Ed. note: League of Legends champions evolve over time, and so this post will too. This is a living post that will be updated, added to and changed with Urgot’s state in the game.

Urgot is a nasty boy, but you already knew that didn’t you? We all do. Anyone who has played League of Legends for more than five minutes has seen Urgot in the store in the collection or (rarely) in-game and audibly “ew’d.” He is funky looking and creepy and with his new rework, he has gotten some enhanced gross piled on. With that mask, he looks like the worst thing that could have happened to Luke Skywalker in the Bacta Tank.

Grossness aside, we as a League of Legends community have been waiting for an Urgot rework for what seems like forever. Even if it was never teased and talked about the way Yorick was, everyone has always assumed that it was coming. Well, now it is here, and as you would expect, Urgot can do some messed up stuff to you and your friends.

Update, 8/11:

Urgot is a weird mix of a few things in his current environment. He can have a fairly dominant laning phase depending on his opponent but he is very susceptible to ganks. What makes Urgot dangerous (as well as a killer solo queue pick) is his ultimate. The key to making it work is hitting the target a moment before they get the execute circle. The drill itself lowers health and slows, meaning it is great for catching up to people. But if you tag them before they hit the threshold and then deal a tiny bit of damage, you will surprise them with the execute.

The build

Start:

Doran’s Shield/Blade

Boots:

Ninja Tabi

Build:

Black Cleaver

Frozen Mallet

Sterak’s Gage

Randuin’s Omen/Sunfire Cape (split-push)

Spirit Visage OR Adaptive Helm

Ability maxing:

1. Fear Beyond Death (R)
2. Purge (W)
3. Corrosive Charge (Q)
4. Disdain (E)

Runes and masteries

For our runes, we are going to be taking some traditional AD Marks and Quints as well as defensive Glyphs and Seals.

Champion.gg

For masteries, we want to take Fervor as the keystone mastery and buff our AD along the way. Rather than taking any resolve talents, we want to put a few into Cunning, including grabbing some biscuits.

The kit

Passive - Echoing Flames

Riot’s tooltip:

Surrender@20

What does it do:

Urgot fires a shotgun out of each of his six knees whenever he attacks an enemy in that direction. This deals damage to all enemies in an area, including a small percentage of the unit’s max health. Each leg has an individual cooldown.

Urgot’s passive is perhaps his most involved ability and certainly his most noticeable. He is a creepy crab and he walks on six legs, as all creepy crabs should. What is interesting about this ability is the way that it causes Urgot to move. His legs do not turn when he does, instead staying in place as his pale body swivels.

The goal with this ability should be to line up your legs as often as possible. You will be able to surprise enemies with the damage that they put out. Rotate around and position yourself in such a way that allows you to easily swivel into more damage as the fight goes on. This becomes far easier when we factor Purge into things.

Q - Corrosive Charge

Riot’s tooltip:

Surrender@20

What does it do:

Urgot shoots a little poison bomb at a targeted area. After a few seconds, it explodes, locking onto any champions hit.

This ability is ... not very interesting compared to the rest of Urgot. Basically, it is a little extra area damage that can be used to farm or poke. The only real utility that it offers is when you combine it with, you guessed it, Purge. When targets are locked on it means that Purge will prioritize them over other enemies, which can be helpful in large groups.

If you need to switch targets during Purge, hit them with a Corrosive Charge and it will automatically switch.

W - Purge

Riot’s tooltip:

Surrender@20

What does it do:

Urgot becomes a walking turret, firing at an enemy nearest to him (or a locked on target) very quickly. Urgot also gains a shield during this time. While he does move slower during this turret form, he can easily maneuver himself over minions and monster, allowing for easy use of his passive, Echoing Flames.

Finally, Urgot’s most involved and best ability. Purge has such excellent synergy with Echoing Flames. It is also what makes his jungle clear even half-way decent, but we will save that for another guide entirely.

When Urgot focuses on an enemy, he deals quite a bit of damage in a very low amount of time. This is your “commit to fight” button. You can use Urgot’s hilariously short ranged autos or his Q to poke, but when it comes time to skirmish, you gotta Purge. Not only will Urgot deal a large amount of guaranteed damage to his target, he will also be in prime form to blast them with his shotgun-knees.

When Purge is active, you have to do you best to circle your opponent, fight on your terms and on your ground. Force the fight movement in such a way that you can get off all six of your knees in one Purge. Keep in mind here that this ability is not actually channeling, meaning that you can use Corrosive Charge, Disdain and Fear Beyond Death while it is active.

E - Disdain

Riot’s tooltip:

Surrender@20

What does it do:

Urgot charges forward, picks up his foe and slams them down behind him. This stuns the target for a short time. Other enemies hit are damaged and knocked aside.

This ability is powerful, just like all the other flippy abilities in League. However, this one has a very, very short range, so you have to prepare yourself and try and surprise the enemy with it.

There honestly isn’t much to be said for Disdain, other than it having a cool a name. Urgot is all about positioning for his passive and Disdain is a great tool for that. If you need to shoot off your back legs, simply grab an enemy and but them in front of your fully-loaded knees. They probably won’t be too happy about it.

R - Fear Beyond Death

Riot’s tooltip:

Surrender@20

What does it do:

Urgot fires a long-range drill that impales the first champion hit. Champions hit by the drill are slowed depending on how much health they are missing. If the impaled target has fewer than 25 percent health or falls below that threshold while Urgot is holding onto them, the ability can be recast. When Fear Beyond Death is recast, Urgot drags the drill back into him, making the victim untargetable. Once the target reaches Urgot, they explode into a gory mess, executing them instantly. Enemies near Urgot become terrified if he executes an enemy.

This is easily one of the coolest abilities in all of League of Legends now. It is so scary that we even gave it its own post. But from a gameplay perspective? It’s also scary. This thing has long range, and is able to take out players even after they have safely flashed away from you. Yes, you can confidently implant this ability in an enemy when they are at 40 percent health, but realistically this is a ranged execute more than it is anything else.

Targets who can be devoured are marked with a red circle around them, so if your aim is true, you can bring someone to an early grave at nearly any point. The ability to execute with such a wide threshold (for example, 25 percent of 4000 is 1000: that is still a lot of health) forces the team to be cautious. You can’t just skirmish and then limp away if the enemy team has an Urgot — he will just eat you and re-engage now that his team has a number’s advantage.

This ability has nearly limitless potential on its own, and that is very exciting. However, consider pairing Urgot up with a poke comp? Now the wheels begin to turn.

Conclusion

For the past several years, starting with Poppy and Sion, the rework team has really been doing outstanding work. The Urgot rework is no exception. In fact, it may be my favorite rework to date (OK, not really because Warwick is very good, but pretty close). Everything about this Urgot feels correct. His nasty aesthetic, his terrifying ultimate and even his mostly “meh” Q make him feel like this was always how he was supposed to be.

When Urgot hits live servers, it will be fascinating to see how players deal with him. He has some really unique and interesting mechanics that are very similar to Aurelion Sol, another champion whose solo queue/professional journey was interesting to watch. Ultimately, Urgot allows players to truly have a ranged juggernaut that doesn’t look completely infuriating to play against, and that is an exciting prospect.

Urgot has come together here in a way that I never really expected. He strikes that perfect balance between completely new and oddly familiar that all great reworks should strive to hit. More importantly, he maintains his look, and is still just very disconcerting to look at. It sounds like a joke, but between Warwick, Urgot and Ekko, Zaun feels like a living place with its own personality. Weird, bio-mechanical attachments and monstrosities that ease every day life or bring nothing but pain. Even with Ekko, where the techno-nonsense is more hopeful, you can still see the Zaunite shine through in his wardrobe.

Capturing the personality of a beloved character, even one that never really worked like Urgot, is so key to creating a successful update. What is truly impressive with this rework, is that Riot managed to bring Urgot into the light as a weird looking champion while simultaneously turning him into a fascinating character to watch and play.

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Last updated on 8/11/17

Added runes and masteries as well as leveling orders for Urgot’s skills. I also added Sterak’s Gage to the suggested item lists and removed Dead Man’s Plate as it interacts poorly with Urgot’s ranged auto attacks. Much of this information was influence by Champion.gg. A Live thoughts section has also been added to this guide to give additional tips based on live environment play.