Sale Overview: New Flexible Cost Bundles

  2 Responses to “Sale Overview: New Flexible Cost Bundles”

1. 

   Ken Perry says:

   June 6, 2013 at 06:20

   Hi Zero,

   Great work as always bringing us the breaking news about the new bundle packs.

   I thought that Id add some thoughts to your insightful commentary.

   You did not mention the Champions bundle at all. The interesting thing about this bundle is that most of the champions are low cost champions and many of you readers already have most or all of them. However, if you own all the champions then this is your chance to get the highly collectible Hntress Sivir skin for 975 riot points. Before this flexible pricing sale, the skin was 3900 points which was more than the Ezrael skin. This sale seems to be a rare chance for Sivir fans to get a quality collectible skinat a “reasonable” price. Ive noticed that youve upgraded your Sivir page to reflect these changes and raised your rating from 2 stars to 4 stars and updated the price of her skin to 975 points. Perhaps to the eagle eye, it seems like you softened you commentary a bit on its quality but still hold a lot of respect for this skin. While Bandit Sivir still seems to be your recommended purchase; one could almost infer that with Huntress Sivir holding an eqaul 4 star rating to Bandit Sivir that she would also be a recommended purchase if she were constantly available at a normal price.

   Let me offer some of my thoughts on the Commando Package. While not special to look at, the skins do seem to hold reasonable value in a couple of regards. Zero, you mention with the Lux skin which actually holds a 3 star rating and I quote, “that her skin is drab, dull, and unexciting.”. And Garen is, “monochromatic and dull.”; Galio is “muddy and unexciting”; Xin Zhou is “a bit flat …. with subdued execution.”; And Jarvin IV, “looks like the mock of an army uniform”.

   For an alternate point of view let me suggest that the commando skins offer a hint of function over form. The Army has its soldiers wear green uniforms so that they will be less visible. Its hard to shoot at what you cannot see. The green hue of these skins does seem to blend better in the foliage and background of the summoners rift map. If a commando uniform were to give you a split second advantage in that your champion was slightly less noticeable and gave you an extra moment before you were noticed or made it just a hair harder to target then these skins would hold value on a functionally playability basis rather than our appreciation of artistic merit. Xin Zhou, and Jarvan IV would seem to hold particular interest to the jungler that wanted to ease out of the bushes and command a gank. While most of the time, I would prefer the beauty of Warring Kingdoms Xin Zhou or Jarvan IV, if it were a critically important game that for whatever reason I needed a win then Id choose the commando skins as one might hope for that brief advantage from perhaps being better camouflaged and harder to notice.

   Additionally, there seems to be somewhere around 14 champions that wear sunglasses. Leona has a passive that marks targets with sunglasses and these 14 champions that have sunglasses have a very slight buff to their defense versus the Leona passive. I am absolutely adament in my feelings that this is a bad road to go down and that riot made a huge mistake. There should never be any skin that changes that stats and function and form of gameplay but the commando skins have sunglasses and are the only skins for the 5 champions that can wear them that do. There is an urban legend that in at least one high profile ranked game that Garen in a commando skin fought Leona and survived with 1 hp in a team fight which lead to win. I dont know if its true but 1 extra point is enough if you live and your opponent dies.

   In conclusion, these 5 commando relic skins seem to sprout from an era when riot believed that skins would sell better if they added actual gameplay advantages to skins. The advantages are slight but they still seem to be built in and during the loading screen between champion select and game beginning, riot still sometimes mentions the value of sunglasses. Artistically, there are better skins and choices. For gameplay, these are skins that hold slight play advantages and value. They are cheap and not overly ugly and perhaps might be worthy of purchase.

   The Damsel Distress bundle does not seem special to me. 25% off is nice but as you mention; the discount is acceptable but unless you want all the champions in it that come included then it does not do much to expire. If I have to buy a champion I do not want or am not ready for at 75% of retail so I can get 25% of the price of one that I do then its not a great deal.

   Personally, I bought the grab bag bundle. However, all I needed was Thresh and his skin. Im not a fan of Thresh but you have his Deep Terror skin rated at 5 stars so I bought it because of your review. I suppose that I could have waited for the champion to go on sale and the skin and saved 392 riot points but no telling how long it would be before I could add both to my collection. 30% off Nautilus and IBlitzcrank seem problematic to me. Riot recently raised the price of these skins over 30% and to turn around and put them right back on sale for 30% off doesnt seem like they are doing us much of a favor. I Blitzcrank is a good skin but I believe skin collectors should wait for a half off sale on general principle. Nautilus has one of the best classic skins in the game so you would think his fans would be happy to wait and Blitzcranks classic skin is not bad either. As an aside, you would think that if riot is going to have sunglasses in the game to counter Leonas passive that AstroNautilus would earn the benefit while wearing his solar visor but riot seemed to drop the ball on this fact. Short of Deep Terror Thresh which is still a Zero 5 star rated skin at a reasonable starting price; I do not see the point in buying the other 2 skins for virtually the same price you could have paid weeks ago at “full” price. Wait for a sale.

   Finally, we come to the All-Star bundle. Hillbilly Gragas is noteworthy because its an awful and putrid skin. If I were a grocery store, I wouldnt want rotten produce on the sales floor and if I were riot then I would not want this rotten skin available for sale. They could have taken the same concept, sharpened it up and improved it with minimal effort. This skin is lazy. I like the idea of a Moonshine Gragas but this skin is beyond bad. Its also compounded by being included in a package the same week it is on sale in the current sale. Its almost like riot is pounding the table to generate revenues from a horrid product that should be retired. I did buy the All-Star bundle for other reasons but feel insulted they slapped this product in there and made me pay an extra 260 for it. Its only 260 but they had many other options for the same price that were better. Caitlyn was a champion that I did not own and was a reason I bought the pack. She saved me a bit of farming and her Resistance skin is enjoyable and reasonably priced at 260. I was happy with this part of the purchase. I bought the Full Metal Jayce before the price hike and like it better and yet after the price increase Zero has Debonair Jayce as his recommended purchase which is noteworthy. I did not own Lulu and Wicked Lulu is Zero recommended so Im very happy with that part of the deal. Mecha Kha’Zix is overpriced which is a crying shame because its his only skin and his classic skin is not great but at half price his skin comes into focus and is a reasonable and enjoyable purchase for those of us that collect champions and would like at least one good skin for each. Overall, Wicked Lulu is the star of the show and if you want a skin for Kha’Zix this is your chance. I still think Mecha Kha’Zix is overpriced but the 1650 riot points saved on Wicked Lulu and Kha’Zix covered up the sins of the 1447 riot points I spent on the other products. I did get Caitlyn and a respectable skin to go with her and well Jayce is a Zero favorite so Im sure it will grow on me as I study it more and discover its merits. Gragas is just moldy cheese next to 4 course meal. You probably should buy this or not based on whether or not you want the Debonair Jayce, Wicked Lulu and Kha’Zix skins. I really only wanted 2 of the 3 but Zero likes Debonair Jayce and I trust him so heres hoping. If I can play Debonair Jayce 25-30 times and enjoy him then hes worth the money. Though I still have a couple of dozen plays left in Full Metal Jayce to feel I got value from his skin.

   Thank you Zero for all your hard work.

   Reply
   • 

     Zero says:

     June 6, 2013 at 18:19

     Actually the Champions and Digital Collector’s Bundle are permanent. That is, they are here to stay with their flexible prices but the other bundles will last only until the 10th of June. That’s why we thought it would be better to update the reviews of Goth Annie and Huntress Sivir with their new 975 RP price; assuming you own all the other content.

     Your point of view on the Commando skins is very interesting. However, we disagree on function over form as one look at Commando Jarvan’s huge and cumbersome shoulder guns demonstrate. The problem with the skins is that they are neither realistic nor visually attractive. We could understand one or the other but neither makes the skins lack artistic value.

     As far as we know hidden passives like the sunglasses or multiple ninja have lost their stat changes. They used to have an affect, maybe by just one point, but were changed to be merely aesthetic. If we recall, the idea to remove stat changes from skins was to follow the guideline of not selling power. Regardless, the LoL Wiki identifies some passives to actually affect stats so from this point of view this skins could add some power.

     We completely agree on the Damsels Causing Distress and Grab Bag Bundle. The former is nothing spectacular and the latter would feel better if it weren’t for the price changes. Deep Terror Thresh is a great skin; especially if you like underwater themes. He does look a bit monochromatic but seeing his particles and recall animations surely makes up for them. AstroNautilus and iBlitzcrank are still among the best 1350 RP skins and surely worth considering but the price change makes a regular sale even more attractive.

     As an aside, Neon Strike Vi doesn’t benefit from the sunglasses passive either; regardless of whether she is wearing her sunglasses or not. As far as consistency in hidden passives go Riot isn’t doing a great job.

     With the All Star Bundle we also agree: Riot should consider retiring Hillbilly Gragas; the concept isn’t bad in itself but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Resistance Caitlyn isn’t spectacular but still is a nice looking skin with a concept that fits her rather well; her rifle should look a bit more modern though. Debonair Jayce shows him under a very different light in comparison with Full Metal. While he may look like a bit strange in a suit with a huge hammer there’s enough charm to make for a convincing and appealing Jayce Bond.

     Wicked Lulu may not be anything groundbreaking but is well done, satisfying and has her own identity. So, as far as skins go for Lulu, it’s one of her best. Finally, with Mecha Kha’Zix we agree that the skin isn’t as good as its price would lead one to believe. It’s a skin that offers a lot but what is offered isn’t really astounding. The skin does look good but it doesn’t manage to be more than the sum of its parts; it simply doesn’t feel special.

     We are glad you find the reviews useful and will continue trying to write the best practical advice that you can trust. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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