Nilah didn't change the demon lore. The demons only feeding on fears is a misconception that was for some reason really popularised. Tahm and Eve are definetly not fear demons and never were. Tahm is a demon of addiction, which we know back from when Fiddle came out. Eve is a demon of agony. Fiddle is explicitly first of 10 because he is the primal complete embodiment of fear, the other 9 would logically then be emodiments of equally universal ancient emotions, not...fear again, for some reason? We don't know what branch Tahm falls under but it's much more likely something like desire. Eve is almost definetly under the demon king of pain, agony is just a specific type of pain.
Like the argument that Ashlesh makes this confusing because we've only seen fear demons until now really just falls apart when Tahm and Eve were clearly not fear demons, it's just the community misinterpreted the text. Was it Necrit who started this?
I was thinking a similar thing. I always thought the demons were supposed to represent different emotions or traits found in living creatures. Tahm being addiction, gluttony, or greed. Evelynn being agony or lust. I really do like the idea of various emotions being represented as these primal entities and I hope we get to see some better interactions with people seeing someone who feels quite nothing but joy. That is terrifying in its own right.
Yeah, that part confused me a bit, because I never heard of that interpretation, I mean I personally thought demons were only associatted with negative emotions, so Ashlesh was still a surprise in that regard.
Honestly, Nilah just infuriates me. The Demon of Joy is such a cool and unique concept, same with the whole "I only experience joy" shtick -- but they do nothing with it. Nilah's just a "quirky, fun adventurer gal!" instead of an uncanny or even creepy warrior she should be. Her demon pact doesn't feel demonic whatsoever, which is a big shame.
I have three issues with her: 1) I bloody despise morning people and she is the embodiment of one. 2) I don't like how powerful they make her, fighting volibear and mordekaiser in LoR. I'm just glad her squad got absolutely railed by mordkaiser's minions. 3) Like you said, the feck kind of demonic pact is that? You get immense power and in turn you always feel amazing?
@@witchinggecko4271 Yeah, but that's the thing -- feeling amazing ALL THE TIME should be fucking creepy. Just imagine, you are literally incapable of not feeling joy about something. Your cat dies? You're laughing. Someone kills your loved ones? You are laughing. How would a person like that think? That's beyond psychopathic, it's downright inhuman.
@@mon0lithic629 The most they really go into it is in her story with Graves. He insults her, and there's a bit about how her smile briefly twitches and how Nilah would be furious with Graves if that were possible. Legends of Runeterra also gives her a death line where she says "Even this... Is joy..." Basically, we need more of that: showing Nilah in situations where she shouldn't be happy, but is. Like, dancing and laughing her way through a burning village or celebrating immediately after a battle that sees a bunch of her comrades getting killed. It would really do a lot to accentuate that there's something wrong with her.
@@mon0lithic629 still sounds a heck of a lot better than being constantly miserable or in pain or, as in the case of fiddlesticks, unable to trust your loved ones to the point that you kill yourself or them because they might be imposters
@@mon0lithic629 Ever heard the phrase: "It's better to cry in a Lamborghini than to cry on a bike."? This deal still sounds a heck of a lot better than constantly being miserable, in pain or, as in the case of fiddlesticks, unable to trust your loved one to the point where you un-alive (I have to use this word because apparently the snowflakes at youtube can't handle the usual word and shadow ban your comment) them or yourself. Edit: I just want to add that I am not disputing your point. It's valid. This is merely a very subjective optinion on the matter.
I've always enjoyed Nilah more than Samira, a lot less button mashing for similar results and I've always liked Nilah more as a character, but I do understand the comparisons between the two and their gameplay. Also, just like Samira, Nilah does really good with engage supports, maybe even better than with enchanters despite the built in synergy. Also, I thought it was pretty obvious that there were more to the Ten Kings than just Fiddlesticks and fear? Like all of them representing some sort of primal emotion that every sentient being has the ability to feel. It doesn't really strike me as odd that there's a primal demon of happiness and joy alongside the demon of fear.
hard agree on the gameplay part, she certainly feels a lot like the traditional adc in terms of play pattern as a tank buster and hard scaling late and weak early while samira's more of a bursty assassin rather than adc who heavily relies on landing all-in combos and snowballs harder while falls off late similar kits in a glance but plays nothing alike
A Few things regarding demons. In convergence we are actually given a hint that ashlesh takes after the appearance of a hyena. make sense with the laughing and all And Nihlah hints that swain may not have conquered Raum as totally as he thinks saying that they are different because "she knows the price she paid"
Not only that, in one of Katarina's comics, Swain entrusts her with the duty of killing him in case he ever goes against Noxus (implying that he knows eventually Raum will take over).
@@AllYourPals idk, I just don't like the thing of "we can only talk smack and not show any respect to our enemies" even tho they are talking to beings way more powerful then then, like, Urgot talking back to Fiddle like he's nothing, Nilah talking like she can hold a candle to Fiddle and Mordekaiser, like she could beat them, which, no she couldn't, fuck off, I guess I just got beef with her because she talks shit to characters I like way more 🤷🏻 but idk, she's just not that interesting
@@dustyoldrowe she is weilding the power of one of the 10 Kings. Riot would never let her kill one of them, but she has killed demigods before, I wouldn't count her out if that fight
I would like to respectfully disagree with the take on Nilah's lore, because offers awesome ideas into how Ashlesh and Nilah herself can be an actual threat Demons didn’t typically feed off fear, they feed off emotion. That’s why Tahm Kench in his story didn’t necessarily frighten the man who he gave everything, but he became stronger as the man fell deeper into addiction. Nilah is in a similar boat to the man in Tahm’s story. For as much as she says that she is in control of Ashlesh, there are hints that she doesn’t have as much control as she thinks. She has to constantly recite mantras and prayers to keep the demon’s influence at bay, and Ashlesh’s description in her champion insights makes this even more interesting. Ashlesh embodies the negative aspects of joy as well. “It pushes joy to its hideous extremes, feeding on the dark, inverted aspects of the emotion, like delirium and obsession”. I think that what’s being set up with Nilah in LOR especially is twofold: Ashlesh is twisting her obsession with being remembered and taking it to the extreme, making her fight increasingly larger threats to an arguably suicidal degree. Taking on Volibear and Mordekaiser as people have said is near suicidal; but I think that’s the point. Ashlesh is using her obsession and her lack of feeling anything but joy to essentially push her to beyond her limit and claim her soul, which is why she has been picking fights arguably outside her capabilities. Final point, I think that Nilah only being able to feel joy, as well as being influenced by a primordial demon, means that she is arguably one of the best choices to kill the other kings, as if demons gain power through emotion, they literally have no way to gain power from her. Edit: As to the second point, I think Ashlesh sees the partnership with Nilah as a win/win. He gets to either get stronger off her constant feelings of joy, and arguably exercise power over the other 10 kings, or he gets to claim her soul. Another hint as to why Nilah isn't in as much control as she may think she is
I love thisss, I feel like that makes total sense as to why she would go off and fight such large threats after her intro to the main continents was basically only fighting monsters in bilgewater.
Hiya! It's me, one of the seven Nilah players out there! Here's a short essay explaining why I like her and some things I feel you didn't touch on or missed! GAMEPLAY I think one of the really weird things that has been spread around is that "Nilah can't play with Engage supports", because, besides Janna or Rakan or sometimes Lulu, Nilah actually plays incredibly well with engage compared to enchanters, in my opinion. Nilah's passive is terribly designed and honestly needs a rework (I believe Riot August said on stream that he definitely agrees with that sentiment) and does force her into enchanters and it does really hurt when she gets a roaming supp like Bard. However, despite all of that, I never really understand people who compare her so heavily to Samira beyond what you said with their abilities suspiciously lining up. Maybe I've not played enough Samira, but they feel like they have entirely different playstyles. Samira has the combo rank thing which forces her into a certain faceroll playstyle, where Nilah has to carefully plan out her Q and Ult usage to get AOE damage in a small space. I won't lie, Nilah needs a mini-rework. I quit ADC recently (which for me was pretty much just "Nilah Lane") out of anger for the role and went back to being a Mid main. I miss Nilah quite a lot, I couldn't take her with me to mid. Riot hates her guts in everything. She got that marvelous Soul Fighter skin in Wild Rift, and also one in LoR all before she got Coven, which is kinda just okay. I doubt we'll ever get another skin this decade. She is terribly flawed right now in League, and her state in LoR's PoC is terrible with the worst constellation in the game by far in terms of actually playing the character (you can just use Star Gems, but at that point I'm not playing Nilah). Despite all of those flaws, she is still one of my favorite characters. Maybe because those flaws? I'm not so sure. I like everything about her character, connection to demons, and thematic, I even wrote a fanfiction about her adventures. It's sad to see her in this state, but honestly, most of the best characters in the game are the ones that Riot doesn't acknowledge. When's the last time that Mundo got a skin? Kled? Ivern? It's a long wait usually. But when Riot does notice, it's all the sweeter for it. I just like unpopular champions! LORE Joy technically could fall above Evelynn's position as Demon of Lust. Joy is used a lot in relation to Nilah, but Ashlesh is more than just Joy, he is a complete loss of control, utter *delirium*, which is a fear in some rights, but it's one that nobody consciously can fear. Nilah representing Ashlesh is kind of perfect, as them leaving it up to interpretation whether she has conquered him is part of the character. Nilah claims that she has him under her control, her confidence is abundant. But Ashlesh is a primal demon, he is far more clever than someone like Fiddle (he is represented by a laughing Hyena in a pool of water, so says Convergence of all games), and far more clever than Nilah. Nilah has already lost, she is a shell of her former self, entirely erased in the eyes of the world, and obsessing over feats of joy and slaughter of the strongest enemies. She sounds like the perfect herald of Ashlesh to me. She just has to get a little too cocky, like she did with Volibear (a battle she lost and barely survived according to Morgana's level 1 art's description), and Ashlesh will be released.
Nilah being stuck on bot is such a turn off for me as a top main I miss the golden days when she was so good you could run her on jungle or top instead of bot
Never seen a title resume a character so well. Seeing them nerf certain aspects of Samira because they were thought of as too op, only for them to be immediately present on the next ADC was hella funny
Nilah is actually one of my favourite characters to come out of the League universe. Her personality, her voice lines, her lore, and though I do agree it could go harder, her design too, all combine into a joyous warrior that I love so much. I’m constantly quoting her when I play her, her voice actress did amazing with her deliveries, and her theme is also one of my favourite pieces of music Riot has put out. Her gameplay I also enjoy, and while I won’t deny the similarities to Samira, I find myself enjoying Nilah more consistently than I do Samira, even though I also do love Samira. I think the main reason I love playing her is getting that late-game hypercarry state of lore accurate Nilah where she can practically 1v9. It is admittedly difficult to reach that sometimes, but when the enemy lets you scale, you *scale*. And her gameplay, actually doing the various skills, just feel so snappy and satisfying, especially with the great sound design. Dashing in and getting a 5-man Apotheosis just feels and sounds so satisfying! She’s like Seraphine to me in that both characters, even when the game isn’t going great, their voice lines and personalities make it hard to keep a down mood. Sera with her chill music and self-encouragement, and Nilah with her boundless exuberance, both just help to keep me afloat out of the bad-game-funk. I hope Riot does more with her, especially the connection to the rest of the demons. A monster hunter game would be incredible, and if she got added to 2XKO I might even try it out
To add some stuff that others have said: gameplay wise while she is visually similar to Samira, she does play more like a traditional ADC. Samira dives in and bursts you down with her full ability combo, while Nilah wears you down with her autos and, once she hits full build, she can topple giants. That’s something that makes me prefer Nilah over Samira. She does get a lot of stuff free from her kit, but the strongest parts, her lifesteal and armour pen, have their full potential locked behind 4 items worth of crit. But once she gets there, she becomes that lore accurate state that I love. Speaking of lore, there’s been some amazing fanart of her that depicts her struggle with feeling only joy, and there is a horror to be found in that. As someone else said, she’d be dancing through a burning village or celebrating a battle that cost her allies their lives, because that’s all she *can* feel. I like what someone else said here about how Ashlesh is pushing her obsession with being remembered and immortalised in legend to make her fight bigger and bigger threats until she can’t win, and he claims her soul. There’s amazing potential for the character that I hope we get to see more of.
The thing is, we already have another demon who's purview also doesn't relate to fear: Tahm Kench. His focus has always been surrounding the savory of *Misery* which in my opinion is wholly different from Fear. Furthermore, Fiddlestick's rework further clarified his domain to be that of Addiction. Any fear regarding the River King is less to do with Twocoats and more with the fear that one might fall back into their old habits and chase the high once again. In fact, since that whole Demonology Family Tree was brought up, I would actually theorize that Tahm might actually be in similar conjunction with Ashlesh! Part of Tahm's grift is the promise of the joy that the highs of addiction bring a person before the fall and thus it could be argued that his domain is inherently more closely related to Joy than it is to Fear. Add to that the fact that Ashlesh and Tahm Kench are among the only demons we know so far to have deep thematic connections with Water and the fact that both the River King and Nilah are closely related to Bilgewater and the connections start to propagate themselves! Food for thought...
My theory is that Ashlash only pretended to be bested by Nilah. Making her think she beat a demon to fill her with triumph and Joy. In reality, the powers she gained from him are his way to escape his prison by letting him feed off her Joy, and the Joy she creates in others. Classic gambit where the villain fakes defeat in order to benefit from the heroes even more so after.
Ironically I think building the Kathkan aesthetics around Nilah actually hurt her design. What made her unique was her aesthetics and they were very symbolic to her character. Yellow being the color of joy and the blue water being the many hands of Ashelash beautifully complemented her design and reflected her story excellently. In my opinion even her simplistic design worked in her favor because she's a wanderer turned hero thanks to Ashelash's influence. Now that Kathkan built its aesthetics around her, it kind of took away that uniqueness. The yellow and water bending are now the default in Kathkan, robbing Nilah of what was storytelling through character design. And now that everyone in Kathkan does what she can do to some extent, why would she even be obsessed with stories of heroes at all? She literally lives amidst water bending elephant-people and dancing warriors.
Imo the thing with joy being one of the demons is how joy can become twisted to lead into evil deeds, or a tool that can be used to manipulate someone. Its kinda like luring ants with sugar
Nilah would have been soooo much more popular if she had released *before* Samira. To me it really is a baffling decision from Riot to release a lower complexity version of the same archetype, since normally we’d expect them to ramp up complexity with new releases. That said, Nilah’s recent QOL changes have made me realize that she’s actually quite fun. Samira is undeniably more fun to play (imo probably one of the most fun champions in the game, though perhaps not to play AGAINST), but Nilah is much more consistent and ironically feels more like a conventional ADC than Samira, since she has more reliable DPS. So overall I’ve found that Nilah is a bit of a hidden gem once you get past wishing she was Samira.
I like Nilah lore. In fact you most often experience Joy right after feeling Fear, it's why she is a monster hunter. I believe she feeds off the Joy the townsfolk feel after she saves them from a Monster. The Joy of witnessing a Hero of being relieved of fear. But idk, just my theory. A Demon of Joy is such a dope idea.
I actually like playing Nilah more than Samira. She's the champ that got me from playing only top lane to starting to play botlane, she actually feels like if a toplane camp was an ADC, very brawler like. While her passive does seem like it wants you to play with an enchanter, playing with engauge supports is more ideal cause you'd be surprised how many things actually work with her healing and shielding passive. (Pyke's passive, Tham W, when someone picks up the fruit plants in the river, etc) Honestly for the most part a lot of people that actually enjoy playing her prefer a more engauge support cause they want someone fighting with them, she excels in close group combat so she can hit people with her AoE autos, it also compliements her awful range as getting a support that'll help bring the enemy to you or hold them in place is great for her. She's a lot more fun to play as a duo I will say, cause you feel more collaborative with your support where as Samira I more so feel like I'm using them as a stepping stool to get more fed. She's 100% not for everyone though cause she mixes 2 playstyles that shouldn't really go together (a squishy carry ADC and a skirmisher) kind'a like Yasuo and Yone but without the BS they have to keep them alive, (well at least after the nerfs on launch lol) forcing you to heavily rely on your support in early game cause of how much stronger you get mid to late game. She's a champ that doesn't click with a lot of people for those reason and more probs, but I really enjoy her. Her having a really funny personality is just a plus.
Nilah has so much potential to be someone who can only feel joy, imagine a story where one of her parents or a similar relation dies and yet all she can feel is joy when she knows she should be sad there's so much potential there
I agree about how it feels like there’s a lot of missed potential with her. I reeeally wanted to like Nilahs gameplay leading up to her release, but it never stuck with me well because it just didn’t match up with how they teased her. I remember her earliest teaser image had this really cool artwork of these painted hands that blend together like water. It made me think that she was going to have way more imagery in her kit of water-like arms that grab at enemies to attack. In the end though, I still liked the weapon she uses as her auto attack, but I really just wish her abilities looked more unique or aligned with that initial art. Its also kinda upsetting because she doesnt really feel like she fulfills the “water-bender” fantasy that her splash art promises. I honestly think her base splash is one of the coolest splash arts in the game, but when you play her its kinda shocking how her abilities don’t really make you feel like you’re manipulating water… Like besides her urumi whip/sword, you could replace any of her abilitys’ visual effects with that of, say, wind or fire, and they would still function relatively the same. Think of a champ like Nami who literally creates waves and bubbles to attack enemies - you couldn’t possibly imagine her without water as an attachment to her identity. But Nilah’s star guardian release skin completely replaces her water effects with glowing pink shimmers and its like she was never a water bender at all. Suddenly her talking about “flowing like water” or how “water binds us” or following the “river of fate” makes no sense, because at the end of the day she’s just a standard melee fighter that jumps between allies and enemies. Her ult somewhat tries to capture that feeling of moving water around you, but I think even still it feels too brief and un-impactful (visually) for a water move. Water doesnt just disappear into the air, it stays and evaporates and takes effort to move even if swiftly. When Katara from The Last Airbender uses water it gets people wet and soaks the ground, it looks weighty, it always comes from a specific place and flows across the screen in a way that you can follow. And I’m not trying to say that League’s water effects need to have that level of detail, but just that if you want a powerful water-bender, the water shouldn’t feel so snappy and weightless like it comes from nowhere. It should be loud and powerful and sometimes slow, and should take up more space than just as far as someone should reach with a sword. Her splash art conveys that feeling incredibly well, but I suppose her being a close-ranged “melee” adc forces her to be nerfed down into something more of a puddle than an ocean I guess.
ngl nilah's concept couldve been great if she wasnt an adc, like imagine an enchanter support (as much as i hate them) that forces you to feel joy through the magic of Ashlesh in the form of temporary health or smth similar, her magic not actually curing wounds but forcing you to not feel the pain instead, at least until the magic wears off
@@legayshianimated yeah i thought about that after posting the comment, but temporary grey health just kinda fits the thematic more than plain shields lmao. besides, the temporary health could be equal to the damage the supported champion took, just to make it more than just a shield with a funny name
The idea of a demon who steals joy could have made for a really interesting and dark character. Right now all Nilah really has is "she's always happy and can't feel any other emotion" which is like a lil creepy but has no real downside and no depth. But imagine if Nilah was always joyous because she steals the joy from those around her. She goes around finding the happiest people she can then takes their happiness away in the most messed up ways to put a smile on her own face. Like just imagine her finding a parent of a newborn kid and deciding to steal *their* joy by taking away the one thing that makes them happiest - their child. The whole time she's grinning and laughing.
Personally, Nilah is by far my favourite character in the game. I just feel joy (hehe) everytime i try something like dash-in and R and Q the enemies and I destroy my lane. Like, I just did a game and I was 23/5, ITS SO AWESOME ! Plus I don't think her being a "clone of samira" is a bad thing. Sure their kit is similar but we've seen that on other champ aswell (yasuo/yone or rengar/Kha'zix) and her theme song is goated
The point of the demon of Joy is that you can no longer express anything, endless Joy can be terrifying because you're always assumed to be happy, you ARE happy at all times, Pain? Sadness? Depression? Non-existent... And like nilah says, it's difficult, even horrific at times. Think of the many shows that have that one moment where the character is always smiling, always happy, it gets... REAL CREEPY after a bit...
I want to talk about the primal demons, based on izzard theory of emotions the 10 basic emotions are fear, joy, anger, shame, contempt, disgust, guilt, distress, interest, and surprise. So prabably these are the ten kings. Now, lets talk about nilah. I'll get straight to the point... She is one of riot's biggest failure as a champion. Gameplay wise, she pretty similar to samira "daredevil marksman that want's to go in". Personality wise, where is the excessive joy? she feels more like a happy go lucky hero, why dont push joy to the extreme? maybe laugh when a teammate dies? or something, they have great writers of course they can make it work right? Lastly, i dont see any demon connection. I believe nobody would if they didnt read her lore. We dont even know what aslesh look like, lor expansion is a great opportunity to show aslesh imagine a fragment of it shows when nilah almost lose to volibear. In her design nilah doesnt even have any demon connection her smile is basic her clothes is basic, her weapon is basic there is no connection to a demon at all. Sorry if i seems negative, but really i dont have any positive thing to say about her except her theme which is a banger even tho there is still zero demon connection (she's also a beautiful woman if that is riot's only goal so... congrats!)
Man :( To be honest I'm kinda sad to see the negativity around my favourite character in the game and the comparison to Samira being so heavily focused on during this video. I've always loved every facet of Nilah's character. Gameplay wise I really like the feel of her whip, its really satisfying to me and I had fun just exploding stuff with tiamat a while back during the early game, I love her 2 dashes, feels very freeing and whimsical to me, I like the supporting utility of W a lot and I personally find Nilah's big burst where she drags you onto her a lot more fun than Samira's DMC ult. It's always just been really fun for me in a way Samira never was, she always felt more satisfying to me idk. But gameplay aside, I really like her design and story, especially as a south east asian, her being in the game means a lot to me because it was really nice to see a character that not only has my skin colour and heavier hair texture, but also happened to also just embody this bouncy and whimsical tone. I love how she is inspired by the grandiose, heroic stories of the culture she is based on, it feels awesome to me and it's something I always really wanted in league. A character that is a wanderer but instead of being angsty or having a curious/coming of age plot beat they instead are full of adventure whimsy. I think a lot of disappoint around Nilah comes down to her just not being what people expected her to be. I really strongly disagree with the idea of Nilah having to be creepy because I don't think that matches what she is meant to represent, Nilah is closer to a whimsical hero of myth. I adore the idea of Nilah sounding like she is a fictional character IN UNIVERSE. In a more western sense she is meant to embody tales of heroes like those in Greek myths.s. She is blessed by various gods on her way around the seas of runeterra (Morgana, Jannna) while fighting for her legacy through her fights with giants than no man should ever have to face (Volibear, aka fighting incarnate) Much like Ancient Greeks, Nilah's story puts a strong emphasis on leaving behind a legendary legacy for when you inevitable meet your end, which I think does an excellent job to introduce the darker part of her character. I do wish Ashlesh was featured more prominently but I'm not too against the idea of bro being more subtle in his assistance of Nilah because I think it adds to the character. I believe the concept of her almost being forced into dehumanizing and in a way flanderizing herself to be such a good bit of existential horror that is only really squandered by her not being in more stories. Ideas like Nilah not being able to process grief or be able to empathize to ones sadness paired with how she has not background to really refer to thanks to her practically erasing her existence from Runeterra prior to her rebirth as Nilah could make for such a wonderful sort of "dysphoric" feeling if they chose to ever put her in any proper interaction. Ashlesh just being an understated part of Nilah's tragedy in my opinion perfectly matches what Nilah is meant to be, she is a HERO who NEEDS to earn herself a legacy, who in exchange for being granted these abilities she has practically thrown away her humanity. Nilah being so normal does so much for me, she really matches the visuals of Odysseus fighting giant beasts on his way back to Ithaca and the like. Sorry for the big ramble, but the comment nicky made somewhere in the middle of the video about how bro is interested on why people like this character got me really thinking. I get how she may not be everyone's cup of tea but I really like her so I thought I should share :3
My interpretation of ashlash being the demon of joy is that he represents it in a euphoric way, a reaction in a situation where u don’t know how to act, u laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Nilah has some interactions where she wants to feel sad or other thing but she can’t, and i would like if demons were the emotions in a negative way.
I would love a moment with Nilah where she breaks, she crys out in dispair, or remembering her family, but the Ashlash pulls her back to being joyous. Like she is controlling the demon but she had to sacrifice everything she was to do so and now the demon does control her and she regrets her bond
fiddlesticks is the first of the ten primordial demons. Ashlesh is one of them. Evelynn wouldn't be fear, she would be under pain, and i'm sure tahm would be under another one: like desire. Fiddlesticks has been alluding to 10 primordial demons for a long time now.
Nilah is such a interesting concept that i think should be fleshed out more than she is, specially the "always feeling joy" part, because honestly that's a uncanny characteristic for a character to have and it should be more explored
I love the concept of Nilah and her concept art and her music theme. Everything was awesome. Then you see the missed potential with her to continue with her story. Then you play her in game and go, well what the hell there's no joy in depending on an enchanter.
Nilah is described once or twice as an ascetic, so her outfit being plain makes sense. Personally, I like her visual design purely from the use of yellow, but I can agree on a technical level, it could use some work to be more interesting. Though I'm not sure how you'd make it more interesting without compromising on her being an ascetic. On a gameplay level, she's fine. She gets infinitely more fun when you read hypercarry status in the late game. Also, despite her passive suggesting she does well with Enchanters, she actually does better with engage Supports because of innate playstyle synergy. The bonus heal/shield is kinda of a trap, or consolation, rather than a good bonus. The reason Nilah is my highest mastery champ is because I just think she's super rad. Her story is cool, her powers are cool, her voice acting makes me feel cool, her visual design is cool enough. Though I haven't played Samira, I suspect I might still prefer playing Nilah because Samira feels like a less cunty version of Bayonetta and I've aleady seen and enjoyed Bayonetta. Samira is a tad derivative in that sense, where Nilah is her Own Thing. In short, Nilah is niche and novel and that makes me happy. Also, dear god would I love her to be viable in top or jungle. I know most Nilah mains enjoy her for filling the niche of a true melee ADC, but I'm her for the character, not so much the role.
I just watched Bel’Veths casual champion review. It’s funny realizing that two characters got released in the same month and still both were overlooked because of the summer star guardians event
I really like Nilah's character design, but I also find it kind of frustrating; because it doesn't do anything to communicate the sort of terrifying nature of the pact between her and Ashlesh. I think the tragedy of her character would work a lot better if the sacrifice she made to Ashlesh in exchange for his power was more apparent, because her inability to experience anything but joy sort of renders the horror of her sacrificing her history and identity to him kind of moot, because she doesn't care about it at all. Considering Ashlesh is only ever represented through his hands, I think a great way to take her design would have been to keep her basically as she is, only she sacrificed her arms to Ashlesh instead. Then, in place of her whip-blade, she uses his many phantasmal water arms as her weapons, zipping around the battlefield as a fluid, barefisted brawler. I think doing something like that would make it clearer that she is actually using the power of the Demon of Joy as her own, and she had to make a great sacrifice to herself to earn it. It makes the tragedy of her eternal joy more poignant then, as though she has literally sacrificed two of her limbs to a primal demon, the curse of that demon makes her unable to even realise the horror of it.
I wish they made Nilah's demon more about the fear of being happy and have Nilah be someone who is kind of anxious or has had experiences where whenever she was happy smth bad happened
please check her wild rift passive, shes an undying monster in the late game lol shes so much better there and more valuable as a jungler because of it
Nilah is handled so perfectly in her mini story with graves, her creepy uncanny smile and pained forced joy is very cool. It's kinda infuriating that it's barely translated in game
Ngl, i like that the demonology is more complex than we thought. I don´t like when eldritch, complex entities that should be difficult to track down can be neatly categorized into a little neat family tree. Demons and obscurities like them should be unknowledgable to some level, and Nilah brings this back to the lore :)
I'm quite fond of Nilah both for her design and her gameplay, but not actually playing as Nilah. Instead what I like to do is boot up League with a friend and play botlane "Supportekaiser" while they play Nilah. I hook people in and help push waves in the laning phase, and I still become a massive raidboss later in the game thanks to her passive
I love Bligewater, and went though all those emotions when I saw the first champ in 5 years wasn’t even from there and shoehorned in. I don’t really vibe with her kit either, it’s power spikes feel alien to me and incredibly feast or famine with getting an early spike or you’re just a melee adc (not good). That said, I’ve come around on her character itself. I find it very strange to have released another Viego hater after the flop of Ruination but they did it anyway. And like your monster hunter thing, LoR taking Nilah around and gathering a crew inspired me. I think she would play incredibly well teaming up in lore with Yorick! They somehow share a lot of similarities but Nilah’s how bouncing off of Yorick’s sullen depression could be a fun team up. Maybe throw in Janna like LoR did too, and maybe even Jax. Kinda wild direction but all the big solos fighting world ending threads could use some love together
It feels to me like the Demon of Joy is supposed to be a Demon of addiction but friendly family like, think about it, it only experiences joy, as if in a constant state of extacy? dope
Tahm Kench already represents Addiction. Although, given that Joy is a primal emotion (like bliss) it could be a scenario like Fiddlesticks and Nocturne.
It wouldn't be dope, a constant feeling of joy, what would that emotion even mean to you eventually? Imagine situations you physically wanted to be sad in but can't, imagine how unhinged you could eventually become
It would be so bad if one of the most powerful demons was conquered by just a girl, then what about fiddle? does that mean that ezreal can just go there without his gauntlet or anything and just conquer him? IF ASHLESH IS SO POWERFUL, THEN HOW COULD HE BE CONQUERED BY JUST "GIRL"?
having demons with positive emotions is VERY COOL and yes there's something creepy about a demon forcing someone to only feel a singlular happy emotion Making him one of the First 10 was the main issue, only highlighted especially by the fact that Nilah has a voice line where she straight up says she knows Fiddles one weakness
Talking about gameplay, funnily enough, Nilah excels with engage supports. Rakan, Taric, Rell and Nautilus excel with her because she benefits from their CC and her passive applies to them. This is something coming from the best Nilah players btw Enchanters basically suck with her unless you just wanna scale with farm and her extra xp gains, so I have only picked an enchanter with Nilah once in my lifetime due to knowing it was an unwinnable lane (and because she is not picked much). I do get where you are coming from by saying she is an echo fighter, but Nilah simply plays like any Skirmisher, but with a supportive passive and ultimate. Samira is all about those dash resets and flashy ultimate to get those pentas, and while Nilah can do so with her ultimate, it actually has a cooldown, so I feel like their playstyles are distinct enough for players to gravitate towards one instead of the other.
Joy can be a terrifying emotion as it can lead to hedonism. For example, in a game called "Honkai Star Rail" there is an Aeon called Aha the Elation who is known to be the most spontaneous and unpredictable Aeon: one moment, they could give a worm cosmic-level intelligence on a whim, and another, they could blow up half a planet because they thought it'd be funny.
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHAMPIONS! I love both nilah and Samira they are both unique and play similar yet different it's very fun, one thing I wish is that they didn't kill e Max but it's so fun to have to navigate a double range matchup and being rewarded massively with it
especially seeing as I started playing nilah first then played Samira, nilah has a special place in my heart because they have different strengths nilah is a amazing tank killer and a force of nature in the sense that she can heal thru all Samira plays more like an assassin than nilah and I don't think you focus enough on the supportive aspect of her nilah is very much team oriented since you actually heal and shield your allies quite a bit, but I especially love that I a "melee" ADC player am not stuck with playing Samira every time and I can play nilah for a different yet similar style and for different drafts and different strengths can't pick one pick the other it accommodates my play style in the lane I love the most which is not lane and for that I'm grateful
The thing about Kathkan to me is, like Ixtal and Qiyana pre-retcon population, is that Nilah and K'sante are just the only representatives of their regions, and thus those regions don't matter. Nazumah is at least on the Runeterran map, but the point of matter is how One character in the game ever refers to it; it's not real because nobody else cares about it. There's no content for it aside from the one character rambling about the location.
Then we have the funny speculation that Nilah killed Smolders Gradmother Viper. So the main original Camavoran dragon. Which I just thimk it would be hilarios for Smolder to just meet nilah and the first thing she says is that she is going to hunt him
taric is my go-to pick if my duo decides to play nilah and they mesh so perfectly well together certainly feel like nilah would be popular if taric's playrate gets higher, this combo really is a hidden gem(pun intended
I was told that positive emotions keep us motivated, while negative emotions help us grow from our mistakes. It would be interesting if Nilah became stagnant despite her overwhelming power; charging into battle and repeating the same mistakes. Her journey will be finding a necessary alley that is perspective enough to help her.
I like the idea of demon of joy. In 40K the four "demons" have their own themes like Khorne, god of hate, war, blood, but also honor. He gains Power from alla The anger and wars where Tzeentch is god of trickery, learning and knowledge, magic and change and he gains power from people learning and trying to change their life for better. I see Nilah's demon same way and to me it's cool.
i like nilah but shes really similar to samira!! i like nilah cuz i like being able to dash twice, the Q feels really satisfying cuz it buffs you (atk range) and the sound effect is nice, W is also just auto attack range and i just feel like she does way more than she rlly does (passive, W AA dodge, growing atk range with Q, etc.) which makes her fun/satisfying to play
I think my main issue with Nilah is in her weapon of choice. She was teased as someone with a lot of hands, and having many hands was hinted at being a core part of her character. And yet, all we got was some generic girl with a water whip? wooooh... I feel like there's so many more exciting concepts they could have run with around the theme of a person with a demonic pact, who can only feel joy, and can spawn in a bunch of hands out of nowhere.
GOD i had a rollercoaster process with nilah. I used to love her at launch, but months passed and her lore aditions with lor and smolder made me absolutely DESPISE her. Some people says Aurora felt too much like a shoe-horned oc, but i swear to you Nilah feels just the same, if not worse. Cause she is bounded to a demon so powerful that apparently knows fiddlesticks's weaknesses, managed to slaughter almost every dragon in camavor (apparently leaving smolder as one of the only few dragons who's left alive in runeterra), tried to defy Volibear and something as minor as well you know TRYING TO GET MORDEKAISER INTO THE WORLD AGAIN BY SNEAKING INTO A CULTIST REUNION, JUST SO SHE COULD MURDER HIM. Yea girl, good luck with that. I know this is probably all of Ashlash's doing, demon wants chaos unleashed into the world n all, and also that's the whole jest of her character, to become a legend, but idk... it ends up rubbing me in the wrong way. She tries to make "heroic actions" but it's gonna create more problems in the long run. To me Nilah really feels like an artist very first oc, one that is so powerful, so strong and so capable that nothing can beat them.
when nilah's teaser dropped i though she was going to be a monster champion, similar to blight from dbd due to it's description, and when her design was leaked, i was wishing that it was fake
I was so excited for her release - demon of joy? Champ to pick when Samira gets banned? Yes please! - but she just falls so flat in so many ways for me. Her lore is underexplored and taken in a weird, reasonably excited adventurer angle instead of a near deranged danger chaser, the character design is cool but strangely drab, her gameplay could be interesting but is hampered by too many restrictions (the XP share and no auto attack W are INFURIATING), and the animation of the whip is just…janky. Oh well…
I feel like the hands theme would have been easy to fit in with her kit. make her whip into one of the arms of ashlash. For the Q the hand closes in a fist and slams on the ground, for the E it grabs nilah and pulls her forward. For the ult a bunch of hands sprout from her and grab everyone around and drags them towards her. Maybe it was a clarity problem.
6:01 ashkash literally monopolising joy since no one getting their hands on it... is practically how it's going. like yeah sure fear is strong and easy to use, but good like learning how to use joy as a source. HE GOT IT PATENTED
i wish nilah had a different passive because i think she would be SUCH a fun jungler and i think itd make more sense lore wise, taking down monsters and traveling around to take down powerful foes
It's already been said but Nilah doesn't really mess up the demon lore, Fiddlesticks was the only demon of fear, the concept of fear itself, all the other demons we know are demons of other more specific emotions, it's not like Evelynn is the demon of the fear of Agony, just the demon of Agony. The higher up you go on the demon hierarchy the more ancient and primal the concepts they embody become, the 10 great kings were always 10 primal concepts/emotions, Fiddlesticks just happened to be Fear. ALSO FUN FACT; back in the day JaredRosen (the guy who wrote the Fiddlesticks VGU and all the demon lore) teased a lot of stuff on his twitter, from what I remember he even said that out of the 10 great kings, three have been outright named in the lore, counting Fiddlesticks, and that was before Nilah released but the fanbase should've been able to dig up and deduce the identities of 2 other great kings from the lore available at that time, and neither Kindred nor Bard were demons or members of the 10. Now I think all of it was deleted and Riot might change the canon that Jared had in mind since, well, he doesn't work at Riot anymore, but yeah the clues were there on his old twitter but every major content creator ignored it, I still have a couple of screenshots as proof from when I dug DEEP for some demon lore lol.
as much as i want to agree nicky, i kinda like nilah bc her ult is different enough from samira (in the sense that it's orianna ult) and i enjoy playing with enchanter supports. as an adc main, i enjoy playing w both types of supports and it typically just depends who i'm playing with so it can make the choice for me if i don't feel like playing jinx or cait who are dominating the meta rn (and i'm bisexual so making choices are impossible). her design has definitely left more to be desired and the chakra waver fit def coulda just been nilah's fit too... but until i see steps in the right direction with her i'm content just playing her as she is (her lore and design is where i'd want changes, her gameplay is fine).
I like Nilah's gameplay. I know shes similar to Samira but I think there is a difference between ADC champs that like to dash forward and actual melee carries like NIlah/Yasuo/Yi. I know Samira came out first but she feels like evil Nilah to me. Nilah gives her W to allies & shares healing & bonus xp with them. Samira (and ADC as a whole) is usually way more selfish. Gameplay wise, Her extended auto range on Q and the sound of the water whip is really satisfying. She has in-built synergy with enchanters but shes fine with engage supports too. I do wish she got more attention because I think her concept is really cool but the in-game model doesn't really do her justice. She has these cool knee pads, her hairstyle is really unique & the waterblade looks awesome in her splash. She also has accents on her shirt/dress & a cool necklace but all of it looks so plain when you actually get in game.
I enjoy playing Nilah because of her potential, her Q allows her to be the scariest late game carry out of all adc imo ( 33% armor pen, 20% life steal , 140% attack speed and overheal). The early game will be rough, but given time you will become the most busted champion.
I do think that a lot about Nilah’s design is harder to appreciate in-game, which is a shame. I like that it’s a bit simpler because it fits with her being a monk.
It’s funny, brcause in wild rift they completely changed her passive, making her playable in any lane basically: After an attack Critically Strikes, Nilah heals herself for 20% of the damage deals Excess healing is converted into an equivalent amount of shield that lasts 6 second(S). Critical Strikes on monsters do not heal Nilah.
So, I have a lot of things to say as someone who LOVES playing Nilah and her overall design and lore. When it comes to her design I think it's absolutely perfect perfect for her, she's dressed like a Kalaripayattu warrior with a few embellishments the nose ring chain attached to her earring is one of my fav touches. Her sword(Yes it's a sword not a whip) is a freaking Urumi. As for her relationship with Ashlesh it's def more of a symbiotic relationship I feel where he HEIGHTENS her sense of joy, thus making Nilah become a god damn adrenaline junky, which plays into her haphazard GO IN style of play. Which now I have to go into her gameplay and how she isn't anything like Samira in context. Nilah for all intents and purposes is a Melee ADC, most of her kit and passive is built around the fact that she can be bullied by zoning lanes very easily. It's why she gets bonus EXP to compensate for her getting bullied out of CS, it's why she synergizes with enchanters so well, it's why she gets base healing off her Q and R. Her entire kit is built around compensating for this but also playing into the fantasy that she's an adrenaline junky who needs to GO IN.
I can't stand this bad nilah pr because I love her. I love her design, her voice. I love everything about her. I don't wish I was playing Samira instead of her because Nilah scales way better than that old shuriman hag.
I mean... Tahm Kench is officially "Addiction", based on Fiddlestick's voice lines. Addiction isn't really connected to fear, neither is Agony in on itself, at least not in my eyes. So I personally wasn't really confused by Ashlesh's existence, and him being Joy. Hell, one might argue, Addiction and Agony may be more connected to Joy, by the virtue of always chasing a high (either the hollow happiness of an addiction or a twisted pleasure that turns into agony). But then again, all this is probably the realm of philosophies at this point, and different people come to different conclusions.
I really like playing Nilah. The only real downside is being reliant on a support that won't leave your side like she really wants, and most random people would rather leave you alone than pocket you the whole time. I play enough of every adc to feel comfortable saying that Nilah and Samira while similar in design, are way different in execution. Samira plays closer to how Katarina plays, picking off low enemies, whereas Nilah loves playing front to back and chasing the smaller guys because she is absolutely terrifying to have chase after you. Her damage is monstrous and no one knows how to play against her so you inherently have an advantage over most.
Not really same kit different passive she’s allowed to play other roles there which is great for cause she can just free scale and 1v9 late game they are not many’s champs that scale as well as nilah late game 😂
on the topic of the "champ release on big summer event" thing, i dont think it affects the champion that much..? i just think they released strange champions for it that were never destined to make a splash anyway so if anything it probably HELPED their popularity being released during a big event. akshan, nilah, naafiri, and aurora (like you've listed) are all extremely niche champs who fill very hyper specific roles. also aurora had PLENTY of buildup before the grand event of Swarm (the autism thing making headlines, multiple leaks and the thing with her splash art, the IN CLIENT THING WITH ORNN) so it wasn't due to that at all imo. i think the only reason why someone like smolder has continued on in relevancy as long as he has compared to the others is because of the immense gameplay imbalance that the rest of them never had to deal with because they have been (mostly) pretty balanced and reasonable within their kits, with probably akshan being the only outlier if any, since smolder has been talked about nowhere besides gameplay as far as i've seen, i'm pretty sure people have already completely forgotten his relevance to Camavor.
In recent times I get only 🔲🔲🔲🔲 as my supports so playing every adc is just torture but I really liked playing Nilah on release. She's always so loud and provoking, has certain things in her kit that make playing her enjoyable (for example poking q and splash damage, also shield on ult) and also I don't have Samira :)
Nilah is one ofthe champions which I love as a character but hate the gameplay (both in the league and in lor). Of course, one of the big reasons I like her is her VA in PTBR, Mariana Torres, who besides being one of my favorites, did a great job with her.
Nilah didn't change the demon lore. The demons only feeding on fears is a misconception that was for some reason really popularised. Tahm and Eve are definetly not fear demons and never were. Tahm is a demon of addiction, which we know back from when Fiddle came out. Eve is a demon of agony. Fiddle is explicitly first of 10 because he is the primal complete embodiment of fear, the other 9 would logically then be emodiments of equally universal ancient emotions, not...fear again, for some reason? We don't know what branch Tahm falls under but it's much more likely something like desire. Eve is almost definetly under the demon king of pain, agony is just a specific type of pain.
Like the argument that Ashlesh makes this confusing because we've only seen fear demons until now really just falls apart when Tahm and Eve were clearly not fear demons, it's just the community misinterpreted the text. Was it Necrit who started this?
I was thinking a similar thing. I always thought the demons were supposed to represent different emotions or traits found in living creatures. Tahm being addiction, gluttony, or greed. Evelynn being agony or lust. I really do like the idea of various emotions being represented as these primal entities and I hope we get to see some better interactions with people seeing someone who feels quite nothing but joy. That is terrifying in its own right.
Yeah, that part confused me a bit, because I never heard of that interpretation, I mean I personally thought demons were only associatted with negative emotions, so Ashlesh was still a surprise in that regard.
Pain isn't an emotion though, so a pain demon would feel weird to me.
agree with this take
Honestly, Nilah just infuriates me. The Demon of Joy is such a cool and unique concept, same with the whole "I only experience joy" shtick -- but they do nothing with it. Nilah's just a "quirky, fun adventurer gal!" instead of an uncanny or even creepy warrior she should be. Her demon pact doesn't feel demonic whatsoever, which is a big shame.
I have three issues with her:
1) I bloody despise morning people and she is the embodiment of one.
2) I don't like how powerful they make her, fighting volibear and mordekaiser in LoR. I'm just glad her squad got absolutely railed by mordkaiser's minions.
3) Like you said, the feck kind of demonic pact is that? You get immense power and in turn you always feel amazing?
@@witchinggecko4271 Yeah, but that's the thing -- feeling amazing ALL THE TIME should be fucking creepy. Just imagine, you are literally incapable of not feeling joy about something.
Your cat dies? You're laughing. Someone kills your loved ones? You are laughing. How would a person like that think? That's beyond psychopathic, it's downright inhuman.
@@mon0lithic629 The most they really go into it is in her story with Graves. He insults her, and there's a bit about how her smile briefly twitches and how Nilah would be furious with Graves if that were possible. Legends of Runeterra also gives her a death line where she says "Even this... Is joy..."
Basically, we need more of that: showing Nilah in situations where she shouldn't be happy, but is. Like, dancing and laughing her way through a burning village or celebrating immediately after a battle that sees a bunch of her comrades getting killed. It would really do a lot to accentuate that there's something wrong with her.
@@mon0lithic629 still sounds a heck of a lot better than being constantly miserable or in pain or, as in the case of fiddlesticks, unable to trust your loved ones to the point that you kill yourself or them because they might be imposters
@@mon0lithic629 Ever heard the phrase: "It's better to cry in a Lamborghini than to cry on a bike."?
This deal still sounds a heck of a lot better than constantly being miserable, in pain or, as in the case of fiddlesticks, unable to trust your loved one to the point where you un-alive (I have to use this word because apparently the snowflakes at youtube can't handle the usual word and shadow ban your comment) them or yourself.
Edit: I just want to add that I am not disputing your point. It's valid. This is merely a very subjective optinion on the matter.
I've always enjoyed Nilah more than Samira, a lot less button mashing for similar results and I've always liked Nilah more as a character, but I do understand the comparisons between the two and their gameplay. Also, just like Samira, Nilah does really good with engage supports, maybe even better than with enchanters despite the built in synergy.
Also, I thought it was pretty obvious that there were more to the Ten Kings than just Fiddlesticks and fear? Like all of them representing some sort of primal emotion that every sentient being has the ability to feel. It doesn't really strike me as odd that there's a primal demon of happiness and joy alongside the demon of fear.
hard agree on the gameplay part, she certainly feels a lot like the traditional adc in terms of play pattern as a tank buster and hard scaling late and weak early while samira's more of a bursty assassin rather than adc who heavily relies on landing all-in combos and snowballs harder while falls off late
similar kits in a glance but plays nothing alike
A Few things regarding demons.
In convergence we are actually given a hint that ashlesh takes after the appearance of a hyena. make sense with the laughing and all
And Nihlah hints that swain may not have conquered Raum as totally as he thinks saying that they are different because "she knows the price she paid"
Not only that, in one of Katarina's comics, Swain entrusts her with the duty of killing him in case he ever goes against Noxus (implying that he knows eventually Raum will take over).
God the way Nilah talks with the other demons and some other characters -(Mordekaiser)- just makes me despise her even more
@@dustyoldrowe why?
@@AllYourPals idk, I just don't like the thing of "we can only talk smack and not show any respect to our enemies" even tho they are talking to beings way more powerful then then, like, Urgot talking back to Fiddle like he's nothing, Nilah talking like she can hold a candle to Fiddle and Mordekaiser, like she could beat them, which, no she couldn't, fuck off, I guess I just got beef with her because she talks shit to characters I like way more 🤷🏻 but idk, she's just not that interesting
@@dustyoldrowe she is weilding the power of one of the 10 Kings. Riot would never let her kill one of them, but she has killed demigods before, I wouldn't count her out if that fight
I would like to respectfully disagree with the take on Nilah's lore, because offers awesome ideas into how Ashlesh and Nilah herself can be an actual threat
Demons didn’t typically feed off fear, they feed off emotion. That’s why Tahm Kench in his story didn’t necessarily frighten the man who he gave everything, but he became stronger as the man fell deeper into addiction. Nilah is in a similar boat to the man in Tahm’s story. For as much as she says that she is in control of Ashlesh, there are hints that she doesn’t have as much control as she thinks.
She has to constantly recite mantras and prayers to keep the demon’s influence at bay, and Ashlesh’s description in her champion insights makes this even more interesting. Ashlesh embodies the negative aspects of joy as well. “It pushes joy to its hideous extremes, feeding on the dark, inverted aspects of the emotion, like delirium and obsession”. I think that what’s being set up with Nilah in LOR especially is twofold: Ashlesh is twisting her obsession with being remembered and taking it to the extreme, making her fight increasingly larger threats to an arguably suicidal degree. Taking on Volibear and Mordekaiser as people have said is near suicidal; but I think that’s the point. Ashlesh is using her obsession and her lack of feeling anything but joy to essentially push her to beyond her limit and claim her soul, which is why she has been picking fights arguably outside her capabilities.
Final point, I think that Nilah only being able to feel joy, as well as being influenced by a primordial demon, means that she is arguably one of the best choices to kill the other kings, as if demons gain power through emotion, they literally have no way to gain power from her.
Edit: As to the second point, I think Ashlesh sees the partnership with Nilah as a win/win. He gets to either get stronger off her constant feelings of joy, and arguably exercise power over the other 10 kings, or he gets to claim her soul. Another hint as to why Nilah isn't in as much control as she may think she is
I love thisss, I feel like that makes total sense as to why she would go off and fight such large threats after her intro to the main continents was basically only fighting monsters in bilgewater.
Approved
Hiya! It's me, one of the seven Nilah players out there! Here's a short essay explaining why I like her and some things I feel you didn't touch on or missed!
GAMEPLAY
I think one of the really weird things that has been spread around is that "Nilah can't play with Engage supports", because, besides Janna or Rakan or sometimes Lulu, Nilah actually plays incredibly well with engage compared to enchanters, in my opinion.
Nilah's passive is terribly designed and honestly needs a rework (I believe Riot August said on stream that he definitely agrees with that sentiment) and does force her into enchanters and it does really hurt when she gets a roaming supp like Bard. However, despite all of that, I never really understand people who compare her so heavily to Samira beyond what you said with their abilities suspiciously lining up. Maybe I've not played enough Samira, but they feel like they have entirely different playstyles. Samira has the combo rank thing which forces her into a certain faceroll playstyle, where Nilah has to carefully plan out her Q and Ult usage to get AOE damage in a small space.
I won't lie, Nilah needs a mini-rework. I quit ADC recently (which for me was pretty much just "Nilah Lane") out of anger for the role and went back to being a Mid main. I miss Nilah quite a lot, I couldn't take her with me to mid.
Riot hates her guts in everything. She got that marvelous Soul Fighter skin in Wild Rift, and also one in LoR all before she got Coven, which is kinda just okay. I doubt we'll ever get another skin this decade. She is terribly flawed right now in League, and her state in LoR's PoC is terrible with the worst constellation in the game by far in terms of actually playing the character (you can just use Star Gems, but at that point I'm not playing Nilah).
Despite all of those flaws, she is still one of my favorite characters. Maybe because those flaws? I'm not so sure. I like everything about her character, connection to demons, and thematic, I even wrote a fanfiction about her adventures. It's sad to see her in this state, but honestly, most of the best characters in the game are the ones that Riot doesn't acknowledge. When's the last time that Mundo got a skin? Kled? Ivern? It's a long wait usually. But when Riot does notice, it's all the sweeter for it. I just like unpopular champions!
LORE
Joy technically could fall above Evelynn's position as Demon of Lust. Joy is used a lot in relation to Nilah, but Ashlesh is more than just Joy, he is a complete loss of control, utter *delirium*, which is a fear in some rights, but it's one that nobody consciously can fear. Nilah representing Ashlesh is kind of perfect, as them leaving it up to interpretation whether she has conquered him is part of the character. Nilah claims that she has him under her control, her confidence is abundant.
But Ashlesh is a primal demon, he is far more clever than someone like Fiddle (he is represented by a laughing Hyena in a pool of water, so says Convergence of all games), and far more clever than Nilah.
Nilah has already lost, she is a shell of her former self, entirely erased in the eyes of the world, and obsessing over feats of joy and slaughter of the strongest enemies. She sounds like the perfect herald of Ashlesh to me. She just has to get a little too cocky, like she did with Volibear (a battle she lost and barely survived according to Morgana's level 1 art's description), and Ashlesh will be released.
> which for me was pretty much just "Nilah Lane"
Girl, me too! She's the only ADC I play. And frankly, I'd love to see her be viable in other roles.
Nilah being stuck on bot is such a turn off for me as a top main
I miss the golden days when she was so good you could run her on jungle or top instead of bot
Never seen a title resume a character so well. Seeing them nerf certain aspects of Samira because they were thought of as too op, only for them to be immediately present on the next ADC was hella funny
I mean not really, Nilah's dash doesn't reset or anything
@Yoshyguy21 ya but they got rid of Samira dashing to allies just to give it to Nilah
Because they do not play the same, making a melee botlaner difficult because you can’t make a yasuo 2.0 for the botlane.
Nilah is actually one of my favourite characters to come out of the League universe. Her personality, her voice lines, her lore, and though I do agree it could go harder, her design too, all combine into a joyous warrior that I love so much. I’m constantly quoting her when I play her, her voice actress did amazing with her deliveries, and her theme is also one of my favourite pieces of music Riot has put out.
Her gameplay I also enjoy, and while I won’t deny the similarities to Samira, I find myself enjoying Nilah more consistently than I do Samira, even though I also do love Samira. I think the main reason I love playing her is getting that late-game hypercarry state of lore accurate Nilah where she can practically 1v9. It is admittedly difficult to reach that sometimes, but when the enemy lets you scale, you *scale*. And her gameplay, actually doing the various skills, just feel so snappy and satisfying, especially with the great sound design. Dashing in and getting a 5-man Apotheosis just feels and sounds so satisfying!
She’s like Seraphine to me in that both characters, even when the game isn’t going great, their voice lines and personalities make it hard to keep a down mood. Sera with her chill music and self-encouragement, and Nilah with her boundless exuberance, both just help to keep me afloat out of the bad-game-funk.
I hope Riot does more with her, especially the connection to the rest of the demons. A monster hunter game would be incredible, and if she got added to 2XKO I might even try it out
Her in 2XKO would be unique.
She could be like Ghostrider from Marvel vs. or Whip from KOF series!
To add some stuff that others have said: gameplay wise while she is visually similar to Samira, she does play more like a traditional ADC. Samira dives in and bursts you down with her full ability combo, while Nilah wears you down with her autos and, once she hits full build, she can topple giants. That’s something that makes me prefer Nilah over Samira.
She does get a lot of stuff free from her kit, but the strongest parts, her lifesteal and armour pen, have their full potential locked behind 4 items worth of crit. But once she gets there, she becomes that lore accurate state that I love.
Speaking of lore, there’s been some amazing fanart of her that depicts her struggle with feeling only joy, and there is a horror to be found in that. As someone else said, she’d be dancing through a burning village or celebrating a battle that cost her allies their lives, because that’s all she *can* feel. I like what someone else said here about how Ashlesh is pushing her obsession with being remembered and immortalised in legend to make her fight bigger and bigger threats until she can’t win, and he claims her soul. There’s amazing potential for the character that I hope we get to see more of.
The thing is, we already have another demon who's purview also doesn't relate to fear: Tahm Kench. His focus has always been surrounding the savory of *Misery* which in my opinion is wholly different from Fear. Furthermore, Fiddlestick's rework further clarified his domain to be that of Addiction. Any fear regarding the River King is less to do with Twocoats and more with the fear that one might fall back into their old habits and chase the high once again.
In fact, since that whole Demonology Family Tree was brought up, I would actually theorize that Tahm might actually be in similar conjunction with Ashlesh! Part of Tahm's grift is the promise of the joy that the highs of addiction bring a person before the fall and thus it could be argued that his domain is inherently more closely related to Joy than it is to Fear. Add to that the fact that Ashlesh and Tahm Kench are among the only demons we know so far to have deep thematic connections with Water and the fact that both the River King and Nilah are closely related to Bilgewater and the connections start to propagate themselves! Food for thought...
My theory is that Ashlash only pretended to be bested by Nilah. Making her think she beat a demon to fill her with triumph and Joy. In reality, the powers she gained from him are his way to escape his prison by letting him feed off her Joy, and the Joy she creates in others.
Classic gambit where the villain fakes defeat in order to benefit from the heroes even more so after.
Ironically I think building the Kathkan aesthetics around Nilah actually hurt her design. What made her unique was her aesthetics and they were very symbolic to her character. Yellow being the color of joy and the blue water being the many hands of Ashelash beautifully complemented her design and reflected her story excellently. In my opinion even her simplistic design worked in her favor because she's a wanderer turned hero thanks to Ashelash's influence. Now that Kathkan built its aesthetics around her, it kind of took away that uniqueness. The yellow and water bending are now the default in Kathkan, robbing Nilah of what was storytelling through character design. And now that everyone in Kathkan does what she can do to some extent, why would she even be obsessed with stories of heroes at all? She literally lives amidst water bending elephant-people and dancing warriors.
Imo the thing with joy being one of the demons is how joy can become twisted to lead into evil deeds, or a tool that can be used to manipulate someone.
Its kinda like luring ants with sugar
Nilah would have been soooo much more popular if she had released *before* Samira. To me it really is a baffling decision from Riot to release a lower complexity version of the same archetype, since normally we’d expect them to ramp up complexity with new releases.
That said, Nilah’s recent QOL changes have made me realize that she’s actually quite fun. Samira is undeniably more fun to play (imo probably one of the most fun champions in the game, though perhaps not to play AGAINST), but Nilah is much more consistent and ironically feels more like a conventional ADC than Samira, since she has more reliable DPS. So overall I’ve found that Nilah is a bit of a hidden gem once you get past wishing she was Samira.
opening youtube the moment nicholas boy posts his video has to be the best save from boredom i could ever get
Y'know, I just realized; with seasons themes being a thing now (hopefully for a while before abandoning it) they could do one of Kathkan.
I like Nilah lore. In fact you most often experience Joy right after feeling Fear, it's why she is a monster hunter. I believe she feeds off the Joy the townsfolk feel after she saves them from a Monster. The Joy of witnessing a Hero of being relieved of fear. But idk, just my theory. A Demon of Joy is such a dope idea.
I actually like playing Nilah more than Samira. She's the champ that got me from playing only top lane to starting to play botlane, she actually feels like if a toplane camp was an ADC, very brawler like.
While her passive does seem like it wants you to play with an enchanter, playing with engauge supports is more ideal cause you'd be surprised how many things actually work with her healing and shielding passive. (Pyke's passive, Tham W, when someone picks up the fruit plants in the river, etc) Honestly for the most part a lot of people that actually enjoy playing her prefer a more engauge support cause they want someone fighting with them, she excels in close group combat so she can hit people with her AoE autos, it also compliements her awful range as getting a support that'll help bring the enemy to you or hold them in place is great for her.
She's a lot more fun to play as a duo I will say, cause you feel more collaborative with your support where as Samira I more so feel like I'm using them as a stepping stool to get more fed. She's 100% not for everyone though cause she mixes 2 playstyles that shouldn't really go together (a squishy carry ADC and a skirmisher) kind'a like Yasuo and Yone but without the BS they have to keep them alive, (well at least after the nerfs on launch lol) forcing you to heavily rely on your support in early game cause of how much stronger you get mid to late game.
She's a champ that doesn't click with a lot of people for those reason and more probs, but I really enjoy her. Her having a really funny personality is just a plus.
Nilah has so much potential to be someone who can only feel joy, imagine a story where one of her parents or a similar relation dies and yet all she can feel is joy when she knows she should be sad there's so much potential there
I agree about how it feels like there’s a lot of missed potential with her. I reeeally wanted to like Nilahs gameplay leading up to her release, but it never stuck with me well because it just didn’t match up with how they teased her. I remember her earliest teaser image had this really cool artwork of these painted hands that blend together like water. It made me think that she was going to have way more imagery in her kit of water-like arms that grab at enemies to attack. In the end though, I still liked the weapon she uses as her auto attack, but I really just wish her abilities looked more unique or aligned with that initial art.
Its also kinda upsetting because she doesnt really feel like she fulfills the “water-bender” fantasy that her splash art promises. I honestly think her base splash is one of the coolest splash arts in the game, but when you play her its kinda shocking how her abilities don’t really make you feel like you’re manipulating water… Like besides her urumi whip/sword, you could replace any of her abilitys’ visual effects with that of, say, wind or fire, and they would still function relatively the same. Think of a champ like Nami who literally creates waves and bubbles to attack enemies - you couldn’t possibly imagine her without water as an attachment to her identity. But Nilah’s star guardian release skin completely replaces her water effects with glowing pink shimmers and its like she was never a water bender at all. Suddenly her talking about “flowing like water” or how “water binds us” or following the “river of fate” makes no sense, because at the end of the day she’s just a standard melee fighter that jumps between allies and enemies.
Her ult somewhat tries to capture that feeling of moving water around you, but I think even still it feels too brief and un-impactful (visually) for a water move. Water doesnt just disappear into the air, it stays and evaporates and takes effort to move even if swiftly. When Katara from The Last Airbender uses water it gets people wet and soaks the ground, it looks weighty, it always comes from a specific place and flows across the screen in a way that you can follow. And I’m not trying to say that League’s water effects need to have that level of detail, but just that if you want a powerful water-bender, the water shouldn’t feel so snappy and weightless like it comes from nowhere. It should be loud and powerful and sometimes slow, and should take up more space than just as far as someone should reach with a sword. Her splash art conveys that feeling incredibly well, but I suppose her being a close-ranged “melee” adc forces her to be nerfed down into something more of a puddle than an ocean I guess.
ngl nilah's concept couldve been great if she wasnt an adc, like imagine an enchanter support (as much as i hate them) that forces you to feel joy through the magic of Ashlesh in the form of temporary health or smth similar, her magic not actually curing wounds but forcing you to not feel the pain instead, at least until the magic wears off
you've just invented "shields" good job lul
@@legayshianimated yeah i thought about that after posting the comment, but temporary grey health just kinda fits the thematic more than plain shields lmao. besides, the temporary health could be equal to the damage the supported champion took, just to make it more than just a shield with a funny name
Nice pfp. Love the artist @@legayshianimated
The idea of a demon who steals joy could have made for a really interesting and dark character. Right now all Nilah really has is "she's always happy and can't feel any other emotion" which is like a lil creepy but has no real downside and no depth. But imagine if Nilah was always joyous because she steals the joy from those around her. She goes around finding the happiest people she can then takes their happiness away in the most messed up ways to put a smile on her own face. Like just imagine her finding a parent of a newborn kid and deciding to steal *their* joy by taking away the one thing that makes them happiest - their child. The whole time she's grinning and laughing.
Personally, Nilah is by far my favourite character in the game. I just feel joy (hehe) everytime i try something like dash-in and R and Q the enemies and I destroy my lane. Like, I just did a game and I was 23/5, ITS SO AWESOME ! Plus I don't think her being a "clone of samira" is a bad thing. Sure their kit is similar but we've seen that on other champ aswell (yasuo/yone or rengar/Kha'zix)
and her theme song is goated
The point of the demon of Joy is that you can no longer express anything, endless Joy can be terrifying because you're always assumed to be happy, you ARE happy at all times, Pain? Sadness? Depression? Non-existent... And like nilah says, it's difficult, even horrific at times. Think of the many shows that have that one moment where the character is always smiling, always happy, it gets... REAL CREEPY after a bit...
I want to talk about the primal demons, based on izzard theory of emotions the 10 basic emotions are fear, joy, anger, shame, contempt, disgust, guilt, distress, interest, and surprise. So prabably these are the ten kings.
Now, lets talk about nilah. I'll get straight to the point... She is one of riot's biggest failure as a champion. Gameplay wise, she pretty similar to samira "daredevil marksman that want's to go in". Personality wise, where is the excessive joy? she feels more like a happy go lucky hero, why dont push joy to the extreme? maybe laugh when a teammate dies? or something, they have great writers of course they can make it work right? Lastly, i dont see any demon connection. I believe nobody would if they didnt read her lore. We dont even know what aslesh look like, lor expansion is a great opportunity to show aslesh imagine a fragment of it shows when nilah almost lose to volibear. In her design nilah doesnt even have any demon connection her smile is basic her clothes is basic, her weapon is basic there is no connection to a demon at all.
Sorry if i seems negative, but really i dont have any positive thing to say about her except her theme which is a banger even tho there is still zero demon connection (she's also a beautiful woman if that is riot's only goal so... congrats!)
Man :(
To be honest I'm kinda sad to see the negativity around my favourite character in the game and the comparison to Samira being so heavily focused on during this video.
I've always loved every facet of Nilah's character. Gameplay wise I really like the feel of her whip, its really satisfying to me and I had fun just exploding stuff with tiamat a while back during the early game, I love her 2 dashes, feels very freeing and whimsical to me, I like the supporting utility of W a lot and I personally find Nilah's big burst where she drags you onto her a lot more fun than Samira's DMC ult. It's always just been really fun for me in a way Samira never was, she always felt more satisfying to me idk.
But gameplay aside, I really like her design and story, especially as a south east asian, her being in the game means a lot to me because it was really nice to see a character that not only has my skin colour and heavier hair texture, but also happened to also just embody this bouncy and whimsical tone. I love how she is inspired by the grandiose, heroic stories of the culture she is based on, it feels awesome to me and it's something I always really wanted in league. A character that is a wanderer but instead of being angsty or having a curious/coming of age plot beat they instead are full of adventure whimsy.
I think a lot of disappoint around Nilah comes down to her just not being what people expected her to be. I really strongly disagree with the idea of Nilah having to be creepy because I don't think that matches what she is meant to represent, Nilah is closer to a whimsical hero of myth. I adore the idea of Nilah sounding like she is a fictional character IN UNIVERSE. In a more western sense she is meant to embody tales of heroes like those in Greek myths.s.
She is blessed by various gods on her way around the seas of runeterra (Morgana, Jannna) while fighting for her legacy through her fights with giants than no man should ever have to face (Volibear, aka fighting incarnate)
Much like Ancient Greeks, Nilah's story puts a strong emphasis on leaving behind a legendary legacy for when you inevitable meet your end, which I think does an excellent job to introduce the darker part of her character.
I do wish Ashlesh was featured more prominently but I'm not too against the idea of bro being more subtle in his assistance of Nilah because I think it adds to the character. I believe the concept of her almost being forced into dehumanizing and in a way flanderizing herself to be such a good bit of existential horror that is only really squandered by her not being in more stories. Ideas like Nilah not being able to process grief or be able to empathize to ones sadness paired with how she has not background to really refer to thanks to her practically erasing her existence from Runeterra prior to her rebirth as Nilah could make for such a wonderful sort of "dysphoric" feeling if they chose to ever put her in any proper interaction. Ashlesh just being an understated part of Nilah's tragedy in my opinion perfectly matches what Nilah is meant to be, she is a HERO who NEEDS to earn herself a legacy, who in exchange for being granted these abilities she has practically thrown away her humanity. Nilah being so normal does so much for me, she really matches the visuals of Odysseus fighting giant beasts on his way back to Ithaca and the like.
Sorry for the big ramble, but the comment nicky made somewhere in the middle of the video about how bro is interested on why people like this character got me really thinking. I get how she may not be everyone's cup of tea but I really like her so I thought I should share :3
Dear Nickolas y. boy
Go to the Doctor in 2025.
Best regarded
Nickys back
First time I saw Nilah was in Wild Rift, and everyone there played her jungle. Kinda sad you can't play her jungle in league
My interpretation of ashlash being the demon of joy is that he represents it in a euphoric way, a reaction in a situation where u don’t know how to act, u laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Nilah has some interactions where she wants to feel sad or other thing but she can’t, and i would like if demons were the emotions in a negative way.
I would love a moment with Nilah where she breaks, she crys out in dispair, or remembering her family, but the Ashlash pulls her back to being joyous. Like she is controlling the demon but she had to sacrifice everything she was to do so and now the demon does control her and she regrets her bond
fiddlesticks is the first of the ten primordial demons. Ashlesh is one of them. Evelynn wouldn't be fear, she would be under pain, and i'm sure tahm would be under another one: like desire. Fiddlesticks has been alluding to 10 primordial demons for a long time now.
Nilah is such a interesting concept that i think should be fleshed out more than she is, specially the "always feeling joy" part, because honestly that's a uncanny characteristic for a character to have and it should be more explored
I love the concept of Nilah and her concept art and her music theme. Everything was awesome. Then you see the missed potential with her to continue with her story. Then you play her in game and go, well what the hell there's no joy in depending on an enchanter.
lol she function a lot better with engage supports not enchanters that passive baits people just play with engage support in solo Q
5 more weeks until we finally see my main Ramhaurg / Ornn.
Cant wait!
Hope everyone's year is going to be great. Thanks for the great video Nicky!
As if i was just like... WHERE IS THE CHAMP SPOTLIGHT!! AND HERE IT IS!! Happy Friday Nicky!!
Nilah is described once or twice as an ascetic, so her outfit being plain makes sense. Personally, I like her visual design purely from the use of yellow, but I can agree on a technical level, it could use some work to be more interesting. Though I'm not sure how you'd make it more interesting without compromising on her being an ascetic.
On a gameplay level, she's fine. She gets infinitely more fun when you read hypercarry status in the late game. Also, despite her passive suggesting she does well with Enchanters, she actually does better with engage Supports because of innate playstyle synergy. The bonus heal/shield is kinda of a trap, or consolation, rather than a good bonus.
The reason Nilah is my highest mastery champ is because I just think she's super rad. Her story is cool, her powers are cool, her voice acting makes me feel cool, her visual design is cool enough. Though I haven't played Samira, I suspect I might still prefer playing Nilah because Samira feels like a less cunty version of Bayonetta and I've aleady seen and enjoyed Bayonetta. Samira is a tad derivative in that sense, where Nilah is her Own Thing. In short, Nilah is niche and novel and that makes me happy.
Also, dear god would I love her to be viable in top or jungle. I know most Nilah mains enjoy her for filling the niche of a true melee ADC, but I'm her for the character, not so much the role.
I just watched Bel’Veths casual champion review. It’s funny realizing that two characters got released in the same month and still both were overlooked because of the summer star guardians event
I really like Nilah's character design, but I also find it kind of frustrating; because it doesn't do anything to communicate the sort of terrifying nature of the pact between her and Ashlesh. I think the tragedy of her character would work a lot better if the sacrifice she made to Ashlesh in exchange for his power was more apparent, because her inability to experience anything but joy sort of renders the horror of her sacrificing her history and identity to him kind of moot, because she doesn't care about it at all.
Considering Ashlesh is only ever represented through his hands, I think a great way to take her design would have been to keep her basically as she is, only she sacrificed her arms to Ashlesh instead. Then, in place of her whip-blade, she uses his many phantasmal water arms as her weapons, zipping around the battlefield as a fluid, barefisted brawler. I think doing something like that would make it clearer that she is actually using the power of the Demon of Joy as her own, and she had to make a great sacrifice to herself to earn it. It makes the tragedy of her eternal joy more poignant then, as though she has literally sacrificed two of her limbs to a primal demon, the curse of that demon makes her unable to even realise the horror of it.
I wish they made Nilah's demon more about the fear of being happy and have Nilah be someone who is kind of anxious or has had experiences where whenever she was happy smth bad happened
I forgot another Casual Champion Review for a character I liked I'm in so much pain
please check her wild rift passive, shes an undying monster in the late game lol shes so much better there and more valuable as a jungler because of it
Nilah is handled so perfectly in her mini story with graves, her creepy uncanny smile and pained forced joy is very cool. It's kinda infuriating that it's barely translated in game
Nilah is an Inside Out resident but only Joy is left in her head. Oh the existence...
Ngl, i like that the demonology is more complex than we thought. I don´t like when eldritch, complex entities that should be difficult to track down can be neatly categorized into a little neat family tree. Demons and obscurities like them should be unknowledgable to some level, and Nilah brings this back to the lore :)
I'm quite fond of Nilah both for her design and her gameplay, but not actually playing as Nilah. Instead what I like to do is boot up League with a friend and play botlane "Supportekaiser" while they play Nilah. I hook people in and help push waves in the laning phase, and I still become a massive raidboss later in the game thanks to her passive
I actually feel like your assessment on samira vs nilah is exactly right. Also samira’s personality is just way more fun than nilah’s
I love Bligewater, and went though all those emotions when I saw the first champ in 5 years wasn’t even from there and shoehorned in. I don’t really vibe with her kit either, it’s power spikes feel alien to me and incredibly feast or famine with getting an early spike or you’re just a melee adc (not good).
That said, I’ve come around on her character itself. I find it very strange to have released another Viego hater after the flop of Ruination but they did it anyway. And like your monster hunter thing, LoR taking Nilah around and gathering a crew inspired me. I think she would play incredibly well teaming up in lore with Yorick! They somehow share a lot of similarities but Nilah’s how bouncing off of Yorick’s sullen depression could be a fun team up. Maybe throw in Janna like LoR did too, and maybe even Jax. Kinda wild direction but all the big solos fighting world ending threads could use some love together
It feels to me like the Demon of Joy is supposed to be a Demon of addiction but friendly family
like, think about it, it only experiences joy, as if in a constant state of extacy? dope
Tahm Kench already represents Addiction.
Although, given that Joy is a primal emotion (like bliss) it could be a scenario like Fiddlesticks and Nocturne.
It wouldn't be dope, a constant feeling of joy, what would that emotion even mean to you eventually? Imagine situations you physically wanted to be sad in but can't, imagine how unhinged you could eventually become
It would be so bad if one of the most powerful demons was conquered by just a girl, then what about fiddle? does that mean that ezreal can just go there without his gauntlet or anything and just conquer him? IF ASHLESH IS SO POWERFUL, THEN HOW COULD HE BE CONQUERED BY JUST "GIRL"?
having demons with positive emotions is VERY COOL and yes there's something creepy about a demon forcing someone to only feel a singlular happy emotion
Making him one of the First 10 was the main issue, only highlighted especially by the fact that Nilah has a voice line where she straight up says she knows Fiddles one weakness
Talking about gameplay, funnily enough, Nilah excels with engage supports.
Rakan, Taric, Rell and Nautilus excel with her because she benefits from their CC and her passive applies to them. This is something coming from the best Nilah players btw
Enchanters basically suck with her unless you just wanna scale with farm and her extra xp gains, so I have only picked an enchanter with Nilah once in my lifetime due to knowing it was an unwinnable lane (and because she is not picked much).
I do get where you are coming from by saying she is an echo fighter, but Nilah simply plays like any Skirmisher, but with a supportive passive and ultimate. Samira is all about those dash resets and flashy ultimate to get those pentas, and while Nilah can do so with her ultimate, it actually has a cooldown, so I feel like their playstyles are distinct enough for players to gravitate towards one instead of the other.
Joy can be a terrifying emotion as it can lead to hedonism.
For example, in a game called "Honkai Star Rail" there is an Aeon called Aha the Elation who is known to be the most spontaneous and unpredictable Aeon: one moment, they could give a worm cosmic-level intelligence on a whim, and another, they could blow up half a planet because they thought it'd be funny.
10 YEARS IN THE 7TH LAYER MADE YOU A-
People make a lot weird assumptions about what demons are and their relative power levels. It's better if it's vague.
2:22 you sound so betrayed by the kitty
That game concept sounds so much fun
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CHAMPIONS!
I love both nilah and Samira they are both unique and play similar yet different it's very fun, one thing I wish is that they didn't kill e Max but it's so fun to have to navigate a double range matchup and being rewarded massively with it
especially seeing as I started playing nilah first then played Samira, nilah has a special place in my heart because they have different strengths nilah is a amazing tank killer and a force of nature in the sense that she can heal thru all Samira plays more like an assassin than nilah and I don't think you focus enough on the supportive aspect of her nilah is very much team oriented since you actually heal and shield your allies quite a bit, but I especially love that I a "melee" ADC player am not stuck with playing Samira every time and I can play nilah for a different yet similar style and for different drafts and different strengths can't pick one pick the other it accommodates my play style in the lane I love the most which is not lane and for that I'm grateful
The thing about Kathkan to me is, like Ixtal and Qiyana pre-retcon population, is that Nilah and K'sante are just the only representatives of their regions, and thus those regions don't matter. Nazumah is at least on the Runeterran map, but the point of matter is how One character in the game ever refers to it; it's not real because nobody else cares about it. There's no content for it aside from the one character rambling about the location.
mom can we have samira at home
Then we have the funny speculation that Nilah killed Smolders Gradmother Viper.
So the main original Camavoran dragon.
Which I just thimk it would be hilarios for Smolder to just meet nilah and the first thing she says is that she is going to hunt him
taric is my go-to pick if my duo decides to play nilah and they mesh so perfectly well together
certainly feel like nilah would be popular if taric's playrate gets higher, this combo really is a hidden gem(pun intended
Also speaking of Nilah lanes, she plays surprisingly well against Mordekaiser toplane, contrary to LoR's interpretation
I was told that positive emotions keep us motivated, while negative emotions help us grow from our mistakes. It would be interesting if Nilah became stagnant despite her overwhelming power; charging into battle and repeating the same mistakes.
Her journey will be finding a necessary alley that is perspective enough to help her.
I like the idea of demon of joy. In 40K the four "demons" have their own themes like Khorne, god of hate, war, blood, but also honor. He gains Power from alla The anger and wars where Tzeentch is god of trickery, learning and knowledge, magic and change and he gains power from people learning and trying to change their life for better. I see Nilah's demon same way and to me it's cool.
i like nilah but shes really similar to samira!! i like nilah cuz i like being able to dash twice, the Q feels really satisfying cuz it buffs you (atk range) and the sound effect is nice, W is also just auto attack range and i just feel like she does way more than she rlly does (passive, W AA dodge, growing atk range with Q, etc.) which makes her fun/satisfying to play
DAMN THAT MONSTER HUNTER GAME IDEA IS SO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE
Nicky is quite the professional when it comes to talking about Monster Hunter but never actually making videos playing it
Nilah is that one guy who is trying to do 100%Run
Swain HAS NOT conquered Raum. Yone hints at it in-game and Swain straight up confirms it in the Kat comics.
I think my main issue with Nilah is in her weapon of choice. She was teased as someone with a lot of hands, and having many hands was hinted at being a core part of her character. And yet, all we got was some generic girl with a water whip? wooooh... I feel like there's so many more exciting concepts they could have run with around the theme of a person with a demonic pact, who can only feel joy, and can spawn in a bunch of hands out of nowhere.
GOD i had a rollercoaster process with nilah. I used to love her at launch, but months passed and her lore aditions with lor and smolder made me absolutely DESPISE her.
Some people says Aurora felt too much like a shoe-horned oc, but i swear to you Nilah feels just the same, if not worse. Cause she is bounded to a demon so powerful that apparently knows fiddlesticks's weaknesses, managed to slaughter almost every dragon in camavor (apparently leaving smolder as one of the only few dragons who's left alive in runeterra), tried to defy Volibear and something as minor as well you know TRYING TO GET MORDEKAISER INTO THE WORLD AGAIN BY SNEAKING INTO A CULTIST REUNION, JUST SO SHE COULD MURDER HIM. Yea girl, good luck with that. I know this is probably all of Ashlash's doing, demon wants chaos unleashed into the world n all, and also that's the whole jest of her character, to become a legend, but idk... it ends up rubbing me in the wrong way. She tries to make "heroic actions" but it's gonna create more problems in the long run.
To me Nilah really feels like an artist very first oc, one that is so powerful, so strong and so capable that nothing can beat them.
when nilah's teaser dropped i though she was going to be a monster champion, similar to blight from dbd due to it's description, and when her design was leaked, i was wishing that it was fake
I was so excited for her release - demon of joy? Champ to pick when Samira gets banned? Yes please! - but she just falls so flat in so many ways for me. Her lore is underexplored and taken in a weird, reasonably excited adventurer angle instead of a near deranged danger chaser, the character design is cool but strangely drab, her gameplay could be interesting but is hampered by too many restrictions (the XP share and no auto attack W are INFURIATING), and the animation of the whip is just…janky. Oh well…
Raum has concept art, we know vaguely what he looks like
I feel like the hands theme would have been easy to fit in with her kit. make her whip into one of the arms of ashlash. For the Q the hand closes in a fist and slams on the ground, for the E it grabs nilah and pulls her forward. For the ult a bunch of hands sprout from her and grab everyone around and drags them towards her.
Maybe it was a clarity problem.
Ah yes , my favourite JUNGLER in wild rift
6:01 ashkash literally monopolising joy since no one getting their hands on it... is practically how it's going.
like yeah sure fear is strong and easy to use, but good like learning how to use joy as a source.
HE GOT IT PATENTED
i wish nilah had a different passive because i think she would be SUCH a fun jungler and i think itd make more sense lore wise, taking down monsters and traveling around to take down powerful foes
It's already been said but Nilah doesn't really mess up the demon lore, Fiddlesticks was the only demon of fear, the concept of fear itself, all the other demons we know are demons of other more specific emotions, it's not like Evelynn is the demon of the fear of Agony, just the demon of Agony.
The higher up you go on the demon hierarchy the more ancient and primal the concepts they embody become, the 10 great kings were always 10 primal concepts/emotions, Fiddlesticks just happened to be Fear.
ALSO FUN FACT; back in the day JaredRosen (the guy who wrote the Fiddlesticks VGU and all the demon lore) teased a lot of stuff on his twitter, from what I remember he even said that out of the 10 great kings, three have been outright named in the lore, counting Fiddlesticks, and that was before Nilah released but the fanbase should've been able to dig up and deduce the identities of 2 other great kings from the lore available at that time, and neither Kindred nor Bard were demons or members of the 10. Now I think all of it was deleted and Riot might change the canon that Jared had in mind since, well, he doesn't work at Riot anymore, but yeah the clues were there on his old twitter but every major content creator ignored it, I still have a couple of screenshots as proof from when I dug DEEP for some demon lore lol.
as much as i want to agree nicky, i kinda like nilah bc her ult is different enough from samira (in the sense that it's orianna ult) and i enjoy playing with enchanter supports. as an adc main, i enjoy playing w both types of supports and it typically just depends who i'm playing with so it can make the choice for me if i don't feel like playing jinx or cait who are dominating the meta rn (and i'm bisexual so making choices are impossible). her design has definitely left more to be desired and the chakra waver fit def coulda just been nilah's fit too... but until i see steps in the right direction with her i'm content just playing her as she is (her lore and design is where i'd want changes, her gameplay is fine).
First new video as a new subscriber!
I like Nilah's gameplay. I know shes similar to Samira but I think there is a difference between ADC champs that like to dash forward and actual melee carries like NIlah/Yasuo/Yi. I know Samira came out first but she feels like evil Nilah to me. Nilah gives her W to allies & shares healing & bonus xp with them. Samira (and ADC as a whole) is usually way more selfish.
Gameplay wise, Her extended auto range on Q and the sound of the water whip is really satisfying. She has in-built synergy with enchanters but shes fine with engage supports too. I do wish she got more attention because I think her concept is really cool but the in-game model doesn't really do her justice. She has these cool knee pads, her hairstyle is really unique & the waterblade looks awesome in her splash. She also has accents on her shirt/dress & a cool necklace but all of it looks so plain when you actually get in game.
I enjoy playing Nilah because of her potential, her Q allows her to be the scariest late game carry out of all adc imo ( 33% armor pen, 20% life steal , 140% attack speed and overheal). The early game will be rough, but given time you will become the most busted champion.
Poor Nilah
I do think that a lot about Nilah’s design is harder to appreciate in-game, which is a shame. I like that it’s a bit simpler because it fits with her being a monk.
It’s funny, brcause in wild rift they completely changed her passive, making her playable in any lane basically: After an attack Critically Strikes, Nilah heals herself for 20% of the damage deals Excess healing is converted into an equivalent amount of shield that lasts 6 second(S).
Critical Strikes on monsters do not heal Nilah.
So, I have a lot of things to say as someone who LOVES playing Nilah and her overall design and lore. When it comes to her design I think it's absolutely perfect perfect for her, she's dressed like a Kalaripayattu warrior with a few embellishments the nose ring chain attached to her earring is one of my fav touches. Her sword(Yes it's a sword not a whip) is a freaking Urumi. As for her relationship with Ashlesh it's def more of a symbiotic relationship I feel where he HEIGHTENS her sense of joy, thus making Nilah become a god damn adrenaline junky, which plays into her haphazard GO IN style of play. Which now I have to go into her gameplay and how she isn't anything like Samira in context. Nilah for all intents and purposes is a Melee ADC, most of her kit and passive is built around the fact that she can be bullied by zoning lanes very easily. It's why she gets bonus EXP to compensate for her getting bullied out of CS, it's why she synergizes with enchanters so well, it's why she gets base healing off her Q and R. Her entire kit is built around compensating for this but also playing into the fantasy that she's an adrenaline junky who needs to GO IN.
Wait so judging by the follower concept art her weapon is not part of ashlash? The demon is just the orb?
Isn't it still the case that Nilah and Urgot have the same auto attack range but Nilah is melee and Urgot is ranged?
I can't stand this bad nilah pr because I love her. I love her design, her voice. I love everything about her. I don't wish I was playing Samira instead of her because Nilah scales way better than that old shuriman hag.
I mean... Tahm Kench is officially "Addiction", based on Fiddlestick's voice lines. Addiction isn't really connected to fear, neither is Agony in on itself, at least not in my eyes. So I personally wasn't really confused by Ashlesh's existence, and him being Joy. Hell, one might argue, Addiction and Agony may be more connected to Joy, by the virtue of always chasing a high (either the hollow happiness of an addiction or a twisted pleasure that turns into agony).
But then again, all this is probably the realm of philosophies at this point, and different people come to different conclusions.
I really like playing Nilah. The only real downside is being reliant on a support that won't leave your side like she really wants, and most random people would rather leave you alone than pocket you the whole time. I play enough of every adc to feel comfortable saying that Nilah and Samira while similar in design, are way different in execution. Samira plays closer to how Katarina plays, picking off low enemies, whereas Nilah loves playing front to back and chasing the smaller guys because she is absolutely terrifying to have chase after you. Her damage is monstrous and no one knows how to play against her so you inherently have an advantage over most.
I love her.. in wild rift, where she has an assasin kit
Not really same kit different passive she’s allowed to play other roles there which is great for cause she can just free scale and 1v9 late game they are not many’s champs that scale as well as nilah late game 😂
on the topic of the "champ release on big summer event" thing, i dont think it affects the champion that much..? i just think they released strange champions for it that were never destined to make a splash anyway so if anything it probably HELPED their popularity being released during a big event. akshan, nilah, naafiri, and aurora (like you've listed) are all extremely niche champs who fill very hyper specific roles. also aurora had PLENTY of buildup before the grand event of Swarm (the autism thing making headlines, multiple leaks and the thing with her splash art, the IN CLIENT THING WITH ORNN) so it wasn't due to that at all imo. i think the only reason why someone like smolder has continued on in relevancy as long as he has compared to the others is because of the immense gameplay imbalance that the rest of them never had to deal with because they have been (mostly) pretty balanced and reasonable within their kits, with probably akshan being the only outlier if any, since smolder has been talked about nowhere besides gameplay as far as i've seen, i'm pretty sure people have already completely forgotten his relevance to Camavor.
"Foolishness, Samira. Foolishness."
Nilah in wildrift is played in the jungle while shes supposed to be an adc in bot lane but shes so bad in it because of some skill changes.
Mum I want samira!
We already have Samira at home:
In recent times I get only 🔲🔲🔲🔲 as my supports so playing every adc is just torture but I really liked playing Nilah on release. She's always so loud and provoking, has certain things in her kit that make playing her enjoyable (for example poking q and splash damage, also shield on ult) and also I don't have Samira :)
The no bot lane streak is over
Nilah is one ofthe champions which I love as a character but hate the gameplay (both in the league and in lor). Of course, one of the big reasons I like her is her VA in PTBR, Mariana Torres, who besides being one of my favorites, did a great job with her.
I really like how exactly Nilah is different from Samira, but after latest nerfs she is just isn't enJOYable to play at all.