Riot clarify on Viego's "ultimate" advantage while possessing an enemy in League of Legends

After much release hype, it's been a rollercoaster ride for League of Legends' latest champion Viego.

Even though "The Ruined King" faced a difficult initial phase adjusting to the Summoner's Rift, players have started finding out various ways and techniques to use him effectively.

Many have pointed to the various "broken" states of Viego, where he could ideally stand out as a beast in League of Legends. A lot of them have been using Viego's possession, not for its default feature, but its secondary mechanics.

"During possession, Viego’s items, attacks, and non-ultimate abilities become those of his slain enemy, and he gains a free cast of his own ultimate"I'm never fucking playing league again.

— Your local skooma supplier (@robinknight97) January 8, 2021

Even though players found this unique feature exciting, Riot believes that it is not an ideal playstyle for Viego. Riot may work on minor tweaks in future updates to bring in more in-game balance concerning Viego's role in League of Legends.

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Riot comments on Viego's R-resetting feature in League of Legends

Image via Riot Games - League of Legends

A section of the League of Legends community think that Viego's exclusive possession mechanic is hardly beneficial or even relevant in terms of effectiveness.

However, the R-reset feature during possession and his terrific state of invulnerability during team fights make the Ruined King different from the rest.

League of Legends regular and Redditor u/Bladiers recently posted this:

I feel like Viego's possession mechanic is only useful or relevant in very niche situations, but the ultimate cooldown resets and a large amount of invulnerability during team fights makes this guy really annoying to deal with. Most of the times he will possess another soul and get rid of it on the first opportunity just to get access to his ulti again, barely if at all making use of the possessed champion's kit. He is like a mix of Khazix and Katarina on crack with the resets.

u/Bladiers further added that Viego's possession mechanic was barely used by players for its default features, but it's massively buffed secondary effects.

I mean yeah it’s still useful, but way more gimmicky than Viego’s ultimate reset possession abilities thingy imo

— Aphro (@AphroQiyana) January 9, 2021

Riot's principal champion designer August "August" Browning found the matter to be concerning as this was not the devs' intentions with the Ruined King's role in League of Legends. This was his response:

If it's true that Viego ONLY uses possession for the ult reset and it's a TRAP to make use of the champions he takes over, that would be a problem I'd look to resolve in the future. Not sure that's true from what I've seen of him, however.

August further clarified that Viego's ability to reset his ultimate on quick occasions was indeed a meaningful part of his reward, if not the only one, for possessing an enemy champion.

This was intentionally scripted by the devs for two reasons.

Firstly, Viego relied completely on the powers coming from his own kit, and it was important for him to receive a buffed-up ultimate while possessing an enemy.

Secondly, the benefit of possession could be effectively utilized by Viego, only if it possessed a "correct" champion. Otherwise, the sole purpose of the mechanic became useless.

Screengrab from Reddit - League of Legends

A player needed to have a strong knowledge of all the champions in the game. So amid an intense teamfight, a buffed R could come in handy if Viego took possession of an "unnecessary" champion.

Riot has assured fans that it will continue to keep the in-game balance intact and resolve the existing issues as soon as possible.