Carry your team in style when Samira flurries into glory in patch 10.19. Samira is designed with melee in mind even though she is an ADC. If you know an ADC that can’t kite–the very basic skill that every ADC should have–Samira is the next champion for him or her.
Samira gets more damage when she is up and personal with her opponent and in addition, her passive gives her style points for each non-repeating abilities executed. Devil May Cry, anyone?
Abilities
Passive – Daredevil Impulse
Chaining non-repeating abilities (and basic attacks) increases Samira’s Style grade by one letter, from “E” to “S” rank. Every Style grade gives her bonus movement speed. Samira can also damage enemies at range with her guns or with her sword in melee range; the latter dealing bonus magic damage.
Samira can also juggle enemies who are movement-impaired by her allies in the air, extending the displacement.
Q – Flair
Samira fires a shot at her enemies directly when at range with her guns. Enemies in melee range will instead be damaged by a slash of her sword.
W – Blade Whirl
Samira slashes the area around her with her sword, damaging enemies in the vicinity twice and destroying any enemy missiles in the area at cast and that enter the area after the fact.
E – Wild Rush
Samira dashes through an enemy or ally, dealing magic damage to any enemies passed through and gaining bonus attack speed for a duration. Takedowns of enemy champions reset Wild Rush’s cooldown.
R – Inferno Trigger
Samira unleashes a torrent of shots from her weapons, wildly attacking any enemies around her 10 times over a duration. Each shot deals physical damage, applies lifesteal, and can critically strike.
Samira can only cast Inferno Trigger if her current Style grade is at “S” (the max grade).
Taunt
Samira has a fun and totally unique taunt that allows her to root herself and flick a coin at her enemies–which not only deals 1 damage, but rewards your opponent with 1 gold as well. Using her taunt also counts towards your style passive.
Our Thoughts
The one thing that stands out is definitely her passive. It completely puts every ADC out of their comfort zone. In order to optimise her combo and triggers her ultimate, she will definitely need to use her E which will put her in harm’s way in the midst of the battle. Only by being bold can you push Samira to her limits with her style points and deal the most damage. She’s high risk, high reward.
The game rewards the player for being risky and being in the midst of the fight, with her ultimate being proof of that. You’ll want to be right in the middle of the fight to pop off and eliminate everyone. An example of a full combo from E to S-Rank Style would be auto-Q-auto, then E-Q to get the Wild Rush/Flair combined cast, then auto for the 6th stack to get the S-Rank style.
Samira’s gameplay completely changes how an ADC is meant to be played. She feels more like a bruiser than an ADC and getting to S-Rank will be the key between a good Samira and a bad one. As for which side I’ll be on, only time will tell when it comes.
