League of Legends’ newest champion looks to take over Runeterra as well as Summoner’s Rift. Find out about her in our Bel Veth Guide.
A week ago, Riot Games has released their 160th Champion called Bel’Veth, Empress of the Void. The new character was a highly anticipated one, as she was teased a lot, brings a lot of lore to the world of Runeterra, and looks to shake things up in the casual and competitive meta alike. She’s also a monster Champion, for which the community has asked the developers relentlessly. But how can we succeed in piloting the Lavender Death?
Bel’Veth Guide, A look at her abilities
Her passive, called Death in Lavender, lets her exceed the attack speed cap, but she doesn’t gain AS per level, and her on-hit damage, be it from items or other sources, only deals 75% damage. She also gains 2 stacks of Death in Lavender after using an ability. This lets her move through units and attack faster, but each attack consumes a stack. She can also collect counters of Lavender from Large and Epic Monsters and Champions, the former giving one and the latter two giving two. Each counter of Lavender gives her more Attack Speed.
Passive – Death in Lavender
Whenever Bel’veth takes down a champion she gains permanent bonus Attack speed in the form of Lavender stacks. Bel’Veth attacks faster, however, her attacks and on-hit effects deal reduced damage and she does not gain attack speed on level up. pic.twitter.com/2aZxhllcup
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) May 24, 2022
Her Q ability is called Void Surge, which lets Bel’Veth dash in one of four directions. Each direction has a separate cooldown, and dashes cause damage, apply on-hit effects, and can critically strike, but cannot go through terrain. Void Surge also resets Bel’Veth’s basic attack timer.
Q – Void Surge
Bel’Veth dashes in one of four directions, dealing damage to all enemies she passes through and applying on-hit effects. Each direction has its own unique cooldown that scales with attack speed. pic.twitter.com/uslPCXVTe7
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) May 24, 2022
Her W, called Above and Below, is pretty simple: she slams her tail in a direction, dealing damage to and knocking up enemies hit, also slowing them. Above and Below also resets Void Surge’s cooldown in the direction of the cast.
W – Above and Below
Bel’Veth slams her tail down, dealing damage, knocking up, and slowing enemies hit. Upon hitting an enemy champion, this ability reduces Q – Void Surge’s dash cooldown in the direction of the champion hit. pic.twitter.com/9JYVAZdKLT
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) May 24, 2022
Her E, Royal Maelstrom is fairly unique. The Empress of the Void roots herself in place, gaining lifesteal and a 70% damage reduction. She then damages the lowest health enemy around her, dealing damage and applying on-hit effects, but these attacks cannot be crit. This ability deals increased damage to jungle monsters. Bel’Veth can recast the ability to end it early, and using another spell will also end the channel.
E – Royal Maelstrom
Bel’Veth channels slashes around her, gaining damage reduction and increased life steal. Each slash strikes the lowest health enemy within her Maelstrom, dealing more damage the more health they are missing. The amount of slashes scales with her attack speed. pic.twitter.com/lPL7MX6nJw
— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) May 24, 2022
Her Ultimate, Endless Banquet acts as a giant steroid to herself, while also giving her a useful passive. After acquiring her R, her basic attacks mark enemies. Marked enemies take bonus true damage on every second auto, which stacks infinitely – except on monsters, where the cap is 5 stacks of Endless Banquet. Only one target can be marked at a given time. When Bel’Veth gets a takedown on a Champion or Epic Monster, they leave behind a Void Coral, which Bel’Veth can consume to unleash her true form on the Rift for 60 seconds, also dealing damage to enemies around her.
During her True Form, she gains bonus health, out-of-combat movement speed, and increased attack speed, and can also dash through walls with Void Surge. If she consumes a Coral during Ult, the cooldown is refreshed and she heals for a small amount. Additionally, minions dying around Bel’Veth spawn Void Remora, which are stronger versions of the minions, and help push her lanes very fast.
R – Endless Banquet
Passive:
Every second attack against the same target deals additional True Damage, stacking infinitely. Takedowns against Epic Monsters and Champions leave behind a piece of Void Coral. Epic Monsters from the Void drop special, voidier Void Coral. pic.twitter.com/sbuPSTmnXI— League of Legends (@LeagueOfLegends) May 24, 2022
Looking at her abilities, there are a few unique aspects that we can build on. She was meant to be a jungler, because Death in Lavender works best if we roam around the Rift taking down jungle camps in the process, gaining a tremendous amount of attack speed. While Riot has thought about not letting her fall too behind if she can’t stack her Passive, as they gave her an above-average basic attack speed, she can still feel weak if she can’t keep up. However, that doesn’t stop her from laning just yet, as she has good damage and scaling outside her passive as well, so before the first bigger nerfs, toplane can also be her empire.
For the jungle, her most played build focuses on on-hit effects, leaning into the fact that her Q and E apply them. Her passive and R give her extra attack speed, which is essential to items like Blade of the Ruined King and Kraken Slayer. These two items happen to be her core, paired up with Berserker’s Greaves for boots in the first three slots. After that, as with most of the characters in the game, it comes down to preference and what the specific match dictates.
Some players are opting for Death’s Dance, some are going for Guinsoo’s Rageblade as a third Legendary Item. However, it seems that Guinsoo’s works the best, as it has an above 60% winrate according to op.gg. It also makes sense, as you’re not looking for crit damage, you just want the extra true damage from Kraken Slayer and Blade of the Ruined King. Guinsoo’s other passive, Seething Strike also works really well with Bel’Veth’s two-hit passive after we hit level 6.
There are defensive options as well, even as early as your Mythic. You can swap out Kraken Slayer for Immortal Shieldbow for some extra durability in teamfights and clutch situations. Also, you could build Wit’s End into a heavy AP composition, and Death’s Dance also counts as a defensive item because of Ignore Pain. For endgame items, you can just get the items above that you didn’t get, as most of them provide some offensive capabilities, or top everything off with Guardian’s Angel. But one thing doesn’t change: you always want to get Blade of the Ruined King, sometimes even as a first item.
There were some attempts to abuse the Empress’ great base damage and scaling and build Sunfire Aegis in the Mythic Slot before BotRK. While this build can be fun, the on-hit AS build seems to be the way to go – and it feels much stronger as well.
For the toplane, the idea is the same, but Blade is even more prevalent because it has so much synergy with Bel’Veth’s kit. Think of Jax in terms of what difference it makes. As it was seen on quite a few videos, Bel’Veth’s Void Remora can take over the Rift pretty fast, putting split-pushers like Sion and Yorick to shame. While there’s not much data on it, Blade of the Ruined King into Hullbreaker can smash up Turrets at incredible speeds. Toplane Bel’Veth doesn’t feel as seamless as in the jungle, but it is definitely playable – and very fun!
Overall, the Empress of the Void turned out to be a great Champion, and teams will more than likely experiment with her in the upcoming LEC and LCS Summer Splits!
