The S&M tribe that Riot has moonlighting as a group of artists did their worst to Vayne for Valentine’s Day. The Vampire Hunter was given her own version of the very tired stockings-and-corset costume. This will no doubt cause a flood of masturbatory spending from the 13-year-olds playing League of Legends.
I imagine the resumes in Riot’s art department are pretty short. How many different ways are there to say “I drew fantasy babes in stockings, thongs, and corsets every day.”
I’m not anti-sexy, just anti-lack-of-creativity. We’ve seen this skin one thousand million times. It isn’t interesting. At all. Not one bit. Nothing about it. Nothing. Not a single part.
There is a fairly serious, or at the very least vocal contingent of players who have been anxiously awaiting the release of Ezreal’s legendary skin, Pulsefire Ezreal. The skin is a pretty clear homage to the Mega Man series and, from the splash art, looks pretty cool. The above video popped up today, showing a player using the skin in game. The video only shows off his ult, but you can tell the animation has been given a healthy spark.
Riot’s holiday-themed skins are among my favorite in League of Legends, so needless to say I was anxiously awaiting this year’s Snowdown Showdown. Riot didn’t make as big a deal about the event as they have in past years, but they still delivered a new winter map and four new skins for our enjoyment.
The skins this year are Toy Soldier Gangplank, Snowmerdinger, Mistletoe LeBlanc, and Festive Maokai. Of the bunch, I’d have to say the Gangplank skin is my favorite. I’m a sucker for classic toys (and, apparently, virtual representations of classic toys). Snowmerdinger is a close second.
I have to give credit where credit is due. Bloodybunny, who reads here and plays with us on Monday nights, scoped this story a few days before it hit the forums. He sent me a message the other day saying he expected a legendary Warwick skin, based on the remakes to Warwick’s animations. Wouldn’t you know, we’re now looking at a teaser for Hyena Warwick. Good call, Bunny.
It looks like Hyena Warwick is in the works. I know I say this every time we see a legendary release, but I still have trouble understanding why Riot continues to release legendary skins. I guess people are still buying them. The only problem I have with it is that Riot willfully devalues legendary skins by releasing skins of equal or higher quality for half the RP. Those skins eventually go on sale, cutting the price in half again. It gets pretty tough to justify spending the 1820 RP with that scenario.
Vladimir has been a hot topic of discussion since release. Even today, when I rarely see him picked, there are still forum threads on a near daily basis wondering when he’ll be buffed, when he’ll return to viability, why he isn’t viable now, and so on. I know CC is all the rage these days, especially when it comes to AP carries, so where is Vlad’s place?
I still occasionally see Vlad do well when his team has enough crowd control to make up for his own shortcomings. He has to be careful, though. Against a strong AP with a stun, Vlad is susceptible to ganks, despite his pool. If he can be forced to burn his Flash early, Vlad’s health costs work against him early, leaving him open for ganks.
As many Rioters have pointed out, many of the solutions to Vlad’s problems are problems in themselves. Fixing health costs may improve his early game, but give him more damage or survivability and we could be rushing back toward the old days of Vlad.
For now, it looks like Vlad fans will have to settle for a legendary skin. Honestly, I can’t say I’ll mind seeing Vlad in a few games sometime soon. Sure beats Morgana.
