I'm just jolly to announce that Viktor is now available for play! He'll run you a calculated 975 RP or 6300 IP, but hey, that's not to bad after all the free and bonus RP we've gotten lately now is it?
Check out his champion spotlight below for some laser beam filled action!

In the event you might be having a hard time deciding just which Viktor skin you are wanting to pick up, youtuber T0mT4yl0r has got you covered with some juicy videos showcasing just how this skins pop. Personally, I'm thinking Full Machine Viktor as a late holiday present to myself.

Along with Viktor and his skins, two new skins have become available for purchase.


The ice cold duo of Arctic Warfare Caitlyn and Arctic Ops Kennen are now available for 975 Riot Points each. While this isn't a new skin for Caitlyn, this is will be the first time summoners will be able to unlock her since she debuted as a promotional skin for PC Gamer a few months back.

Make sure you don't forget about the other skins that were covertly made visible a few days ago! While we already have Arctic Ops Kennen, Superb Villain Veigar, Sandstorm Katarina, and Rocketeer Tristana will surely be hitting the store sometime in the near future. Check out some screen shots and videos of them below!





P.S Tamat kept true to his word and posted celebratory dance video, by the Riot staff, in honor of Viktor's release. Oh, they got the moves alright.

While we don't have Viktor yet and according to Tamat we will be recieving "No patch tonight.", we did get a little bit more of information about Viktor's release from ricklessabandon. Check out his post below!

[about the patch preview and notes.. ]

there are no balance changes for this patch, so there won't be accompanying notes or preview video.

[ about the actual patch release ] 

again, i don't have the specifics but viktor is scheduled to be released this week (not today though).

while it is true that the maintenance has been completed, we want to make sure that we have adequate staff on standby before new content is released. having that is really important, and is the primary reason that viktor isn't available as i type this. i know that lots of people are excited about his release, so i really appreciate everyone's patience with the holiday release schedule.

- ricklessabandon, QA Analyst, via the official forums.






Edit: Here is an sort of "official" announcement for Viktor's release that just says "soon".

Edit 2 ( 12/28): Looks like Viktor will be out either Wednesday night or Thursday morning!

Well, a lot of summoners have asked for this and it looks like Riot has been listening; we are finally getting a reward for being a loyal followers of the Summoner's Code. Starting between last night and December 28th, everyone who has not been banned in the past two months will be gifted 450 Riot Points! I've already received mine so keep a look out for your wonderful gift.

Summoners!

Since early spring, we’ve been working with you through the Tribunal to identify those summoners who have had a negative impact on your play experience. For your efforts, and to celebrate the holiday season, we thought it was a good time to thank all those summoners who’ve made a point upholding the Summoner’s Code this year. If you’re over level 6 and haven’t been banned from League of Legends in the past two months, you’re in line to receive 450 Riot Points as a gift from the co-founders and all of us here at Riot Games in appreciation.

We’ve already begun the process of distributing these Riot Points to you, and eligibility of summoners was determined two days ago. But there are an awful lot of good sports out there in the community, so we estimate that everyone should have their Riot Points by December 28, 2011 at midnight. On behalf of all of us here at Riot Games, thank you for making League of Legends a part of your lives! (All weekend sales will be extended by one day, to accommodate the time it may take for all summoners to receive their RP.)

Additionally, this reward is the first step toward a new program that grants Riot Points to summoners as they progress through the game. While we’re focusing this initiative primarily on new summoners, we wanted to ensure that we included everyone who’s made a concerted effort to be a positive force in the League of Legends community before we got into full swing.

Also be sure to take a moment to view a special holiday message from Riot Games Co-Founders Marc ‘Tryndamere’ Merrill and Brandon ‘Ryze’ Beck. On behalf of all of us here at Riot Games thank you for making League of Legends part of your lives, and a for making it a great experience for all summoners the world over. 

Happy Snowdown Showdown, summoners! We hope to see you all out there on the Fields of Justice in the New Year!

- Pendragon, Director of Community Relations, via the official forums.





Now that you've gotten a whole 450 Riot Points you might want to take some extra precautions in safe guarding your account from.. mean people. Check out Riot's Summoner Safety Initiative for some tips and tricks when it comes to securing your account.

If free Riot points weren't good enough, Riot has also compiled a warm and fuzzy thank you to the community that showcases some of the best League of Legends fan content. Check it out below!

The official reveal is out and it matches up pretty well with the information taken from the game files last week. I still retain my stance that Viktor will be awesome, but it should be noted that I am highly influenced by the amount of laser beams a champion has when deciding how fun they look.

Viktor is a ranged mage with a mix of single target spells, area-of-effect crowd control, vector-targeting, and re-positional damage. This versatility is further augmented by his unique passive: a permanent item with different upgrade paths providing Viktor with both increased stats and bonus effects on one of his abilities. This high-skill cap mage is the perfect choice for those who wish to gain the advantage via their strategic decision making.

Abilities: 

• Passive: Evolving Technology Viktor starts with a Hex Core that provides him with stats and can be upgraded in the store to augment one of his abilities. The Hex Core can only be upgraded once, and cannot be sold back to the store.
• Power Transfer - Viktor blasts an enemy unit dealing magic damage, returning a portion of the damage dealt as a shield.
  • Ability Augment: Increases Viktor's Movement Speed by 30% for 3 seconds
• Gravity Field - Viktor conjures a heavy gravitational field, slowing all enemies and stacking a debuff every 0.5 seconds. At 3 stacks enemies inside are stunned for 1.5 seconds.
  • Ability Augment: Gravity Field has an additional 30% cast range.
• Death Ray - Viktor uses his robotic arm to fire a chaos beam that cuts across the field in a line, dealing damage to any opponents struck in its path.
  • Ability Augment: Death Ray sets fire to enemies, dealing 30% additional magic damage over 4 seconds.
• Chaos Storm (Ultimate) - Viktor conjures a singularity on the field which deals magic damage and briefly silences enemies. The singularity then does magic damage to all nearby enemies every second. Viktor can redirect the singularity.

Lore: 

Early in life, Viktor discovered his passion for science and invention, particularly in the field of mechanical automation. He attended Zaun's prestigious College of Techmaturgy and led the team that constructed Blitzcrank – a scientific breakthrough that he expected to vault him to the top of his profession. Unfortunately his triumph was usurped by Professor Stanwick, who stole credit for developing Blitzcrank's sentience and later used Viktor's research to revive Urgot. Viktor's appeals for justice fell on deaf ears, and he sank into a deep depression. He withdrew from the College and barricaded himself in his private laboratory, cutting all human ties. There, in secret, he conceived a project for which nobody else could claim credit. Desiring both to revolutionize his field and to eliminate the jealous human emotions which festered inside him, he engineered parts to replace and improve his own body. When Viktor re-emerged, almost no trace of the original man remained.

Not only had he supplanted the majority of his anatomy, but his personality had changed. His previous hope to better society was replaced by an obsession with what he called ''the glorious evolution.'' He saw himself as the patron and pioneer of Valoran's future – a future in which man would renounce his flesh in favor of superior hextech augmentations. Though Viktor's initial appeals were met with heavy skepticism, scientists were confounded by the sophistication of his machinery. By integrating his mind with techmaturgical devices, he had been able to drastically accelerate the progress of his research. His transformation had stripped him of what he perceived as his emotional weaknesses, but there was some lingering residue of resentment against the Professor. Viktor joined the League of Legends to pit his inventions against the greatest opponents Valoran could offer, and to correct any weaknesses or inefficiencies that remained. 

''In one's hand, techmaturgy is a tool. As one's hand, it is liberation.'' -Viktor

- Average Gatsby, Web Content Specialist, via the official forums.

Let's keep the news train a-rollin'! I hope you enjoy these quick pieces of League of Legends news from yesterday evening.


1) 300 Bonus Riot Points with a Riot Point Purchase!


Riot must be feeling a extra generous this holiday season because they have decided to award anyone who purchases Riot points between December 21st and Janurary  9th with 300 additional Riot points for free! The best part? The deal works with the minimum $5 purchase of 650 Riot points. Five measly dollars for 950 Riot Points is a pretty solid deal, especially with those fancy new Viktor skins around the corner...

Feeling left out in the cold because you purchased some Riot Points before the announcement on 12/21? Don't fret! RiotTobster confirmed that they will be retroactively awarding anyone who purchased RP on the 21st with the bonus Riot points.



2) Minor Patch

Riot squeaked out a small patch last night to fix a few minor details and give Baron Nashor a bit of holiday cheer. In addition to above, it appears the patch is also responsible for a few new skins and the addition of Viktor's champion page.
It should be noted that I couldn't actually find anything at the time of posting on the NA forums about this mini patch, so the screen cap is from the EUW forums. As per the above screen shot and watching my patcher ever so slowly update, the patch has been applied to NA.

3) Tribunal Statistics


Riot put up this fancy infographic to showcase what an impact their user maintained judgement system has accomplished in around seven months time. I'd be interested to see a break down of what users were most frequently reported for when punished.



On a side note, what do you guys think of these compilation posts for news instead of multiple threads spread out through the day?

It seems Viktor wasn't the only thing secretly stuffed into last week's Ahri patch. Mysterious redditor Zavoky posted up the splash arts for Viktor and what we can only assume are three new skins that will be available with the Viktor patch.

12-22 Edit: A small patch has been applied to the servers pretty bluntly confirms these skins. The new skins now show up under their respective champions and Viktor is now in champion select but is greyed out




My thoughts on all this extra content being enabled is that Riot preemptively added content for the next patch early to prepare a smooth transition patch for for the holiday season that is quickly approaching. I reckon since the content is flying around anyway, Riot just decided to flip the switch and show it. Or maybe this is indicative of new patch cycle etiquette? At any rate, I must admit defeat to that Veigar skin; so fly for an evil guy.




EDIT 2: Looks like Rocketeer Tristana is visible as well! Where is out "Dark Crusader" Mordekaiser :(?

Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox, after having been revealed nearly three months ago, is finally available for play! Described as a "mobile Mage / Assassin" by Riot, Ahri is inspired by the kumiho, a mythological Korean creature who has a nasty habit of seducing men. I've slunk through numerous games in the past week with our new champion and while she hasn't seduced me into considering her one of my favorite champions, she does offer of a unique play style in comparison to other AP champions.

 Stepping on to Summoner's Rift with Ahri is a bit like playing a weird hybrid of Lux and Akali. Like Lux, she has a wealth of long range, skill shot based harass and CC, but takes a page out of Akali's book when it comes to quickly darting around in team fights and mopping up kills. She also faintly reminds me of Morgana in that she really has to manage her "in the mix" style positioning to facilitate her high risk vs reward game play instilled through her ultimate.

 While Ahri can certainly hold her own in a game of Dominion, I much prefer her on Summoner's Rift where her abilities can really outfox the enemy team. She excels in damaging multiple targets and picking off low health foes, so the frequent and large team fights of Summoner's Rift are a perfect place to call home. It is also worth noting that if you have not played Ahri, I can confirm that her ultimate is indeed as fun to use as it looks. There are so many kills to be earned and deaths to be avoided that come out of an ultimate that allows you to flash three times in a row.

Ooo, mama!

Lets take a look at Ahri's foxy kit..

( Passive ) Essence Theft - Ahri gains a charge of Soul Eater whenever one of her spells hits an enemy (max: 3 charges per spell). Upon reaching 9 charges, Ahri's next spell has 35% Spell Vamp.

Essence Theft is an easy to charge passive and is active about every four spells. It offers up enough healing that I feel comfortable taking a starting Doran's Ring and don't often get bullied out of lane. It may be bland but it certainly does serve its purpose.

( Q ) Orb of Deception - Ahri sends out her orb, dealing 40/65/90/115/140 (+0.33) magic damage, and pulls it back dealing 40/65/90/115/140 (+0.33) True damage.

Orb of Deception is a quirky little boomerang ability and functions as Ahri's bread and butter skill for damage. Between its exceedingly low cooldown and modest mana cost, she can just fling her orb around all game. It is worth mentioning that like other similar abilities, such as Sivir's Boomerang Blade or Orianna's Command: Attack, the damage from this ability is not diminished based on the amount of targets it passes through.The tasteful use of true damage on the trip back gives the ability a nice flavor and ensures its damage is always on par moving into late game.

( W ) Fox-Fire - Ahri releases three fox-fires. After a short delay they lock on to nearby enemies (prioritizes champions), dealing 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.38) magic damage. Additional fox-fires that hit the same target deal 50% damage [max damage: 80/140/200/260/320 (+0.75)]. 

Fox Fire leaves a lot to be desired for me and while it gives you an easy means to burst a solo target or a melee champion that has engaged you, it is often clunky and hard to aim in the midst of a team fight which leads to sporadic damage when you don't necessarily need it.

( E ) Charm - Ahri blows a kiss dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.35) magic damage and charming the first enemy it hits, causing them to walk harmlessly towards her for 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2 second(s).

Charm is by far my favorite ability to come out of Ahri's kit. It is very punishing for those who you are able to catch out of position and can frequently be used to initiate team fights or pull tanks for easy harass.

( R ) Spirit Rush - Ahri dashes forward and fires essence bolts at 3 nearby enemies (prioritizes champions), dealing 100/140/180 (+0.3) magic damage. Spirit Rush can be cast up to three times within 10 seconds before going on cooldown.

Spirit Rush is absolutely the key stone to her kit and is the biggest part of what makes her fun to play and frustrating to play against. With this skill alone, Ahri has the ability to dish out major AoE damage, escape ganks by having three functional flashes, and chase down fleeting opponents. This being so, most of her usefulness is wasted when its on cooldown and I found fighting without it to be painstakingly difficult; you're left with no escape or means to catch anyone who might inch away from a fight

The Fox and the Hound..

 Even in my first game I started to question Riot's labeling of Ahri as an assassin. Her kit isn't built like Talon's or Akali's and she can not simply enter a team fight, burst down a target, and expect to survive. She functions much better harassing and whittling down the enemy team with her long range, attempting to snag an out of place opponent with Charm, and cleaning up fights with her ultimate. In light of this and the fact that her AP ratios are a little low, I like to build her a little bulky and focus on utility first then damage. As far as skill order, I prioritize R > Q >W > E because a maximized Q lets you effortlessly farm minion waves and I prefer the additional damage from W over the extended time on E for mid game team fights.

This is the build I found myself nestling in to and really haven't deviated away from it too often. For my first item take either Boots of Speed and 3 Potions or Doran's Ring, depending on if I have an aggressive or passive lane opponent, and then focus on gaining an early stat advantage over my lane for a level 6 brawl. After polishing off two Doran's Rings and Sorcerer's Shoes, I quickly rush into a Rylai's Crystal Scepter as my first core item. Between hitting everyone with your Q and Fox Fire counting as a single target spell, the slow from Rylai's turns you into a major pain for the enemy team. This early kitting and utility wins out over the suggested Rod of Ages for me since Ahri's low mana costs and passive diminish the value of the Catalyst effect. Next up we move on to Will of the Ancients followed by a Rabadon's Deathcap. WotA couples well with Soul Eater and ensures that Ahri will always be able to sustain through long team fights. If my team is lacking anyone else who can make use of the Spell Vamp aura, I will occasionally flip flop the order and build a Deathcap first. Our last two items are situational and vary match to match based on need. Likely choices include Void Staff for increased damage, Death Fire Grasp for increased burst, Zhonya's Hourglass for defense, and Quicksilver Sash should you find yourself getting pinned down hard.

• For the sake of Rylai's Crystal Scepter and Spell Vamp, each bolt of Fox Fire counts as a single target spell.
• Make sure you aren't just dash, dash, dashing for damage when using Spirit Rush; be mindful about casting spells and them sparingly within the 10 second window to maximize your mobility.
• Charm essentially functions like a taunt that disables auto attacks, so be sure to keep an eye out for opportunities to bait enemies into turrets, traps, or team mates.

• Charm is perhaps the best crowd control effect in the game.
• Low mana costs and the built in healing on Essence Theft give her great sustainability in lane.
• Spirit Rush allows for very high mobility in team fights and protection against ganks.
• Amazing AoE Damage output in team fights.

• High skill cap due to numerous skill shots and delicate positioning in team fights. 
• Due to the nature of Fox Fire's "lock on" and using Spirit Rush properly, can be very difficult to effectively burst a specific target in a team fight.

All in all, Ahri is a fun mage champion with high skill cap and a tough learning curve. Ahri certainly won't appeal to everyone, especially those who have difficulty landing skill shots, but she does offer a fast paced and in your face style of gameplay that you won't find on many other mage-style champions.


I know it's late, but better late than never right? I hope you guys have a wonderful holiday over these next two weeks. If you have any comments or suggestions for the champion reviews you are more than welcome to leave a comment below or shoot me a tweet. I'm really not to sure what I should call these, they're sort of borderline between a review and a guide.. some help with that would be wonderful!

Here we have a some short and sweet news posts that are sure to fill your daily hankering for latest LoL news. Included below is a clarification on the Legacy skin system and what it means for the 2011 Snowdown skins, a "final" update on Project Shiny, an AMAA about the tribunal from some dashing Rioters, and an "ok" classic champion spotlight.

1) Legacy Skin System and the 2011 Holiday Skins
In light of some recent forum activity surrounding the Snowdown 2011 skins not being completely limited edition, Riot has posted a thread clearing the air on the new "Legacy" classification of skins. Essentially all current and future Holiday skins will fall into the Legacy categorization while all of the ones preceding the 2011 Snowdown Skins will remain limited edition. As the thread sticky states, A limited edition tag means that the skin will never again be available for purchase while the Legacy tag means even though the skin is not readily available in the store there is a possibility of re release under special circumstances.

In practice, I assume this system will just function as a "second chance" for newer players to unlock special skins in the future. While it certainly does take away from the appeal of "I'll never be able to get these again!" purchases, it would be refreshing, as a new player, to have a second crack at some awesome skins. Since Riot seems tight lipped about them, I wonder under what circumstances we will see the skins resurface; perhaps we'll get a small window next year to repurchase this years Snowdown skins?


2) Project Shiny dispersed.
You can read Tamat's entire post here, but he essentially says that the giant graphical overhaul once known as "Project Shiny" is no more and that Riot has chosen to release the new models and updated graphics as they become available instead of hording them for one giant release. I can't imagine anyone having a real problem with this. Just take a gander above at the massive difference between Gangplank's old model and  his new model that was recently added to the game. We've also gotten new animations and models for a host of classic champions recently, so I just hope Riot keeps up the awesome work. Can someone put in a good word for a Master Yi or Soraka make over?


3) Riot's Ask Me Anything About the Tribunal
Rioters Pendragon and Zileas took to reddit earlier today to potentially answer any questions summoners might have about the Tribunal. The thread has generated a lot of good discussion on the matter with topics ranging from the difficulties of including post and pre game chat to tribunal cases and potential venues for additional rewards when judging cases. Be sure to head over to /r/leagueoflegends and submit your own questions!

4) Rammus Champion spotlight.
Riot has just tossed up another classic champion spotlight for for none other than Rammus, the Armordillo! Rammus happens to be a fan favorite around the ole Moobeat household and remains one of my favorite tanks to date. I'd highly recommend anyone looking for a new jungler or a fun dominion champion to give him a proper spin. Got it? "ok".

If you’ve ever perused a book on ethics, you know that it’s important to give credit where credit is due. This happens to be especially important when mad scientists are involved. Hypothetically, if you were to construct a Great Steam Golem only to find that some other scientific type had claimed your creation as his own, it might cause you to come a bit more unhinged.

Meet Viktor, the Machine Herald. Not only is he the scientist who invented Blitzcrank, but he also had his creation usurped by his fiendish professor. Now, people cope with grief in different ways. Some people cry, some people binge, and some people start replacing their body parts with robotic limbs. I guess we’ll leave it up to you to decide how you think Viktor deals with his problems.

- Average Gatsby, Web Content Specialist, via the official forums.

Just a heads up, be sure to check out IGN's Video preview of our next LoL champion, Viktor!


For those of you with the memory of Mundo, Viktor is the new AP Champion that was accidentally spoiled in the game files of last weeks patch. This exclusive footage appears to just be a rough cut of the champion spotlight and show cases all of Viktor's abilities as well as some general gameplay with commentary by the IGN staff.

Summoners!

In addition to the two item changes that are available to test, we'd also like to add changes to Shen and Vladimir. As always these changes are not final! Total changes are:

Shen

• Vorpal Blade
  • Energy cost changed to 60 from 70/65/60/55/50
  • Healing effect reduced to 10/16/22/28/34 from 18/26/34/42/50
  • Healing effect now also heals for 2% of attacker's maximum health per hit
  • Shen gets the heal if he last hits with Vorpal Blade
  • Single target damaging spells can now also trigger Vorpal Blade instead of just attacks
• Feint
  • Feint now grants 20/25/30/35/40 Armor while it's active
  • Feint duration increased to 3 from 2.5
  • Cost increased to 50 from 45
• Shadow Dash
  • Cooldown changed to 11-9 from 10
  • Energy cost reduced to 100 from 120-100
  • Taunt Duration increased to 1/1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2 from 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2
  • Restores 40 Energy per champion affected, from 50 Energy if you affect one
• Ki Strike
  • Bonus Damage from Health increased to 12% from 8%
  • Cooldown is now reduced by 0.5 seconds for minion hits in addition to 2 seconds for champion hits

Vladimir

• Transfusion
  • Cooldown reduced to 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 from 12/10/8/6/4
• Tides of Blood
  • Health cost reduced to 25/35/45/55/65 from 30/40/50/60/75
• Crimson Pact
  • AP -> health conversion reduced to 1.4 from 1.8

Ionic Spark

• Now purchasable on Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline
• Chain lightning proc increased to 120 from 110.

Ninja Tabi

• +25 Armor
• UNIQUE Passive: Reduces the damage taken from non-turret basic attacks by 10%.
• UNIQUE Passive: Enhanced Movement 2

Hop into Public Chat 1 and organize some Custom games to try out these changes!

Can't play Ahri because someone always snags her before you? Don't fret! I have a few small updates and news bits to keep you entertained!

1) New Champion pages are back.

These spiffy new Champion pages have been re-enabled and are simply fabulous! This has to be one of my favorite changes to the game so far. You can check out recommended builds, small clips of every ability, and even purchase new content right without having to navigate to the store. I wonder what else might be in store for us in the UI department?

2) A Sneak Peek at Colorblind mode

RiotVeonneth is proud to report the long awaited and much requested Colorblind mode is finally shaping up into something tangible. The mode will, when completed, change a variety of colors within the game to those more easily distinguishable to someone who is colorblind. Currently this mode is slated for release in early 2012. You can find out more information as well as a quick tutorial to enable a partial version of the mode on the current client by checking out this thread.


3) Winner and Community Pick for the "Wear it Proudly" Contest.

The dashing little number above is the winner of Riot's Wear it Proudly contest. This contest was geared towards Summoners creating their own gear they'd like to see in the League of Legends merch store. Sermyn, the player responisble for the awesome Signed design, will be walking away with a cool 15,000 Riot Points and some merch of his own. Riot is also urging the community to get involved and choose, via a poll on the forums, their favorite submissions! This community chosen winner will receive a buttload of Riot points so make sure you cast your vote. My vote easily goes to this adorable Teemo shirt ... surprising right?


4) Dodge Refunds to begin on 16th of December.
I know some of you are just itching to pick up our foxy new champion and are patiently waiting for Riot to issue the first wave of Dodge Rune refunds to give you those influence points you desperately need, but hold on just a little bit longer! RoreBAWW, a Riot Ambassador, posted today reminding us that the refund is still on track to begin this Friday and end eleven days later on December 25th.

5) Fansite Focus: Volibear
Rioter Aurum posted a handful of awesome fansite impressions, reviews, and guides for Volibear.It is a day or so old, but I was featured on this! I know some of you might now be viewing my blog thanks to this and I just wanted to take a second to thank Riot and thank you for stopping by!