In recent months, Riot Games has been upping the ante when it comes to super-premium skins in League of Legends. For its new Jinx skin, which is inspired by and coinciding with Arcane Season 2, LoL has created a whole new rarity tier called Exalted and a gacha-like mechanic for obtaining it that can make it a very pricey addition to your collection. That concept alone has already irked many in the community, but now Arcane Fractured Jinx is getting hammered all over again.
The long-awaited but already controversial skin has just hit the League of Legends PBE, meaning for the first time we can finally check out its appearance, in-game animations, VO, and more. While that should be an exciting moment across the board, for every positive comment I can see on social media praising the design and concept of Arcane Fractured Jinx, there seems to be another fan of the MOBA that is unhappy with it.
One big pain point is that the three random, cyclable forms that the Jinx skin has aren’t actually all that different from one another. A slot-machine style mechanic will see her rotate through these different looks that are inspired by Arcane Season 2. While there are some clear differences in color, style, and the effects of her abilities, I do somewhat sympathize with those complaining that they’re too similar – for the potential price point of the skin, many hoped that there would be radically-different designs on offer.
The second pain point is that Jinx doesn’t wear her iconic hood in any of these appearances – something that is depicted in the Jinx Arcane skin that has come to LoL’s mobile counterpart, Wild Rift.
On a more general level, a lot of fans – especially over on the League of Legends subreddit – simply feel underwhelmed by the quality of the skin as a whole. “This skin would be mid even for an ultimate skin,” says one Redditor. Another argues that “if it’s going to be ~7x the cost of an ultimate it better be ~7x the quality, and in this case it absolutely isn’t.”
As far as the cost debate goes, it is fair to point out that this Exalted-tier skin isn’t being sold at a flat $250 price point for everyone. A chance-based mechanic (called the Sanctum) that uses a new currency (called Ancient Sparks) could see you earn it after just a few pulls. However, bad luck protection guarantees that you’ll get it after 80 attempts, and should your misfortune go the distance, it will set you back roughly $250 in RP bundles that you’ll need to buy in order to then purchase Ancient Sparks.
However, given this was meant to be the big launch of LoL’s Exalted skin tier and the Sanctum concept, the fact there’s quite a lot of players unhappy with the final product will be disappointing. Will many of those that adore the show still plow RP into this to get Arcane Fractured Jinx? Almost certainly. Financially, it’s probably going to do pretty well for Riot. But if future Exalted skins also underwhelm, they may not have the Arcane hype buff to carry them along, and the whole system will just face increasing scrutiny and criticism.
On the subject of Arcane, if you’re yet to give the new Jinx Fixes Everything minigames a go, we’ve got walkthrough guides on Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3 for you.
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