Hextech Crafting Opinions

Since this feature has been in here for about 3+ weeks (I think?) at least for NA, I decided to just make a thread and give my opinion on it and maybe others can join in to and think of ways we can improve it for everyone. I personally like Hextech crafting and feel it's a great addition to League, and while there is a few things I personally hate about it, I understand that this hasn't even been live for a month yet. So I'm sure Riot is spending some time on ideas for improvements or what else to add to it.

Today I spent $35 for RP to really test out how it is and see if I feel it's worth it. So $35 was about 4900 RP and I used all of them on chests/key bundles and opened up like 28 hextech chest (I believe). After opening them all and rerolling 2 times I basically ended off with...

Imperial Lux Pool Party Draven DJ Sona Galatic Azir Shard Headless Hecarim Shard Heartseeker Orianna Shard Night Hunter Rengar Shard Warden Nautalis Shard 6 Champion Shards (I already have every champion) 3 Ward Skins 2 Summoner Icons 2 Gemstones

I obviously had more but everything else was either used in the reroll, or disenchanted. The only skin I officially "unlocked" was Imperial Lux/Pool Party Draven which was what I got in the 2 rerolls, and the DJ Sona which I upgraded after disenchanting a lot of the other skins I didn't want.

Would I say this was worth? Value wise it was for sure, but was it worth it to me in general? I feel it was since there was no skin that I felt like I really really wanted. So since they'res no skins out that made me say "I have to have this skin" I felt I was better off just doing this and seeing how many decent skins I can get. I don't really play Sona but probably will now that I got DJ Sona, and I do like to play Hecarim, and Azir and did want a skin for them so in the end I was happy with the turn out.

The things that I like about Hextech: I like that we can get Legacy skins through this and I really feel that is what makes this feature great. Being able to get the holiday skins through this is great. I also actually like the feel of exclusive skins that can only be obtained through hextech to, it gives you that feeling of "I have an actual rare skin" if you do get it, and wondering if they'll add more of that later on (So I know to save my gemstones now, since I don't really like Annie lol). I also like the amount of options we can get with the shards, and the option to rent skins/champions for 7 days with the shard if you really wanted to.

On to the things I don't like about Hextech: I heard that the drop rates for key fragments drop as the month goes on and you collect them. I understand the reason for it, but I feel the decrease in drop is a little to hard. I only obtained maybe 7-8 key fragments this month and it feels like my key fragment drop rate is really really low. I feel that the drop rate shouldn't drop that hard until you at least get 10 or so key fragments, just so you could actually get the 12 fragments to open up the 4 chest a month. Sure any fragments after that should be low and I understand that, I'm just worried that in 2-3 months we'll all have like 2 chests left over from the last month before because we couldn't get enough fragments to open our 4.

I also don't like how annoying it is to get the essence to unlock these shards. DJ Sona costs 2950 Essences which is a lot considering how little amount of fragments you get. I had to disenchant like 8-10 skin shards just to upgrade it since the only ways to even get essence was to disenchant or get a little bit from the chests. (Also the 5 Chest/Keys bundle + Essence is a joke because you only get 50 essence with that, which is basically nothing...I thought we'd get at least like 250-300 essence since the average skin cost like 600 or so essence to upgrade.)

I also don't like how people who have every champion already can still get champion shards, but I rem Riot saying they're working on something for that situation....I'm just wondering what happened to their old idea they had of allowing us to use champion shards to unlock champion mastery past 5 idea that was mentioned before, a long time ago...That would solve 2 issues (the pointless shards, and giving us more mastery past rank 5 etc).

Other then that, I don't feel there wasn't anything else I feel that I didn't like...but for the fact that this didn't use IP in anything...We still need more ways to use our extra IP...

My suggestions for Hextech:

1. Allow you to get more key fragments before your drop rates decrease by a lot. At least 10 key fragments, before your drop rate goes that low to give us a chance to get our keys for the free chests.

2. Give us a way to use our useless champion shards for people who already have everyone

3. Add more ways to obtain Essences or give more Essence through the normal means...What if some one actually got DJ Sona or any other Ultimate skin without buying the key/chest bundles? They would literally never be able to upgrade that shard for months unless they bought more chests since they would need 3000 essence when they'd be lucky to even get like 600-800 essence from disenchanting in that month from the other chests.

Maybe allow people to buy Essence with IP? That way we could have a use for IP and gives people another way and a reliably way to obtain essence to unlock their shards. Because as it is right now...free players will take a while to get their shards unlocked.

That's honestly my main suggestions and thoughts on Hextech Crafting. Please let me know what you all think or your opinion/suggestions on this. Maybe we can get some good ideas and hopefully some one from Riot might find this and pass this along so we can make hextech better for everyone. Also sorry for this huge post lol..