"7 Day rental" possibility for Hextech?
TL:DR Near the bottom
So about a month or so ago, I got my 10th shard for a Hextech skin, and I had 3 options - Annie, Vayne, or Darius. I've already got the Annie skin (Got hers near the very beginning of Hextech crafting), and I have Dunkmaster Darius, which I think is more hilarious to use vs the "I'm more evil than evil" Darius skin that exists now. So I looked into the Vayne skin. Looked at a couple preview videos and thought it looked badass for her, and decided to go for it... Then it hit me. There's a difference between seeing a preview for a skin and actually having it as your character and trying to follow not only the character, but the particles as well. I had the most difficult time for myself following some of her skills, particles, and effects vs her base or other skins. A good example is her ult'd tumble. When you ult and tumble she is EXTREMELY hard to track in a chaotic teamfight. Moreso than a base skin that doesn't make her 80% transparent. Combine that with her passive indicator underneath her being extremely distracting (Base skin has little circles that aren't too crazy, but the SS skin's are very busy and when combined with a teamfight, it gets hard to focus).
I'm all for really nifty particles and cool things to see, don't get me wrong. And I am not wanting to be the one person to yell "Change it," because I know there are people out there with the skin that LOVE the particles. It's just not for me - I enjoy certain skin particles, and some characters I use specific skins on because it is easier for me to track (Blood Moon Thresh vs base Thresh for ease-of-visibility particles). But the skin isn't for me. So I just sat on it, thinking "Well that's gone, sadly." Then a friend suggested I get a refund for it. So I sent in a ticket, and the response is that once you get a Hextech skin, you can't refund it, period.
I understand to an extent why you can't refund certain things. But a skin that you could potentially wait over a year to get and can't "easily" accelerate outside of throwing money at your screen? I know rentals exist for skins you can get shards for, but Hextech shards don't exactly fall from the tree often. And to say "Look at a preview" is a good argument, but some things aren't exactly able to be tested. Like how the particles look on a certain map or even how the particles interact with other champs and abilities. Or moreso how the particles look in a teamfight when there's 15+ other effects going on.
There's not a good way to "Try" a Hextech skin per se. There's honestly no good way to test it. And had a "rental" been available for 7 days or even 3 or something short (Being a Hextech unique thing), I think it would've been something I would've done instead. I try to figure out what skins look good by seeing them in-game, and had someone I know had the skin, I would've asked them. But honestly, considering that none of my friends have it, nor have I seen anyone in my games using it, I didn't have a good idea of how it would work for me, outside of the preview that is made available by a non-riot source.
I'm just really disappointed that no refund can currently be done with Hextech items, especially since the system has been out for well over a year now. In addition, I think either a "Try it out" feature for the Hextech items should be made available for the cost of either essence, gemstones, a combination, or even RP / IP (Gemstones would be a logical thing). Hopefully down the road it could get implimented. Until then, I have a Hextech Vayne sitting on my account that I'll never use, sadly.
Here's hoping, Riot, that down the road you can make up for something I waited essentially more than a year to earn, only to have it not do what I wanted it to do and to get told "Too bad, nothing we can do." The disappointment for the skin not being for me stinks on a level of "Darn, it wasn't what I expected," but the level of disappointment for how it was handled is what stings.
TL:DR - Hextech skins should have a form of "Try it" or "Rent it" to see how it interacts in-game vs just preview videos that are available.