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Was the mastery update good or bad for the game?

Marshbouy··5 votes·1,018 views

In my opinion I'd say no because they cause balance issues for champions. I'll list my reasons why. Feel free to discuss about them in the comments below but try to keep civil.

Masteries give stats. Items also give stats along with some giving a unique effect that can change how you play. Keystone masteries do the same type of thing except a lot more emphasis on changing the playstyle and less about stats. But items have an issue, not all items can be used to their full effectiveness on certain champions. (E.G. DFT being much better on Brand and Jhin compared to most champions). If a mastery is super OP on a champion then what do you do? Do you nerf the mastery or the champion? This was the issue with DFT. It was incredibly good on non burst mages because of the extra damage, but it was insane on brand at the time. After the nerfs its almost never used except on niche picks like brand or Jhin (seriously. you get like 400 DOT burn with jhin. Its gross). In this case RIOT had to nerf the mastery instead of the champion or else always force that champion to take the mastery, no matter what. As a problem though now DFT does little to no damage at early ranks and is pretty much negligible. TL;DR the keystone masteries feel like 9 items, champions are forced to pick

My biggest point though is what the mastery update did for supports. Remember the good old utility tree? It had good stuff like XP boosts, gold per 10 boosts and other great things for supports. Getting the XP boosts on support was fine back then, you had to dedicate a lot of mastery points to be able to unlock the XP boost. Nowadays with the new mastery tree doesn't have a good spot for those XP and gold/10 masteries. All of the trees are used by all types of champions and its hard to balance an XP mastery when there aren't any good "support" trees to put it in. (imagine an ADC throwing points into the resolve tree just to get an XP boost and the same with the support).

these are my two main points. Have fun discussing!

29 Comments

Jeddite4 votes

The mastery update was sh!t. But sh!t is par for the course for Rito James™.

The old trees were better. Yes, there was "cookie-cutter" builds, but the new masteries have even fewer options for players to choose from. There is no "WE WANT PLAYERS TO FEEL LIKE THEY HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION" when the options are 5/5 A or 5/5 B. (And nobody seriously chooses 1/5 A + 4/5 B in Tier 1, then 3/5 A + 2/5 B in Tier 3...)

What IS good about the new mastery trees are the three "capstone" masteries. However, Rito James™ could have opted to keep retain the old mastery trees, but implement the "CHOOSE ONE OF THREE" for the 21-point masteries.

But, again, sh!t ideas and sh!t execution is the name of the game at Rito James™.

Darfaller3 votes

Bad

DrDiaga3 votes

I had tons of pagesbefore for specific champs. Now I have two maybe three that I may change one keystone on for forty different champs.

Marshbouy1 votes

i just am too lazy to change in champ select

JayHog19922 votes

I think the new masteries were a good idea, because before, you'd only use them for the early game. barely did any difference.

Now in this season, the masteries define your early, mid and late game, and I think that's what the masteries are meant to be about, to define what and how your game ends up due to your choices being meaninfull.

Marshbouy2 votes

more of the early mid IMO. most of them start to fall off pretty hard. Eeehhhhh i guess. I still like the old masteries more from the uniqueness of some of them.

JayHog19921 votes

Some start to fall off while there are other masteries that just improve as the game passes such as Grasp of the Undying or Deathfire touch.

It also makes you choose for early game power or lategame power. And what benefits you the most in any situation.

Marshbouy2 votes

That does not mean that champs use them more effectively then others. Galio doesnt have a good mastery to go with if you want mid lane. None of them work all that well for him.

JayHog19921 votes

With Galio, he scales with magic resist to gain AP, so I'd go with tanky items, maybe take the one where he gains more HP on jungle or cannon minion Or take deathfire while keeping 12 points on the tank side of the masteries if you want something else.

It all depends on what's the mastery for them. Anything could always work.

Marshbouy1 votes

For an AP midlaner that one sucks ass. You cannot deny that there are no optimal masteries for galio, just as some champions abuse the shit out of other masteries.

JayHog19921 votes

Just take the ones that fit best and pray that you can make them work. Nothing else I can say.

Marshbouy1 votes

thats why i dont like them. They are OP on some champions. Fine on others. Useless on some.

JayHog19921 votes

Well, if I dare to say, complaining ain't gonna help you, friend. You just have to try or play next year in case they decide to change the masteries again.

Marshbouy1 votes

I made a discussion piece to talk to people about it and ask for their opinion.

JayHog19921 votes

Well, you got mine.

LostFr0st1 votes

I think it was good, because it enables me to adapt post-champ select. Example: Playing Nasus top. vs. Teemo or other kiting squishy--> Stormraiders or Thunderlords to kill that rat. :3 vs. Garen or melee I can trade with (doesn't mean I want to)--> Grasp

There are other examples, but it enables a cushion rather than two equally skilled opponents--> one loses in champ select.

Marshbouy2 votes

technically that is true but i dont like how it hurt suppports

LostFr0st1 votes

They're adressing to support isues with the exp next patch. Before the mastery adjustments all supports when basically the same masteries. Now we have them tailor suited to what type of support you are: damage-->go full damage, you cn now protector/enchanter--->go windspeaker tank-->actually able to go full tank now instead of some strange half-tank half squish.

Marshbouy1 votes

link me to the thing please true but less overal utility when it comes to the masteries.

LostFr0st1 votes

Yes, of course.
Here are the things: http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/XWNXaWcc-613-planned-adjustments-to-secondary-systems-part-1-experience-changes

http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/NT7UcOWt-613-planned-adjustments-to-more-stuff-part-2-teleport-support-items

Less non-scaling masteries in my eyes. There are gaps in them that need to be addressed though; some champs have sub-optimal keystones and bridgestones.

Marshbouy1 votes

such as galio. Do you go DFT for a little damage on your poke? What else can you go for AP midlane. Its just not great.

LostFr0st1 votes

Exactly, such pain cases can hardly afford to wait for full VGUs, so some continual tweaks to the mastery system would be nice. DTF is probably the only real viable option for him though; can't really proc Thunderlord's reliably with melee and 2 dmg spells...

Marshbouy2 votes

yep. Its so sub optimal though that it hurts. Usually you are going for the Q E burst, not getting the full DFt damage off,

LostFr0st2 votes

[zombie-nunu-bummed]

Marshbouy2 votes

[zombie-nunu-bummed]

Khell DarkWolf1 votes

I say the mastery update was bad.

It screwed over so many different possible options for players to play to unique playstyles in which you weren't conformed to do this or that like how you're now more bottle necked in this season's mastery tree.

Sure, you could go 21/9/0 or something, but you atleast had the OPTION to split trees half and half or invest the full 30 depending on the situation and champion you were playing.

I used to actually have separate mastery pages for different roles and champions, like support or the support tank etc etc.

And the next thing was, they decided to go off and make each tree mismatched half and half trees of offense and defense and utility!

Some things you want are in the wrong tree in which you're more forced to invest skill point dumps which is just not right in the sake of more diversity and emphasizing the players play style that this season's mastery don't do.

I'm actually concepting a new Mastery tree system and its already done, I just need to put together the images to showcase what the tree would look like. Being an amalgamation of the previous season's and nostalgic feel with core emphasis on what your play style is.

Marshbouy2 votes

Yeah it is a very weird set up. I do not like the "diversity" included.

GlockHammer1 votes

Horrible, it made the game far more like dota in terms of how much damage champions do, but things is, champions have extreme manacosts in dota or very high cooldowns and will rarely be able to spamm abilites the way they do in league.

Every class seems to literally shits damage since the changes in comparision to their old selves. But the cooldowns and costs of doing have not being raised to compensate, instead, cooldown is now a more common stat than ever.

It has lead to the game being snowballier than ever, more unforgiving than ever and despite all this, LCS is still rarely anything but a farmfest the first 15/20 minutes. So I'd say it backfired.

Or something like that.

ModRito Wuks1 votes

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