Season 7 of League of Legends is underway and Riot has come out of the gate swinging in more ways than one. The first champion of the new season has finally been released and she’ll swing down right on top of you and slash you to ribbons. Camille is an elite operative of the city of Piltover. In the shadows of more boisterous enforcers like Caitlyn and Vi, Camille is who Piltover’s elite call on when an extreme measure of finesse and discretion is required to remove a threat. When the help of her hextech-augmented body, she hunts her targets with calm precision.
On the fields of Justice, Camille’s skills translate to that of an apex duelist. She specializes in extreme mobility and defense cutting damage, as well as countering damage coming her way with defensive shields built to absorb punishment from her specific foe. Camille can flip a situation in no time or escape danger as necessary. Unfortunately, her level of precision will require some dedication to master and even then, her abilities in a solo duel might not make her the asset you want her to be when the team fighting starts. We went quite a few rounds with and against Camille and here’s our breakdown of what she has to offer.
Abilities
Passive: Adaptive Defenses
Camille’s passive imbues her basic attacks with the ability to grant a shield against a champion’s primary form of damage. It covers magic and physical damage and essentially means if she attacks a mage like Veigar, she’ll gain a magic shield. Meanwhile, if she attacks a fighter like Xin Zhao, she’ll score a physical shield. The shield will cushion a scaling amount of damage in relation to Camille’s health and offers a pretty nice cushion against retaliation when she goes in for a fight or some extra padding as she’s trying to make her escape.
With a relatively short cooldown, Adaptive Defenses can and should be considered frequently as players strategize their attacks with her. While great for solo engagements, it’s important to bear in mind that it loses some effectiveness in team fights where there will almost never be just one form of damage headed Camille’s way. A strong consideration would be to look at where the most damage is on the enemy team and target a player of that type, providing defense against that damage to make the most out of Adaptive Defenses when the clash begins.
Q: Precision Protocol
With Precision Protocol, Camille hones in on her target, powering up her next basic attack to do bonus physical damage and offer a short movement speed burst. After landing an attack, Camille can immediately recast Precision Protocol for the next three seconds at no additional mana cost. However, if one second passes after the first Protocol strike, Camille will power up the second, doing even greater physical damage and some of it will be converted to True Damage, bypassing all enemy defenses and shields.
There’s no doubt about it, Precision Protocol is definitely Camille’s highest damage dealing ability. With it, she can shred well defended tanks or practically eviscerate softer champions with ease. Perhaps just as important is the attack animation reset Camille gets for each cast of Precision Protocol. With this particular attribute, you can land three quick successful hits on a tower in practically a second, making it prime material for objective destruction. With an extremely low cooldown time in between set-ups, much of your offensive strategy for Camille should be prepping for a Precision Protocol flurry.
W: Tactical Sweep
After a short flourishing leap, Camille sweeps her leg in a cone in front of her, dealing damage to all caught within. The cone is broken into two segments. Enemies caught in the inner segment will take regular physical damage. However, those caught in the outer ring not only take bonus damage, but are slowed immensely for a short time, and the damage is converted into health for Camille. Moreover, Camille does not stop moving during this cast, allowing her to position herself within the range of targets she wants as she winds up for the kick.
It will be a matter of discussion on whether this is perhaps Camille’s most important early move. There’s so much that can be done with it. It makes for a great tool to heal Camille after a skirmish and sustain her presence in lane. With it, she can farm health off of minions and champions alike to keep her health points up. Moreover, it’s also one of two tools that can make setting up a Precision Protocol attack a fairly simple process with the massive slow it provides. It’s great for keeping targets with no dash or flash to escape well within range of Camille and her teammates. However, it also has a little bit of a skill cap to it.
Players should be wary of enemies that might turn around and try to get in close to Camille to avoid the heavier end of the ability’s damage. It’s important to also be aware that once cast, the direction of the cone cannot be changed no matter what direction Camille moves in. Tactical Sweep is a challenging skill, but mastering it will provide a massive boon to your play as Camille.
E: Hook Shot/Wall Dive
Camille throws her grappling hooks in a straight line towards the directed area. If the hook hits any sort of terrain (walls, towers, and even some random rocks), Camille will rapidly pull herself to the struck terrain. Upon a second cast, Camille can then dive in another targeted direction. If there is nothing there, Camille will simply jump a short distance. However, if the second cast is directed towards an enemy champion, Camille will dive twice as far, strike the opponent for a small amount of damage, stun them for a brief period, and increase her basic attack speed for a short time. With the second cast, Camille can also jump any walls or blocking terrain the cast will cover.
These skills are probably what will separate the good or bad Camille players from the great ones. They require the most awareness of spacing and direction out of Camille’s entire kit, but if they are used proficiently, they can be easy game changers. See a gank coming into your lane? Bait the invading champion’s invading abilities, throw that hook to the terrain by your turret, and make a clean getaway. See a squishy Lux picking your team off from the distance? Wait for her to come close enough, then hook the terrain, dive into the enemy’s back ranks, and shred Lux before they know what’s hit them.
Hook Shot and Wall Dive are what make Camille a dynamic killing machine. For their mobility and stun alone, they will most likely be the centerpiece of any successful combos you set up with her. However, missing any opportunity with these skills can have dire consequences. They are Camille’s most important means of escape from a bad situation and the high cooldown time means if you find yourself in a tough spot without them, you’re probably going to be taking a sad, gray trip back to respawn. For these two skills alone, taking the time to practice what you can reach and from what directions all over the map, as well as when to use them to enter and escape engagements, is well worth the time and effort for how much it will probably pay off later on.
R: Hextech Ultimatum
When Camille activates her ultimate, she will dive through the air onto a targeted champion, encasing them in a pentagonal area from which they cannot escape by any means for the next few seconds. Any of the target’s allies are knocked away and Camille deals bonus magical damage to the target while encased in the prison. Though enemies are knocked away, they can enter the prison area immediately after and if Camille leaves the prison area, the boundary and its effects end and disperse.
Hextech Ultimatum makes for tricky decisions in enemy engagement. It can be used to lock an opponent with high mobility into a duel from which they cannot escape, making it a prime counter to hit and run characters like Talon and Twitch. If a brave player decides to dive you under your turret, it can also be used to lock them into the turret’s firing range for a lengthy amount of time. When the laning phase is over, it can also be great for locking down a wary champion until your team arrives to pummel them.
Where this ultimate suffers is from distraction via team engagements. You have to go deep into the enemy to use it and leaving negates the effects entirely. That means enemy teams can either focus you down if you stay or force you to waste the Hextech Ultimatum if you have to beat a hasty retreat. It’s very much made for one-on-one fighting and picking the right moment when you can either isolate a target or capture a fleeing one is going to be the difference between good and shoddy Camille ultimate use.
Tactics
In the laning phase, Camille should be all about hit and run tactics on the opponent. If they come in on her, setting up Precision Protocol not only allows her to reply, but landing her next attack will give her defense with Adaptive Defenses to allow her to win the trade. Once you have Tactical Sweep, be sure to not only try to position everything you can in the outer segment, but also get as many minions in with your attack on the opponent as possible. This will ensure a strong heal from the ability and boost your sustain.
A solid combo would be to Tactical Sweep, catch up and hit the opponent with the first Precision Protocol attack, then Hookshot and Wall Dive, stun them, and deliver the last Precision Protocol attack before disengaging. This will do a pretty great amount of damage to most champions due to Precision Protocol’s true damage. Just beware ganks if you don’t have your Hookshot prepared as it will be your primary means of escape outside of a flash.
In team fights, Camille should always be on the lookout for the prime target on which to drop Hextech Ultimatum. Sometimes this will be a tank fool heartily engaging, which Camille can then lock down for the team to burst down. Other teams, it may be diving to the back of the team fight and locking out enemy marksmen or mages to both keep them out of the battle or outright kill them, removing them from the rest of the fight either way. Just be sure your team is dedicated to the engagement. No matter how fed Camille is, she’s easy to burst down if she has to deal with multiple enemies at once.
Items, Runes, & Masteries
Attack speed and mobility should be the primary focus of your Camille build. The primary goal should always be to set up situations in which Precision Protocol’s two-part sequence is the easiest to attain. For this purpose, it might not be a bad idea to consider attack or movement speed runes and masteries. Alternatively, focusing your runes and masteries on attack damage and defense can allow you a cushion to build these attributes into your item set.
Items like Phage and Stinger not only make for great early options in this regard, but build to Trinity Force, which will make Camille a force to be reckoned with later. Thanks to her True Damage, Camille will only need two offensive items to make her an offensive threat. Afterwards, you can focus on tanking up. Deadman’s Plate is a fantastic option if only for its role in giving Camille an extra boost of speed on her way to battle in addition to armor, but Spirit Visage is an absolute must for its role in magic defense, but also for the boost it gives to all healing, making it a great pairing with Tactical Sweep.
Final Thoughts
Camille is perhaps one of the most dynamic champs to come to League of Legends yet, but there’s a trade for just about every part of her amazing strengths. She’s a duelist, through and through. The more people get involved in a fight, the less capable she is of handling it. Strong crowd control or focus from multiple opponents is always going to give Camille a hard time. That said, when it comes to one-on-one competition, Camille may be right up there with Riven, Renekton, and Fiora when it comes to the strength of her kit.
The sensible Camille player needs to do everything in their power to win the lane and minimize their opponent while she snowballs in preparation for the light game. Falling behind isn’t a death sentence and Camille can do a lot to support her team even from behind, but she’ll shine her brightest when she’s equipped to launch herself from the shadows and trap and destroy opponents before they know what has hit them. With the high level of skill required to utilize her kit properly, it will be awesome to see what professional players do with Camille this season.
