Bug Fixes, Sion's Mismatched Theme, and "Lower Tier" skins

Posted on at 12:24 AM by Moobeat
It's been a quiet few days, what with the holidays and all, but we're back with a delicious red post collection!
Continue reading for a set of red posts pertaining to a fix for getting stuck on creeps, problems with Sion's look vs his kit, and Ironstylus fishing for feedback on "lower tier" skins.

Stuck on Creeps Fixed!?
CertainlyT had some good news about the bug that causes champions to juggle back and forth when trying to path around minions. Reminder, this is not walking through minions ( which only ghost, phantom dancer, and select champion passives can provide ) but rather when champions try to walk through minions and get stuck on them instead of going around.
"I believe our engineers have found the cause of the "stuck on creeps" bug and are fixing it. It's a Christmas miracle!"
Discussion on Sion's mismatched theme.
IronStylus talking about Sion and the problem of his range of abilities not exactly matching his theme.
"Sion is an interesting case. Absolutely, the dude needs a visual update BADLY. Grumpy Monkey has some ideas here, some very good ideas. I agree that he fits into that weird area that some older champions fall into, where the visual theme doesn't really match the look. Scion wields a giant axe, one which, by today's standards, you'd expect to be chopped in half with. But, as has been mentioned, he's more of a Mage. Same thing goes for Mordakieser, big mace dude you'd expect to be bonked on the head by, instead he casts a lot of spell and.. nabs your ghost?

Meanwhile, these days, we want to create a fantasy that people can easily buy into. Darius is a proper axe dude, he wants to chop you with said axe, and as him you want to chop people down with said axe. Diana almost fell into the aforementioned problem with Scion and Mord. She's an AP champion with a melee weapon. That can be tough. But we needed to figure out what you would want to do with Diana. Big weapon, you probably want to slash people with said weapon. How do you do so? Give her moon magic, which needed to be part of her theme, which helps her with gap closes rather than poke. Fulfills that fantasy of self-immolation. Dive in, slash, burst, don't expect to survive. Expect to be the heretic martyr.

Darius and Diana I think fall into these new successful attempts to satisfy the fantasy in art, theme and mechanics. We have to take a close and careful look at older champions and find out how to address this. We can do a great looking visual design rework on Scion, but do we want to play with his kit or theme to make him more cohesive? That remains to be seen, but my personal opinion is to try as best we can to match the theme to the mechanics and visuals while trying to maintain what people love about the character. It's tricky, but I think we can do it. We shall see!"
As Ironstylus reminds us, this doesn't necessarily mean his kit will get changed:
"...The only thing I've heard is that his mechanics theme doesn't quite match his look. I don't know whether that will be acted upon though."
 Although, as we've known, Sion is on the list for a visual update. Ironstylus commented on this, saying:
"All I know is that from the art side of things we might try to match his looks a bit more with his theme"
IronStylus seeking feedback on lower tier skins.
IronStylus has been poking his head around on the forums asking for summoners to give him feedback on what he refers to as "lower tier skins"; that is skins that don't necessarily have all the bells and whistles that most new skins do and are more akin to costume changes ( think something like Aviator Irelia ) or more complex recolors.
"Hey, I didnt see anything about skins on here so I have an odd question.. It's something that's been on my brain for a while.. Recently, as a lot of people have noticed, our quality of skins has gone up, including sometimes near reworks of entire champions when we produce skins. We do custom animations, particles, and a lot of other features. It's a big improvement from what we refer to now as "color swaps", when sometimes skins were just palette changes, or maybe small geometry tweaks on the model at most.

Oh yeah, my question! How do you guys feel about "costume change" skins. Maybe not so much entire sweeping thematic shifts, but maybe just s different treatment of basic look, outfit or armor. Being on the skins team off and on, I really love taking our characters to the nines. One things I've noticed is that sometimes, depending on the champion, some champions can accommodate really incredible and compelling themes, or have real estate for a lot of visual change, and have huge opportunities for particle changes or custom animations, etc, However, sometimes i feel some can't, that's opinion though. Also, sometimes I feel as though champions might just need what basically comes down to a "costume change" to give some new flavor, or something simple and novel. It's a not the greatest term, but I can't really think of something better to use to refer to something that sort of, at most, geometry changes and maybe minor tweaks in other areas.

What are some thoughts on this? This is entirely a curiosity of mine, and this is no promise of any such content, but I'm always looking for opportunities to bring interesting content to players, and I'm wondering if maybe a "lower" tier of what I've described above is of interest.

AGAIN! This is no commitment to features, I just genuinely am interested in feelings about this stuff. I have no idea nor any opinion on pricing or any of that, I'm interested in what sort of themes are appropriate, what scope such skins might encompass, and what players feel about what equates to possibly a less packed piece of content than the current lot of skins in terms of VFX, animation and other features.

So, whaddaya think?"
In terms of just making a champion with a "better" version of their base model, he mentioned the negative possibility of player's reacting to this sort of simple skin by saying "why isn't this just the new base model??":
"That's another thing that interests me, the x2 or x10 scenario for skins. Is taking a champion's base theme and bumping it up a level or two cool? Artistically, it's pretty easy to do, but I can see how players might be like.. "Uh, that's just a fancy base, I feel cheated" or "Shouldn't this just be the new base?" I'm wondering if that'd be the case.

Yes, personally I'm also cool with "upgraded" versions of champions, it's something that I'm not sure we know how to do just right whilst managing expectations. "
 On the topic of these costume changes, he elaborated in another thread, saying:
"I'm particularly interested in ideas as to how or what sort of "simple" skins could be created. As I've mentioned, some skin themes can be brought to the nines. Do all skins need those treatments? For themes or skins that dont have as much opportunity for sweeping custom changes, what would constitute such a tier and what examples can be suggested for use in such a case on? What skin ideas or champions might benefit from such a treatment?"
Have an opinion? Be sure to contribute your ideas over on his "Lower Tier Skins" thread.

107 comments

  1. 520 lower tier skins would be fine just as long as they're good quality like Safari Caitlyn or the Doctor Ninja skins. None of that recolor Swamp master Kennen shit

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  2. you do this on like every post. It's not funny anymore. Stop.

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  3. Finally! It's been a while since I recovered Sion's remains and he came back to life. He does need some lovely updates.

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  4. Taric, Wur r you doin'... Taric, Stahp

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  5. Meh, I carried a ranked game a week or so ago with him. Some dumbshit noob picked talon. Wanted to cleaver stack me. Nope, no one beats me mid, noob. Shit all over him.

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  6. I thought about "recolors" or "variations", but i thought "people would hate this...". Hahah. :D

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  7. @Skins: I would like them to keep releasing 520 skins but I don't want them to be no shitty frosty Ezreal with a blue poncho, I want some creativity like in my messy-explosion derpy-eyes Heimerdinger or in Hextech Sion, which looks really nice.

    @Sion: Yeah he needs attention. AD-wise he's absolutely useless or outclassed and AP-wise he just doesn't fit. I think he should turn into an AD fighter because of his concept, but if they made a comeplete overhaul like with Katarina, I'd remove his ultimate and made it full AP.

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  8. It seems they totally forgot that Sion can also turn into an unkillable maniac with his axe

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  9. Agreed. They should apply price reductions to the skins that simply don't fit the 'new' 975 Tier.

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  10. If we're going to talk about skin remakes....
    Alistar skin upgrade noaw! :P
    His theme and all is good, but he isn't detailed, just look at the blue (i suppose it's) hair on his back, or his chains.
    Even a mad bull needs some love....

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  11. I still love my Tempest Janna (520RP)! Aviator Irelia (975RP) is , in my opinion , her best skin. However ... Tempest Janna has potential to be upgraded with new particles , more "stormy" , less "windy".
    Has Aviator Irelia same potential? Maybe... I have few ideas so I think it is possible to upgrade all skins , however not all of them require this.

    First of all , I'd remodel all champions that need this , with skins , then I'd start to upgrade current skins. Also I'd change few kits to match model.

    Sion need both rework and visual remodel. He should become true melee ad , without ap ratios and that COSMIC mana costs (seriously... 2xQ and you're out of mana >.>).
    There are more champions that need QoL changes (like Sivir) , remodel (urgh... Sivir is first on that list) and kit rework (Zilean for example... he doesn't really do anything excluding bombing and ulting with high cd).

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  12. Don't hate on Mr Outragous.

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  13. just a "proper axe type"? Fck NO! Im the most awesome Axe Type in the Game!

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  14. Olaf and your brother say hi.

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  15. <.< I have 3 skins without any particles and 2 of them are actually 975R, at least put some like needles popping from her W on her Sewn Orianna and some Metal shards spreading on Blade Craft one. DONT TOUCH THE GOTIC, I LIKE THE WAY SHE IS.

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  16. Spam his W and tell me his ulti cd is high :)
    and who doesnt like freaking 40 sec GA on your team?

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  17. Isn't the whole point of the Mech series to be one idea? since its a series? lol.

    Xerath's magma skin is awesome, but the two original ones are pretty bad.
    When they were first released they weren't even recolored lol. :x

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  18. typo occuring more than once
    "Scion" instead of "Sion"

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  19. Just don't touch Sion's ult. It's what make him the battering ram his lore talks about.

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  20. Color Swamp sucks, I was looking for a good skin on those Legacy Skins and IMO none of them worth 260 lol Just simple recolor of the textures. They also sell those skins at 975, for example, the Cassiopeia's skins, they're all 975 but only 1 changes particles, and it's a small change.

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  21. yup agree, darius is one of most boring and super easy to play champs... even someone with plantlike IQ could handle darius easy.. now every champ = gap closer/escape/some sort of CC (which fucks up old champs without it)...

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  22. I know that feel broDecember 27, 2012 at 5:41 AM

    Battlecast Xerath is lame :(

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  23. Do this

    http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/20042254



    And then come back here ; )

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  24. When it comes to lower tiers skins, this is what I've deduced. "If we (Riot) make lower quality skins and charge you the same price, will you care?"

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  25. Your Axe cannot fly. You have one Axe.

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  26. If you spam your W , yes , cd is lower. But pressing W to use your other skills is just.. boring? Maybe if it reduced whole party cds but instead of 10s by ~4sec it would be more interesting. Also his passive is lacking in current meta (don't push , let jungler gank). E is just speed buff / debuff without any other effect. So he can only bomb , slow/increase ms and "revive" - 3 things with 5 skills. Can you see what I mean?

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  27. http://www.inven.co.kr/board/powerbbs.php?come_idx=2775&l=11657



    Teemo agree this.
    I totally trade all my Teemo skin for this *^*
    Unfortunately its only for south korea Q.Q

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  28. But Draven always goes into male stripclubs
    BTW My Axe can split ur body into 2 pieces with 1 hit

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  29. Make him pretty, so that I can rain down big swords on him again!

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  30. not a single cassiopeia is a color swap every one is a remodel. you need to find out what a color swap is before you talk

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  31. This is wrong, making matching skins is a great idea for the aesthetics of the game. And where does this hurt you? The Cho skin looks good, the Kha'Zix skin looks good, and the Nocturne skin looks great. Dafuq is wrong with this? Nothing. Mech skins are a different breed and every champ could/should have one.

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  32. I would like them to rework Battlecast Xerath because that skin really,really sucks.

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  33. Yorick would like to have a word with you...

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  34. its not a real skin at all, you can get it on any client. look up custom LoL skins and find girls generation ahri, only you can see the skin in game though

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  35. What's with all the spelling errors in the first post by IronStylus? Mordakieser, Scion

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  36. I'd like a simple recolor skin that we could buy with IP. I know there's some kids out there that just want a skin but can't buy any because their parents don't think they should play league of legends. A simple recolor skin (not like kat's merc kat skin thats more of a complex recolor since they had to change her hair color, more so a recolor where the clothes' colors are changed) that can be bought with IP could be nice for those kids.

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  37. yeah, they recolored them a few days after. At first, everyone was like "WTF? That's it?"

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  38. okay I don't understand why every character has to look like their role, It doesn't make sense. So every mage has to look like Merlin and every fighter has to look like Lancelot Its the same way with supports, I like playing support but Im a tad tired of every support being very feminine by nature, can we has at least one rough a tumble support or do only flowers and pretty colors have the ability to support an ally, best they have there is nid and yes she did become more Hybrid carry but that not because her theme, no, it was because her kit was way to offensive. I just want some thematic diversity, and be able to find a cool thematic character that in the role I would like to play. I guess I will always have Galio

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  39. a skin like spectral gankplank as a recolor that is pretty awesome

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  40. Little error ' Scion wields a
    giant axe' Otherwise seems to be about time they are looking to update sion

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  41. But all of them definitely donesn't worth 975 rp

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  42. ...Jarvan can also troll pretty hard, and so can Trundle in the right situation.

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  43. except the Urgot skin, which was released first, looks like total crap. They could have done something cool like they later did with Kha and Cho, but instead they released a series of grey geometric shapes.

    On a side note, the new Noc skin isn't part of the battlecast series, and thus has no place in this discussion.

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  44. we can't hear you over the sound of techno viking.

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  45. Why do you have the EXACT same post as Nico Robin?..... Same person much?

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  46. Just because you don't enjoy playing a champ doesn't mean he isn't good. Half the time I don't even bother trying to make his bombs powerful, I just become battlefield control master. When you can pick out two members of the opposing team to have nearly 0 ms in a teamfight, your team wins. Zil, is a support first and foremost, and I honestly wish there were a few MORE champs like him.

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  47. "Costume change..." (ignoring Riot Girl Tristana) THIS IS A TOTALLY ORIGINAL THOUGHT!

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  48. Sirens and Mermaids are two different things really. And the particles are poison because its still Cassiopeia. They are similar, in that they tempt sailors, the difference is that sirens aren't half fish/half human and use songs to tempt sailors while mermaids are half fish/half human and use their looks to tempt sailors. Also, Mermaids are sometimes benevolent, sirens never are.

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  49. True! They should put particles on skins to make them better. Did u noticed that all Cassiopeia skins dont change when shes dead? On her Greek one, when she dies her body goes into pieces, notice that her head is back to normal! Riot should fix that and the fact that Tango Evelynn skin is bugged when shes on Shadow Walk!

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  50. That's the fanart and someone photoshopped it and posted it like it was an event for limited time. Funny thing is that newspaper got trolled too and made a post (which is deleted now)

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  51. Sion is a great soldier. We were lucky that we had a good necromancer to revive him. :)

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  52. Hey Garen, how can I talk with your sister?

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  53. WUT, I was ready to accept the invite to a stripclub that he gave me... Is it true? O.O

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  54. They HAVE introduced some champions with really interesting mechanics, but apart from maybe 3 (Rengar, Orianna, Kha) they are rarely played. The most interesting and original champions in both skillsets and themes didn't sell nearly as good as simple straight-ahead champs. To name it: Viktor, Rumble (okay, he might not be so rarely played but still serves as situational pick only), Skarner, Volibear, Syndra, Ziggs... All of them introduced something that just haven't been there before. But people still prefer the champions whose skillsets are just recycled from other champs.

    And many people say that Diana had some interesting original mechanics - well, that's just bullsh*t - she was just an Akali with a pull.

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  55. U know what we need?
    PULSEFIRE TEEMO.

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  56. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdWaDZPhzHg - the song on the website :) In case anyone else was looking for it >.<

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  57. The Battlecast Urgot skin is my favorite skin in the whole game, i think it looks cooler than anything, plus it fits him, and the animations fit and are great

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  58. Moobeat, Make a post about how IronStylus has been hinting at a new ADC champ that uses a bird and has armor

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  59. I think you don't get it...


    I enjoy playing Zilean but he could be better , get some love. Especially - some choice and versality. Add something to passive , add something to W and E and make him more interesting. He's fine but can be more fun to play. He's a bit underplayed right now so some fresh ideas would be good for him.

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  60. Well, I admit that I have been a bit too negative in my post before, there have been interesting champions since I've started playing... but those are, as you said, rarely played.

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  61. True, but I find Jarvan's ultimate pretty lackluster since roughly everyone takes flash which is an automatic counter to it. :-\

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  62. Except I think he is in a good spot already as far as fun. That's what I'm saying. Being able to save a teammate from the brink of death, whether with his ult or his e, is an amazing feeling. Stopping that last second escape so your team gets a kill, so good. The way his kit is set up now allows anyone to walk in, play him for the first time, and do tolerably well, but leaves the skill cap high enough that those who really practice and excel with him can dominate games.

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  63. I say, you cheeky little impostor! Where have your manners fled to on this occasion? It is most unchaste of you to don thine Gentleman Regalia and disregard the pinnacle aspect.

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  64. I concur. Well said!

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  65. a 100 sec CD for a 3 min cd, it seems fine to me.

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  66. Champions that can be played both AP and AD are examples of well designed champions, why are they complaining about Sion? He just fell out of meta because the newer champions turned ridiculous with their tankyness, burst and dashes.

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  67. I remember that mission

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  68. Skarner isnt that very orginial, Rampage from Heroes of Newerth has the same ultimate as well as an ability to make him faster :P

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  69. Enjoy the taste of steel

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  70. my wishlist for sion:
    make passive occur after armour and resistance so he CAN tank.
    make stun increase his movement speed so he can stick to his target better if he goes melee.
    make ulti do something for AP build.

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  71. Just rework his skill into AD ratio..
    this will do.

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  72. Rampage cant heal like Skarner.
    Rampage cant slow like Skarner.

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  73. the normal jax skin is a much better than the vandal for example

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  74. It's not supposed to be funny, it's supposed to be outrageous, deal with it.

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  75. Yes he can slow, his W is a self-centered AoE, but it's a pretty crappy range like Skarner's Q proc.

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  76. Yeah... but appreciate it if they gave him an update though somehow some of his actions are not suited for skin or are plain bad looking :D

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  77. Sadly....yes its true....but the terrifying thing is...its his own club called "The League of Draven" but it doesnt works so well sience the other Club called "Black Cleavers everywhere" opened. BTW This Club is awesome alot of demacian slaves

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  78. I think 260 skins like Maskless Zed or Wounded Malphite would be widely accepted.

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  79. safary CAIT original price was 975, now ins 487(50%off)

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  80. But, the demacian slaves in "The League of Draven" are girls or...eh...boys?

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  81. Can we just get a model rework for Garen. That boy runs lap around summoner's rift and STILL looks fat. Darius looks built and brolic, not fat. Garen just looks like a soldier whos been resting far too long between wars. IMO

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  82. I really think annie needs a visual rework, her feet are triangular!

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  83. Pulsefire Tristana, duh!

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  84. What are you talking about the only Battlecast shit skin is Xerath's. <3BC Cho

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  85. I would love to see a theme change skin, especially for those champions who are difficult to cater for, like Udyr, I would love to see a normal (if there is a normal in the League) sized champion be given a Yordle makeover for one of their skins or vica versa

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  86. Mordekaiser doesn't steal your ghost he steals your Soul...

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  87. Why are there so many "scion" SION DAMN IT

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  88. Have sion E his passive it gives him bonus AD and increases your max health based on level, keep the stun keep the shield and give him a jump on his E I was thinking like going under ground and popping up at target location and I was thinking of some sort circle with the clawing hand of the dead doing initial damage and damage over time at target location or how about sion calls some of his buddies from hell? idk I'm just thinking out loud

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  89. I know, but I say that because he put it in the "520 RP tier" and it's not.

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  90. I want a blue Akali skin :) I would be so happy if I got a skin like that :D

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  91. what if he morde and sion got some sort of magic damage scaling on their basic attacks?

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  92. dont go bashing on zyra >.< she can do amazing things with her plants

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  93. Without getting a lazer shot to the face? How about let me have a date with Katarina?

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  94. Wow, if you want, she is waiting for you in Noxus.

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