Riot Games has officially unveiled Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, as the newest champion coming to League of Legends in Patch 26.13.
A nail-slinging exorcist from Demacia, Corvin Locke is a practitioner of forbidden rites who views demons differently from most inhabitants of Runeterra. Rather than blaming demons for the world’s suffering, Locke believes they are merely a reflection of humanity’s darkest impulses.
According to Riot, Locke was born into a family of Demacian occultists and raised amid deception and hypocrisy. Those experiences shaped his worldview and drove him to expose the darkness hidden within others through his relentless pursuit of exorcism. His release skin is going to be High Noon.
Locke arrives with a kit focused on applying Soul Nails to enemies, consuming those marks for additional damage, and executing weakened targets. His passive, Silver Stake, empowers his basic attacks with bonus magic damage that becomes stronger against enemies missing health.
His primary damage tool, Ritual Nails, throws a barrage of Soul Nails that damage, mark, and slow enemies. Those marks can then be consumed through subsequent attacks for additional damage. Meanwhile, Soul Ignition grants movement speed at the cost of Locke’s own health, though the ability also provides powerful self-healing that scales over time.
The champion’s mobility comes from Ashen Pursuit, a blink that allows him to quickly close gaps before dashing through enemies with an empowered attack. The ability also resets on takedowns, giving Locke significant snowball potential in teamfights. The highlight has to be Purgatory, an execute Ultimate that traps marked enemies inside a binding artifact. Champions who fall below a specific health threshold while marked are instantly dragged inside and killed.
