stacks of her Spirit Abjuration. You can recast this ability to damage enemies again, giving her the capability to hit twice.

It's a straight-line skill shot, though it's worth noting that the gif shows her acquiring a passive proc in the form of a passive. If you hit three enemies (and then recall it), it seems to give you a free cast of Spirit Abjuration, and thussome healing and movement speed.

Across the Veil

W

This ability lets Aurora leap and enter the Spirit Realm, which causes her to be invisible for a short duration of time. Though it won't be as significant as some invisible abilities (notably, Shaco and Twitch) due to the shorter duration, it will be a great way to reposition in battle and manoeuvre around tough enemies and tight spots.

The leap, in particular, seems to go over walls, which will be a great way to escape those that arequite thin, giving you the opportunity to play aggressively and defensively with this ability.

The Weirding

E

Another straight-line skill shot, though, unlike her Twofold Hex, The Wierding is an ability that is more inspired by the Freljord's frosty capabilities. She blasts spirit magic in front of her that damages and slows enemies, also making her hop backwards to safety.

It will be a great disengage ability to prevent those who are chasing you from catching up, though it might be a bit of a combo breaker for whenever her Spirit Abjuration isn't prepared, as catching up to the enemy — despite the slow — might be putting yourself at too risky of a positioning, especially if you do not have Across the Veil prepared.

Between Worlds

R

In Aurora's ultimate ability, she gets to leap in the direction of her choosing and releases a shockwave, dealing damage and slowing enemies hit by it. The more important part about this zone, however, is how enemies and Aurora interact when hitting the edges — enemies will be brought back to the circle (similarly to Camille's ultimate) while Aurora will be able to manoeuvre by heading directly to the opposite side of where she walked to.

It's a tricky ability that'll take some time to master, but this same skill will be a great opportunity to save allies, deal some heavy damage, trap carries, and even use it as an escape with clever positioning. Though its duration seems relatively short to use it to walk around the circle too much as Aurora, it works as a relatively lengthy, team-based Camille ult that's much larger than Jarvan IV's ult... and with no capability to flash out of it.

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That's everything you need to know about Aurora, The Witch Between Worlds! Let us know in the comments whether you're going to be getting her and which role you'll be playing her as!