Riot finally unveils Locke, League of Legends' Ashen Exorcist

Locke has been living rent-free in my head for the better part of three months. As anyone who’s read my work knows, I have a thing for vampires and demons; I’m obsessed with the gothic, horror aesthetic to a point where I should probably seek some help. Locke, then, is perfect for me: midlane assassin, tick. Devil May Cry vibes? Check. Mobile, high-damage kit? Also check, although that one’s both a blessing and a curse. He’s not the scariest thing I’ve ever seen, but he’s hardly a pushover, either, so let’s take a look at the new League of Legends champion.

If you haven’t watched Locke’s debut cinematic, Back from the Brink, we’ve embedded it below. Facing off against a demon-possessed Vayne, he’s almost like Dante, if he looked like Vergil. Senior Game Product Manager Edward Zhao refers to him as a “cool, stylistic character,” noting that “we think that relates really well to the target audience, which is midlane assassin players.”

League of Legends hasn’t had a new out-and-out assassin in quite a while. Naafiri was the last to join the roster back in 2023, and she’s an AD assassin, not AP. Locke, then, is something quite unique – something that both plugs a hole, while innovating on the role. “We felt that there was a gap for assassin players,” Zhao says, with “the data” showing that “assassins were losing a little bit of playrate. We thought that Locke was a really good opportunity to re-excite that audience.”

Locke’s kit focuses around his Soul Nails, which he uses as projectiles to control space and disrupt lanes. They’re stored in the casket on his back, alongside the eerie artifact that he throws out during his ultimate. Riot wanted to really highlight the character’s reliance on tools and trinkets, giving him a Blade-esque sort of feel; you can imagine a rundown workshop somewhere. Locke’s power comes at a price, however; it’s malevolent and demonic, and it’s slowly eroding his body as he uses it. Hence ‘The Ashen Exorcist’ – perhaps, one day, he’ll be nothing but ash.

League of Legends Locke abilities

Here are Locke’s abilities in League of Legends:

• Passive – Silver Stake: Locke pins enemies’ souls with his attacks dealing bonus magic damage On-Hit, increased based on enemy missing Health.
• Q – Ritual Nails: Locke readies a set of Soul Nails to throw forward dealing magic damage, marking enemies hit. The nails apply a slow based on stacks. Attacking the enemy consumes the Soul Nails dealing magic damage per stack. Restores a portion of cooldown and mana for unspent Nails.
• W – Soul Ignition: Locke releases his own seals gaining Move Speed decaying over time. While this effect is active, he suffers % health true damage per second but heals back a portion of damage taken plus an additional amount based on missing health and time passed. The seals remain unbound for a few seconds and can be Recast to end early.
• E – Ashen Pursuit: Locke blinks to a location, dealing magic damage around him. After, his next attack dashes to his target dealing magic damage to all enemies in his path. Each of these hits consume Soul Nails. Cooldown resets on takedown.
• R – Purgatory: Locke kicks a binding artifact to a location that opens on arrival, shooting chained Soul Nails at enemies in the area dealing magic damage and slowing. Marked Champions that are brought below a threshold are pulled inside and killed. If a Champion is executed, the duration of the binding is reset on other affected Champions. After a few seconds, the artifact seals itself and is left on the ground if a Champion was sealed. If Locke picks up the artifact, he permanently increases the execution threshold and refunds a portion of his current cooldown for each Champion sealed.

Now I know what you’re thinking: that ult sounds busted. Initially, I thought the same: line up your enemies, slow them with the Q, then slow them again with Purgatory, use your E to jump on top of them to burst them down, lower execute threshold, repeat. It’s made especially scary by the fact that, as confirmed by Game Designer Blake Smith, there’s no cap on how much you can increase said execute threshold, meaning that, you could, theoretically, hit 100% execute.

To temper concerns, Smith notes that, given “Locke has to get kills with his ultimate ability,” he’s not “intended to get as many” ‘stacks’ of the execute. Instead, it’s all about “scaling him later into the game a little more smoothly.” Smith doesn’t characterize Locke as a hyperscaler, then, as there’s a level of precise, mechanical skill required here versus the likes of Smolder.

The rest of his kit feels relatively traditional, with the Q being a scaling, line-based projectile, the W increasing move speed with a Vladimir-esque health decay, and the E functioning as an Ekko-like blink. He’s going to be highly mobile, but Riot has actively tried to make his animations a bit clearer to ensure that he’s not casually one-shotting you over a wall like Viego. Similarly, if you stack up three hits with the Q, Locke does a unique animation where he spins his nail. While it’s cool to look at now, I sense that it might ruin my day further down the line.

All-in-all, Locke is largely scary because he’s an assassin, versus his kit being absolutely busted. I don’t doubt he’ll be strong, and in the right (or wrong) hands he’ll be a menace, but if he falls behind or a player lacks the mechanical skill to finish off kills, I think he’ll be manageable. Famous last words from this squishy support main.

Locke’s release date is currently set for Wednesday, June 24 with League of Legends patch 26.13.

His debut skin is the High Noon one seen above, which I am absolutely obsessed with.

Post-Locke, things will start to quieten down. With League Next – the MOBA’s colossal overhaul update – apparently being showcased at the MSI finale in July, we’ll be closely following what comes next for League of Legends. Locke will be the only champion launching this year, with some others presumably debuting with League Next. It’s an exciting time, but a transitional one, which isn’t a particularly bad thing. I, for one, am excited about what comes next.