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Mobility Creep: It's both good and bad

MAN OF INTELLECT·9/17/2015, 3:56:11 AM·1 votes·442 views

"Mobility creep" oftentimes puts off a bad connotation. THIS IS NOT TRUE AT ALL.

Mobility has both beneficial and negative effects tied to it, in my opinion. Why?

PROS

*The more masterful you are at the champion, the better you play. Basically, skill level is reflected much more accurately through your gameplay (albeit one minor note - see "ping" in CONS section). Making sweet plays feels more rewarding.

*The champion is more interesting and fun to play (particularly on release), increasing sales.

*Plays look more interesting to watch (LC$ stuff, you know). Highlight reels are more condensed and glorified. Individual skill can be shown off through XPEKE-like plays.

*Nothing frustrates me more than Annie bursting 100-0 and then saying, "outplayed". There is definitely a spot for non-mobility, but this seems a little extreme to me. A little mobility can keep League more interactive instead of a binary interaction where a player "face-rolls" buttons to burst someone down. THIS IS THE MOST POSITIVE PART OF MOBILITY.

CONS

*League becomes a much more ping-oriented game. Your level of play can only be as good as your ping when you make high APM plays (Actions per Minute)

*When playing a non-mobility champion, you have less opportunity to decide the outcome of a skirmish (i.e., when you play Heimerdinger, Vel, Morde, etc, you don't get to choose when you engage on someone, the enemy chooses when to engage and disengage on YOU). This makes the champion more unpopular. I mean, seriously, when's the last time you saw someone play Yorick? That's right, no mobility. THE POPULARITY OF THE CHAMPION POOL WILL ALWAYS BE SKEWED TOWARDS MOBILITY CHAMPIONS BECAUSE OF THE CONTROL THAT THEY HAVE IN DETERMINING THE OUTCOME OF A SITUATION. Since they can always move around and adjust, non-mobile champions are simply a test dummy. For example, a good Leblanc will always be able to outplay you, and if the Leblanc stinks, then you will always be able to kill the Leblanc. Your skill level of a non-mobile champion is irrelevant because the plays are always left up to the hands of the champion with the mobility loaded into his/her kit. (There was a thread about this concerning Yasuo a few weeks ago, if I remember correctly) THIS IS THE MOST NEGATIVE EFFECT IN MY OPINION.

*Balancing issues become more pronounced between damage and mobility.

TL;DR League has both good and bad things when new mobility is introduced. It allows for higher level plays and coordination but can infringe upon balance and make non-mobile champions left to die on the fringes of League due to unpopularity.

2 Comments

Critmaster Garen9/17/2015, 4:25:18 AM1 votes

{quoted} and if the Leblanc stinks, then you will always be able to kill the Leblanc.

no you wont. this is exactly the problem with a lot of mobility champs. lee sin is just the same. if they stink they wont get much done, but in almost all the cases they wont get punished for it, since its so easy for them to disengage. if they dodnt stink they completely control the fight.

lee sin just hits r in your face and either w's on a ward over a wall or gets away with a q to a jungle camp.

leblanc simply doesnt really put herself at risk in the first place.

the juggernaut update should show everyone clearly whats actually necessary for low mobility champ to compete with these guys, and ranged carries.

either way, i dont think the problem in this game is mobility in itself. in almost all the cases the champions that are problematic have **unrestricted ** mobility. riven is a prime example. her movement is not limited by anything but cooldowns. she can freely chose into which direction to reposition at any point in a fight.

the same goes for lebanc and kassadin. lee sin has similar problems as hes not very restricted either due to the ward jump mechanic and the ability to spam q at range and decide every time to follow up or not. though his ult mechanic stacked on top of this makes aup a large portion of the problem.

yasuo is actually a good example for how mobility is done right. his e has actually multiple restrictions that balance it out and make his movement predictable while making him mobile. he can only dash a fixed distance over enemy units, and he cant dash over the same unit twice within 10 seconds. this allows me to observe his movement and outposition him even on a low mobility champ by knowing which units he didnt yet use to dash over.

you can think of fiora what you will, but she has at least the requirement to keep hitting enemy units to stay mobile. before she hits 40% cdr, her q as an escape sucks dick, while its great in a direct fight or in chases. this makes her get punished harder for screwing up.