Older champions and connection between lore and in-game identity.

TeCoolMage·11/29/2016, 3:27:48 AM·1 votes·309 views

When LoL was first created in 2009 champions were made with lore as a secondary objective.

Soraka 'burned' her enemies with starfire, but in game she'd spam Q and little sparkly dots would slowly whittle the enemy team's MR, and she'd only have one huge heal when she was depicted as healing multiple times in her biography. Tryndamere would build 2.5 AS and escape with 'rage', and Nasus would be depicted as a sort of ascended being representing death but he'd only last hit minions for 10-20 minutes while completely ignoring the enemy. Morgana, despite being some sort of dark arts mistress, instead is an anti-cc + cc chain champion, and Kog'Maw rarely eats things like his lore and instead plays from a long range shooting a barrage of auto attacks.

Some of these champions, like Xerath, have had reworks that don't really connect with their lore, a being of pure energy blasting everyone nearby instead only poking occasionally and making a few picks when stun is up. Even Garen, who's meant to play into 'knight in shiny heavy armour' spins his sword around as part of his identity now, if he was made at around the same time as someone like Ekko he'd definitely have something else like healing or a speed/shield aura instead.

I don't expect reworks from Riot, in fact I'd be upset if Garen's sword spin or Kog'Maw's machine gun spitting were to be removed, but what is Riot's stance on unique gameplay mechanics being unrelated to lore on older champions? Will Garen's lore one day feature him spinning around in a battle field?

More importantly, some champions like Tryndamere are completely disconnected in lore and gameplay, will a 2.5 AS champion that split pushes with a reliable escape be added again, and Tryndamere gets reworked completely, is it preserved, or will the concept just be ditched entirely?

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