The 7th of April sees us getting a significant update to PBE. We have some large updates coming our way in the form of an all new feature called Chroma Packs. As well as an update to The Howling Abyss and the ARAM game type. We also have 4 new skins out for Zilean, Fiddlesticks, Jayce and Ziggs.

Bloodmoon Zilean

Zilean has joined Akali, Thresh, Shen, Kalista and Elise in getting a Bloodmoon skin, this skin will be 975RP and will include a complete remodel of zilean, new particles for all abilities and new back animation. I personally love the Bloodmoon skins and this one is quite close to my favourite of them all.

Risen Fiddlesticks

Fiddle is getting a skin called Risen Fiddlesticks, this skin will be 1350RP offering new model and textures, attack particles, new back animation and new sounds. This skin is a little buggy at the moment, with some clipping on the head and some sound bugs, other than that though this skin is really cool and I escpecially like the back animation.

Forsaken Jayce

My favourite skin of this batch, Forsaken Jayce. This is a 1350RP skin with all new sounds, back animation and attack particles. The only word I can think of when I look at this skin, is badass. Giving Jayce a darker side this skin is definitely something I will be picking up when it goes live.

Arcanist Ziggs

Everyones favourite explosive personality is getting a new skin called Master Arcanist Ziggs. This is another 1350RP skin, offering the usual new attack particles, back animation, sounds, model and textures. This skin is pretty cool, I like the hat and the spellbook on his back but other than that not too much I can say that really makes me like this skin. Probably my least favourite of these releases.

Chroma Packs

A new feature has also been added this update called Chroma Packs, these are recolours of current skins that you can purchase for, currently, 590RP. The initial release of this feature sees Lucian and Dragonfist Lee Sin getting a chroma pack each. Honestly I'm suprised this is only just becoming a thing, and I am happy it is. More options for customisation are never a bad thing and if I can look more fabulous in game than I already do then I am all for it! Taric would be proud.

Lee Sin Chroma Pack Example

(Image courtesy of pbe.leagueoflegends.com)

Howling Abyss Update

Finally in this release we have a pretty significant, although unsuprising change to the Howling Abyss map. With the Summoner's Rift getting an overhaul we saw Howling Abyss looking a little outdated using the old Nexus and Inibitor models as well as the old minion models. This is about to change with the current changes sitting on the PBE.

New minions have replaced the old, we have the new Nexus and Inhibitors, as you can see the old inhib hasn't been removed yet, this isn't visible in other screenshots I have seen however I loaded in multiple times and it hasn't dissapeared. Also like Summoner's Rift we see that a background image has been added into the loading screen and we see the return of the Mark/Dash ability from The Poro King event. Riot realised that this ability allowed some unpopular picks in ARAM to become more viable and such have decided to add it in to the normal game.

I'm super happy that Howling Abyss is getting is getting a fix up to matc the current look of LoL, hopefully if Riot are focusing on map improvements, Twisted Treeline could also get some love.

(Image courtesy of pbe.leagueoflegends.com)

Here are some more screenshots of the new minions and loading screen

That's all for this major update, pretty excited to see some of these updates go live, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the next update.