Hey all, I wanted to say that we really appreciate the discussion around Firelight Ekko's lack of SFX. We completely agree that SFX are a standard and expected part of an Epic (1350) skin, and leaving them out was an unfortunate mistake on our part due to a miscommunication internally. While we do everything we can to avoid delaying content, we're going to hold off from shipping this skin for a few patches to work on adding new SFX. This also means the skin will come off of PBE for now.
We are also going to take advantage of the extra time to address some of the other feedback we’ve seen on PBE including a unique homeguard. Homeguard animations are a feature that we have included on a very limited set of Epic skins when we feel it meaningfully helps sell the fantasy in a way that we couldn't otherwise. I want to reinforce that this level of scope is not something we can add during a regular PBE cycle or to every Epic skin due to time constraints, but we're also in an unusual situation with Ekko. Given that the SFX addition will give us more time than a normal PBE cycle and because we agree with your feedback that adding this animation strongly contributes to Firelight Ekko's story and the celebration of Arcane, we will be including a hoverboard Homeguard animation to go live with the new SFX. Since many players have voiced they’d like to see Ekko with his mask on more, we’ll make sure to include it in the homeguard animation as well. We’ll also be taking a look at his VFX to make some small adjustments there.
I know many of you are waiting patiently for this skin, and hope the final results will be worth the extra wait. Thanks!
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