At E3 this week, Riot Games unveiled three new champions that are coming to League of Legends: Yorick the Grave Digger, Leona the Radiant Dawn and Skarner the Crystal Vanguard. Yorick is noteworthy because he's the first champion to introduce the minion summoning mechanic to the game, while Leona is the first female who is truly built as a tank. Skarner excels at crowd control and focused attacks.

Keep reading after the jump for all the details on these three champions!

Yorick, the Gravedigger

Yorick, the Gravedigger, the upcoming champion to the League of Legends, is the first champion to introduce a brand new mechanic – minion summoning. Yorick summons and controls a variety of ghastly minions who grant him combat utility. Yorick himself functions as a bruiser – a durable, short range damage champion – but also employs a host of different specialized undead against his enemies. These ghastly minions will not only aid Yorick in a fight, but will also provide the Gravedigger with specialized effects when they are summoned.

Some core attributes of Yorick are:

• Yorick is a bruiser with formidable, close range fighting capabilities as well as ghastly minions to aid him in combat.
• Each of Yorick’s basic abilities summons a different type of ghastly minion for a short duration, each with its own unique role.
• Summoning ghastly minions also provides a specialized combat buff to the Gravedigger.

Leona, the Radiant Dawn

For quite some time, the League of Legends community has been asking for a female character whose abilities fill a core tank role. While there are a few female champions can moonlight as tanks in a pinch, Leona, the Radiant Dawn is the first female truly built with tanking at the heart of her ability set. Heavily armored, and wielding the power of the sun against her enemies, Leona serves as part of protective order of knights charged with defending an oracle from harm

Leona’s main role in combat will center on disrupting groups of enemies.  For this reason, her abilities focus on resilience, regeneration, and crowd control. The most iconic of these would be her ultimate, Solar Flare, which can threaten large groups of enemies at range, forcing them to scatter or suffer harmful effects.

Some of Leona’s defining characteristics are:

• Heavily armored and resilient, Leona is a pure tank through and through.
• Leona’s function is as a protector, so she is foremost honorable and stalwart.
• Abilities themed around crowd control and resilience help Leona fill her role as a tank to perfection.
• Leona’s Solar Flare ultimate will give her the ability to initiate fights at long range by threatening an area, forcing grouped enemies to scatter lest they suffer damage and be stunned.

Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard

Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard is a member of a highly intelligent and brutal race awakened by the recent conflict in the League of Legends universe. Composed of a crystalline material, Skarner can tap into his remarkable body structure to buff himself and hinder his enemies. He is not aligned with any city-state or political group, and his only concern is his people’s welfare and survival.

Skarner excels at crowd control and focused attacks, relying on cleaving abilities for added damage and lifesteal to keep himself up in a drag out fight. Consecutive attacks against an individual enemy stack debuffs, allowing him to wear away at more resilient foes. He can also impale champions on his powerful tail and drag them for short distances. Players will want to prevent a teammate from being isolated against Skarner and therefore subject to his repeated, debilitating attacks.

Some of Skarner’s more iconic elements are:

• Monstrous, vicious, and aggressive, Skarner is singularly focused on his people’s survival.
• Stacking debuffs make Skarner extremely potent at focusing on a single target.
• Cleaving, life steal, and crowd control abilities grant Skarner increased utility in a team fight.
• Skarner’s can utilize his crystal form for combat buffs and durability.
• Enemy champions can be impaled on Skarner’s powerful tail, allowing him to drag them away from the protection of their allies.