Bewitching Batnivia

First time I saw Bewitching Batnivia load in on the enemy team I genuinely thought it was a new champion for about two seconds. The silhouette is that different. Anivia as a giant Halloween bat with candy corn horns and a witch hat perched on her head – sounds ridiculous on paper, and honestly it kind of is. But it works. Been running this skin since it dropped in October 2022 and the novelty hasnt worn off yet.

How Bewitching Batnivia actually looks in game

The model swap is the biggest thing here. Anivia goes from ice phoenix to full-on Halloween bat creature. Purple and orange color scheme, webbed wings, little fangs. The witch hat stays on during the entire game including egg passive, which is a nice touch. Not sure if it’s just me but the auto attack animation feels slightly different with this model, probably just the wing shape messing with my perception.

VFX got the full Epic treatment. Q throws out a swirling purple orb with bat particles trailing behind it. Solid read in teamfights, doesn’t blend into the Rift background the way some darker skins do. W wall summons these jagged candy-themed pillars. Trapped their Jinx behind one near dragon pit last week and the wall looked clean against the river terrain.

R is where the skin shines hardest. The blizzard zone turns into this swirling vortex of bats and purple energy. In a late-game teamfight where you drop ult on 3-4 people in the backline, the visual impact is massive. E projectile gets the purple treatment too, matching the rest of the kit. Consistent theming across all abilities.

Recall animation has Anivia stirring a cauldron. Classic Halloween stuff. Voice lines stay base, no VO refresh on this one. Standard for an Epic tier skin at 1350 RP.

The Bewitching line and release context

Bewitching Batnivia released October 20, 2022. Late season 12. Huyy Nugyen and West Studio handled the artwork, and they captured the spooky-cute vibe that the Bewitching line goes for. The splash has Anivia hovering over a moonlit graveyard with jack-o-lanterns scattered around. (Random aside: this splash has been my Discord avatar every October since it came out.)

The Bewitching skinline is one of Riot’s seasonal Halloween themes. Sits alongside skins like Bewitching Syndra and Bewitching Cassiopeia. Kinda feels like Anivia was a natural fit for this line because the bird-to-bat transformation just makes sense thematically. Most Bewitching skins lean into the cute witch aesthetic but Batnivia goes harder on the creature side.

Legacy vault skin, so you cant just grab it whenever. Gotta wait for the Halloween event rotation or get lucky with Hextech crafting. Seen maybe 4 of these in my Diamond games all season, which is part of the appeal honestly. When you lock in Anivia with this skin people notice.

8 chromas total if you managed to pick them up during the event. Amethyst deepens the purple into something more sinister, works great. Ruby swaps to a red bat look that reads more vampire than witch. Turquoise is interesting because it pulls Anivia back toward her ice theme but with the Halloween model, weird combo but I think it works in its own way.

Is Bewitching Batnivia worth 1350 RP?

Real verdict: this is a strong Epic skin. Maybe not the absolute best Anivia skin if you’re comparing against Blackfrost’s Legendary package, but for 1350 RP the value is solid. New VFX across the full kit, great model, fun recall. You know what surprised me? How clean the Q reads in river fights specifically. Some Anivia skins have Q particles that get lost against certain terrain – this one pops against everything.

The Legacy availability is the main catch. If you main Anivia and see this rotate back into the shop during Harrowing, dont sleep on it. Could be wrong here but I think this might be the most unique Anivia skin purely from a silhouette perspective. Every other skin keeps the phoenix shape. This one commits to the bat. 1350 RP well spent for mains, and even if you only play Anivia occasionally in mid lane its worth having in rotation for October games. Spammed this in Diamond for two months straight when it first came out and keep coming back to it every fall. Top pick for Anivia mains who want something different.