Imagine if he had a real weapon…
League of Legends players have been treated with Jax’s mid-scope update this patch, but the community isn’t happy. Several posts have been circulating on the game’s subreddit that criticise the recent changes made to Jax, one of the oldest characters in League.
Jax is a popular pick among players. His kit is quite simple to understand and learn, and it doesn’t take much practice to be able to carry with the champion due to his high kill potential lane and split-pushing capabilities.
In December 2022, the lead champion designer at Riot Games, August, confirmed that a mini-rework for Jax was underway, promising a more exciting ultimate ability and additional ability power ratios. However, a day after the new Patch 13.1 went live, Jax players were met with disappointment.
League of Legends players on Reddit decry the visual issues with the new Jax, his slow animations, and the strange looking third of his ultimate’s passive. One of the changes that players quickly discovered is the lack of SFX on newer skins and the missing shield. Furthermore, the recent update has recolored the third hit indicator, but it’s now identical on every skin.
The original poser in the above thread was particularly upset with the changes to Jax’s legendary skin, Mecha Kingdoms Jax, which was designed by senior visual effects artist Sirhaian who put a lot of effort into the skin to compensate for the lack of animations on Jax’s base skin. The new skin has lost a lot of its effects, previously the shield that reflected different colors every time he received damage.
The mid-scope update was on League’s Public Beta Environment (PBE) for one month prior to its migration to the live servers, one wonders whether players weren’t giving robust feedback during this phase of testing. Jax is an older champion and people were excited to see how he’d shine with a new coat of paint, the community appears dissatisfied with Riot’s efforts.
