Everything You Need to Know About Zaahen, the Unsundered's Abilities — Overview

The final champion of League of Legends' first tri-seasonal approach has officially arrived. Kicking off in 2025, Riot Games announced that the new approach the team would have to seasons would be three major seasons over the course of the year, with one champion releasing per season.

Before we move on, we'd like to share a spoiler warning. During this article, we'll be talking about the final League of Legends cinematic of 2025. It's hard to talk about Zaahen without mentioning the major reveal in the trailer, and it'd be a shame to spoil it for lore buffs looking forward to checking it out themselves.

This year, we saw a couple of epic characters arrive to Summoner's Rift and a few new mechanics. While Yunara was a traditional ADC with an updated kit (think Ashe), Zaahen is... old Aatrox with a sprinkle of Xin Zhao.

It seems Riot Games is walking back their champion reworks (at least a bit), giving Xin Zhao a visual update right before his canonical demise in the Runeterra universe. Zaahen lives on his legacy like a mixture of Xin Zhao's kit with a sprinkle of old Aatrox (which, as an original Aatrox main, I'm all in for).

What Role is Zaahen, the Unsundered?

Zaahen's abilities give him a pretty clear lane to play in: Top. Set as a great, extended-fight brawler, he'll want to be in long battles that give him the opportunity to take full advantage of his passive.

His high AD scaling could also possibly see him finding a home as a midlane assassin, though the lack of sustain from building lethality items will likely see this crushed quickly. He needs to be in a fight for a long time to really get a bonus out of his attacks, and assassins are notoriously terrible at that.

To learn more, here's all of the information you need about his abilities!

Cultivation of War

Passive

Zaahen's attacks against enemy champions grant him stacks of Determination, which gives him bonus Attack Damage per stack, equal to 1.5% to 3.3% of AD (based on level, scaling about 0.11% per level). He can accrue up to 12 stacks of Determination, and once filled, his bonus AD damage is doubled (to 36% and up to 79.2% based on his level).

Cultivation of War also reintroduces old Aatrox's passive into the mix. If he has full Determination stacks by the time he is killed, he will become untargetable, invulnerable, and unable to act for four seconds, recovering HP based on level (from 30% to 75% scaling with level). The resurrection part of passive has a 300-second cooldown that lowers every six levels (300 / 240 / 180 / 120 at 1 / 6 / 11 / 18, respectively).

The amount of HP recovered is based on maximum health, meaning that it is entirely unaffected by all sorts of health modifiers (Spirit Visage or Grievious Wounds, for instance). He will always restore the amount that he is supposed to for his level, and his passive gets priority from Guardian Angel, but not from Zilean's ultimate, Chronoshift.

Old League of Legends players will recognise this passive to be similar to Aatrox's, featuring a bit extra with Attack Damage stacks. His kit, which is very ability-heavy, sets Zaahen as a brawler who will want to keep fights extended... perhaps even past death!

It is a bit ironic to see that Aatrox's old passive is being brought back when Riot Games had said it was too broken. But at the same time, one of the main reasons for the Darkin Blade's rework was his lack of popularity, so it's possible that Zaahen won't have it taken from him.

The Darkin Glaive

Q

Zaahen's Q, The Darkin Glaive, is a two-part attack. Upon first activation, he will empower his next attack, increasing his range (25 bonus range), dealing extra damage (15 / 30 / 45 / 60 / 75 (+ 100% of AD) (+ 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% of bonus AD), and healing him (5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9% of his maximum health).

Each strike of his first Q activation triggers on-hit effects, an important note as his Determination stacks count as an on-hit effect. This also works as an auto-attack reset, meaning that with proper timing, one use of Q with an auto-attack reset should generate three stacks of Determination.

Once his first empowered attack has been used, Zaahen gets a second Q that he can use within five seconds. This increases his range (25 bonus range again), deals bonus physical damage (30 / 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 + (40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% of AD), and knocks up the target for 0.75 seconds.

The extra cast also works as an auto-attack reset, meaning that a proper use of his Q will net a total of five stacks: auto-attack, first Q with double on-hit trigger, auto-attack, second Q with one on-hit trigger. Weaving in attacks between his abilities will be an important part of building up Determination as quickly as possible.

The ability has a 9 / 8 / 7 / 6 / 5-second cooldown, making it a reliable attack you can use several times in one fight. However, it's worth noting that the cooldown only triggers after Q runs out. So holding on to Q for an extended period during both casts (totalling to delaying your attacks for about 10 seconds) does not reset the Q cooldown. Instead, it starts counting after the Q has either run out or both have been used.

This ability also sees the beginning of a trend: Zaahen's basic move kit plays like a similar, or sometimes reversed, version of Xin Zhao.

Dreaded Return

W

Zaahen's W is a straight-line skill shot where he'll extend his spear and hit enemies, pulling everyone he hits towards him. It's simple, though it doesn't work like a full pull like Blitzcrank's; instead, think more like Pyke.

It has a pretty long range, though the farther away the pull gets, the less he actually gets characters close to him. It'll be a great combo starter, a way to interrupt casts, or even bring back opponents who are fleeing from the player.

It has a small cast time (0.5 seconds) with a relatively long cooldown (16 / 15 / 14 / 13 / 12 per level on the ability). It does have a very minor stun, but it's unnoticeable, as the pull soaks up most of the stun timer.

Aureate Rush

E

Zaahen's Aureate Rush is a short-distance dash to the target location, dealing damage around himself similar to Darius' Q. The inner circle deals 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 (+ 50% of bonus AD), whereas the outer circle deals 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 / 180 (+ 100% of bonus AD) plus bonus magic damage equal to the target's maximum health (4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8%).

It's a simple ability, but it helps Zaahen stay close to enemies to keep his Determination up. It has a relatively long cooldown starting at 10 and reducing by .5 for every point in the ability (10 / 9.5 / 9 / 8.5 / 8).

Grim Deliverance

R

Zaahen's ultimate makes him immune to crowd control, giving him a 50% damage reduction and, after he finishes his cast time, leaps into the air to the target location. Once he casts of 0.6 seconds at his arrival location, he slams down, dealing damage in a wide area (250 / 400 / 550 (+ 200% of bonus AD) and healing for 33% of the post-mitigation damage that he dealt to enemy champions.

In the best-case scenario, Zaahen will want to take full advantage of his passive Determination stacks before using his ultimate. With a 200% bonus AD scaling and his passive doubling his AD, it'll give him a massive heal that can keep him in the fight longer, pre- or post-resurrection.

It's a long cast, seeing Zaahen immobile for a total of one second between both casts. It has a cooldown of 110 / 95 / 80, which means it's a semi-reliable cooldown, especially without accounting for ability haste.

This ability also has a passive that increases his armor penetration per level: 10% / 20% / 30%.

---

Zaahen will release in Patch 25.24 on the 19th of November 2025.