Riot Games, the developer of the popular MOBA game League of Legends, often gives its player base a lot of control over the game. Twice, Riot has allowed for players to vote for the next champion that should receive a full visual and gameplay update (“VGU”), and it has announced a third-such fan vote for League of Legends players.
During the livestream which celebrated the kickoff of League of Legends Season 11, Riot announced Viego, League of Legends’ brand new champion. Riot also provided an update on Dr. Mundo, the champion that was voted to receive a VGU last year, before announcing that players would again be able to pick one of five champions for a full rework next year.
Players will choose between League of Legends‘ Skarner, Nocturne, Quinn, Shyvana, and Udyr for the right to be the next champion to get a full VGU. Voting has already opened and will continue through 11:59 P.M. PT on January 19, with players able to vote on the League of Legends client. For players struggling with the decision, Riot also provided a short description for each champion of what the goals would be for a VGU. It’s a tough decision for the player base, as each of these champions has one massive flaw that has prevented them from being a consistently strong champion in the game.
Riot acknowledged in the description of Skarner that his biggest issue is a lack of an interesting theme. His role as a crystal scorpion is not only generic to the universe of League of Legends, it’s not reflected in his gameplay. Instead of being an immovable object with unshatterable armor, Skarner is more of a somewhat-tanky fighter, which is something Riot should address if he receives a VGU. Luckily for Skarner mains, Riot appears to be committed to keeping his ultimate, which suppresses and drags a targeted enemy. If the developer can rebuild the rest of his kit to focus into that hulking scorpion, it would be a successful rework.
Nocturne is supposed to be the embodiment of a living nightmare in League of Legends, but other than his ultimate ability, he rarely strikes terror into opposing teams. He has actually been on this poll for a VGU for several years, so clearly Riot’s slight tweaks to his gameplay haven’t made him more appealing to players. The suggestion that Riot would modernize his visuals to make him more terrifying will make players compare him to the recent Fiddlesticks rework, which was an overall success.
The biggest issue with Quinn is that gameplay never aligned with her original theme. Quinn was pitched as a marksman who swapped forms with her companion, Valor. Instead, Valor is barely a part of Quinn’s gameplay, featured only in her ultimate ability and some ability effects. Riot has promised that a Quinn VGU would redesign her kit to feel like she and Valor are a team working together. Riot also pointed out that, since Quinn has never been tied to one role in League of Legends, her gameplay could be redesigned from the ground-up with few limitations.
Like Nocturne, Shyvana has been on the VGU poll for a potential rework since the very first year of the poll. Shyvana has always been a very beginner-friendly League of Legends champion, but she has often lacked in terms of her theme. In the game, Shyvana is supposed to be a half-dragon, half-warrior, who unleashes the power of the dragon to cause massive destruction. Her gameplay does allow her to swap between her dragon and human form, but the dragon form doesn’t feel quite as powerful as it should. With Riot promising to make her dragon form more formidable and distinct from her human form, Shyvana is a great candidate for a rework.
Beloved by his mains, Udyr is a champion with an extremely linear playstyle. Currently, Udyr’s power and gameplay largely revolve around which of his forms is the strongest. Riot has noted that is a problem that would be addressed in a rework. If voted for the VGU, Riot Games has also promised not only to make major visual upgrades but also to make each form feel meaningful to use. While swapping his four forms (tiger, bear, turtle, and phoenix) can feel fun, the forms don’t feel distinct or give the player a lot of options to outplay the enemy. Hopefully, Riot would be able to achieve some diversity of playstyle and add a bit more skill expression to Udyr’s kit if he is reworked.
League of Legends is available now on PC.
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