Discussion: Orange Essence - Lack of it? And possible solutions.

I'll start by saying this is a small rant thread, so take it as you may.

Ello, so, recently I have been getting nothing but champion shards from the Hextech chest, with the bad luck protection giving me Pentakill Karthus, 1 skin shard, a mediocre one, for a champion I don't play, in 7 opened chests.

Now, I do know that not everyone is that unlucky, and some of you got all legendaries and only get 1350 and 1850 skins out of the chests, but that's also an extreme.

Considering I have a few skins that I do want to unlock (next year, when I do drop some skin shards), we can use them as math for a few solutions that I though of:

• 1. Daily Orange Essence quest worth 50 OE.

Freljord Ashe is a 520 RP skin, and to unlock costs 220 OE. With this solution, it would require 5 days to unlock. Championship Ashe is a 1350 skin, and to unlock costs 1050 OE. With this solution, it would require 21 days to unlock.

The time period needed doesn't sound too bad, as it's not too short, nor too long, considering you can only get a chest per week (without buying).

• 2. Weekly Orange Essence quest worth 250 OE. (that's less than with a daily quest, as a Daily would grant 350 per week)

Freljord Ashe would still take 1 week to unlock with this solution, Championship Ashe would take 5 weeks instead of 3, while a 975 skin, like Ghost Bride Morgana, worth 675 OE to unlock would take 3 weeks.

• 3. Changing Daily quest to be 50 BE OR 50 OE, equal drop chance.

No need for math here.

• 4. Removing Hextech chests completely as the Mastery Chest, and replace them with Masterwork chests.

Again, no need for math here.

• 5. Just like solution #3, have the Master Chest be a random drop between Hextech or Masterwork.

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Now, before someone will put on his armor made from keyboards and tell me I shouldn't complain because I don't get the stuff I want, but be glad we get free stuff, let's make this clear, or at least, a bit more clear: it's not free stuff.

Angry mob with Vaykor Sydons - "How is it not free stuff? You get it for free for just playing the game!!!!"

Yes, we get a chest which MIGHT have something we want and we don't pay for the chest with money, but that doesn't mean it's completely free. Plus, the "reward" could be something we don't enjoy at all, making us feel like our time was completely wasted.

Angry mob with Vaykor Sydons - "Explain yourself, you ungrateful noob!!!"

Ok ok, here's the thing. It would be free if two one, or more of the following conditions would be met:

• We get the chest after the first game after the 7 days cooldown passed, without the need of getting an S

• Chest wouldn't require a key and/or comes with a key already (similar to the ones from Pyke's event)

• Skin/Champion drops from the chests would not be shards, but permanents, with the option to change that permanent champion shard into essence to unlock a higher mastery rank on a champion if we already own that champion. (similar to how emotes and or legendary skins work)

• We would not be locked to 1 Mastery Chest per champion.

• Key Fragments would not be tied to Honor Level.

• Mastery Chests would not have a 7 day cooldown, but have a limit number of 52, aka the number of weeks per year.

Now, why do these things mean the chest, and it's content isn't free? That is simple, so I'll start with the S and once per champion per season requirements, as they go hand in hand.

• Not all of us, and by that, I am sure it's the majority, if not everyone, enjoy playing every champion, we all have champions or roles we don't like, some more than others, and so, playing a champion we don't like is already not something fun for us, we don't play the champion to have fun, win the game or something, we play the champion to get paid for it, to get the chest. Now, after you add the requirement that we also need to have an S rank at the end of the game, which unless we get lucky, or carried by a premade, it would take 5 or more games, depending on the champion, which are games we don't go in for enjoyment, but to get a payment, a reward for our "effort", thing which all people who have jobs can relate to. How many of you played champions you own but don't enjoy just to get the chest and then left them be till next season? I know I did, and there are more champs I don't enjoy left, who would meet a similar fate. Get their chest and leave them be till next season. If we could get more chests for champions we enjoy playing, then it would feel much more like a reward for playing than a chore, but we all know that's not the case.

Next, keys, honor, cooldown and shards.

• The fact that chests give shards, not permanents, means that we need 3 shards of the same value for a 520/750 skin, 4 for a 975 skin and 1350 skins. (I don't own any 1875 skin shards, so I can't say the amount for those). Now, 4/5 chests may not sound bad, it's 4-5 weeks, but that's if all the skins are the same value. If the skin you want to unlock is a 1350 but only get 520 skins, you need 11 skins shards, for a total of 12 chests, aka 3 months. But that is assuming you only get skin shards, no emotes or champion shards. If there was no cooldown to it, and you could get one chest after the other until you hit the cap, if would be better, as it would take the same number of games, but remove the "Another week with no reward" feeling. The same feeling of "work" would be gone much faster and players would be enjoying things more if they would be done with the chests at the start of each season. (This would also remove some of the 1st timers in ranked, as many they are mostly doing it for the chest)

• The keys being tied to the honor system isn't a problem in it's own, it's a good mechanic, it's just a problem of implementation. Getting key fragments is already tedious, as the amount of drops are tied to the level, but the level gaining is too hard. I for one leveled from 2 + 3 orbs from the beginning of the season to 3 + 0 orbs, where I am now in the first month, even tho I get a whole key, sometimes 2 per week, meaning I do get enough comments. But I play daily, for those like a friend of mine, who's sitting on 12 chests and no keys, because he can't play daily, as real life is a thing, getting keys feels like a chore. He's a good support, but he wants to play and learn other roles as he's not having fun as a support, but if he does that, he won't get commends and won't get key fragments, while if he does play support to get commends and get key fragments, he's not having fun, which is another reason why he doesn't play daily.

TL:DR - Chests are not free, but we work for them because if we want chests, or the keys to open them, we have to play games where we aren't having fun, be either because we play roles that would get us honors, and thus keys, even tho we don't enjoy the roles, or we have to play champions we don't enjoy for a bunch of games every week, making both our game and the game of the others in our team much less enjoyable, and the needed requirement for more than 1 of each chest/key to actually use what we get from the chest make it actual work, instead of a reward for something we do for fun. If the chests were indeed free, we would get them for playing what we have fun win (not the trolls) and would feel like a reward, even if random, and all players would be equally rewarded, instead of punishing 1 tricks.

Opinions are welcomed, have fun and good luck getting that 4th champion shard from a Hextech chest /s