Why Woad Scout Quinn is Disappointing
Disclaimer: Before I start, I should say that I don't mean to offend people on the skins team. I recognize that a lot of work was put into this skin, and I'm not critiquing that. I simply think that the amount of work put into the skin could have been put into better use. Additionally, I recognize that the skin can change from now until release. For those who don't feel like reading a lot, there's a Tl;dr at the end.
Fantasy: Most skins are about conveying a fantasy to the player. Sometimes the fantasy is obvious, such as with the Dragonslayer line, they kill dragons and wear them as armor (or weapons.) Sometimes the fantasies are a bit more subtle and leave room for creativity, such as with Phoenix Quinn (I've always thought of the skin as Quinn with a fire mage attribute, and Valor as being an immortal Phoenix made of magic.) With Woad Quinn, the fantasy isn't there nearly as much as I would expect. Alright, you got some ice particles; you might say she's from Frejlord. Is there really anywhere to go from there? Woad isn't some sort of known area, the skin line doesn't really have much in common except "somewhere in the Frejlord" and most importantly, Quinn isn't really living a fantasy. If you read Quinn's lore and journals, she's already an outdoor ranger who feels most at home out in the woods. What does the skin do to deliver a new or expanded fantasy? All you've got is going from "some woods in Demacia" to "some woods in Frejlord." The theme is "too obvious" for Quinn as it doesn't deliver anything new besides a relatively minor change that doesn't change her character. Hopefully the splash will help this somewhat, but I highly doubt it can fix everything wrong in this department.
Clothing: Alright, I get it. If there's a female in LoL, she needs to have at least one skin that shows some skin. I don't really blame Riot, it's just good business sense, make what sells well. But someone please explain to me, Why would you make her fanservice skin also the one where she is in the coldest place in your entire canon? If you needed a fanservice Quinn skin, you could have made it for literally any other place in the LoL universe, why did it have to be Frejlord? Putting fur on her so that she doesn't get cold in her sleeveless vest and bare midriff felt like Riot making a parody of their own skin design. The fur is also really awkward in the back considering her legs are only shielded with bandages, and the metal touching bare skin seems like a bad idea when it's below freezing. In terms of practically outside of the weather, the skin seems to be lacking here as well. There's too much metal where there doesn't need to be, and having all that fur piled up seems like it'd be a problem considering rangers probably value mobility. Valor's clothing looks quite nice, but just like Quinn's model, it's rather impractical. I feel if Valor had to wear something, it should have been something light and useful like a messenger sack, rather than more heavy materials like metal on bare skin (or feathers in this case.)
Crossbow: Looks nice, but also pretty cumbersome. It just feels weird that out of all the Quinn skins, the one with the most cumbersome weapon would also be the one that's trying to portray the "lone ranger trying to survive with what they can find or make" type of thing. The animation also looks kind of weird as the default animation is for that of a very high tech repeater crossbow, whereas this skin is trying to portray a lower-tech design.
Recall: Pretty average, my main complaint here would be that Quinn doesn't actually do much, and nearly all the focus was put on Valor. The wind coming out of nowhere for him doesn't seem to make much sense either, which is a common quality in comedic skins (such as the Pool Party line) but uncommon in serious skins, which is what Woad Quinn is trying to be. Other than that, the recall was reasonably well done.
Particles: Pretty well done, probably my favourite part about the skin. There is a good assortment of different particles used, and the white-blue shade is just enough to differentiate it from the default. My main complaint in terms of cosmetics is that Valor's AA particles are the exact same as the default skin's, which look really out of place. I'm going to give Riot the benefit of the doubt that they'll recolor this, just because it doesn't seem like it would be a big job and it really breaks the immersion is this were to ship to live. If this does make it to live, the overall quality of the particles would be much lower than I'm giving it credit for.
Sounds: The owl sounds are well done, although they do start to feel a bit repetitive and slightly more annoying than Valor's default sounds. I don't feel this is particularly Riot's fault, as there's not that many different sounds you can make imitating an owl as you can with an eagle, but it's still something you should note if you're planning to buy the skin.
Model: I'm just going to give Riot the benefit of the doubt again that this'll get updated, because quite honestly its quite horrendous in some aspects. I'll update this section when the model is improved, which I sincerely think is very likely. That said, while I won't critique the quality of the design quite yet, I can critique the design decisions. The face in general looks way too gloomy, almost like Diana or Syndra. The war paint design doesn't help this either, and accentuates the dreary look of Quinn's face instead. Additionally, the hair is very questionable. The design doesn't really seem to suit Quinn, or the theme of the skin. The color is also odd, considering a "lone ranger" probably shouldn't have access to hair dyes, and even if she did, the hair color looks really off with the rest of the skin. One player has expressed to me that the silhouette of the skin may be too similar to Draven's, making it difficult if you are in a teamfight and need to recognize the difference between the two without looking twice.
Gameplay, Harrier Particle/Animation: The particle looks nice, but the main problem I have with it is how it fades in and out. This may not seem like anything important, until you realize that the Quinn's default and Phoenix skins do not have this. Having a particle give different amounts of information based on the skin means opening the door for a skin to give its owner either a disadvantage or an edge. Quinn's passive particle is notorious for ghost proccing, using the passive just after it seems to have disappeared. Additionally, the animation gives Quinn's opponents a better idea of when the passive will expire. Finally, the animation and color scheme make it much easier to notice than on the default skin. Due to all of this, I believe Quinn players that use this skin may be at a very slight disadvantage compared to those that don't. That is not to say I am not for this change, I actually believe that readability issues should never be used as a balance factor. Because of this, rather than removing the animation for Woad Scout Quinn, I would rather the animation be added to the default and Phoenix Quinn skins. As it stands, most player in solo queue who use this skin will have opponents that can react to their passive more easily and readily than those who do not, which is unfair to those who just want to change champion cosmetics.
Conclusion: I'm happy that Quinn is getting a new skin, but at the same time, I just see so many things that could be better. The skin I use right now is Phoenix Quinn, which I will in no way try to defend as being absolutely perfect. That said, I do believe the skin is much better in most aspects than Woad skin, which is pretty saddening considering that in terms of just counting how many new particles/sound/animations were added, Woad should be superior. Hopefully, the skin continues improving on the PBE and it has an awesome splash. If this isn't the case, I'll have a very tough time recommending this skin to anyone.
Tl;dr: The concept could have been done much better, and the execution needs a good deal of work in some areas as well. In its current state, I would recommend Phoenix over Woad, even though Woad has some additions that Phoenix doesn't (like a recall animation.) A good amount of work was put into this skin, but ultimately it feels like a rushed development that needed to stay back in the studio for another few months. The Harrier change could make a difference during gameplay, which is quite a problem as skins shouldn't ever really have an effect on the gameplay of the champion.
