Back in May, the community had the opportunity to vote for the next champion to receive a graphics update. While the update wouldn’t be until 2020, the community interest was massive. Players could choose between five of the oldest champions in League of Legends: Fiddlesticks, Dr. Mundo, Nocturne, Shyvana, and Volibear. At the end of the vote, the results were too close to pick between Volibear and Fiddlesticks. As such, the developers decided to update both of these champions.
On July 25, we received our first developer progress report, which discussed the direction of the designs and what they have so far. Several developers go into detail about what their work and how they go about it. You can find the full blog on the nexus page of League of Legends. The first part of the blog goes into everything about Fiddlesticks, where the second half focuses more on everyone’s favorite bear, Volibear.
Fiddlesticks, the most horrifying champion in League of Legends
The concept behind Fiddlesticks is that he is intended to be the most horrifying champion out there. The dev blog further talks about where Fiddlesticks could fit into the lore of League of Legends. One idea is that Fiddlesticks could be among the ancient champions such as Ornn or Tahm Kench. As quoted from the developer blog by Jared “Carnival Knights” Rosen, narrative Writer:
Fiddlesticks could easily fit in among them, having preyed on mankind for godless ages, so it would make sense that there would be nursery rhymes and storybook fables and old wive’s tales about a living scarecrow.
Volibear, the “lightning-fueled Freljordian demigod”
Volibear’s visual update focuses more on making him more like a real bear and letting him act the way a polar bear would. The dev team is currently exploring scenarios where Volibear refuses to be stopped by anything. The idea right now is that immobilizing effects will slow him, rather than stopping him entirely.
The developer blog shares a lot of the thought process of the developers. Anyone interested in the design aspect of League of Legends will likely find this worth a read. In a few months, we will receive another developer blog with further progress of the visual updates.
For more of League of Legends, make sure to check out the changes coming in the upcoming League of Legends patch.
