My thoughts on current PBE changes, skins, and lack of Sandbox mode.

So I thought I'd post some of my own thoughts on the current PBE Content, what's going on with Riot's thoughts on Sanbox mode, and some of my own suggestions on the matter.

1: The PBE - Skins, Juggernauts, and armor changes

Alright, to start, I'm gonna talk about the 4 reworks to Darius, Garen, Skarner, and Mordekaiser. Now to start, I only own Garen and have an extremely basic understanding on the other 3.

To start with Garen, They're nerfing his health, but overall, buffing almost all of his General stats. As for abilities, they're nerfing his Passive, Q, W,and parts of his E. However, they're adding new parts to his E and R respectively. What parts? well, his E now grants him some permanent MR and Armor when he kills a unit instead of just a flat 20 MR and Armor add. His R now has this weird little gimmick where you deal extra damage to the "Villain", or in other terms, who ever is fed the most right now. To be Honest, I'm not entirely sure I like this because it sorta encourages the rager type of player that goes "Well, this team comp sucks, better go garen to carry against the Katarina" or something like that.

Now we get to Darius, who's getting Base stat buffs except his Attack Speed (getting nerfed). As for his abilities, he gets some sort of "Rage mode" with his passive when either he gets max hemorrhage or kills someone with his R, where he gets more AD, and applies max Hemorrhage to anyone hit. His Q gets a small delay, he now heals for each champ hit by it, the outer circle (blade) hurts more, while the inner circle (Handle) deals less damage. His W damage is getting a bit of a nerf, , the slow is stronger but doesn't last as long, no longer slows AS, has a longer cooldown, but has a lower mana cost. His E, HEY they finally fixed that freaking bug on it. now I can flash and not get pulled in anyway! Anyway, other than that, it's slightly faster, and slows the enemy. Finally, his R gets free re-casts (with Rank 3 being completely free), terrifies anyone else nearby, but does less damage. Overall, I feel like it's more of an overall buff to his abilities, while keeping him somewhat balanced.

Time to look at Mordekaiser. He's getting buffed to all his base stats cept his MS, HP, and AS. His Passive (shield) is getting nerfed, it looks like his Q gets increased dmg on his next 3 AA from 100 - 900. His W has been reworked so that he gets full xp from killing lane minions, and now he can ally himself with another champ to deal Magic Dmg, with an active that deals dmg and heals both him and his ally. His E deals less damage, but gets shorter cd with him getting %15 of his shield. Finally, his R now lets you get a FREAKING GHOST DRAGON if you hit it and your team kills it. I dunno about this one, On the one hand, Morde's supposed to be this "Emnity of Destruction and killer of all thing" sort of guy, so why would you want to make him into a support? On the other hand.....FREAKING GHOST DRAGON

Finally, we get to skarner. He's getting nerfed HP and MS, but getting moar AD. He's getting a new Passive which makes his gameplay more akin to the altars at TT where you have to capture crystal spires and stuff, also they grant Vision to whatever team captures it (ally OR enemy). I don't really care for it because it's a kind of a Double-edged sword here in terms of gameplay. This basically brings another set of objectives for the teams, which really benefit/hurt only 1 champ here. Granted, it gives vision and a caster minion's worth of gold, but that's really it. Nothing too special here. His Q has a couple of confusing changes that I can't figure out except for the fact that it has a lower mana cost, his W now shields him for a percent of his health, His E is now using his old Passive apparently, I can't figure much of it out. Finally, his R has been nerfed, but it does %100 of his AD as well as it having a lower cooldown. Overall, the Skarner changes are the more confusing of the 4 champs listed.

Now that that's done with, let's get onto the skins!

To start, the Arcade skins look kinda cool, and I'll probably be getting Blitz's once it comes out. I don't have riven, (and don't plan on getting her either) but her skin gives her sort of a "Legend of Zelda" look to her I think. Now for the "Back to school" Special as I call it. To start, does Ahri really need another skin? I really don't feel like she needs another skin. Darius looks more like some sort of high school jock mixed with some sort of anime warrior high school thing.(tbh I've no idea what I'm talking about in this sentence.) I feel like Ekko shouldn't really be getting a skin at this point, only because he hasn't even been out for about a month or two. Vlad just looks weird in my opinion and gives the same vibe as Darius.

Time to check the Defense changes!

MR Item Changes

Null Magic Mantle: cheaper

Negatron Cloak: Cheaper,

Aegis of the Legion: Cheaper, more HP regen, but Hp regen is no longer an aura.

Locket of the Iron Solari: Cheaper, stronger shield, but only lasts 2 seconds

Banner of Command: costs less, no real details except it's "more overpowered than before"

Spectre's Cowl: 5 more MR

Spirit Visage: 1 nexus cheaper (LOL), 5 more MR, %50 more HP gain (now 150%)

Banshee's: 50g cheaper, now uses Crystalline Bracer instead of Ruby Crystal

Conclusion: MR is now Cheaper, and there's more of it! (gonna suck for my karthus =.= )

Armor/Resistance

Raptor's Cloak: 100g more expensive, +50% health regen, Point runner MS reduced to 20%

ZZ'Rot Portal: 50g cheaper, Point runner MS reduced to 20%, voidling health now decays for % of Current health

Ohmwrecker: Point runner MS reduced to 20%

Glacial Shroud: 50g cheaper

Warden's Mail: 50g more expensive

Frozen Heart: 150g more, 10 less armor

Thornmail: 200g more, now reflects 15% mitigation armor, and 25% Bonus armor (gonna be awesome for Malphite I think)

Randuin's Omen: 150g cheaper, 100 less health, 10 less armor, now reduces crit damage by 10%, active lasts 4 seconds FLAT

Warmog's Armor: now has 200% HP regen, if you have 3000 HP, will heal 3% max health per second

Righteous glory: 100g cheaper, no longer gets catalyst ability per level up

Cinderhulk Enchant: 100 more Health, -10% health multiplier.

Conclusion: Armor is less and more expensive, great for AD champs, Thronmail will be OP for Malphite, Randuin's will counter ADC's and Yi, Warmog's will be super OP on Sion/maybe Cho

2: Riot's Response to a lack of Sandbox mode, my own thoughts and suggestions

Now we get to the fun part. A while ago, Riot stated that they won't put in a sandbox mode simply because they don't want new players to "grind" the mechanics for champs to learn and stuff like that. They also said that they believe that "playing games of League of Legends should be the unequivocal best way for a player to improve." I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that whacking your head against a wall over and over against just to learn how to do something is not the way to go. If someone wants to learn how to play Lee Sin for example, and say he SUUUUCKED, in an actual game of league, I'm pretty sure that almost everybody on his team would be flaming him to oblivion, and at the end of the game I'm pretty sure he'd be dissuaded from playing league anymore, much less continuing to play Lee sin. The problem, is that with most of the community being how it is (more toxic than a freakin Teemo shroom), there's a REASON why people are clamoring for a sandbox mode. (you know, besides the testing bugs and coming up with new things) Now, let's say Riot STILL doesn't bring in a sandbox mode, what now? My suggestion is to perhaps incorperate Champion ability/combo Drills that can teach players how to effectively use the abilities of the champs they want to play. Another possible solution is to perhaps add another difficulty of bots that can actually emulate a human player with pings, and dragon/Baron taking, and actual JUNGLERS! (Mindbreaking, I know)

TL:DR Version: Juggernaut updates are weird, Armor is more expensive, MR is cheaper, Blitz skin is cool, the rest are kinda meh, and Riot should at least look into helmets for all the new guys bashing their heads on the wall trying to learn new champs if they're not gonna put in a sandbox mode

These are just my thoughts on the PBE, and the Lack of Sandbox mode. Yes this is a wall of text, but feedback is appreciated.

NOTE: I know the PBE stats are prolly a bit outdated, but I made this post really late, and I just wanted the base changes.