League of Legends is one of the biggest free-to-play games still on the market. While it doesn't quite hold the market share in the West compared to titles like Fortnite or Warzone, it remains influential. One of the reasons for this success is the general lack of pay-to-win options. It is a game that will destroy your wallet, but at least there isn't an advantage of doing so.
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Despite that, Riot's design is far from perfect, and the real shocker is when the design team releases premium content that gives an advantage. Some are addressed with patches, but there have been skins game-changing enough to be banned for competitive integrity. These skins won't help the player climb out of silver, but they could make an opponent frustrated. That's a win in its own right.
10 Muay Thai Lee Sin
Back in the day, nearly every skin was a simple retexture of an existing champion. Some exceptions would change voice lines, parts of the model, and some even provided unique animations. These days, it feels like the majority of skins have those unique animations and voice lines. That's all fine, but it's interesting to see that some players prefer a skin just because the new animations feel smooth.
One of the most popular examples is Muay Thai Lee Sin. For some reason, the edited animations on the skin feel smoother to a subset of players. Highly mechanical champions like Lee Sin utilize smooth combos, and Muay Thai Lee Sin gives players an edge in that regard. However, that may be based on personal preference, so players shouldn't spend money unless they like the design.
9 Dark Star Karma
Navigating a match of League requires knowledge of visual and audio cues. For example, a Sion's ultimate has a global sound effect attached to give players a chance to react. In lane, these sorts of audio cues are vital to keep drag of ability cooldowns and, in some cases, when an opponent is setting up to deal serious damage.
Karma has one of these audio cues on her ultimate. There's both voice audio and a sound effect attached to her ultimate cast, as the opponents need to be able to react to her enhanced abilities. Dark Star Karma, however, quiets those audio cues by a fair margin. It's not enough to be completely broken, but it's possible for opponents to not hear the more subtle cue and get hit by a devastating Inner Flame.
8 Justicar Syndra
League has a problem with particle effects that represent light. This is unfortunate for a game that has a literal light mage, as well as several lines of skins with bright particle effects. Some skins are less awful than others, but one of the most notorious was Justicar Syndra.
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Justicar Syndra's issue was that her orbs, the key aspect of Syndra's kit, were difficult to see in the best of times. This allowed Syndra to get some cheesy stuns on unsuspecting foes, which more often than not led to lethal damage with her absurdly strong ultimate ability. The skin was banned in pro play for this reason, and it remains a problem to this day.
7 Steel Legion Lux
Speaking of the light mage, Lux has a number of skins that are scuffed in their particle effects. For example, Dark Cosmic Lux's abilities all look incredibly similar when fired, and Lux can cheese opponents by faking them out with her shield. It's a neat trick that helps give complexity to an otherwise simple champion. At the very least, the attacks can all be seen. The same cannot be said for Steel Legion Lux.
Steel Legion Lux shares Dark Cosmic Lux's problem of having similar projectiles for her main abilities. However, it's worse since the particles are also hard to see. Similarly to Justicar Syndra, players may get surprised by spells they didn't see coming. The specific PC settings may play into this, but this skin was also banned from pro play for some time.
6 Underworld Twisted Fate
This one is for all the ARAM players who are tired of dealing with the flying card circus and his invisible cards. ARAM takes place on a unique map from Summoner's Rift, the Howling Abyss. The frigid wastes of the Freljord make for an ambient, chilling environment, but the blue-ish color pallet of the map has a bad habit of hiding skills. One of the notorious examples is Underworld Twisted Fate.
Underworld Twisted Fate is a rather cool skin, giving a spectral theme to the beloved Bilgewater gambler. The particle effects of his cards all have that haunting glow, which is cool to see in action. If only players could see those cards on the Howling Abyss. Patches have helped alleviate the problem, but the colors of the Howling Abyss still camouflauge his Wild Cards and the Gate part of his ultimate.
5 iBlitzcrank
Hooks, or abilities that latch and pull a target from a range, have always been janky. Mechanics are in place to make them more forgiving for the player trying to land a game-winning hook, called "lollipopping." The hook's ending hitbox is made wider to make sure it doesn't miss when its supposed to land. But it doesn't always work reliably, and new animations can make hook hitboxes even worse.
iBlitzcrank, the Apple-themed skin to celebrate the release of the MacOS version, definitely needed more quality control. For a long time, the animation of his hook didn't quite match the hitbox. The detached fist was deceptively longer than its animation indicated. Since landing hooks can alter the momentum of a game completely, making it harder to dodge the hooks always benefits the Blitz player.
4 Arclight Varus
This straightforward skin shares problems with others on this list. Arclight Varus gives the Darkin archer a light aesthetic, complete with bright particle effects and brilliant Piercing Arrows. The poke isn't too hard to see coming, as Varus telegraphs his Piercing Arrow. This skin gave an advantage for a different reason.
Arclight Varus's hard-to-see particle comes in his ultimate ability, Chains of Corruption. This ultimate is one of the biggest tools a marksman can have, capable of stunning an entire team. It fires somewhat slowly, but it can still be hard to react to. Add the inability to see the skill properly, and it leads to frustration for unlucky opponents.
3 Pulsefire Twisted Fate
This skin provides a new power fantasy to Twisted Fate players. It's a very fancy skin, and not just because of TF's glorious mustache. The particle effects and sound effects are jazzed up, including the particle for his ultimate ability, Destiny/Gate.
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Destiny/Gate is TF's big playmaking tool, allowing him to get global vision and be anywhere in a moment's notice. His arrival is announced by a circle of cards appearing on the ground, which is usually easy to predict. Pulsefire TF's Gate is unusually hard to see for no real reason. It may be easier to ambush opponents using this skin.
2 Blackfrost Anivia
The beloved Cryophoenix, Anivia, has seen better days. She's a niche champion, which tends to mean her skins are rarer. When one finally appears, it's a big deal for the few people that play her. Their dedication is rewarded when Riot lets a visual bug slip through the cracks.
Blackfrost Anivia has some snazzy particle effects, but one is both snazzy and broken. The animation of Blackfrost Anivia's Flash Frost is deceptive, with the actual hitbox being much further forward than the ability makes it appear. This is bad for both Anivia and her opponent, but if Anivia can master this jank, she can cheese some free stuns and kills.
1 Elementalist Lux
Elementalist Lux is a nightmare for the fragile code of League of Legends to handle. Riot has stated that the reason skins of its quality haven't been released since is because Elementalist Lux is taxing on the game environment. That aside, it is at least functioning and the power fantasy is unrivaled. It's a shame it has all of the problems of Lux's other skins.
Elementalist Lux allows for the Lux player to change their "element" within game. This changes particle effects, voice lines, and animations. Not every combination is assembled similarly, however, and some have their own problems. Some are hard to see for all players, while others are hard for just colorblind players. Some just have animations that don't line up problem. It's a fantastic skin, but has enough problems that it was banned in competitive play.
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