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[DEV BLOG] Starting Items in the 2016 Season

RiotPWYFF·11/5/2015, 8:15:32 PM·1 votes·46,370 views

Edit: Okay guys. I'm going to have to stop posting for a while and take care of minor inconveniences like eating or sleeping. Terrible excuses, I know - but apologies. I'll pop by again sometime tomorrow but for tonight, I'm out. Thanks all.

Our original intent with starting items before this season was to give players the ability to reflexively counter their opponents with generalist options running alongside more pronounced counter-items for specific circumstances (Flask, Doran’s Shield).

However, after a couple of seasons of attempting to balance this world, we’ve grown unhappy with how confining this approach is and the general problems that resulted from this approach. We’re decided to take a different tactic and adopt a pattern closer to the support line of items: Starter items that clearly express some kind of goal or intent in lane alongside a more generalist item for each of the positions in the game.

Magic - Doran’s Ring vs. The Dark Seal

Doran’s Ring is a powerful farming generalist item while The Dark Seal signifies an intent to roam and pick up champion kills along the the way.

While this doesn’t support the full spectrum of mages in mid, it does represent two of the largest factions - push mages vs. assassin roamers.

Attack - Cull vs. Doran’s Blade

Cull is an early skirmish option designed to be focused primarily around farming and light aggression.

Doran’s Blade on the other hand, is a generalist option that scales much better into mid-game and is better in skirmish situations.

Jungle - Hunter’s Talisman vs. Hunter’s Machete

Machete has long favored a certain class of attack speed centric characters and this represents a quandary of how to actually support mage or tank style junglers from the get-go.

Machete now doubles down on its auto-attack centric nature while Talisman focuses on area burn and mana regeneration. Talisman is primarily designed for spell focused junglers - especially those that have repeated area of effect attacks on moderate cooldowns (like Brand or Zyra).

Both of these initial items are required to upgrade into the Tier 2 Jungle item, so your choice of initial item will eventually become moot. However, this flexibility of starting options combined with the patience system should open up stronger opening jungle patterns to a wider variety of junglers.

Lane Sustain - Health Potion vs. Refillable Potion

One of the major issues with Crystalline Flask right now is that we are unable to push its power to the point where it feels non-abusive in lane. This is due to the fact that it stacks with potions and thus any power add-on in Crystalline Flask gets doubled down on because you stack potions with it.

Hence, the new inventory rule: you can only ever have one type of potion in your inventory at any time.

Refillable Potions are 3 times more expensive than a potion but benefit from the fact that they will recharge once you return to the fountain. Normal Healing Potions represent more healing up-front for less gold but is obviously temporary in nature.

Refillable Upgrades - Jungle vs. Lane

This, by itself, would probably still be on the weak side. However, Refillable Potions can upgrade into two versions: Hunter’s Potion and Corrupting Potion.

Hunter’s Potion is a roam-centric potion that can regain charges out in the field while you are killing large jungle monsters. It’s designed primarily to support a Jungle playstyle that focuses on maximal uptime or bolstering characters with low innate sustain.

Corrupting Potion is similar to Crystalline Flask on live - with the added benefit of combat power. During its effect, damaging enemy champions will burn them for magic damage over time. Corrupting Potion represents an intent to harass your lane opponent until they give up.

Mana Potions - Removed

Mana Potions have been removed from the game. We’ve generally found that the decision to opt into Mana Potions was one that was either forced upon some champions (aka “I need this mana to function”) or one that was generally only available to a handful of circumstances.

The best use cases of Mana Potions were typically to circumvent Mana restrictions for boom/bust play patterns (ie: save up to X amount of mana before dumping it all in a large burst of damage, repeat) vs. attrition-based approaches that are more in favor of straight mana regeneration. A champion being able to access their big “all-in” combo more frequently also makes it challenging for us to balance appropriately, and we’ve seen some more frustrating champions have their power reduced as a result.

With the removal of mana potions, we can also retune some champion mana values back to a middle ground. We’ve looked at the data for champions that frequently bought 2 or more mana potions in the game and we’ve either increased their maximum mana or the mana regeneration values based on their class.

  • Closing

For the start of the season, we’ve focused on granting at least two options to a particular need in the starting item space to support a wider variety of playstyles and intents from the start of the game.

93 Comments

Vekkna11/5/2015, 10:25:32 PM6 votes

There seems to be a little schizophrenia here about item identity. For example:

Doran’s Ring is a powerful farming generalist item while The Dark Seal signifies an intent to roam and pick up champion kills along the the way.

Meanwhile, Akali Katarina are just kind of left out of this equation despite being iconic roamers. In fact, they have so many losing lane matchups that they almost always rely on roaming kills to get fed at all, while other champs roam for bonus kills Zed Ahri Leblanc

Dark Seal is slightly problematic to me. It seems tailor-made for FizzLeblanc who need hp sustain in lane and have early mana trouble. But on Ahri Annie Heimerdinger this will virtually eliminate their already-minor mana problems and give them too much hp sustain in lane.

But Akali Katarina need the sustain until level 6, and the early AP would slightly mitigate notoriously godawful laning. The problem is the wasted 100 mana that should really be another stat. Kat, Akali, and Vlad all lack a proper starting item, and the overall sustain on Dark Seal will end up being problematic on Annie, Ahri, and probably Veigar.

This, by itself, would probably still be on the weak side. However, Refillable Potions can upgrade into two versions: Hunter’s Potion and Corrupting Potion.

So we have upgraded potions for junglers and mana-users, and everyone else gets something "on the weak side."

The best use cases of Mana Potions were typically to circumvent Mana restrictions for boom/bust play patterns (ie: save up to X amount of mana before dumping it all in a large burst of damage, repeat) vs. attrition-based approaches that are more in favor of straight mana regeneration.

You removed mana potions for the afore-stated reasons and decided to restore mana on Corrupting Potion. You see why that's confusing, yes?

So again with Katarina specifically. Spellvamp and lifesteal are garbage (p.s. fix this), her hp5 is gutted, and she requires lots of potions in lane and throughout game. But she's not a jungler or a mana-user, so she's left with an admittedly inferior refillable potion or taxed heavily by increased potion costs. The refillable potion is not strong enough, and 250g to stock up on pots is unfairly punitive.

Corrupting Potion represents an intent to harass your lane opponent until they give up.

With a clear advantage to champs with single-target abilities, most of whom are fighters, not mages. There are only a handful of mages that even have abilities that get value from the dot, and many get the garbage dot on every single ability regardless of how many enemies they hit.

For the start of the season, we’ve focused on granting at least two options to a particular need in the starting item space to support a wider variety of playstyles and intents from the start of the game.

Except for the champs who still have zero starting items, most/all of whom are AP with no mana bar. Yeah, we can start boots or Amp Tome, but that doesn't solve the problem of efficiency. Starting items are hyper-efficient. Even without the stacking AP, Dark Seal has a stat value of 526g + 12.5 per potion for only 400 gold. Manaless champs have nothing even remotely comparable.

And while most mid laners are getting pretty substantial sustain buffs (mana pool, regen, and hp regen on Dark Seal), Katarina gets no efficient starting item and gets one less starting potion from live (two less with the refillable pot). This is a loss of 150hp with consumables and 400hp with refillable.

By comparison, a Fizz can pick up Dark Seal and 2 hp pots. Kat picks up boots and 3 hp pots. Katarina only nets 75 more hp from 3 pots (or 1/2 a pot). Fizz's Dark + 2 (without AP passive) has a total value of 651g right off the bat, and Katarina's items only have a total value of 475g. An effective 175g value difference is enormous at level 1.

TL;DR: This is a direct nerf to Katarina at her worst point in the game and an indirect nerf to her via buffs to most other mid-laners' early sustain.

I would appreciate your thoughts about this because it seems like Kat in particular is getting the major shaft in this rework, along with Akali, Vlad, and Kennen to a lesser degree.

SaltyKracka11/5/2015, 8:54:55 PM5 votes

You've gone and added a ton of new items for every other class, seriously buffed Doran's blade, and all the meanwhile Dshield gets the same cost increase and nothing extra out of it while you're simultaneously nerfing the maximum sustain starts that many characters needed to do to survive in lane against early harass.

So let me just ask this. What about the fucking tank items?

Critkeeper11/6/2015, 3:09:55 AM4 votes

We have marksmen able to mid lane and top lane effectively.

We have supports that can mid lane and top lane effectively.

We have mages that can support and top lane effectively.

We have fighters that can mid, but only mordekaiser can really bot.

And why is that? Its because the combination marksman + support blots out everything else. It just has too much synergy.

I'm not saying support + marksman isn't fun, or even that having more variety bot lane should take precedent over game health.

All I am saying is that keeping the synergy that marksmen have in a duo lane as a de facto standard is a definite design choice, not an automatic "given". Why make that choice? Is it impossible for you to create a healthy duo lane experience that doesn't involve having one marksmen on each side?

How seriously does a design choice like that limit actual variety in league of legends-- i'm talking about hard, statistical variety; both choices of champions according to not only what they do but how they might do it better in the presence of an ally in the laning phase.

Is it frustrating as a designer to know that you aren't allowed to make a champion that is designed to cooperate in a duo lane unless they are a support or marksman? Isn't it frustrating to know that you can't really make a primary income tank duo laner because of how experience works with hp and the fact that the enemy support + adc combo will destroy your attempt because of their unnatural synergy?

Lastly, is it possible to redesign dorans shield in such a way as to enable more variety bot lane even against the synergy of a marksman + support combo while creating healthy gameplay for both sides?

ExecutorDill11/6/2015, 2:30:37 AM3 votes

Why is there no vs counterpart for Doran's shield? Perhaps an item that has increases defenses again range out attacks or maggic damage spells.

ploki12211/5/2015, 9:14:15 PM3 votes

On the topic of Dark Seal (and Mejai), what was the train of thought behind losing a flat amount of stacks? Right now, it feels like teh tiem is always either terrible or broken. If yuo manage to get 15+ stacks (especially as a "safe assassin" champion like Ahri or Viktor), you're basically a Raid Boss; meanwhile, whenever you die in a teamfight, it will be a strict negtive result unles you got multiple kills or took part in all kills. I feel like the item got even more snowbally than before, which is kinda counter intuitive.

Oh, and touching that topic of snowball items, why is SotD gone? I don't mind much, but I feel it's inconsistent to make a mini-Mejai to support that build path, but remove the AD counterpart.

On the topic of potions, is there any plans to make a 3rd flask that simply heals faster than the other ones? Right now, you have to choose between paying for some extra damage, or get a potion that heals insanely slowly. I could see a potion with 2 charges that heal 150 health over 10 seconds for instance or something like that. Heck, it could even be a potion with a single charge but that can be refilled in one way or another.

Otherwise, was it intentional to not make the biscuit's effect apply to flasks? Right now, health potions are insanely costly, and the mastery feels much worse now that most of its benefit comes from buying 50g health potions. Before, you could use it on mana potions at least.

On the topic of lane sustain, my question comes from Maining Poppy, but it probably applies to others. I feel like a few champions actually used the flask to be able to live through the laning phase. As it is now, you have to either commit 400+ gold for a useful refillable flask, or buy Rejuvunation Beads. Unfortunately, a lot of Rejuv beads were removed from recipes (Tiamat taking only 1 comes to mind), which means that unless you wanna go for a tank build, those Rejuv beads aren't going anywhere. If Hunter's potion power budget wasn't focused on killing jungle monsters it wouldn't be that bad, but it isn't the case.

So basically, what are the expected starting items for someone who needs sustain? I used the example of Poppy, but it could just as well be anyone against Quinn/Teemo/Vayne/Vlad/Swain/etc.

On the topic of mana potions, is there any concern about champions not being used following their main design intention? For instance Swain/Cho'Gath/Yorick support are now completely garbage because of the removal of Mana Potions since they're balanced around getting creeps (while Yorick is balanced around not seeing play). This means that if you play them as support, you're continuously mana starved. If it was only support I wouldn't mind much, but the same issue would arise in ARAMs. Is it possible to at least keep mana potions in ARAM?

Merxamers11/5/2015, 8:39:12 PM3 votes

Not sure if this is covered here, but are you concerned at all for assassin junglers (Khazix, Rengar, etc.) who really needed the 3 starting health pots and rangers trailblazer (now removed)? Will the new jungle items keep them from dying to the wolf camp?

Hellioning11/5/2015, 8:45:00 PM3 votes

Honestly, it feels like Cull and Dark Seal are trap items. They are basically 'I will lose lane and hope to make up for it later' as items, and that's really not all that healthy.

Pyro11/6/2015, 12:29:03 AM3 votes

Coming back to the tank problem, have you considered a potion upgrade that heals you more when you're low on health and out of combat?

Something when "Renekton/Riven/Lulu is bullying me and I hate my life as a toplane tank. I need a drink."

Yuumi or Lose11/6/2015, 12:26:20 AM2 votes

I know this has nothing to do with starting items, but it is kind of bothering me.

Do you guys have any plans for Ohmwrecker? It is barely ever picked up because it has no real good uses. You can just buy other tank items and tank turrets way more effectively than to disable turrets. Also, other tank items help with team fights as it also has better stats.

Merxamers11/5/2015, 8:27:04 PM1 votes

Talisman is primarily designed for spell focused junglers - especially those that have repeated area of effect attacks on moderate cooldowns (like Brand or Zyra).

I think this should also result in the return of Chogath jungle, if this applies to his auto attack spikes. I'm fine with this :)