Master Arcanist Ziggs: PBE Preview!

Finally, a Ziggs skin with (some) purple bombs, my dreams are coming true!

Design Overview

Look at his hat and wizardly beard!!! And the way the book on his back moves is really well done. For this Master Arcanist skin, his bombs have turned into some kind of pulsing balls of arcane energy. In the gifs above, you can see the animation for Ziggs’ passive proc – his extra magic damage – is extra glowy bombs with swirly blue and purple particle effects. Riot seems to really be loving these swirly multicolored effects if the last couple skins are any indication. The book also looks a lot like the Hearthstone menu thing but let’s not worry about that.

Animations

Recall

For his recall animation, Ziggs does some kind of floating-rotating-bomb trick before slam dunking the metal casings of the bombs into the ground with his book. That’s gotta be dangerous or something, right?

Auto Attacks/Q: Bouncing Bomb

Here are his basic attacks and the throw of a Q. As you can see, the autos match the blue bombs he carries, and you can see the passive being procced right after the Q throw. The passive procced bomb is purple (aw yiss). The bombs go back to their normal state without the particle effects after the proc is used.

Here’s a better view of the Q animation – it looks insanely cool. It’s like Syndra’s balls of magical energy, but amped way up into beautiful pulsing purple and blue orb thingies. Each bounce lets off a little burst of energy until the bomb explodes where it was cast. His Q was originally a scroll/paper surrounded by energy, but feedback that said it would be insanely hard to dodge and predict resulted in this change, which I love.

W: Satchel Charge

Instead of an actual C4 charge or bomb, the satchel charge has turned into a literal satchel of what I’m assuming is supposed to be arcane tools or ingredients (or both). You can clearly see what looks like a Rylai’s and a Void Staff , but I’m not sure what the third thing in there is. The aoe around the satchel is a green glow with a blue rim that shakes and sparkles a bit then explodes with a purple/blue particle effect.  The animation doesn’t change when activated with Ziggs on it.

E: Hexplosive Minefield

Ziggs has somehow crafted some explosives that look like the diamond Angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and/or he summoned them from hell with that alchemy circle. The bombs seem to materialize out of flames then do a sort of pop animation like a bubble when they come into contact with a unit. These are really ethereal looking and definitely fit in with the glowly otherworldly bombs from his Q and basic attacks.

R: Mega Inferno Bomb

  

This ult is much less of a firey explosion and must more of a spherical burst of energy. I slowed the animations down a bit so you can see the whole explosion: Ziggs does a little flip and throws the book on his back (which is magically replaced by another identical one) which lands in the target area marked with a symbol, then explodes in a spherical blue and purple burst with one energy beam reaching up through the center. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from this ult, but the animation definitely does fit in with the rest of his design.

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Overall, this is another skin that impressed me. I love the colors and animations, and the idea in general fits well with Ziggs’ character. It looks like a lot of work has been put into the design, which I’m not sure can be said for some of Ziggs’ other skins. While it’s not necessarily clever like Blood Moon Zilean, it’s beautifully animated and seems to have come a long way since its first stages.

What do you guys think: Would you buy it? And by the way, how are you liking these PBE Preview posts? Is there anything more you want me to cover or go into? Let me know in the comments!

Featured Image from ReignofGaming