[2020] Lead skins producer RiotKatana on future Ultimate skins:

Originally posted by SadSecurity

GGMF feel into the ultimate category, she checked all the boxes yet you had mass flame some deserved and some not.

The problem is how those boxes were checked. Her animations resembled base skin way too much and different forms were basically chromas. Some people also criticized the theme, design and VO.

Originally posted by bloodwolftico

Thanks for clarifying! A bit of feedback:

• As far as Quest Skins go, and this being the first, I actually don't mind unlocking contenting this way, if it was just a regular skin (or even Legendary). But the fact this was supposed to be Ultimate make me feel kinda weird as a player, as past Ultimate skins have been "purchase once, get everything" kind of a deal. I can deal w this though, its not a big deal for me, just feels a bit out of place for the skin tier.

• Expectations on Ultimate: as I mentioned on another thread, to me an Ultimate means I can do something cool in game, either passively (see Ezreal transform) or actively (pick a song in DJ Sona, pick a transformation in Lux). This is in addition to all the new cool things a Legendary would have (new voice over, new textures, new colors, new theme, new sounds, new VFX, etc).

• GGMF: I wasn't as upset as other people when this came out, but I was a bit disappointed cause besides having new textures, VFX and swapping forms, the voice over was done just once, and all 4 forms felt pretty much like 1 skin 4 chromas. The difference between Lux and MF skins, to me, was that I was expecting new voices for each form, as a way to get a similar theme but a different take past just colors. This didn't happen.

• Seraphine's Release Skin: TBH I haven't seen it in game or know the details of what it has to offer (waiting on someone w PBE access to share). But yes, the skin split also feels weird to me, as a player, but I will give it time and see what comes w these new skins.

• Future Releases: so now I understand the tech limitations on new overloaded assets like Elementalist Lux. It is understandable, if you guys can't release similar projects of this scope in the future, that's fine. I would like LoL to have more capabilities in this manner, so more elaborate Ultimate skins could be released, but I understand this limitation falls outside the hands of the skin-design team.

Originally posted by Hephaestus20

/u/RiotKatana I rarely comment on these criticism threads and I am not one to shy away from spending money on League content, but I just want to voice a few specific points that are stopping me personally from buying this skin:

TL;DR: 1. Forcing the user to buy the bundle instead of a more flexibile pricing model 2. Marketing the skin as Ultimate, as opposed to just Quest 3. The base model does not look very good, so having the only other option being the Ultimate skin feels terrible from a player perspective 4. People already don't like her kit/the announcement, so some of the hate is probably spilling over

1. Forcing the user to buy the entire bundle, as opposed to a pricing model similar to Star Guardian/Pajama Guardian or Cosmic/Dark Star Lux. I can justify spending $10-15 for one of these skins based on the splash arts I have seen so far, but $25 for 2 others that I probably won't use (as you said, people generally just stay with the form they like anyway)? That has to be a very exceptional skin, and right now I am not seeing how that translates in this concept where I can only change the skin in champ select. Especially after the release of some great work on skins like Spirit Blossom Thresh, Spirit Blossom Ahri, and Storm Dragon Lee Sin.

2. Marketing it as an ultimate skin sets the user up for disappointment, especially since the bar is now Elementalist Lux for that tier of skin. While I completely respect why you cannot make that level of skin from a technical/game health perspective, it also should be recognized that Riot has set the bar high for Ultimate skins. I think if this was just branded as a Quest skin, instead of an Ultimate skin AND Quest skin, the backlash would be harsh still (grinding to unlock a skin I already paid for doesn't sit well with me personally), but less severe.

3. I, like a lot of people here, dislike the base model of Sera (for me the colors are too bright on her outfit, wish it was more subtle/Piltover-style with her hair being the big color pop, more similar to her final form in KDA). As someone who plays supportive mids, I still want to play the champ and would be willing to pay $10 for the release skin if it corrected some of the color scheme problems I had (Especially if the color just changes on her abilities from the light blue-->pink in the skin line), but $25 is just too much for a champ I have never even played(see point 1).

4. People are already mad at the kit of the champion for her "similarities" to Sona and the amount of hype/effort that went into marketing Sera for what is admittedly an underwhelming release announcement and pretty generic character (although I am in the camp that she will play much differently than Sona). I am pretty sure that if people were super hyped to play Sera and you announced this plan, the feedback would be less severe.

This is obviously just my opinion from what I have seen so far and I am totally willing to admit fault if the skins blow us away on the PBE. Just thought I would offer some constructive criticism since a lot of these threads can devolve into "RIOT BAD" without articulating why. I think this is more of a marketing/branding failure than anything else and I appreciate you engaging with the community on this!

Originally posted by Not_Maple

im hoping that each skin is basically a legendary with new vo, vfx, and emotes for each one. it would be extremely disappointing if it were basically legendary with 2 chromas you can choose in champ select.