I don't know. There is something to be said for each champs unique look and easily recognizable appearances in arena.

Do you envision them still being easily and uniquely identifiable?

I've always thought that skins could have been an alternate option for dupes.  Like, you could sacrifice a dupe to get a different skin for an existing character.

I also think that it is a goldmine that Plarium haven't explored.  It's something that they could theoretically put entirely behind a paywall and/or implement relatively quickly because it doesn't impact the game balance.  Also, similar to Ninja/S1mple, they could do limited edition skins during events such as Christmas.  There's so much potential.  

With regards to maintaining champions unique looks, this could be managed in a certain way if required, but I'm not sure it's needed.  TF2 originally had the same issue whereby it was critical to maintain the profile of the character so that players could quickly react to an opponent, but then the introduction of hats and cosmetics kind of changed that a bit and the player base adapted.  

That said, I also think that the cosmetic changes could help improve the identification of different builds.  For example, if someone has 2 Brogni's built (i.e. one for accuracy and one without), then they could use a different skin for each to be more clear on which one they are running (i.e. Brogni with the blue cape is accuarcy/resist/def/HP, while the red cape is focused more on damage).

Interesting indeed. Like the ideas, Rose. :D

I don't like the idea. There are more than 500 champions, and most of them look unique (ok, some share their skin, like Apothecary and... what was the name of the other dude nobody uses?), with their own art style. Harle mentioned the ability to recognize the opponent's champ in the arena. But that in-game logic is not the only reason why I dsilike the idea. It's more about the whole concept of collecting different heroes with different art style. Now you see a champ and know "oh, that's Athel".

That wouldn't work anymore if the thousands of Athels played in the game all look different. That one in the video is Athel. We don't need an Athel with long red hair, fighting in her underware, because that style belongs to Warmaiden.

I must admit I don't really understand the need to instantly recognize your opponent champions in a game like Raid, so maybe someone can help point it out.

In a realtime game such as TF2 it is critical to immediately recognize the class in front of you to know whether you need to retreat or attack.  I don't see this in Raid.  If it's Arena you already know based on the portraits on the battle select screen who you are facing, so once you are actually in the battle you already know.  Almost all other content is played auto, so it doesn't make a difference either.  It's not like you are pivoting based on an unknown variable when you are playing

I wanted Altan to be empowered with different looks... just longer limbs per dupe. 

I'd buy cosmetic packs in a heartbeat .. but that's just me .

I just realized that when some people think about skins, they probably think of extreme differences, but that isn't really what I'm thinking of.  Most of the variations that I think would be good to the game are actually minor, so the characters are still recognizable.  Infact, usually the concept artists have already done this as part of the concept process.  One of the examples that I could find of this is Whisper

i

During my travels though I found a blonde Elhain, which looks good but probably doesn't adhere to the "keeping a character consistent".  Still, a better example in this picture is actually the outfit itself, which I think demonstrates how you can easily change something without actually changing the character.  

i

Now this is the Elhain that we all know and love, and while I know the short hair picture was done to show the design of the clothes from behind, it did make me think that a short hair Elhain could be a good alternate skin

i

Of course, there are other more extreme alternative concepts, such as Siphi below.  Personally I probably wouldn't mind these as alternate skins in the game myself, but I get that some people might see them as deviations from the character

i

Hey  dont  Be  messing  with  my  siphi lol  shes  perfect  as  is  

I want to make my warmaiden look exactly like Duchess!  Hell yeah!

I guess most players would prefer if Duchess (and all other female champs) look like Warmaiden. 😁

Well, yeah.  But if warmaiden looked like Duchess or Siphi, I'd get attacked a lot less lol.  Make my bully look like Ma'Shalled while we're at it.

Its  been  done  in  other  games,  and  yes  the  champs  are  definetly  still  unique.  I  mean  imagine  only  wearing  the  same  clothes  every  day.  You  can  wear  different  things  and  still  maintain  a  certain  style.  Also  not  every  champ  has  to  have  extra  skins  or  art.  But  the  sky  is  the  limit.  IF  you  guys  want  examples,  please  look  up  transmogs  in  summoners  war  i  thought  they  did  an  excellent  job.

I love those alternate Siphi arts, like all of them.

Now I just need ANY version of Siphi, please and thank you.

 Harmful link deleted by moderator -Q

So it sounds like this might actually be a thing coming.  Apparently there was a post on the discord on the 24th of December where Plarium have said: "Throughout the year you will be receiving even more options to make your existing and new champions tougher, smarter and even cuter".  I'm not on discord so cannot confirm, but it was mentioned in one of HellHades latest videos.

The only way I can interpret "cuter" is to change skins

Edit: With regards to tougher and smarter, my thoughts on those comments are more item sets for tougher, and more AI control for smarter.  The latter is also something I would very much like to see

Bumping an old thread just to say that skins are finally being released in patch 5.30!  It is great that Plarium saw the opportunity here as I think this will be massive from a revenue point of view, and assuming it is done right (in that the overall aesthetic is maintained), then it will have no negative impact to the game (such as champion balances).

I'm mainly a FTP user, and this is only because I enjoy the challenge of playing and winning in a game that was "pay to win".  If anything is going to encourage me to spend, it is vanity items like this because they don't interfere with that challenge, and I will still view myself as playing with the most constraints

I llike this direction. I am super interested in seeing the skins.

Also, the preset team AI improvements are happening in this patch too. As is a new gear set. Is that the full trifecta of smarter, tougher and cuter?

Good catch, I forgot about the smarter, tougher, cuter thing that they hinted.  100% this sounds like it

Tougher might be something else, but a new, decent looking gear set might be the thing?

The Killstroke Artifact Set will provide your Champions with a +20% CRIT DMG and +5% SPD bonus for every 2 Artifacts equipped.