League of Legends introduces Braum, the first tank support

League of Legends is getting a new champion, which Riot says is the first "true tank support" character.

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League of Legends has just unveiled a new champion: Braum, Heart of the Freljord. He's currently available to test out in the public beta environment, pending a full release sometime soon.

The announcement describes Braum as a resilient melee support character. He can serve as a late-game tank, and forms synergistic bonds with ranged characters. His skills focus largely on concussive strikes and defensive maneuvers that put him in harm's way to protect teammates. The official site goes into greater detail about how he plays against bots or in the middle of team skirmishes, along with lists of champions he's either strong to ally with or weak against in direct confrontation.

"As with all champions, we designed Braum to fill a specific gap in the League of Legends champion pool," the announcement states. "Specifically, he’s the first true tank support that we’ve created, a champion who takes the hits for their team. We’ve had plenty of defensive supports--champions like Nami, Soraka, Janna etc--who negate damage through heals or shields, along with fighter supports like Leona and Alistar, who are generally great at initiating teamfights before diving deep into the enemy team and disrupting as much as possible. Braum’s something different: he’s a tanky support who literally takes the hits for his team, and as such requires a new mindset, position and playstyle to most conventional supports."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 23, 2014 8:30 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, League of Legends introduces Braum, the first tank support.

    League of Legends is getting a new champion, which Riot says is the first "true tank support" character.

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      April 23, 2014 9:31 AM

      This seems weird to have a whole article dedicated to just one new character for a new game. Especially a game that gets new characters so often.

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        April 23, 2014 9:36 AM

        How is this weird? League of Legends is a game, a new character for the game is news, people that visit shack play League of Legends.

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          April 23, 2014 9:56 AM

          It's not significant news. One new hero in a game with over a hundred doesn't really mean much.

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            April 23, 2014 10:07 AM

            How does the number of champions make a difference? It's a new champion whether or not there's 10 champs or 1000 champs.


            This is a really dumb thing to complain about.

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            April 23, 2014 4:06 PM

            eh, they report on Borderlands characters. I decree it is worthy of an article.

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        April 23, 2014 9:36 AM

        Yeah, looks more like an advertisement than anything else.

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        April 23, 2014 9:40 AM

        new champions are interesting news to people who play League of Legends

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        April 23, 2014 9:41 AM

        But he looks so awesome :/

        I mean, I get why it seems a little strange, but if you're into League then a new champion is a pretty big deal. I wouldn't mind seeing an article when Techies goes live either, I think it's reasonable.

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        April 23, 2014 9:41 AM

        A tank-support is a big deal. It's revolutionary.

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        April 23, 2014 9:43 AM

        Considering I may go back to LoL just to try him, I dunno, seems warranted.

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        April 23, 2014 9:44 AM

        What keeps the other team from ignoring the tank as they stun lock and nuke the carry?

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          April 23, 2014 1:00 PM

          One of his abilities specifically intercepts enemy skill shots, blocking them from your carry.

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        April 23, 2014 9:51 AM

        [deleted]

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        April 23, 2014 9:54 AM

        this is disruptive technology, born from out of the box thinking, featuring synergistic improvements

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        April 23, 2014 1:16 PM

        Especially because they had to cut another article to make room for this one

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        April 23, 2014 2:20 PM

        Its a big deal to people who currently play League of Legends.


        Which is about 7 billion people.

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          April 23, 2014 3:26 PM

          Yeah it's almost as if Shacknews wants gamers to read their articles...

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      April 23, 2014 10:33 AM

      I'm a support main so I'm thrilled to have a new support, but I wish it was more an AP caster. That's not what Riot wants out of the support role though.

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      April 23, 2014 2:13 PM

      What does it mean that he's a bottom lane character? Are roles in league really that defined that certain heroes are limited to certain lanes? I know in dota there are usually optimal lanes for each hero (ie for mid you want someone that will be able to really benefit from the early xp like a ganker, safe lane gets late game carries, etc) but those aren't hard and fast rules

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        April 23, 2014 2:22 PM

        I havent played in a year or so but the north american metagame of

        solo brawler top

        nuker mid

        jungle... junglerin

        and squishy carry + support bottom


        seems to be the way people play.

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        April 23, 2014 2:27 PM

        the mapping of roles to lanes is pretty fixed in league. ad carry and support bot, ap carry mid, tanky bruiser top, and obviously jungler in the jungle. patch buffs and nerfs can cause champions to shift around as they become better or worse in different areas, but the general mapping of roles to lanes hasn't changed in forever. adc and support are bot (rather than top or mid) because it's closer to dragon.

        that's not to say that nobody ever violates the meta in league of legends but it would be highly unusual to deviate from this role-lane assignment, and the community very strongly associates particular champs with particular roles.

        there's often disagreement though, and what riot wants a champion to be is not always the same as what the champion actually is.

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          April 23, 2014 2:37 PM

          so AP carries are tankier, AD carries hit harder? Sounds almost like how dota handle strength (more HP) vs agility (more armor, faster attack speed) carries

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            April 23, 2014 6:42 PM

            used to be the other way around really, AP carries hit harder generally just slower.

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        April 23, 2014 2:32 PM

        At a decent level of play Champions will have one or two positions they can be played at. You can break out a bit but it will usually lead to sub optimal play.

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      April 23, 2014 2:38 PM

      I want to play this but I don't want to get yelled at for sucking. What's the fag-name-calling-per-minute look like?

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      April 23, 2014 3:18 PM

      BRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMM

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      April 24, 2014 1:53 AM

      BRAUMROY JEEEEEENKINS!

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      April 24, 2014 1:59 AM

      [deleted]

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