How to play the new jungler Naafiri in League of Legends

League of Legends introduces Naafiri, the formidable Darkin jungler who commands a relentless pack of Shuriman hounds. As an assassin champion, she specializes in delivering devastating burst damage to vulnerable targets while utilizing unique pack mechanics that set her apart from other champions.

Naafiri’s arrival on the PBE signals a new era for jungle assassins, offering players a straightforward yet highly effective kit focused on hunting down enemies. Her design emphasizes aggressive playmaking with clear execution patterns that reward strategic positioning and timing.

What makes Naafiri particularly compelling is her dual nature as both an individual threat and a pack commander. Unlike traditional assassins who operate alone, she brings additional damage sources through her packmates, creating opportunities for creative outplays and unexpected damage spikes.

Understanding Naafiri’s abilities is crucial to maximizing her potential on the Rift. Her kit combines targeted engagement tools with area control, creating a versatile assassin capable of adapting to various combat situations.

• Passive – We Are More –Naafiri generates Packmates periodically that function as autonomous damage sources. These hounds automatically attack whatever Naafiri targets with her basic attacks or abilities, effectively multiplying her damage output during engagements.
• Q – Darkin Dagger –This skillshot ability allows Naafiri to throw a dagger that damages enemies and applies a bleed effect. The true power emerges when targeting already bleeding opponents, triggering enhanced damage and additional bleeding that significantly increases her burst potential.
• W – Hounds’ Pursuit –Naafiri launches herself at a targeted enemy champion, dealing damage upon impact. Crucially, this ability tracks through enemy dashes and teleports all active Packmates to her destination.
• E – Eviscerate –A short-range dash that damages enemies in an area while fully healing all accompanying Packmates. This provides both offensive mobility and sustain for her pack.
• R – The Call of the Pack –Naafiri empowers herself and her entire pack for a duration, gaining movement speed, a protective shield, and vision of attacked opponents. The first champion takedown during this state refreshes the duration, creating snowball potential in teamfights.

Advanced players should note that Darkin Dagger serves as Naafiri’s primary damage tool and should be maxed first in virtually all situations. The ability provides essential ranged farming capability, poke damage in skirmishes, and primary burst in all-ins. Proper sequencing of Q to apply bleed followed by a second Q for the enhanced effect is fundamental to maximizing her damage output.

Naafiri’s itemization follows patterns established by similarly mobile assassins, with Talon representing her closest comparable champion. This similarity provides a solid foundation for understanding her core build requirements and situational adaptations.

Following the Midseason update, Youmuu’s Ghostblade emerges as her likely Mythic item choice. The movement speed stacking synergizes perfectly with her innate mobility, transforming her into an even more elusive threat on the battlefield.

Complementary lethality items like Prowler’s Claw ensure Naafiri can reliably reach and eliminate priority targets. The combination of these items amplifies her assassination potential while providing the stats she needs to remain relevant throughout the game.

For players preferring durability over pure damage, bruiser alternatives present viable options. Items such as Trinity Force and Jak’Sho create a significantly more resilient version of Naafiri that can withstand extended engagements. While assassin builds should remain her default, tankier configurations often excel on mobile assassins possessing strong base damage values.

Experienced players should consider building Edge of Night against teams with crucial crowd control abilities, while Guardian Angel provides insurance against focused retaliation during late-game teamfights.

Naafiri demands offensive runes that enhance her early game kill pressure and snowball potential. As a jungle-focused assassin, securing early eliminations translates directly into effective gold leads that she can leverage throughout the match.

Primary rune options include Electrocute for burst-oriented playstyles, Press The Attack for extended duels, and Dark Harvest for scaling damage in longer games. The Domination tree serves as her natural home, containing multiple keystones that complement her aggressive nature.

When not selecting Domination as the primary tree, secondary runes like Relentless Hunter and Ultimate Hunter offer compelling value. For those experimenting with tankier Naafiri configurations, Conqueror becomes the optimal choice, allowing her to leverage increased durability to fully stack the rune for substantial damage amplification.

Optimal secondary tree selection often involves Precision for Triumph and Coup de Grace, or Sorcery for Absolute Focus and Waterwalking to enhance river control during objective contests.

Naafiri’s primary objective involves securing an early advantage by hunting exposed enemies and accumulating gold for her damage-focused item core.

Her dual dash capabilities make her exceptionally effective at pursuing fleeing targets, particularly when coordinating with allies who provide crowd control setup. Opponents affected by stuns, roots, or other forms of CC become virtually defenseless against Naafiri’s explosive damage output when properly executed.

Critical to Naafiri’s success is understanding her vision vulnerability. Unlike stealth-based assassins, she lacks mechanisms to bypass enemy vision control, making path selection that avoids wards absolutely essential for successful ganks.

Unlike some assassination champions, properly prepared opponents can detect Naafiri’s approach from significant distance. This necessitates rapid engagement sequences that minimize her exposure before committing to fights. Standard engagement patterns typically initiate with W to close distance, followed by rapid Q casts, auto-attack weaving, and E for finishing damage or repositioning.

Advanced strategic considerations include tracking enemy summoner spells and ultimate cooldowns, as these directly impact her ability to secure kills during gank attempts.

While Naafiri predominantly functions as a jungler, potential exists for her to transition into other lanes, with mid-lane representing the most viable alternative.

Melee assassins traditionally excel in the middle lane where they can pressure typically squishy mage opponents. The optimal approach for lane Naafiri involves selective picking against matchups where she can establish lane dominance through aggressive trading patterns.

Naafiri thrives when operating from the fog of war, patrolling the jungle as a constant threat to all lanes. Confining her to a specific lane substantially reduces her roaming threat potential and overall map pressure.

Overall assessment indicates Naafiri will perform most effectively as a jungler rather than in lane-specific roles, though situational flexibility remains one of her strengths.

Players considering lane Naafiri should prioritize matchups against immobile mages and avoid lanes against durable bruisers or champions with reliable disengage tools that counter her engagement patterns.

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