League of Legends' new champion Hwei is a human mage designed to be played in the mid-lane, and he has 10 different spells that take more than one button press to cast. If you happen to be a Dota 2 fan that might sound a little familiar, as Invoker—a wizard dating all the way back to Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients—basically does the same thing.
During a presentation of Hwei and his abilities, some of the developers who have worked on the new champion said that they are aware of Invoker, but Hwei was never designed to be LoL's version of the character. Designer Myles Shalholm mentioned that an early version of Hwei would actually make you pick a colour of paint—which was tied into his lore as a mage painter—and a shape to cast a spell for that combo. That unique bit of backstory actually sounds even more similar to Invoker and how he mixes his elements, but Riot's final design has moved away from that idea. Instead Hwei's nine base skills are divided into three categories that are loosely related to what the spells do.
