Dreadknights Skins

Kinda feels like Riot forgot this skinline existed. Dreadknights dropped back in 2011 with exactly two skins and then... nothing. Just Nasus and Garen standing there in dark fantasy armor wondering if backup was ever coming. Not gonna lie, I have a soft spot for these two because they represent that early League era where Riot would throw a 975 RP skin out there with zero fanfare, no event pass, no prestige edition, just a cool concept and a retexture. Been playing since season 2 and I remember when Dreadknight Garen was considered a flex pick in champ select just for the intimidation factor. Different times.

What Makes Dreadknights Stand Out

The Dreadknights aesthetic is dark medieval fantasy cranked to like, maybe a 6 out of 10 on the edge scale. Think corrupted knights, blackened armor plates, glowing accents that suggest some kind of void or shadow corruption. Not full-on evil like the Ruined line or the edgelord energy of Nightbringer. More restrained. The shared visual language between the two skins is heavy plate armor with ornate dark metal trim and subtle magical undertones in the color palette.

Real talk though. For Standard tier skins from 2011, these hold up surprisingly well in terms of thematic clarity. You look at Dreadknight Nasus or Dreadknight Garen and you immediately understand what they're going for. Dark knight fantasy. Corrupted warrior. Simple premise executed without overthinking it.

The color palette leans heavily into blacks, dark purples, and desaturated golds. Theres no particle changes on either skin because Standard tier in 2011 meant you got a model swap and maybe new textures and thats it. No recall animation changes. No ability recolors. Base VFX all the way through. Compared to modern skinlines like Empyrean or Crystalis Motus that drown you in new particles, Dreadknights is barebones. But sometimes barebones works.

Could be wrong here but I think the appeal of Dreadknights is specifically that simplicity. Two juggernauts. Dark armor. Done. No lore event. No animated short on YouTube. No Twitter discourse about which champion "deserved" to be in the line. Just two skins that exist because someone at Riot in 2011 thought dark knight Garen and dark knight Nasus would look cool. And they were right.

Best Dreadknights Skins

With only two skins in the entire line this isnt exactly a tier list situation. But I'll rank them anyway because that's what we do.

Dreadknight Nasus takes it. Not close. The dog-headed Egyptian god in corrupted dark armor just works on a conceptual level that Garen can't match. Nasus already has that ancient mythological vibe in his base design, so slapping dark fantasy armor on him feels like a natural extension rather than a costume. His stacking gameplay creates this thematic resonance where you're this unstoppable corrupted force growing stronger every minute. Been running Dreadknight Nasus in my Diamond games when I get autofilled top and want to splitpush without thinking too hard. The skin makes the Q bonks feel heavier somehow, even though theres zero gameplay difference. Placebo is real.

(Random aside: I once had a 47 minute game where I hit 1200 stacks on Dreadknight Nasus and my team was typing "the dark knight rises" in all chat every time I one-shot someone. Peak League experience.)

Dreadknight Garen is fine. Solid skin. But Garen has so many better options now that its hard to recommend over God-King, Mythmaker, or even base Garen with a chroma. The dark armor looks good but it doesn't transform the champion the way the same treatment transforms Nasus. Garen is already a knight. Making him a slightly darker knight isn't as exciting. Back in 2011 though? This was a legitimate flex. Not sure if it's just me but I remember seeing Dreadknight Garen in lane and assuming the player was a smurf. Season 1 psychology was wild.

Maybe just my experience but Dreadknight Garen felt more impressive before Riot released 15 other Garen skins that each do the "armored warrior" concept better. Power creep hits cosmetics too apparently.

The Champion Roster Situation

Two champions. Nasus and Garen. That's it. The entire Dreadknights roster is two melee juggernauts who want to run at you and hit you with big weapons. There's a thematic coherence there even if its accidental. Both are simple kits, both scale into late-game monsters, both benefit from that "corrupted unstoppable force" fantasy.

Honestly not gonna lie, I think Riot missed a massive opportunity here. Dreadknights could have been expanded into a proper dark fantasy line with maybe 6-8 skins. Imagine Dreadknight Darius. Dreadknight Mordekaiser. Dreadknight Sion. The whole juggernaut class recast as a corrupted knight order. Would have been sick around 2014-2015 when the game was leaning hard into that kind of fantasy. Instead Riot just... moved on. Dropped two skins in 2011 and never looked back.

Could be coping but I genuinely believe if Dreadknights launched in 2023 with modern production values it would have been a banger event line. The concept is there. Dark corrupted knights is evergreen fantasy appeal. Look at how well Ruination and Coven perform. Same energy, different execution. Dreadknights was just too early and too underfunded.

For the two champions that did get the treatment: Nasus fits perfectly. That Anubis-meets-dark-paladin crossover is strong. Garen fits adequately. He's already Demacia's knight, darkening him up works but isnt transformative. Both make sense as inaugural picks for a line about corrupted warriors. The problem was just stopping at two.

Tier and Price Breakdown

Both skins are Standard tier at 975 RP each. This is old-school 975 RP which in 2011 meant model changes and texture work but no new particles, no new voice lines, no recall animations. By modern standards these would probably slot into the 520-750 range for what they actually deliver. But prices from that era are locked in.

975 RP for what you get in 2026. Tough sell honestly. You're paying nearly Epic skin prices for Standard tier content. The model work is decent but you can grab Epic skins during sales for 675 RP that blow these out of the water in terms of value. If you're a Nasus main who specifically loves the dark knight aesthetic, 975 for Dreadknight Nasus is acceptable. Not great. Acceptable.

Straight talk: neither skin has chromas. Zero. No chromas were ever added because Riot clearly moved on from this line before the chroma system even existed. So what you see is what you get. One color variant per skin, take it or leave it. Compare that to modern 1350 skins shipping with 8+ chromas and the value proposition gets rougher.

No Legendary skins. No Epic skins. No Mythic skins. Just two Standard skins from 2011 hanging out in the shop at 975 RP each. Total investment to own the complete Dreadknights collection: 1950 RP. Less than a single Ultimate skin. Could be worse. Last Tuesday I checked and both are still permanently available, no vault rotation or anything. Shop has them whenever you want.

The Abandoned Potential

Not gonna lie, writing about Dreadknights feels like writing an obituary for a skinline that died before it could live. Two skins, both released 2011, zero follow-up in 15 years. Riot has expanded older skinlines before. Arcade went from a few skins to a full roster. Pool Party keeps getting new entries. Even Commando got referenced in later content. Dreadknights just sits there.

I think part of it is brand confusion. Once Riot created distinct dark fantasy lines like Coven, Ruination, and Nightbringer, there wasnt really room for Dreadknights anymore. The niche got filled by better-produced alternatives. Why make Dreadknight Darius when you can make God-King Darius? Why do Dreadknight Mordekaiser when Pentakill exists? The creative space got crowded.

(Sidebar for anyone who collects legacy skins: these aren't Legacy, they're permanent shop. So no exclusivity value here either. Just two regular skins that happen to share a neglected skinline name.)

Fair warning if you're considering buying these specifically for the Dreadknights branding: there probably won't be more. This isn't a line where waiting for "the next batch" makes sense. Season 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 came and went. No new Dreadknights. The concept is dead unless some Riot designer randomly revives it in a future brainstorm, and even then they'd probably rebrand it into something with more marketable IP synergy.

Been maining Nasus with this skin off and on since like 2013 or 2014 and honestly the nostalgia factor carries it harder than the actual visual quality at this point. Some skins you keep equipped because of what they represent, not because they're the flashiest option. Dreadknight Nasus is that for me. A reminder of simpler ranked games where nobody knew how to kite and you could stack 400 by 20 minutes in Gold elo without anyone punishing you.