I've only seen the videos so I can't really comment on the overall quality of the skin. But I join the guys who complain about the new recall animation. You wanted to remove the old one, that's fine, but this new one is plain horrible. I was exited about buying the skin untill I saw the new animation. I don't want a skin that makes me hate it every time I go b. Please show us the quality of your work with a new recall that's not horrible.

I posted this in General Discussion, but it may be more useful here:

New recall is a bit un-Katarina-like.

Perhaps: she summons the pole shunpo-style with a hand gesture,

makes some rapid cuts, blasting it apart into snowflakes,

then finishes recalling in the haze.

(Alternative is rapid cuts blasting it apart into little candies that rest on the ground.)

I'm not sure if you've heard but Kat's recall could use some more work.

Disregard the ?amusing? raging, I also wrote relevant content review (I rage because I care about Kat)

When compared to the complexity of the other holiday skins this year, Kat's is lacking in terms of originality of the costume and complexity of the spell effects (somewhat understandable considering how short most of her particle effects are as opposed to the likes of ziggs/veigar).

I thought the original recall was fun, but changing it to this candy cane slicing seems like some kind of inside joke, spitting in the face of those who liked the original. Even if this was not the intent, the action has no correlation with recalling; the candy cane slice would fit as a taunt/joke with some accompanying dialogue.

My personal expectations are:

Ideal - Return animation you removed or provide one of equal complexity (like most of the community I have no sympathy for Riot not having enough time/resources to do so). Very much liked the idea of her being closed in a present box by the recall, and then bursting out of it on the platform with an animation akin to Sinister Steel shredding the present (SFX with this plz).

Meh - Give her the default Kat recall. I love Kat, so fine... At least it's a new skin...

I fume with internet rage (super scary, I know) - Keep this animation (slicing candy cane)... Seriously? I hate you on a personal level now.

Some alternatives are compiled under the outrage thread on the recall change (http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=2891783).

PS. Obligatory, RIOT Y U NO RED HAIR KAT. For real, I don't at all have a problem with it being too much red, if her hair was red in the skin, but don't do anything if it's going to be another candy cane type resolution.
There's a lot of colors worse than carrot orange, and I don't want to see forest green hair or something because you guys thought it was tongue-and-cheek festive or something like that...

let me know if i'm off base here
kkthnxbye

The first impression I had was like: Ugly hair and face, rest is cool. Today i logged in in pbe to see the skin ingame and not only in youtube videos. Actually the skin itself doesnt look bad. I really like the orange hair now that i saw it ingame. And I think you changed something in her face aswell because it does looke like katarina again (not like the first video i saw).
But the new recall animation is just plain boring. The animation itself isnt even well done, it doesnt look good how she cuts it and the pole takes forever to fall apart. Not to mention that its ... well ... boring. If riot complains about the sexiness of the last animation then ok, i have no problem with changing it. But there are SO much good ideas in this thread to make it look good. In a non-sexual way. I really hope that you rethink this again. There is a similar thread in EUW forums but it doesnt get attention anyway.

I hope you will hear to your customers and change the recall animation to something less boring. It doesnt need to be the old one if you thought its to sexual (or doesnt fit the character, but I dont understand this as there are other skins that dont fit characters aswell).

Its all a ploy for the feminist. The Candy Cane symbolizes the male's junk, and Katarina is a 'strong' independent woman who dont need no man.

Oh riot you lying cowards

It's kinda redundant at this point but I'm jumping on the "the new recall sucks" bandwagon.

So. Recall animation.
The skin was supposed to be lighthearted. You dressed Kat in a short cut dress and thigh high stockings. This is very sexy attire. A woman will not wear that to look funny, she will wear it to look sexy.

You remove the old recall animation because it was "too sexy, it didn't fit with the theme." As I just said, the skin is obviously very sexy, so this reasoning is straight up nonsense.

Next you add in a recall animation which is Kat lazily attacking a candy cane. Outside of the new low bar for animation quality this sets, this animation also doesn't fit with the skin! There is nothing even remotely humorous about this animation, and it's not sexy either.

If you actually want to be consistent and use your own argument without Morello being an outright liar, there is no way you can use this current animation. Either:
1) Put in a completely new animation that is somewhat humorous. Morello himself had a great idea in the thread where she does the pole dance and falls off at the end.
2) Completely change the skin so that it has nothing to do with humor.
3) Man up, admit that you made a mistake, and reimplement the old animation.

I'd be happy with any of these, because that recall animation was the only thing I felt had any unique value in this skin, because it looks way too similar to Candy Cane MF. Either a new (or the old) recall, or a brand new skin. Not a fan of her hair either, but I could live with that. I'm assuming you were trying to prevent too much red, in which case you could have made her hair white, gold, or silver (other Christmas colors). The orange just looks to me like a really bad dye job... which could have been what you were going for with the lighthearted element, but as I've already said, that is already heavily outdone by the sexiness of it.

Also I think Kat's face in the splash art looks very strange. I get that you were trying to give Kat a reddish nose, but her eyes are way too big, it looks almost alien. And she seems to be attacking someone... how does that even remotely match the lightheartedness that the skin was supposed to represent?

What's sad is that literally the only reason I have to justify spending money on this skin anymore is that it's legacy.

I think the most accurate response I've heard to the recall animation isn't that it's necessarily a bad idea - but it's lacking any sort of fierceness. Even if Kat was simply to follow the animation through to be standing with her back towards the cane as it falls, I think that would be a great improvement - it's like a "this'll be you when I get back" kind of taunt with that added.

Otherwise, the skin is very vibrant, and I think I like it quite a bit - the recall animation is definitely going to be a sticking point one way or another though.

I am not on the PBE,but, isaw the videos on Katarina new skin.And i know it is redundant to said again, but, her new recall is freaking weak and lame.For the fans, plz, make a better recall animation.