How to get the new Thousand-Pierced Volibear skin for free

The reworked Volibear has arrived in Summoner’s Rift and developer Riot Games is giving away a free skin to commemorate the launch.

In 2019, Riot announced that Fiddlesticks and Volibear would be getting complete overhauls. The new Volibear arrived with patch 10.11 and brings a present with him to players. All players that owned the champion prior to the rework will receive the new Thousand-Pierced Bear skin for free.

To claim the skin, all you have to do is log into League of Legends. The game then automatically adds the new skin to your inventory. Thousand-Pierced Bear is an exclusive skin that cannot be purchased through the store and cannot otherwise be obtained, meaning that players will have to get it now if they ever want it in their inventory.

Volibear doesn’t live up to release hype

Riot heavily invested in Volibear’s promotion. The developer hosted a broadcast to reveal the new look, and Volibear made a dramatic appearance in ARAM games around the world, clawing at the bridge. Players who encountered Volibear received an exclusive emote. The promotions created hype around the champion, but once it arrived, it became clear that Volibear wouldn’t live up to most expectations.

How to build the new Volibear?

When it comes to Volibear’s build, there isn’t really a clear path that all players can take. There doesn’t seem to be any one set of runes that fits this champion perfectly. The main issue is that Volibear needs a little bit of everything, which is impossible to achieve. For example, the big bear requires both AP and AD if players want to deal relevant damage. It needs attack speed, mana, and cooldown reduction.

In theory, Volibear is both a bruiser and a tank. In reality, this champion is a mix of everything and a master of nothing. The scaling is almost nonexistent, so in the late game, Volibear is just there on the map being largely irrelevant.

There are way better options in the game. Sett is a great example of a champion that fills the same role with much greater success. In a side by side, both kits are similar with crowd control, AOE, bonus movement speed, and a jumping assault. Sett has proven to be a reliable champion as a top laner, a jungler, and a support. Sett is everything the new Volibear aspires to be, only better.

Volibear needs some serious tweaking or all of Riot’s efforts in its rebuild would be for nothing. Right now, the worldwide win rate for Volibear in top lane, jungle, and support is below 36 percent, a very poor number.