Mordekaiser's clawed Gauntlet; Yay or Nay?

If you're familiar with the history of Mordekaiser's design you may have started to notice a trend every time his art gets changed. It's a pretty minor thing but during his time as one of League's oldest champions his Splashes were always pretty loyal to his in game look as opposed to other splash updates (looking at you Cho and Malphite)

The thing I'm talking about is his gauntlet. In game his fingers end in pointy metal prongs while his updated splash and Siphon ability Icon show him with rather blunt fingers.

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/square_medium/1/14440/1430763-1389079_siphonofdestruction.jpg became http://www.mobafire.com/images/ability/mordekaiser-siphon-of-destruction.png

Now I know it's pretty trivial but I'd like to address it either way. Mordekaiser has always been this hulking piece of Metal armor, sharpened edges and spikes wherever you may look (rip Crotch spike though) But recently Riot seems to be wanting to give him the more brutish warlord kind of shtick if you look at his gauntlet in his ability icon and the way his helmet on his R seems less sophisticated in design and more, rough?

I personally am torn, both design being really neat in their own respect but him maybe losing his clawed grip would result in this no longer being relevant http://2127.shop.textalk.se/shop/2127/art27/h2118/21072118-origpic-a06aba.jpg

Mordekaiser is an evil Warlord Wraith with dark magic at his disposal, He's pretty much League's version of Sauron.

I feel his gauntlet being reminiscent of Sauron's is pretty damn dope, seeing that it makes his hands look more menacing besides them being able to crush your neck with the flick of a finger. It reinforces the notion of him being able to weave spells and give him an even spikier silhouette.

Now, this is only a minor detail but I'd like to know what your opinion might be on a rather small visual aspect of many regarding Mordekaiser. Skull patterns on his armor, spikes everywhere, horned helmet, etc.

I feel it contributes to his rather unique and frankly awesome visual theme.