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What's up with the inconsistency in Veigar's staff?

Kanzaki Ranko·4/11/2018, 8:09:58 AM·21 votes·14,850 views

Hello, I bring this question because after watching some old videos/looking at old pictures, I've realized that Viggy's staff has always been randomly changed for no real reason. I'll start with his first ever look:

His original staff looked like this: https://britthebadger.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/veigar-1.png

In game, it looked quite normal too. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433530991295070209/unknown.png

In the splash art, it's also the same. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433530863771189248/unknown.png

It seemed to be shaped sort of like a flower, and the crystal was very large too. He also had a different running animation back when it was like this as well, and all of this seemed to be consistent until the Nocturne patch where things because Veigar received a new splash art.

His walking animation changed to what it is today and his staff also changed for some reason too - perhaps to reflect better on the new splash art? It'd seem quite weird that game models would be altered to more closely resemble a splash art.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433536098967486475/unknown.png Is what his "new" look became. His staff seems to have been changed to where the things that surround the crystal got a lot larger, and the crystal a lot smaller. It's also really weird how one side of the spikes on the staff are larger than the other. His splash art's staff isn't fully seen...

However: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433530637631356928/unknown.png we can see the bit on the bottom of it that resembles the staff they changed it to. This is the first weird change with the staff.

White Mage Veigar's staff seems to look like a mix of the original one and the updated one. However, this skin was out even before the Nocturne patch, so it could just be different skin art.

ANYWAYS, this is where things really start to get messy. Veigar's splashart had remained the same since March 2011 - changing in (I believe) late 2014 or early 2015? So a good three years or so. In this splash art, they REALLY changed the look of it:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433530512045244417/unknown.png

It's completely different again - more onion shaped, the gap of the spikes being much less bigger, and a lot more menacing looking. The crystal shrunk again, but it seems to also be sort of inside the middle part of it, with a bit being exposed.

However, is in game model retained the 2011 look... until the texture update he received, which for some reason removed the rune marking off of Veigar's staff (for some sad reason... these were so cool!)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433533236313063424/veigarbasecompare.png

And that's what he still looks like today, despite the onion shaped staff being his splash art but his in-game model being the 2011 version. Here's a comparison:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433531518720409600/unknown.png https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433530512045244417/unknown.png

Also, the new Veigar Crystal icon on PBE seems to also be the same as the 2011 version of Veigar's staff, except for the fact that the crystal is red.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/421319288612323329/426901134003798023/3383.png

Summary: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/189899537870094336/433530204082667520/unknown.png

So my question here is - why has Veigar's staff been randomly changed for no reason multiple times?

11 Comments

Chase Me Daddy4/11/2018, 9:12:57 AM8 votes

I think it's just the price that comes with old champions. When only splashes or ingame icons are updated I believe what Riot does is showing us what that champion would visually look like if they were released today, at least with their old fantasy, which riot may or may not agree on, good example is Swain. Swain got a new splash art that showed us how old Swain, if he had kept that visual direction, would look like today. And as you see when Swain got his VGU he was visually very different from his old self and that's just because Riot found a direction that they considered more fitting. I think artists always come up with different ideas or afterthoughts for designs and I would assume that the newest version, the one in his newest splash art, would also be the one represented ingame if Veigar was released today. But that's just generally a problem that comes when Riot has new ideas for art direction for older champions. Compare these champions Blitzcrank Chogath DrMundo Fiddlesticks Gragas Kennen Mordekaiser Nunu Tryndamere XinZhao ingame and their splash arts for example. There are often big differences in general design or weapon/armor designs. It's just that while you can always exchange a piece of art like splasharts easily without it affecting anything hugely ingame, you can't just give every one of these champions a visual update ingame to go along with the new splash art or icons, that's just too much work without going after the actual problems (which range from gameplay to generally confusing or outdated art direction that just needs overall changes). As to why the new Summoner Icon features the old design i'm guessing that it's just that it's closer to the current ingame design, which players will be looking at most of the time, making it, as a summoner icon, more recognizeable. But hey that's how I see it. I personally have no idea how Riots artists handle old designs, it's just that I think it would be close to that since old champions generally have a lot of inconsistency when only a fraction of what makes the overall design is updated. When Veigar eventually does get a full blown VGU and he ends up keeping a staff I think we should be getting a clear and consitant design through both art (splashes, icons) and ingame (model).

Sinful Sorcerer4/11/2018, 9:16:58 AM2 votes

A well written summary of Veigar's staff changes.

I do miss his old staff so... His new staff in-game looks so plastic-y and dull. His splash art is amazing, but due to the intense distortion of the fish-eyed lens and the upward foreshortening, it is difficult to tell what shape his staff really has in the art. I'd imagine it's still similar to the second iteration, just with more rounded edges. I believe the crystal is still floating, but it's hard to tell. (At least I hope it still is, and will be if we ever get another update ingame.)

The floating crystal on his staff felt like a nod to his power over cosmic energy, zero-gravity and all that. I also very much miss the runes, they were a big part of his design, and without them his staff looks very bland.

Here's hoping we'll get an answer from someone at Riot. I've always wondered about this too, and why he was made purple in his texture update (his joke about being black and blue doesn't fit anymore!) but that's a tale for another time...

Zeanix4/11/2018, 9:40:27 AM2 votes

I think the staff in the updated splash looks like that because of the perspective of the splash art. In our perspective, we're looking up at him, and the staff is further away from us, and in proportion, the further something away, the smaller it is. We're also looking up in an angle as well, which in perspective makes thing looks weird (like taking a selfie with the camera facing up to your face, it'll look funny). (I can just be totally wrong here but thats what I think. It never really actually occurred to me that the staff in the splash does look more curve like. Hmm)

With the upcoming Veigar icon with it being red however is unknown. Maybe for aesthetic reasons? Maybe the crystal can turn to different colours like red and green rather than just yellow. Idk

Ebonmaw Dragon4/11/2018, 6:58:44 PM2 votes

I think that the weird yellow runes were removed for clarity, like some tattoos from other champs and things like that.

Placentas4/11/2018, 11:37:58 AM1 votes

Wow this is a well crafted post.

NewGuy1014/11/2018, 8:44:10 PM1 votes

It's probably updating splashes without updating models. The one who has this that I know more of is MasterYi. The sword in his splash is not the same as the sword in his model, and it's a pretty obvious difference.

Tesla Effect4/11/2018, 11:04:48 PM1 votes

He went on numerous raids and got new staffs along the way, thats why you see three different staff appearances.

Meep Man4/12/2018, 1:23:09 AM1 votes

The slightly changes to the shape of it's head don't seem too major for me. The random change to the crystal color is kind of weird. It's not an insane amount of randomness.