Well, it's official [Phantom Karthus]

Gavran·6/4/2014, 1:25:13 PM·2 votes·1,646 views

The patch is out, and the Karthus VU is super sexy.

But the skin that used to be Phantom Karthus is dead in every way, and there hasn't been a single Red post about it. I will freely admit that in this particular case, I like the new "Phantom Karthus" more than the old one - exclusively because the VU'd Karthus is superior in every way - but I feel this is a very disturbing precedent especially considering nobody has even stepped in to explain why they thought it was okay to completely alter a skin's theme like this. Up until now I had hoped that this was a new skin, and there was a VU'd Phantom Karthus yet to be revealed.

If Phantom Karthus was Classic Karthus, you would've made a Traditional Karthus skin. Why is it okay to take away the skin I and others paid for and replace it with something that bears no similarity to it whatsoever? Not one hint of the skin it used to be?

I really feel like you've dropped the ball here Riot. I like the new skin, but it isn't the skin I bought and you at least owe us an explanation.

14 Comments

PatentlyWillton6/4/2014, 3:19:32 PM4 votes

If the point of Phantom Karthus was to trade upon the success of Phantom of the Opera (which appears to have been the case based upon the splash art), then I see no problem with the VU's iteration of the skin, particularly in view of a desire to avoid copyright infringement litigation.

Genreninja6/4/2014, 5:10:40 PM2 votes

First: It's their skin, you pay for the license to use it, you do not own it. So you're attitude isn't all that endearing.

Second: I'm a bit surprised he didn't get a traditional skin to honor his original skin, same as they did with Karma. But with Karthus already having so many skins I doubt anyone was particularly attached to the original skin. However making a traditional skin, for a skin, there is no precedent of that.

Third: This isn't anything new. Karma , Heimerdinger, Twitch, are just a few who had their skins visually upgraded in addition to their traditional visual rework.

Lastly, I'm not quite sure what you are asking for. What "explanation" do you feel you are owed more than, "We felt Karthus was a bit dated, and we are giving him a facelift to bring him up to our current quality standards."

Mansana6/4/2014, 2:56:59 PM1 votes

Chinese Cultural Censorship. Plus it was based off the Chinese art for Phantom Karthus.

Garentheon6/5/2014, 1:11:09 PM1 votes

It's a better skin now