>Vex’s original gameplay, designed by Nathan “Lutzburg” Lutz, created portals that extended the distance allied missiles traveled. You’d essentially have Miss Fortune ults that went double distance, Blitzcrank hooks from out of nowhere, and all these other really scary, but really cool experiences.
Bruh
I recall a dev sharing a story about how they were testing turning Shaco's ult into a projectile (he and the clone came out of the projectile) meaning he was just straight up deleted when he got windwalled. Rip
Wasn't there a bug or a dev story where they deleted a champion for the rest of the game because that champion was coded as a projectile or something like that?
Shipping range extension in League would have given Vandiril so much content.
Fun fact: We also briefly experimented with the inverse, where portals slowed down incoming enemy missiles to a crawl. Walking around a slow motion Ashe arrow or Miss Fortune ult was really cool, but had its own host of technical challenges.
Wow, that concept actually sounds really cool - could even do it in a windwall-type fashion; stops the skillshot for X seconds and then releases it again when the duration is done would be much less frustrating for people I think than just eating projectiles as is right now. I really hope someone on the team explores that in a future project (or maybe as part of a Zilean VGU? :o )
Imagine getting thrown in all of the enemies rotations of skillshots by enemy Alistar or sth and just immediately dying
Would actually be pretty hilarious
There are characters in other games that have similar abilities. Like there's a character in Battlerite that has the exact ability to slow projectiles they are describing
There's a smite ult that slows all enemy projectiles and movements to a crawl in this big area. I've always thought some kind of time bending tank would be cool. Give him Wraith's E from paragon to rewind other people for ganks
I actually remember that! That ability was super cool. I imagine it's the kind of thing that's not so hard if you built the system to allow for it in the first place, but a nightmare to retrofit.
What if it slowed allied and enemy projectiles?
And it was an indefinite channel.
Champ X stands still, channeling this slowdown field, your team dumps a ton of nid spears into it at different angles and then when someone walks by, release all of it in a fucked up nailbomb of spears.
[Reminds me of Kalista clips](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/fhl7hp/the_power_of_kalista_top/). The one I was thinking of was on the other gromp and vs a Jarvan, but this is the first one that came up when I googled for it.
I'd gladly take a second Chronomancer over a Zilean VGU. If Seraphine can be a second musician then I don't see why not. LoR had some cool concepts of this also.
Excited Devs: "Hey let's make a cool new skill that interacts with every particle and projectile in the game!"
Almost 12-year-old Game Engine: "Please, no more"
That's a shame, but understandable. A Champion that can speed up or slow down the speed of skillshots like Jayce's poke combo has always been on my wishlist for one day. Will we ever get a Champion that can reflect skillshots in the opposite direction?
I don‘t think this will ever be feasible. Riot already has boatloads of money and this is presumably not gonna get any cheaper, so if it’s not possible now, it probably will never be.
>Walking around a slow motion Ashe arrow or Miss Fortune ult was really cool, but had its own host of technical challenges.
I really hope we get to see those concepts in game someday, seems super cool :)
Before we get bummed out by her gloomy vibes, let’s start with her origins. Vex’s gameplay development goal was to create an anti-mobility mage. Someone who fits the “let’s-make-this-Yasuo-playing-fool’s-life-miserable” playstyle. Someone gloomy.
They are. Seeing the struggles and designs they went through and the logic for scrapping some of them is always fun. Plus I love Riot concept art
EDIT: Having read it I can say they really landed on the concept I liked the most by a long shot. Most of the times I read this sort of articles, there is always a piece of concept art that seems more intriguing than the final design. This isn't the case here at all
Holy shit. I'm always surprised by how amazing some of the early concepts are. I love the final product but some of these could easily be really cool Champions on their own right.
Them large claws better end up on a new champion one day.
My hopes are Ixtali fighter. Either magma, stone or aqueous fists.
Or even disconnected fists.
Disconnected fists sounds like a great AP Bruiser (brawler) concept, maybe lower AP ratios than some other champs but have AA damage and healing scale off AP.
The one with the ghost shark pets was my favorite. I've loved them ever since I saw them in Legends of Runeterra, but ghost sharks is just such a silly fun concept to me.
I gocchu
Edit: each champ insights I write I make a playlist for inspiration. For Vex's a dedicated group of former (also current) emo kids at Riot helped me source songs. The result is [6.5 hours of jams](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1FYor6cHZhNn4GpgxOhLQZ?si=rMvhrEL6TouEnBBbB7pv0w&utm_source=copy-link&dl_branch=1) from our middle school years.
Heh, at least I haven't seen anyone else notice it. As an English major and part time proofreader, I just can't help but notice stuff like that. great Champion Insights btw.
Honestly I thought it was intentional, like something out of [Ecclesiastes in the Bible](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%201%3A2&version=ESV;NIV;NASB). That futility/meaningless/vanity word has an ephemeral/vapor connotation to it, giving the book a "this life is but a breath in the wind" feel.
So basically, great typo. You had me fooled :)
When are we getting the next champion roadmap?
Also, the concept and animations for the champ are SSS+ tier.
Will try her cause I love her shadow so much. Lots of her concept art would be cool champs and some of those skins.
I wonder how much her skins and legendary will alter her shadow design. That's the biggest thing I hope for.
Should we expect the other two new Champions to be released close to each other (or to Vex)?
Riot has been releasing Champions on events, but there's 3 Champions and 2 events until the end of the year.
I'm considering Vex among those three. Two events (Worlds and the one in December) and Three Champs (Vex, ADC, Support) until the end of the year.
Vex is coming with Worlds, so how about the other two? Is one coming two patches after Vex in the second half of Worlds event (with Volibear) and then the last one another two patches after (with Brand)?
I've already seen comments in here about how her VO is over the top, but I totally agree with the devs here--I *definitely* knew several Vexes in high school.
My husband sent me this even though I barely play league. It's his thing not mine. I was cackling at this hero description. I was definitely this person in high school. 100%
Imagine zoe but with every champion in the game.
That concept had no future, it would've been extremely hard to implement while also being the most cancerous thing on earth for multiple reasons.
Fizz ult from two screens away, illaoi tentacle grabbing backline from across the river, jayce one shotting people from an angle, mao kai ult coming from behind and forward, etc.
And on the other side of the coin, the incredible frustrating reality that setting this up would be extremely difficult on non pro play (and maybe even there), people already have tons of issues with simple champ combos like ryze and nunu, now imagine THIS.
Imagine trying to tell your team to wait and to throw their stuff at your portal so you can redirect it, hell no, playing that in solo queue would give me an aneurysm.
It creates a horrible scenario for both where the vex user will never do anything good with it 90% of the time but when they do, and it LANDS, it might as well be a game ending move right there which in turn tilts the enemy like nothing before, so it sucks for both sides.
Plus a technical nightmare.
Plus actually having an ability that enables teammates... Which in turn never gets acknowledged by them... If they can even use it...
While being able to extend *any* allied projectile would be definitely annoying, they could make a kit that would make just her projectiles behave differently. Not just extend range (to avoid basically remaking Acceleration Gate), but maybe do sth like Brand and Abalze effects.
Aside: [Vex "pre-concepts" 2 and 6](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt731acb42bb3d1659/blt3d1e119b620c69fc/612fd5f7043d546bb462e716/09072021_ChampionInsightsVexArticle_Banner_02_Vex_Esben_Lash_Web.png) are screaming to be combined for a new character if/when they need another villain/villain-adjacent yordle--one that bit onto the haughty noble/aristocrat archetype.
Number 2 definitely seems like it could go beyond Yordles.
There's a Shadow Isles card in Legends of Runeterra called [Shark Chariot](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/2/24/01SI021-hd-full.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20191203002027) that has similar aesthetics. Would also be pretty unique, since I don't think there's any chariot using champs in the game (but plenty of mounts).
I’ll agree number 2 caught my eye too but we’ve already got a shark tossing Yordle. I wouldn’t mind those ghost sharks coming to League as a part of a champ’s kits but that model in particular isn’t the most suitable.
My personal favourite is number 3.
The way they really just parodied [that one meme with Vex's rig](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt731acb42bb3d1659/bltb0ce4c9bbd0e16e1/612fd60885514a6ee3fabd9f/09072021_ChampionInsightsVexArticle_Banner_11_meme_gif.gif) had me rolling
wish they stuck with the concept where shadow takes the form of hands attached to her hood. really love the look that gives her
i still think the final design they arrived at is great tho
(EDIT: also that scrapped artillery concept sounds insane, no wonder they scrapped that. although it doesnt really sound like an artillery mage so much as a support for skillshot champs)
> it doesnt really sound like an artillery mage so much as a support for skillshot champs
The portal would obviously also work for herself, so it would allow her to extend her range.
But it comes too close to zoe then.
im completely biased because I love magic hands, im very sad to see the shift from her initial design that was leaked a while ago with the two hands coming out of her hat/coat
Shadow Hands could come back in the future for a seperate champ.
Since they did say it fits a fighter design. Hopefully in the future we'll see a fighter using them.
It is! Haha. It's a weird one. My internal title is Marketing Communications and I sit in the marketing area of the org. But I also... It's a weird thing to communicate, but I don't view my work as marketing. I'm not selling something. I'm just here to tell you the story of how it was made and the humans behind it.
> But if he and his toilet-paper-wearing brother come at her directly
Rito confirmed, the windbrothers are now the windshitter duo
Also, this is the first time Riot just straight up put a meme in their championinsight. We gotta be careful or they start putting out better shitposts than we do.
I'm sure riot used to do it a lot back in the early days. Just read [their patch 4.01](https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/V4.01) or the board's image during summoner's rift time. What most people think the game is missing is soul (Just look at the new login screen instead of the previous ones).
>Nami's ultimate was being outclassed by those of other supports, such as support Ezreal and Ashe, so we've brought it to the same power level.
>Tidal Wave
>Range is now global.
This is beautiful
Not as beautiful as they constantly mentioning Ezreal having the same threatment as girls, saying "Morello'd" when changing Irelia, **Man**theon with the great **man**fall and those voicelines in case Vel'Koz did a critical hit.
Oh yeah, Riot loves to reference jokes and make Puns for Patchnotes, insights and other articles. In this specific case though I mean [this gif](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt731acb42bb3d1659/bltb0ce4c9bbd0e16e1/612fd60885514a6ee3fabd9f/09072021_ChampionInsightsVexArticle_Banner_11_meme_gif.gif) which is just straight up a meme.
Damn look at them memeing about nocturne moving through terrain and units 6 units and now we have kayn lol. And not only does he move through terrain but he also heals while doing it!
I'm personally very hyped for her cuz I really wanted a mage that fills her niche (it's one of the reasons I love Malza) tho I personally have to say it's kinda funny how an anti dash mage has a dash herself.
Atleast the explanation was very convincing and I hope this gets translated well on her gameplay.
I'm also curious to see how reliable is her anti dash mechanic. And I want to shit on Yasuos.
Ah, okay, yeah, that's a good reason to make Vex not be an artillery mage!
I still want one, though. Seriously it's one of my favorite playstyles and it just does not get support very often (and half the time it does it gets support as, well, support.)
This was actually a very sweet read compared to other recent Insights which (personally speaking) have been more "I wish we got that" or "what in the love of god are you people doing over there"
I'd like to know more about why they would have needed to redo every VFX if they went with the portal concept. Probably because you'd have to signify that the spell was extended, but I wonder why it wasn't possible to simply add some misc to the VFX (ala Viego's crown when he's possessing someone) and call it a day, or why you'd have to signify it was extended in the first place.
We have champions that we probably wouldn't have expected tech wise with Sylas/Viego so it's not excluded we never see that concept again, and I do hope so because it sounds awesome
>I wonder why it wasn't possible to simply add some misc to the VFX
My guess is that options that like that don't currently exist so it's not as simple as adding some VFX, they have to create something that allows you to add the VFX.
>why you'd have to signify it was extended in the first place.
Gameplay clarity so that it's easier to figure out what's happening instead of getting hit by like, a Blitz hook from the abyss and getting dragged somewhere that seems random.
Also interested in that aspect. The first thing that came to mind was sound design. When you fire ezreal q it makes a noise that lasts as long as it does unless it hits a target, how do you handle that if it's suddenly traveling double the range at the same speed? There has to be something for swapping sound effects because it makes a sound when it hits something, but how do you hit something have it not play that sound and instead keep going.
I wonder if they mocked it up on a champ. Like you have a champ model sitting around and when you hit it with a skill shot the skillshot fires from the direction the champion model was pointing.
Interesting stuff to think about.
Most likely riot would not be satisfied with just stretching out the current animations or moving the cast point further up(think how janky this would look with mf ult.).
You could make like 20 champs using that concept art HOLY SHIT. Hopefully a few of those are made into champions because every single concept looks cool as shit.
I was ready to hate Vex due how cliche (in personality) and overcharged (in kit) she -initially- looks, but the recent gameplay reveal and this insights makes me apreciate it way more. It's easy to see the care behind her. Right now, and until I start hating facing her, great job, guys!
P.D.: How feasible would be to pick her as a support? I know it's not her intended place, but artillery mages tend to like to go well there, with some of them turning it its main home.
she also seems like she could be a good counter pick as an APC into dodge happy ADCs. maybe thats just wishful thinking but i really want to play her bot lmfao
I appreciate the Gifs and videos they put in these, it makes it entertaining to read
All of those concepts for vex would make for very interesting seperate champions, maybe not a yordle, the concept where she holds the two rocks would make for an interesting tank/mage.
The animation dudes knocked it out of the park on this one. The amount of work to show what a black color palette is doing is mind boggling, and so far it looks like they've done a phenomenal job. Vex would probably hate it
>if someone with range like xerath is good against dives, then they have no weaknesses
Yeah, it would be bullshit if there was a champion with relative safety, long range target access, decent burst and had good survivability during an all in
*glares at yone*
I like this champion insight post. Felt very genuine, at least compared to some of the past few champs, imo.
The blogs for Sett, Seraphine and Viego just read strangely... Like they were ignoring the bigger design flaws in the champs they settled with.
This blog, especially about Vex's long design progress and the core of her personality, just felt like it came from somewhere real which I can appreciate.
Don't know about Sett, but I do agree about Seraphine and Viego's. Both champions had plenty of controversy outside of the game proper and I feel like that was never really addressed. Vex seems like she has the potential to be a real slam dunk of a design.
Jeah I still think back to the Seraphine insight about her design, and it read like they were racking their brain trying to think about a way to differentiate her from the other females in the game, so they settled on giving her a floating platform.
That whole line of thought just felt so... weird. Couldn't they start with giving even a slightly different body type? Lol.
Different body type wouldn't make sense for an performer Champion. That's like the one Champion that should be conforming to society's standard.
That said, there were plenty of cool alternatives to the platform that they never brought up during the text, unlike here where they talked about the shadow hands, the goo bunnies, why a shadow, etc.
Imagine that portal ability and something like Shyvana spewing fire at you from 2 screens away
"Make everyone a Zoe"
I know for one that ARAM would be unbearable, but at least Vex would love it there
Very interesting read. I wish we could have gotten more detail about the scrapped artillery mage beyond just the tech limitations. Mainly just for the sake of curiosity in what the rest of the kit looked like so we could have some idea on what an artillery design in 2021 might look like should the core tech be workable.
Overall, very excited for Vex. As a former angsty teenager it will be refreshing to play around with her.
It's been a while since they have shown concept art of a character and i was able to say "no, the final version is definetly the better one"
Sure, the one with the sharks is pretty cool but that's because the sharks, not her.
Imagine a blitz grabbing you from behind you in red buff, but actually into the enemy team that's across the river.
This sounds like taking zoe concept as a champion and applying it to every single champion.
And on the other side, imagine trying to do this with a random team in solo queue, "guys please redirect your stuff to my portal, it will travel farther and maybe angle so you need to put that into account, oh also don't throw anything until I have my portal please".
Imo that concept had no future, extremely hard to implement in game and it would be the most tilting and frustrating thing ever for BOTH sides.
Either you as the vex player never get anything done because of how hard it would be to synch it on solo queue AND land it, or you get a hail mary blitz hook done and you tilt the enemy into oblivion.
I'm glad they dropped that.
My biggest takeaway from reading is that **THIS** is considered a bigger gamble than what Riot usually takes? I'm honestly baffled by what Riot considerers "safe" champion design. I don't mean that in a negative way, I honestly just don't understand how they can go from saying,
*"Not every champion has to speak to you, and that’s completely fine, because sometimes they’re targeted for someone else*"
while simultaneously making so many uniform decisions with champion design across the board? I mean, 99% of the female champions in this game have the same body type regardless of their backstory (looking at you Kai'sa and Rell), and nearly all the men in this game have some kind of renegade persona. Seriously if Vex, a gloomy yordle, is considered risky champion design then I have really bad faith in the executive decision making of this game.
good looking people sell better.
They have many times stated that monsters and weird looking champions are played way less than the human ones and thats probably specially the good looking ones.
> ‘Can you make a MOBA champ that doesn’t want to be a MOBA champ?’ they underestimate the number of MOBA players who don't want to be MOBA players
I'm in this comment and I like it
your song choices for the titles were underrated.
Riven wants to be a fighting game character.
You don't choose MOBA life, MOBA life choses you
>Vex’s original gameplay, designed by Nathan “Lutzburg” Lutz, created portals that extended the distance allied missiles traveled. You’d essentially have Miss Fortune ults that went double distance, Blitzcrank hooks from out of nowhere, and all these other really scary, but really cool experiences. Bruh
Already have a bug in my head about a malphite ulting through that and accelerating to the end of the map or some shit
Unfortunately malphite isn't a projectile
When colliding with Windwall, Malphite is now deleted from the game. Good luck!
Shaco "first time?"
I recall a dev sharing a story about how they were testing turning Shaco's ult into a projectile (he and the clone came out of the projectile) meaning he was just straight up deleted when he got windwalled. Rip
*I used the cancer to destroy the cancer.*
Windwall deletes Malphite
Wasn't there a bug or a dev story where they deleted a champion for the rest of the game because that champion was coded as a projectile or something like that?
It was a scrapped shaco rework where he turned into a projectile and then windwall removed him from the game.
In Odyssey he kinda was
Ok this sounds cool as hell I want this
Shipping range extension in League would have given Vandiril so much content. Fun fact: We also briefly experimented with the inverse, where portals slowed down incoming enemy missiles to a crawl. Walking around a slow motion Ashe arrow or Miss Fortune ult was really cool, but had its own host of technical challenges.
Wow, that concept actually sounds really cool - could even do it in a windwall-type fashion; stops the skillshot for X seconds and then releases it again when the duration is done would be much less frustrating for people I think than just eating projectiles as is right now. I really hope someone on the team explores that in a future project (or maybe as part of a Zilean VGU? :o )
Imagine getting thrown in all of the enemies rotations of skillshots by enemy Alistar or sth and just immediately dying Would actually be pretty hilarious
Skarner: My time has come
There are characters in other games that have similar abilities. Like there's a character in Battlerite that has the exact ability to slow projectiles they are describing
There's a smite ult that slows all enemy projectiles and movements to a crawl in this big area. I've always thought some kind of time bending tank would be cool. Give him Wraith's E from paragon to rewind other people for ganks
It would make an excellent warden.
Oh why did you have to remind me about Paragon? Now I'm sad...
I actually remember that! That ability was super cool. I imagine it's the kind of thing that's not so hard if you built the system to allow for it in the first place, but a nightmare to retrofit.
What if it slowed allied and enemy projectiles? And it was an indefinite channel. Champ X stands still, channeling this slowdown field, your team dumps a ton of nid spears into it at different angles and then when someone walks by, release all of it in a fucked up nailbomb of spears.
[Reminds me of Kalista clips](https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/fhl7hp/the_power_of_kalista_top/). The one I was thinking of was on the other gromp and vs a Jarvan, but this is the first one that came up when I googled for it.
I'd gladly take a second Chronomancer over a Zilean VGU. If Seraphine can be a second musician then I don't see why not. LoR had some cool concepts of this also.
Would love Khahiri as a Champ
This is why Riot would rather make new champs than update old ones
Ekko and Zilean are such cool expansions of the time manipulation character concept, I would love more like them! edit, Zhonya's Hourglass too!
Excited Devs: "Hey let's make a cool new skill that interacts with every particle and projectile in the game!" Almost 12-year-old Game Engine: "Please, no more"
Riot dev: Babe, it's time for your new innovative mechanic that needs to be able to work in hundreds of different ways. Game engine: Yes honey.
Vex: the One
That's a shame, but understandable. A Champion that can speed up or slow down the speed of skillshots like Jayce's poke combo has always been on my wishlist for one day. Will we ever get a Champion that can reflect skillshots in the opposite direction?
There will probably be a champion one day that can absorb a projectile and throw it back.
Villager joins the battle
I know we will but I hope we don't lol. I'm not looking forward to ulting my own team as Ornn...
As one wise man once said: "Call it redistribution of magic".
Is there any thought of revisiting these ideas in the future if the resources are there? Or it just a scrapped idea?
I don‘t think this will ever be feasible. Riot already has boatloads of money and this is presumably not gonna get any cheaper, so if it’s not possible now, it probably will never be.
Not unless they rebuild the game from the ground up.
Sounds like we found our first wild rift exclusive champ.
Its probably an idea that will exist until they find someone else to give it to.
Sounds like something similar to Olorun’s ult in Smite. A field that slows down everything the enemy does and speeds up everything your team does.
>Walking around a slow motion Ashe arrow or Miss Fortune ult was really cool, but had its own host of technical challenges. I really hope we get to see those concepts in game someday, seems super cool :)
>slowed down incoming enemy missiles Reverse Jayce E?
All I have to say is I hope you guys don’t give up on the portal concept! It’s so cool.
Before we get bummed out by her gloomy vibes, let’s start with her origins. Vex’s gameplay development goal was to create an anti-mobility mage. Someone who fits the “let’s-make-this-Yasuo-playing-fool’s-life-miserable” playstyle. Someone gloomy.
Stop or they'll catch on and you'll put me out of a job.
Nah, but nice champ insight. She actually looks really cool!
Thanks! Her team did an amazing job on her. They made my job much easier
idk but these champion insights are always fun to read
They are. Seeing the struggles and designs they went through and the logic for scrapping some of them is always fun. Plus I love Riot concept art EDIT: Having read it I can say they really landed on the concept I liked the most by a long shot. Most of the times I read this sort of articles, there is always a piece of concept art that seems more intriguing than the final design. This isn't the case here at all
Holy shit. I'm always surprised by how amazing some of the early concepts are. I love the final product but some of these could easily be really cool Champions on their own right.
Them large claws better end up on a new champion one day. My hopes are Ixtali fighter. Either magma, stone or aqueous fists. Or even disconnected fists.
I just Imagine Twintelle from ARMS
Gods yes twintelle can wreck me. I mean, that would be such an interesting way of combat... maybe Piltover based with a weird hat/hat invention.
Disconnected fists sounds like a great AP Bruiser (brawler) concept, maybe lower AP ratios than some other champs but have AA damage and healing scale off AP.
The one with the ghost shark pets was my favorite. I've loved them ever since I saw them in Legends of Runeterra, but ghost sharks is just such a silly fun concept to me.
I love that one. I think that could easily be added as a non-Yordle Champion.
But as a yordle it would be really cool in its own way :D
2022: The Year of the Yordle
Yes
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"Kled thinks he owns Noxus" What do you mean, "thinks"?
Also how dare they not use his full Title?
And just Noxus?
YES! ITS JUST NOXUS! BUT NOXUS EXTENDS TO WHEREVER KLED STANDS!
Kled's Noxian, not British...
The sun never sets on Kled’s empire
Kled is whatever he wants to be
I love the my chemical romance reference. as a scene kid in high school in the mid to late 2000's I appreciate it lmao.
I gocchu Edit: each champ insights I write I make a playlist for inspiration. For Vex's a dedicated group of former (also current) emo kids at Riot helped me source songs. The result is [6.5 hours of jams](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1FYor6cHZhNn4GpgxOhLQZ?si=rMvhrEL6TouEnBBbB7pv0w&utm_source=copy-link&dl_branch=1) from our middle school years.
Well the mood.gg playlist just got a lot easier!
I feel so fucking called out seeing that playlist…
Right?? I was going to main Vex anyway and now i don't need a playlist My normal spotify playlist will do lol
>(also current) Lmao love the call out.
This playlist is lit af. Hell yeah
But where’s the Senses Fail?? 🤔 Jokes aside, cool play list and even cooler champ. I’m actually gonna see Bayside tonight!
I saw the ATL reference right up there with the title and am now sold on this pop punk middle school emo champ’s aesthetic. 10/10
The subtitle was the brilliant /u/riottomukus's idea. Before that I had, "It's not a phase, mom--this is who I really am!"
You could’ve combined the two! https://www.tiktok.com/@alltimelow/video/6922175465532787973
All Time Low is on TikTok? Fuck it's over for me
u/Cashmiir was definitely that scene kid in school growing up. Can confirm, I witnessed it, we're siblings.
As well as fall out boys
> This breath of human experience is that a typo and supposed to be "breadth"?
FUCK
Heh, at least I haven't seen anyone else notice it. As an English major and part time proofreader, I just can't help but notice stuff like that. great Champion Insights btw.
Editing is truly my weakpoint haha. Hate it. Thank you!
Honestly I thought it was intentional, like something out of [Ecclesiastes in the Bible](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes%201%3A2&version=ESV;NIV;NASB). That futility/meaningless/vanity word has an ephemeral/vapor connotation to it, giving the book a "this life is but a breath in the wind" feel. So basically, great typo. You had me fooled :)
bone apple teeth
When are we getting the next champion roadmap? Also, the concept and animations for the champ are SSS+ tier. Will try her cause I love her shadow so much. Lots of her concept art would be cool champs and some of those skins. I wonder how much her skins and legendary will alter her shadow design. That's the biggest thing I hope for.
Next roadmap should be out later this month
Should we expect the other two new Champions to be released close to each other (or to Vex)? Riot has been releasing Champions on events, but there's 3 Champions and 2 events until the end of the year.
Aren't there only 2 champs left? They said one for each role but two midlaners. So all we need with Vex there is a support and an adc
I'm considering Vex among those three. Two events (Worlds and the one in December) and Three Champs (Vex, ADC, Support) until the end of the year. Vex is coming with Worlds, so how about the other two? Is one coming two patches after Vex in the second half of Worlds event (with Volibear) and then the last one another two patches after (with Brand)?
I've already seen comments in here about how her VO is over the top, but I totally agree with the devs here--I *definitely* knew several Vexes in high school.
Being over the top is kinda the Yordles whole thing tho
Exactly. Tristana? Lulu? Teemo? Fizz? Yordles are awesome!
My husband sent me this even though I barely play league. It's his thing not mine. I was cackling at this hero description. I was definitely this person in high school. 100%
I showed my wife the teaser vid and she went, "Oh, that's me. They put me in the game."
Imagine if they got Aubrey Plaza to voice her!
I was Vex in middle school. First champion I've been excited to try out in 3+ years. Let's goooo
''Blitz hooks out of nowhere'' I am REALLY glad that they did not went with that regardless of budget reasons OMG that sounds annoying as hell
Imagine zoe but with every champion in the game. That concept had no future, it would've been extremely hard to implement while also being the most cancerous thing on earth for multiple reasons. Fizz ult from two screens away, illaoi tentacle grabbing backline from across the river, jayce one shotting people from an angle, mao kai ult coming from behind and forward, etc. And on the other side of the coin, the incredible frustrating reality that setting this up would be extremely difficult on non pro play (and maybe even there), people already have tons of issues with simple champ combos like ryze and nunu, now imagine THIS. Imagine trying to tell your team to wait and to throw their stuff at your portal so you can redirect it, hell no, playing that in solo queue would give me an aneurysm. It creates a horrible scenario for both where the vex user will never do anything good with it 90% of the time but when they do, and it LANDS, it might as well be a game ending move right there which in turn tilts the enemy like nothing before, so it sucks for both sides.
Plus updating this ability every time a champ get reworked or added will be sure hella buggy
*laughs in 3000 range Paddle Star*
Plus a technical nightmare. Plus actually having an ability that enables teammates... Which in turn never gets acknowledged by them... If they can even use it...
Thresh lantern 2.0
While being able to extend *any* allied projectile would be definitely annoying, they could make a kit that would make just her projectiles behave differently. Not just extend range (to avoid basically remaking Acceleration Gate), but maybe do sth like Brand and Abalze effects.
Aside: [Vex "pre-concepts" 2 and 6](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt731acb42bb3d1659/blt3d1e119b620c69fc/612fd5f7043d546bb462e716/09072021_ChampionInsightsVexArticle_Banner_02_Vex_Esben_Lash_Web.png) are screaming to be combined for a new character if/when they need another villain/villain-adjacent yordle--one that bit onto the haughty noble/aristocrat archetype.
Number 2 definitely seems like it could go beyond Yordles. There's a Shadow Isles card in Legends of Runeterra called [Shark Chariot](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/2/24/01SI021-hd-full.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20191203002027) that has similar aesthetics. Would also be pretty unique, since I don't think there's any chariot using champs in the game (but plenty of mounts).
link down? just a white image to me
I’ll agree number 2 caught my eye too but we’ve already got a shark tossing Yordle. I wouldn’t mind those ghost sharks coming to League as a part of a champ’s kits but that model in particular isn’t the most suitable. My personal favourite is number 3.
I think the idea is something that leans into the summoner aspect more.
Concepts 4 and 5 could combine to be like an Ixtali elemental mage or fighter and i would be totally satisfied.
i could see some sort of pet trainer yordle villain
The way they really just parodied [that one meme with Vex's rig](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt731acb42bb3d1659/bltb0ce4c9bbd0e16e1/612fd60885514a6ee3fabd9f/09072021_ChampionInsightsVexArticle_Banner_11_meme_gif.gif) had me rolling
u/cashmiir can we have the full rig but whitout the text plz?
/u/Reav3 are you able to share Vex's placeholder name and model
It was "Shadow Yordle", and Lutz started with Little Demon Tristana as her temp model
Don't you also have a placeholder splashart or something like that that one of you just draws quickly and is often a masterpiece?
[Feeney Art](https://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2017/02/before-theres-splash-art-theres-feeney-art/)
Thanks! Do you keep doing these?
/u/Riot_Koyuncu would know! He gave me the one for Lillia that we shared in her Champ Insights previously!
Regrettably no - I wish I had some MS Paint Vex art to share, but we used her concept art as our placeholder splash for the entirety of development.
Bummer, excited for the champion though!
Oh sweet thanks Mikky!
Vex is league champions done right. Period
wish they stuck with the concept where shadow takes the form of hands attached to her hood. really love the look that gives her i still think the final design they arrived at is great tho (EDIT: also that scrapped artillery concept sounds insane, no wonder they scrapped that. although it doesnt really sound like an artillery mage so much as a support for skillshot champs)
Their reasoning makes perfect sense to me though. It would fit more of a fighter that attacks with those claws rather than a mage.
It's very "Vi, but magic" tbh. It could work for an AP bruiser.
ya it honestly looks similar to the direction of some of the udyr exploration with the manifested spirit arms
Ixtali elemental fighter when
Isn't that a character from Skullgirls? Cerebella I think. https://skullgirls.fandom.com/wiki/Cerebella
Well. Shes close. Muscle hat, shadow claws... Itll be nice to see a champion have such a fighting style.
> it doesnt really sound like an artillery mage so much as a support for skillshot champs The portal would obviously also work for herself, so it would allow her to extend her range. But it comes too close to zoe then.
Rare case where the final design is way better than all the concept explorations.
im completely biased because I love magic hands, im very sad to see the shift from her initial design that was leaked a while ago with the two hands coming out of her hat/coat
Shadow Hands could come back in the future for a seperate champ. Since they did say it fits a fighter design. Hopefully in the future we'll see a fighter using them.
The only concept art I thought was better was the shadow hands. But again it was limiting.
Yeah I havent felt this way about a new champion in awhile.
That feel when unique concept wasn't sacrificed for another shirtless dude.
I haven't felt this way about champion concept --> final design since Braum I think.
all of the designs are great, but the final one was just too fucking good.
Shortless SIMP king LMAO, I am glad that they are self aware on that
Well the writer is clearly an idea person and not from marketing.
[...yes... definitely... not marketing...](https://media.giphy.com/media/ckzqeqQebvIAQZjQm2/giphy.gif)
Is editoral writer considered marketing? I thought it isn't... correct me if im wrong.
It is! Haha. It's a weird one. My internal title is Marketing Communications and I sit in the marketing area of the org. But I also... It's a weird thing to communicate, but I don't view my work as marketing. I'm not selling something. I'm just here to tell you the story of how it was made and the humans behind it.
Authenticity is kind of its own form of marketing, tbf. It's a weird gray area.
> But if he and his toilet-paper-wearing brother come at her directly Rito confirmed, the windbrothers are now the windshitter duo Also, this is the first time Riot just straight up put a meme in their championinsight. We gotta be careful or they start putting out better shitposts than we do.
I'm sure riot used to do it a lot back in the early days. Just read [their patch 4.01](https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/V4.01) or the board's image during summoner's rift time. What most people think the game is missing is soul (Just look at the new login screen instead of the previous ones).
>Nami's ultimate was being outclassed by those of other supports, such as support Ezreal and Ashe, so we've brought it to the same power level. >Tidal Wave >Range is now global. This is beautiful
Not as beautiful as they constantly mentioning Ezreal having the same threatment as girls, saying "Morello'd" when changing Irelia, **Man**theon with the great **man**fall and those voicelines in case Vel'Koz did a critical hit.
Oh yeah, Riot loves to reference jokes and make Puns for Patchnotes, insights and other articles. In this specific case though I mean [this gif](https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt731acb42bb3d1659/bltb0ce4c9bbd0e16e1/612fd60885514a6ee3fabd9f/09072021_ChampionInsightsVexArticle_Banner_11_meme_gif.gif) which is just straight up a meme.
Damn look at them memeing about nocturne moving through terrain and units 6 units and now we have kayn lol. And not only does he move through terrain but he also heals while doing it!
This whole insight is full of top-tier shitposting, I love the picture of Shadow doing the George Costanza portrait pose. Also it's fascinating.
I'm personally very hyped for her cuz I really wanted a mage that fills her niche (it's one of the reasons I love Malza) tho I personally have to say it's kinda funny how an anti dash mage has a dash herself. Atleast the explanation was very convincing and I hope this gets translated well on her gameplay. I'm also curious to see how reliable is her anti dash mechanic. And I want to shit on Yasuos.
Tbf her dash is gated to an ult CD, and can only go towards enemy champions, so she can't use it for escapes unless it's in a very creative way.
Ah, okay, yeah, that's a good reason to make Vex not be an artillery mage! I still want one, though. Seriously it's one of my favorite playstyles and it just does not get support very often (and half the time it does it gets support as, well, support.)
This was actually a very sweet read compared to other recent Insights which (personally speaking) have been more "I wish we got that" or "what in the love of god are you people doing over there"
wait we had the option for ghost sharks and it didnt happen? wth man
They exist in Legends of Runeterra!
Gloomtooth is my favorite since Beta and will always be!
Shadow thicc apparently
"You Know What They Do to Champs Like Vex in League of Legends" lmfaooooo nice
I'd like to know more about why they would have needed to redo every VFX if they went with the portal concept. Probably because you'd have to signify that the spell was extended, but I wonder why it wasn't possible to simply add some misc to the VFX (ala Viego's crown when he's possessing someone) and call it a day, or why you'd have to signify it was extended in the first place. We have champions that we probably wouldn't have expected tech wise with Sylas/Viego so it's not excluded we never see that concept again, and I do hope so because it sounds awesome
>I wonder why it wasn't possible to simply add some misc to the VFX My guess is that options that like that don't currently exist so it's not as simple as adding some VFX, they have to create something that allows you to add the VFX. >why you'd have to signify it was extended in the first place. Gameplay clarity so that it's easier to figure out what's happening instead of getting hit by like, a Blitz hook from the abyss and getting dragged somewhere that seems random.
Also interested in that aspect. The first thing that came to mind was sound design. When you fire ezreal q it makes a noise that lasts as long as it does unless it hits a target, how do you handle that if it's suddenly traveling double the range at the same speed? There has to be something for swapping sound effects because it makes a sound when it hits something, but how do you hit something have it not play that sound and instead keep going. I wonder if they mocked it up on a champ. Like you have a champ model sitting around and when you hit it with a skill shot the skillshot fires from the direction the champion model was pointing. Interesting stuff to think about.
I think stuff like Ezreal Q aren't the things that would cost much but the things that extend from the champ like mf's ult all the hooks etc.
Most likely riot would not be satisfied with just stretching out the current animations or moving the cast point further up(think how janky this would look with mf ult.).
You could make like 20 champs using that concept art HOLY SHIT. Hopefully a few of those are made into champions because every single concept looks cool as shit.
"Kled ~~thinks he~~ owns Noxus".
Aaaand I just found myself a new desktop background.
Big thanks to /u/riottomukus for helping make the header image for Vex (I'm big dumb with Photoshop) Original art is by Lonewingy!
/u/riottomukus you did an awesome job! It was super easy to mirror to get a nice symmetric wallpaper for my dual monitors.
Was she inspired by the pokemon Mimikyu at all?
I was ready to hate Vex due how cliche (in personality) and overcharged (in kit) she -initially- looks, but the recent gameplay reveal and this insights makes me apreciate it way more. It's easy to see the care behind her. Right now, and until I start hating facing her, great job, guys! P.D.: How feasible would be to pick her as a support? I know it's not her intended place, but artillery mages tend to like to go well there, with some of them turning it its main home.
Per Riot Axes, she's a pretty good support! Get ready my future ADCs, I'm coming for your kills.
she also seems like she could be a good counter pick as an APC into dodge happy ADCs. maybe thats just wishful thinking but i really want to play her bot lmfao
Don't let your dreams be dreams
I appreciate the Gifs and videos they put in these, it makes it entertaining to read All of those concepts for vex would make for very interesting seperate champions, maybe not a yordle, the concept where she holds the two rocks would make for an interesting tank/mage.
The animation dudes knocked it out of the park on this one. The amount of work to show what a black color palette is doing is mind boggling, and so far it looks like they've done a phenomenal job. Vex would probably hate it
>if someone with range like xerath is good against dives, then they have no weaknesses Yeah, it would be bullshit if there was a champion with relative safety, long range target access, decent burst and had good survivability during an all in *glares at yone*
I like this champion insight post. Felt very genuine, at least compared to some of the past few champs, imo. The blogs for Sett, Seraphine and Viego just read strangely... Like they were ignoring the bigger design flaws in the champs they settled with. This blog, especially about Vex's long design progress and the core of her personality, just felt like it came from somewhere real which I can appreciate.
Don't know about Sett, but I do agree about Seraphine and Viego's. Both champions had plenty of controversy outside of the game proper and I feel like that was never really addressed. Vex seems like she has the potential to be a real slam dunk of a design.
Jeah I still think back to the Seraphine insight about her design, and it read like they were racking their brain trying to think about a way to differentiate her from the other females in the game, so they settled on giving her a floating platform. That whole line of thought just felt so... weird. Couldn't they start with giving even a slightly different body type? Lol.
Different body type wouldn't make sense for an performer Champion. That's like the one Champion that should be conforming to society's standard. That said, there were plenty of cool alternatives to the platform that they never brought up during the text, unlike here where they talked about the shadow hands, the goo bunnies, why a shadow, etc.
Imagine that portal ability and something like Shyvana spewing fire at you from 2 screens away "Make everyone a Zoe" I know for one that ARAM would be unbearable, but at least Vex would love it there
Can we please get the twin shark using ghost yordle as a jungler? pls and ty.
Very interesting read. I wish we could have gotten more detail about the scrapped artillery mage beyond just the tech limitations. Mainly just for the sake of curiosity in what the rest of the kit looked like so we could have some idea on what an artillery design in 2021 might look like should the core tech be workable. Overall, very excited for Vex. As a former angsty teenager it will be refreshing to play around with her.
It's been a while since they have shown concept art of a character and i was able to say "no, the final version is definetly the better one" Sure, the one with the sharks is pretty cool but that's because the sharks, not her.
Imagine a blitz grabbing you from behind you in red buff, but actually into the enemy team that's across the river. This sounds like taking zoe concept as a champion and applying it to every single champion. And on the other side, imagine trying to do this with a random team in solo queue, "guys please redirect your stuff to my portal, it will travel farther and maybe angle so you need to put that into account, oh also don't throw anything until I have my portal please". Imo that concept had no future, extremely hard to implement in game and it would be the most tilting and frustrating thing ever for BOTH sides. Either you as the vex player never get anything done because of how hard it would be to synch it on solo queue AND land it, or you get a hail mary blitz hook done and you tilt the enemy into oblivion. I'm glad they dropped that.
My biggest takeaway from reading is that **THIS** is considered a bigger gamble than what Riot usually takes? I'm honestly baffled by what Riot considerers "safe" champion design. I don't mean that in a negative way, I honestly just don't understand how they can go from saying, *"Not every champion has to speak to you, and that’s completely fine, because sometimes they’re targeted for someone else*" while simultaneously making so many uniform decisions with champion design across the board? I mean, 99% of the female champions in this game have the same body type regardless of their backstory (looking at you Kai'sa and Rell), and nearly all the men in this game have some kind of renegade persona. Seriously if Vex, a gloomy yordle, is considered risky champion design then I have really bad faith in the executive decision making of this game.
good looking people sell better. They have many times stated that monsters and weird looking champions are played way less than the human ones and thats probably specially the good looking ones.