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Invisibility still has no Counter-play

What Is Smite·1/26/2018, 1:13:33 AM·5 votes·1,785 views

Exactly what the title says, despite changes occurring twice a month now (one major, one minor) Riot's Gameplay design team has consistently avoided introducing counter-play to invisibility. Now before I get comments saying but you can see Twitch/Rengar/Evelynn if they get too close, let me explain that Invisibility is listed in one of two categories by Riot.

The first is Camouflage which is the mechanic used by Eve/Rengar/Twitch, Camouflaged champions are revealed by control/pink wards along with being seen if they get to close. Think along the lines of Military Reconnaissance and Ghilie Suits, if you ever get too close to one of these groups then it's very likely you'll spot them.

The second type of Invisibility is what I'd call "True Invisibility." This is the idea that: despite your proximity to said champion/person they are completely hidden from you. Think of them as being an intangible entity, you can only briefly see where they are, but there's not much you can do to fight back against them.

Now the key difference between the two types of Invisibility is that one has a means to counter-play against, while the other poses no counter-play whatsoever outside of actually hitting them with spells. Prior to the invisibility mechanic getting changed, invisibility had a fair amount of counter-play and utility for people playing with and against the mechanic. If people didn't invest in a pink ward when playing against a champion with invisibility then the deaths that would occur due to their oversight would be their own fault, the people who did buy pink wards to counter invisibility were putting gold into an item that could have been better used for vision control rather than fighting an invisibility champion, the amount of gold put into pink wards would set players builds back by about 100g every time they had to purchase a pink ward.

The justification for changing the way invisibility worked was: It doesn't feel good to have a single mechanic of your kit be countered by a 75g item.

That was the quote the Balance Team, lead by Meddler, gave when they changed the way Invisibility worked. Meddler's team had changed a long standing mechanic that everyone was OK with for an obscure reason without providing enough detail as to why it had to be done the way they have it now as compared to other ways they could have changed the Invisibility Mechanic.

Side Note: More than likely one of two things will happen to this post.

The first being someone downvotes the post without actually reading through it because they disagree with my opinions.

The second is even if this post does gain traction on the Boards a Rioter from the Balance Team wouldn't reply because it questions their design process and the choices that they are making. Rioter's dislike it when hard questions are asked and tend to avoid those with the excuse of "I didn't work on it so I don't know much." Changes to the game are archived and readily accessible to Riot Employee's if they need to reference them, this would also include the thought process behind them.

8 Comments

Ratpie1/26/2018, 1:40:24 AM2 votes

It is called wards. I just had it happen today. I saw a champ coming through enemy jungle to top by a ward in their jungle, I saw them go invisible and timed it until I though they were in the right spot, tossed my Yorick E and W and watched my flying gremlins go to town. With how mobile champs are at this point, you really can't rely just on 1 ward in the river bush to prevent ganks. Invisible champs are not the problem, it is the huge damage that SOME can do. When you are playing vs them, pick champs that can handle it OR play safer. In laning phase, freeze your lane. It is still hard for an invisible champ to gank a frozen lane. Late game you shoudl have wards all over the map and have a general idea where everyone is. It does make it tough, but so do burst ADCs, so do massive CC machine tanks. They are mechanics to play around.

Champs with Camo are spottable. Most the champs with heavier invisibilities are not that strong.
Evelynn. Below 50% win rate in 8.2, not sure why everybody gets their panties in a bunch over her, I find her easy to counter. Vayne. Insane win rate, but they just nerfed her, and the insane win rate was largely due to other mechanics than invisibility (although it did make it worse) Rengar. Barely pulling 50% in 8.2, situational and counterable Akali. Easy to counter with any AoE also baringpulling 50% win rate in 8.2 Teemo. Barely 50% win ratein 8.2, and lets face it, he is just cancer and his invisibility is tied to bushes and sucks horrible in team fights unless he has preset shroom field or he is going on hit build. Kha'Zix. Pretty scary early, horrible team play and struggling to maintain 50% win rate in 8.2 Talon. Horrible win rate in 8.2, can be pretty nasty with the right player, but invisibility is limited. Twitch. Best win rate of teh bunch atm and scariest mofo. He does feel a bit overtuned atm.

If invisibility is broken, then they should be all at insane win rates. In reality only a couple are that nasty, and it ties more to damage than their invisibility. And if it is because for short stints they are untargetable then Kayle's ult is even worse than invisibility because someone can still shoot you AND be untargetable.

And yes, I read your whole thread, I just disagree. I understand some of the frustration as it is an annoying mechanic, but there is no data to back up invisibility itself being broken or uncounterable. It is just a mechanic that you do not like, and we are all entitled to our opinions.

jiveturkeyclub1/26/2018, 1:48:37 AM1 votes

Buy pink wards and sweeper trinket's and play accordingly... Holy moly some people are dense. But I guess a lot of people are bronze too so it all makes sense... Get smart agent 99.