User blog:Kashicorn/The *Updated* Plague Rat & More

So, if any of you have opened the launcher, hit Surrender@20.net, or the official League of Legends website, you would know that our Plague Rat, Twitch, has finally gotten a visual upgrade.

Twitch was released in 2009, and was out almost at the very start of League itself. They've come a long way, and it's a good thing that Twitch has recieved the visual upgrade he deserves.

If anybody is an older player, like me, you would remember the Twitch rework. (which came along with an Evelynn rework) This happened right after I bought those two champs, so I remember it fondly. This was the first step in re-creating our furry little friend.

The old Twitch model was very poorly done, since it was done so early. Beneath his cloak is mostly just wire frame, and his feet were hardly visible. This made it difficult for Riot to do anything for Twitch skin wise. With this visual upgrade, I say it's a safe bet to expect "Exterminator Twitch" to come along with it. All of the current skins have been re-done, and to me, they look amazing. I couldn't expect more from Riot Games.

(The photo was taking too long so here's a link to the official page : http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/champion-update-new-breed-plague-rat )

Now, with this visual upgrade, first thing we notice is that it's Twitch, got it. But if you think about it, Twitch is the first champion with FUR to get a VU. That means that by looking at this VU, we can expect (some) similar results in the Warwick visual upgrade, when it happens. Also, whenever they've done something with Twitch, they've done something with Evelynn as well. Stealth champions stick together, so does this mean we can have an Evelynn visual upgrade as well? Unlikely, but a possibilty.

Following that, the skins are...all glorious. Unlike the Heimer update which completely scrambled the public opinion on which skins were better than the others, all 5 of his skins are just...so much better-looking. Except for one. Kingpin Twitch actually looks like a big boss as opposed to a recolor with his eye "ripped out" so to speak. Gangster Twitch still retains every bit of glory of his old style, but only now it fits in with all the other Mafia skins as a whole which is just a net gain for everybody. Whistler Village Twitch is somewhat less of a recolor, but now he looks more like an entirely different person, much like a lab rat being tested for his abilities on a fighting adventure rather than his origins, which puts it on the scale of such skins like Rageborn Mundo, Popstar Ahri, High Noon Yasuo, Wicked LeBlanc, Brolaf, Emumu, and other various alternate personality skins - just this alone will probably make using the skin feel like a whole new experience which would be just...just fantastic. Medieval Twitch, being my once greatly yearned-for skin that I have wanted since long ago was enough of a surprise to me that I found it a plus for just being able to see it in-game.

Vandal Twitch....however... Let me just say this. About 65% of my games were played with Vandal Twitch, depending on whether any of the other players in my games might have potentially had any skins to match with Gangster. He looked amazing, had that rad attitude, and he had SUNGLASSES. Probably the main feature that seems to be missing from this skin is his iconic Vandal sunglasses. While the chain connecting the earring to his nose ring is pretty noticeably missing and isn't quite as much of a deal-breaker, the lack of glasses with this new look just seems to...utterly break the image of the character altogether (and completely removes his defense against the harsh rays of the sun! (Leona hidden passive joke by the way)) Just from the preview alone it has immediately dropped to the bottom of my list. It's quite ugly as opposed to the new Gangster and Kingpin look, missing key features that were present in the previous one, and is actually LESS DETAILED than before, lacking various things such as the Anarchy shirt and the studs and spikes, among other things. Ultimately, it's a rather huge disappointment that would nearly cause me to ask for its removal from my account, but...I believe that you can do a good job with fixing those two bits. The glasses and possibly re-adding that ear-to-nose chain.

In-game, everything looks amazingly crisp. The new particles, the added status notifications such as the stealth success and the skill activation, the new S&P projectiles, the poison stacks...they all look amazing and give a much better feel that the character is actually doing something. However, I'm not sure if it's the programming of before or style or something, but...as it looks right now, the increased range shots don't...seem to travel as far as they used to. While I do know that before Twitch's shots would hit a certain range and then just fade out to give the illusion that they went further than they really did, it seems...strange and I hope that's just the way it always was supposed to be now.

Now : Some additional features that are with this VU.

This VU has a voice over as well!

The voice over is done by the same voice actor as it was in 2009, so that's an added bonus!

Now, according to Riot Entropy, Twitch has 80+ interactions!?! All he said about the matter was that it was mostly VO hookups. Attack lines, move lines, taunts, jokes, ability activations, and some other stuff he doesn't want to spoil until you try him out.

What are your favorite skins now? And what do you think will happen with "Exterminator Twitch"?