Possible Reasons For The Current Snowball

The God Fâther·Dec 24, 2017·6 votes·706 views

There is a large amount of complaint about the current state of the game due to its hyper snowbally nature. There are two major changes that seem to have played a large role in this. And the compound of them only exponentially worsens the issue of snowballing. The first I'd like to mention is the addition of the new dragons. Withis the additions of the new dragons a permanent powerful passive was introduced. Specifically the mountain and inferno dragon's passives play a massive role in determining pressure and power of a team in a game. The second issue seems to be the high amounts of damage output in the current state of the game. This leads to small leads turning into very advantageous positions. Once a team has a few kills lead and can pressure the enemy team off important objectives the game begins to become one sided very quickly. It used to be that the dragon provided a temporary boost and gold for the team. The defending team could give up the dragon and focus on enforcing defensive strategies. Shoving lanes and prepping for turtle. However this is no longer possible. Giving up an inferno dragon or a mountain dragon is highly damaging and makes defending much much harder. Without a really strong wave clear capability or proper defending composition it becomes extremely difficult to even maneuver out of one's jungle if even that. Towers go down extremely quickly too in the current damage meta. And their overall strength in terms of health or damage, idk which it's definitely an entire discussion of its own, should be analyzed. I know that there are more variables to be considered and balancing can be tricky. But giving thought to recent changes these two major changes definitely seem to have changed league from a game of comebacks to accumulation of uncontested pressure.

For those who claim a superior player can overcome and comeback I do not disagree. But games amongst people of equal elo should be as it used to be. Two sided, of comebacks, of both offensive and major defensive plays. It's sad for me to see that 80 percent of games lack these elements that used to make the game so much more engaging throughout its entirety. Thoughts?

14 Comments

with the answerDec 25, 20174 votes

Triumph rune. It gives too much healing. Especially in 2v2 bot lane, which makes close fights a thing of the past.

AirKingNeoDec 25, 20171 votes

Triumph's healing is fine. The bonus gold is what snowballs the game.

In my opinion: Gold bonus removed. Healing increased to 15% (12% for ranged), and recent takedowns reduce healing by 3% (15%->12%->9%) (minimum 3%).

Best Ekko NADec 25, 20172 votes

Yes but Riot did not adjust the game for the general players, it was based around trends in professional play. Dragon was a crucial objective when it gave gold as opposed to stats, and teams would stall entire games hoping to make a play around Dragon to get back into the game. Combine this with the 5 man tower lane swap meta which existed back then, and basically the game was completely non-interactive and super boring at the professional level. Watching the professional scene was like watching a Farmville simulator as teams traded towers for free, without fighting each other, then continued to farm long lanes until the Dragon was about to spawn.

Trust me, Riot understands that games are faster and that's exactly what they were hoping to achieve... and not for the general players. I'm pretty damn sure no one below Challenger was complaining that Dragons gave gold, or about lane swaps (because they were almost non-existent in solo queue). It's all about what makes the game exciting to spectate, and no one wants to watch Farmville 2.0 .

The God FâtherDec 25, 20171 votes

If this is their intention then it is their intention. I'm only giving my opinion on the issue of snowballing. And I feel that people are missing the change in dragon as one.

And while we're on this topic the RNG of dragons is a whole issue on its own. And it does matter in pro play. Have you seen earlier season's tournaments? They were by no means farmville 2.0. Still object orientated. But defense was an art too.

PokladnicaZlaDec 25, 20172 votes

Wasn't catch up exp removed/decreased ? Or ?

The God FâtherDec 25, 20171 votes

I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I'm saying this because there are still tricks in the jungle to abuse which will lead you to level 4 earlier.

PokladnicaZlaDec 25, 20171 votes

Ways to reach lvl 4 in the jungle ==== / ==== catch up exp wasn't reduced/removed.

InfernapeDec 24, 20171 votes

I'd put it mostly down to everything doing a fuckton of damage.

Vapor Wave VibesDec 25, 20171 votes

You said 2 reasons, but you just blamed the dragons. Also the bottom lane turret being weaker than top and mid's turret is a biggest reason as to why the game snowballs so much.

The God FâtherDec 25, 20171 votes

The first reason is the change in dragons. And the second reason is the high amounts of damage we are seeing in the meta giving structures like towers smaller importance in defending a team. Especially in the early mid game and on.

Troll for TrumpDec 25, 20171 votes

Dependence on bot lane. Whether or not bot lane wins usually depends whether or not the game is lost or won. Only one bot lane can win, and that will usually snowball to a victory.

Very rarely can any other lane have as much impact as bot lane.

Jgl is also very important (if not the most important) role, but the jgl meta is more of a symptom of snowball than a cause in my opinion; the meta seems to be more gank-orientated jglers than carry-based

AirKingNeoDec 25, 20171 votes

As I said, making League a 'team game' has actually made it less of a team game. Team-centric roles like ADC, support, and jungle become the complete deciding factors in games. Roles like mid and top get alienated and aren't really having an impact on the team, making it less of a team game.

Making it so jungle doesn't farm as much (and thus gank more) and buffing bot lane (both ADC and support, especially support) has completely made the game unfun. Also dragon strength.

The God FâtherDec 25, 20171 votes

I disagree with mid having no control since they have so much roaming potential. Top lane seems to be more alienated however until mid to late game. And yes if bot lane feeds and dragon control is lost by that point in the game the overall influence of the top laner is lost. They really rely on a high cooldown tp to make the difference early game.

AirKingNeoDec 25, 20171 votes

With the rise of heavy waveclear among mid mages, roaming is surprisingly more difficult as waveclear is no longer a niche, but a must.