LoL New Champion Hwei: Complete Guide

Hwei, the visionary mage, is League of Legends' newest high-skill cap champion who brings exceptional zone control and combo potential to the mid-lane. With three diverse spellbooks offering area-of-effect (AoE) damage, utility, and crowd control, Hwei reshapes team fights through intricate ability weaving.

This guide will break down Hwei's complex kit to provide key tips on laning fundamentals, team fighting strengths, overall weaknesses, and optimal spell rotations.

Core Mechanics - Signature and Spellbooks

Hwei's passive, Signature of the Visionary, marks enemies damaged by his abilities. Upon hitting marked targets with a second spell, Hwei detonates the signature for additional AoE damage. Tracking passive marks and detonating them on multiple champions maximizes damage.

His basic abilities are split into three spellbooks - Disasters, Serenities, and Torments. Each offers three abilities, accessed through double key presses like QQ, QW, and QE. Cooldowns are shared between spells within each book.

Q (Disasters) provides ranged poke and area damage. W (Serenities) grants utility through speed boosts and shielding allies. E (Torments) unleashes horrific crowd control.

Optimizing the Laning Phase

Hwei's high mana costs necessitate early mana sustain through items like Doran's Ring and Tear of the Goddess. Utilize WE's mana restore to ease costs. Harass enemies utilizing QW, QQ, and empowered auto attacks. Secure cannon minions using QQ and QW bursts.

Post-6, combo E spells into ultimate all-ins. Punish overextended, low-health targets with QW snipes under the tower. WQ enables quick recalls and strong roams.

Recommended Items

When playing Hwei, prioritize ability power and mana sustain in your builds. Core items include Luden's Tempest, Seraph's Embrace, and Zhonya's Hourglass. These grant damage, mana, and survival tools to really enable Hwei's kit. Rabadon's Deathcap and Void Staff round out a full build for maximizing explosive spell damage. Some situational picks like Banshee's Veil and Cosmic Drive also sync well with his kite-mage playstyle.

• Primary Runes: Arcane Comet / Manaflow Band / Transcendence / Scorch

Team fighting Gameplay

AOE damage and battlefield control define Hwei's team fighting. Chain overlapping passive explosions utilizing EQ and EE pull into clumped enemies. Layer ultimate on grouped targets to force separation and secure kills inside the damaging zone.

Maintain distance using QE zones, EW choke control, and QW poke. Mitigate damage for allies through WW shielding. Seek pick opportunities on isolated carries with QW and quick spell rotations. Reactively reposition allies with WQ speed boosts.

Overall Weaknesses

Despite expansive tools, Hwei retains defined weaknesses. Locking into one spellbook leaves another on cooldown, creating an opening for aggression. Low base stats and no innate survivability make him vulnerable when focused fired or crowd-controlled. Mana constraints require conservative ability usage, otherwise backing at inopportune times.

• Easy Matchups - Scaling mages like Veigar and Anivia. Short-ranged assassins like Fizz.
• Difficult Matchups - Long-range poke mages like Xerath and Vel'koz. High-mobility assassins like Leblanc and Zed.

Ability Order & Optimal Spell Rotations

When leveling abilities on Hwei, prioritize upgrading Q (Disasters) first. This maximizes poke and waves clear potential in the lane. Generally level Q>E>W, with R at 6, 11, 16.

Laning

• WE > QQ - Quick empowered trade
• WQ > EW - Gap close to setup ganks
• EQ > QQ/QW - Fear setup into damaging combos

Teamfights

• EE > R - Pull into stacked ultimate
• WE > QE > EE - Maximize AOE damage
• EW > WQ - Pick potential

With creative vision and mastery over nine possible abilities, Hwei redefines the expectations of a control mage. This overview sets the foundation - now get out there and start painting masterpieces across Summoner's Rift!