In a League of Legends meta where fighting for objectives is paramount to winning the game, crowd control is king.
That’s why Milio’s AOE cleansing ultimate is game-changing. A true blue ranged enchanter, the first male one at that, he brings to the table a series of movement speed, attack damage, attack range, and healing buffs, on top of enemy crowd control.
What’s most unique about his kit is his ultimate, an AOE heal and cleanse, animated like a faster version of Neeko’s Pop Blossom ultimate.
In this exclusive interview with Milio’s development team at Riot Games, ONE Esports finds out more about how his design could affect the game’s balance.
Milio’s ultimate Breath of Life won’t replace crowd control removals, but rather expand players’ choices
The Milio development team wasn’t afraid that his ultimate overlaps with existing purification mechanisms in-game, like the Summoner Spell Cleanse, support item Mikael’s Blessing, and AD item Quicksilver Sash (QSS).
“Mikael’s Blessing has a lot of mechanical requirement to use properly and doesn’t remove Suppression, so we felt they had distinction in their use cases,” the team explained.
“We also wanted something that was more accessible, so an instant cast with no targeting to remove Cleanse felt different to use.”
Since Cleanse is a “selfish” Summoner Spell that solely benefits the individual, the development team saw Milio’s ultimate as a chance to go the opposite direction by adding a selfless AOE cleanse to the game that even has the power to remove Suppression. Malzahar and Warwick mains, take note!
“In the end, we wanted to make sure Milio’s ultimate was simple to understand, and that’s part of what got us to making it clear Suppression,” they said.
Besides having a long cooldown — much longer than Cleanse — it’ll come with an additional limitation: players won’t be able to recast it if Breath of Life is interrupted or short-circuited by silences, stuns, and knock-ups.
Because of this, there are still plenty of scenarios, especially in solo queue, where marksmen would purchase their own QSS or run Cleanse, since their support may not always be positioned optimally next to them or time their ultimate right.
Follow ONE Esports on Facebook and Twitter for more LoL news, guides, and highlights.
READ MORE: The most memorable Arcane quotes from the Netflix League of Legends anime
