Champion Reveal: Jhin, the Virtuoso

Continue reading for more information, including a look at the gameplay and abilities of our next champion!

Table of Contents

• Champion Reveal
• Red Posts

Champion Reveal

From the official announcement - Champion Reveal: Jhin, the Virtuoso:

"Jhin’s assembling his gun and orchestrating his grand entrance onto the Rift. He’s meticulous and calculating - League’s slowest marksman yet. But when the murderous artist gets you in his sights, when he catches you off-guard, there’s not much that’ll save you from an inevitable, perfect death.

ABILITIES 

PASSIVE: WHISPER  

Jhin’s gun - Whisper - chambers four shots, the last of which always crits and applies extra damage based on a portion of his target’s missing health. After firing all four shots, Jhin takes a moment to reload. 

Jhin’s crits deal less damage than normal, and his attack speed doesn’t actually scale with attack speed. Instead, Jhin gains attack damage from any attack speed and crit chance he earns through itemization and runes, while crits give him a burst of movement based on his attack speed. 

Q: DANCING GRENADE  

Jhin throws a cannister at a nearby targeted enemy. After landing, the cannister bounces up to four times on other nearby enemies. Killing an enemy with Dancing Grenade causes the following bounces to deal extra damage.

W: DEADLY FLOURISH 

Passive: Enemy champions that have been struck by Jhin’s basic attacks, Captive Audience, or any allied damage are marked for a few seconds.

Active: Jhin fires a massively long range shot that damages all enemy minions and the first enemy champion in a target direction. If the enemy champion he strikes has already been marked, they’re briefly rooted, while Jhin himself gains a burst of movement speed.

E: CAPTIVE AUDIENCE 

Jhin places a trap on the ground that turns invisible after arming. Enemy champions that walk over the trap trigger it, revealing and marking them with Deadly Flourish and creating a large slowing zone. After a brief pause, the trap detonates, damaging all enemies inside its explosion.

R: CURTAIN CALL  

Jhin fully assembles his weapon before taking aim in a target direction, revealing all marked targets in a huge area. He can then fire four rounds that stop at the first enemy champion struck, slowing them and dealing damage based on their missing health. Jhin’s fourth and final shot with Curtain Call deals massively increased damage and is guaranteed to crit.

LANING 

Jhin’s a different kind of marksman. While most look to whittle their opponents down with a constant barrage of sapping attacks, Jhin’s fastidious to the extreme, and thrives when he handpicks his opportunities to strike. In lane, he’s best off saving his valuable bullets for last-hitting, keeping track of his ammo count and looking for moments when he can expend his fourth bullet - his deadliest - on his lane opponent. Jhin’s basic attack range is distinctly average at best, making him relatively easy to harass in lane. That’s where the Virtuoso can turn to Dancing Grenade, using the bouncing cannister to secure last hits from relative safety, and even apply effective harassment if his opponents stick too close to their minion waves.

Still, Jhin’s low attack speed will often see him pushed under tower, and having to fire off his shots to last hit instead of harass. Here’s the thing, though: when Jhin correctly plans for this, when he places a few of his Captive Audience traps as he falls back, he’ll be perfectly placed to call on his jungler and slowly close the noose around his hapless opponents’ necks. As the gank starts, Jhin and his allies work best initiating the attack and corralling their targets towards their pre-set traps. Once they trigger, Jhin can follow up immediately with Deadly Flourish, damaging his target and rooting them inside the trap’s slow zone as it ticks down toward zero. The explosion, which they’re now guaranteed to be caught inside, chunks them down further, setting the stage for Jhin’s fourth and final bullet. They’ll die, one way or another.

Traps being traps, they also make perfect defensive cover for Jhin when he decides to aim his iron sights at his enemies and get aggressive. While these opportunities are rare, a fortuitous crit against a weakened enemy doesn’t just give Jhin the chance to kill his target, but also the means to chase. Jhin excels here, following up on enemy marks with Deadly Flourish to root his target as he blows them away with basic attacks. Overextending generally attracts enemy junglers, of course, but if Jhin manages to pull the trigger on his fourth and final shot, the guaranteed crit (and therefore guaranteed speed boost) should help him speed away as his would-be killer slogs through the Virtuoso’s traps. 

"A fortuitous crit against a weakened enemy doesn’t just give Jhin the chance to kill his target, but also the means to chase."

SKIRMISHING 

Once he’s set up, Jhin’s great at objective control, thanks in part to his traps. By placing Captive Audience traps on the enemy team's easiest path to dragon, Jhin earns his team advance notice of any impending arrivals, and can temporarily root marked enemy junglers with Deadly Flourish. Even if they continue their advance, Jhin can throw in a Dancing Grenade to apply damage to grouped enemies before carefully picking off his targets with basic attacks. He’s poor at securing objectives himself - his slow attack speed alone sees to that - but he gives his team a huge boost toward securing objectives when he plans out and prepares for the fight in the areas around them.

Then there’s Jhin’s ultimate. Curtain Call gives Jhin and his team huge leverage over objectives when the Virtuoso is able to set up and prepare his sniper nest. The ability has huge range, but only within a set angle, giving Jhin a few key considerations to think about as he searches for his grassy knoll. Set up too close and he’ll make an easy target for enemy assassins; too far and he’ll render himself irrelevant after he’s spent his ult; set uppoorly and he’ll risk losing sight of the battle as it shifts around. Get his position just right and Jhin will wreak havoc from afar before moving in to finish the fight up close. 

"Jhin gives his team a huge boost toward securing objectives when he plans out and prepares for the fight in the areas around them."

TEAMFIGHTS 

Jhin has two viable strategies in teamfights: either appear at the start of the battle, or at the end. If he chooses to stick with his team, he takes up a traditional backline position, setting up traps to protect his fellow squishes while aiming Deadly Flourish at marked targets. Dancing Grenade only adds to the carnage, and when the enemy team starts to flee, Jhin’s perfectly positioned to fully assemble Whisper and cut the remaining enemies down with Curtain Call.

Alternatively, Jhin can choose to set the stage early by firing off his ult first. This makes him an unusual character in a teamfight because he’s won’t actually be seen, at least initially. And while enemy teams might first revel in the apparently lopsided fight, they’ll quickly realize that the Virtuoso’s absence is deliberate. Jhin’s presence may not be felt, but his bullets absolutely will. Curtain Call deals less damage to high health enemies, but the ability’s slow will hinder enemy frontliners from getting to where they want to be, and stop vulnerable enemies from squirming away from Jhin’s damage dealing allies. More importantly, Curtain Call will start to pin Jhin’s enemies down, forcing them to hide behind their tankier allies or run for cover. And even when his ult’s spent, Jhin can contribute to fights, locking down marked targets with Deadly Flourish so his allies can clean up the fight and push on toward victory. 

SYNERGY 

WORKS WELL WITH: 

Darius - the Hand of Noxus
Darius and Jhin make for an unusual combination. While most marksmen deal more damage than juggernauts, Darius is such an oppressive force that Jhin can actually complement his strengths by simply pinning targets down with Deadly Flourish and Curtain Call while Darius does… well, what Darius does. Which is dunk. 

Nautilus - the Titan of the Depths
One of League’s crowd control supertanks, Nautilus has enough snares, knock-ups, pulls and slows to stop multiple enemies from reaching Jhin. This helps keep the Virtuoso alive, obviously, but more importantly, encourages him to get closer than he’d otherwise be comfortable and do some serious damage with his basic attacks. 

Morgana - the Fallen Angel
Morgana’s super strong alongside Jhin because she has plenty of reliable ways to mark his enemies. The dream is Dark Binding into Deadly Flourish, obviously, which wrecks most enemies, but even if Morgana tags her enemy with Tormented Soil, Jhin will still have opportunities to fire off his W and snare his enemy for a few moments, which in turn sets up a perfect Dark Binding opportunity. 

STRUGGLES AGAINST: 

Yasuo - the Unforgiven
Concentrating Jhin’s power into four deadly bullets means that champions that can negate one or two of said bullets will effectively halve the Virtuoso’s short term damage output. Enter Yasuo, who will happily Wind Wall Jhin’s basic attacks away before cutting him down under a flurry of steel. 

Jarvan IV - the Exemplar of Demacia
Four bullets are enough to take down plenty of targets, but not J4, who’ll happily flag n drag his way over to Jhin before laying into him inside Cataclysm. All while shouting “DEMACIA” really loudly, of course. 

Lucian - the Purifier
Lucian makes for a pretty hefty thorn in Jhin’s side. Not only is he mobile enough to dodge most of Jhin’s abilities with Relentless Pursuit, he also packs plenty of burst. So, while Jhin’s forced to rely on his basic attacks to deal reliable but slow damage, Lucian can tag the Virtuoso with Ardent Blaze before rushing in to apply the hurt with Piercing Light. This is not Jhin’s favorite gun show.

We’ll be back soon with the story behind Jhin’s creation. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on League’s next champ below!

Red Posts

When asked about Jhin's W range, he noted:

"yeah. W has 2500 range. Longest range damaging basic ability in the game."

"2 thoughts: 

A) The reveal is missing something that got locked in too late for localization. 

"Beauty in Death - Killing blows spawn a blooming flower on the corpse that reveals and slows enemies nearby before detonating for damage." 

B) A virtuoso is a person highly skilled in music OR another artistic pursuit. Jhin's artistic pursuit is the art of killing. Part of this is about making the death beautiful. Part of this is about accuracy and planning. Everything has to come together for the perfect performance."

He continued, clarifying that is only on champions:

"No just champions. It would get waaaaaaay too noisy if it worked on minions."

He also clarified that passive is on his E ability.

"It's tied to his E, all about dah flowers"

When asked about "that thing" on Jhin's shoulder, Gypsylord commented:

"A hextech-magical mass accelerator that combine with his gun to form a shoulder-mounted mega cannon for the ultimate."

He continued:

"look realllll close at his ultimate. The shoulder is a mass accelerator that he attaches to his handcannon. Turns it into a shoulder-mounted mega cannon for the R!"

As for where he anticipates Jhin will head in-game, Gypsylord noted:

" I designed him to be a marksman in the duo lane, but I have a feeling he's going to be a pretty good mid laner.