Support/Heals: Forgotten about in Rune Presets while Levelling

Dannii Darkness·Dec 10, 2017·2 votes·500 views

Finally, I get access to make my own rune set at level 11, or so I thought.

Turns out that you can only choose the keystone. Of your primary set. That is all.

Basically, this means that to even be able to get any kind of healing rune other than Guardian (which only shields) you have to wait until you reach level 13, and then devote your entire Primary rune-set to it so that you can choose the healing bonuses from tiers 1 & 3.

I'm not really sure why the choices are level-locked. I can only assume it's to work as a reward system. It should be noted, however, that one champion's reward of choice is another champion's basic level handicap, especially for champions that synergise well with the Rune Presets.

People say that nobody wants to play support... I wonder why.

4 Comments

Kats PajamasDec 10, 20172 votes

The leveling scheme in general is garbage.

There is a fundamental difference in forcing new players to take runes over nothing, and allowing them to choose their own. The game needs it's own tutorial for runes, it's just as simple as that, they need to be more highlighted as a part of the game.

The idea they have to be level 8 before they can even change 1 thing is pretty bizarre, un-interactive, and unrewarding. By level 8, people have played, what, 30-40 games of League of Legends? Not only is this an insane amount of time to limit access, they will be lucky to even know what the hell it is by then without the ability to experiment with it. They will end up playing 40 games, before they even know they have Electrocute, not only can they not select their runes, they cannot even look at them in Matchscreen, as if it is not even part of the game.

The default selections blow my mind too for some champions. Katarina has a super annoying Ghost Poro always trying to channel, while she's trying to focus on other things. This is somehow superior to Eyeball collection, on an AP Assassin, my assumption is Riot thinks new players are too stupid to ward and this will help them, even though it won't at all in reality, and in the microchance they actually get ward kills or real kills, the player isn't rewarded additionally at all instead.

Dannii DarknessDec 11, 20171 votes

To assume that Riot "think players are too stupid" is an emotional reaction, and probably a common one. Hell, it could even be a correct one, but I doubt it. Maybe I just don't want to believe that anyone would be that disrespecting of player intelligence.

I'm pretty sure the concept of the unlock system was to preserve some of the reward system that would unlock during levelling previously. Previously with the runes, remember, there was an actual difference in the capabilities of a champion who's summoner was level 30+ and one who was not. Perhaps it was to prevent player lash-back? Although I would think that most players care more about other things.

I'm not entirely sure how being forced to play games that are imba due to i) lack of experience and then further compounded because of ii) lack of summoner level is supposed to be good for gameplay.

Now that you mention it though - I really think forcing players (who are completely unaware of Runes) to wait until level 8 before they can even open the page to see and understand which Pre-sets they are being locked into each game (which I think is appalling btw) is going to give players a sense that "all players have this ability" or incorrectly perceive the baseline of a Champion as being linked innately to that Champion rather than a product of say, Arcane Comet.

<sigh> oh well, at least I won't have to play Arcane-Comet Teemo anymore.

Kats PajamasDec 15, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dannii Darkness,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=1VqEtPXN,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2017-12-11T00:20:56.355+0000)

To assume that Riot "think players are too stupid" is an emotional reaction, and probably a common one. Hell, it could even be a correct one, but I doubt it.

Nope, it's true. But it's true, because it's true-true.

You see, after playing this game a lot, and the small climbing I have done, I've come to realize that the character mechanics are unobtainable in Mastery realistically. The best contender at every champion in the world, is basically garbage at their own characters still, mechanically speaking. In retrospect of other players, they are gods, but verses potential, they are trash.

And so it truely is fundamentals that will make you the best player(s) in the world, and while this is both sad, it's also celebrated.

But not knowing the basics, and coming into this game with a wide understanding of math is a terrible experience because you are constantly preached to make terrible choices at the cost of small term strategy you cannot see the benefit from.

My main gripe is that while this is fine normally, Katarina is one of the few unique over powered champions that if you actually spend time on the killing mechanics you can ascend yourself pretty easily without knowing the fundamentals, and getting to that more on your own terms. She is very Feast/Famine, and so in this sense, Riot is murdering the players chance of even PRACTICING a snowball until they are of level to not take Poro themselves, and instead offering them an annoying ward to both use, and mess around with meaninglessly, when Katarina also already has access to normal wards, that are more reliable in every circumstance, and she by default starts the game with them. The amount of focus on vision for low ELO account is kind of absurd, because the last thing a pro would do in a low level game is take Poro Ward with such high kill potential. It seems really BM, like saying all a new katarina can do is hope not to feed. Make the Poro useful enough to actually use it and I'll get over it, the thing has the vision radius of a nidalee trap. A new player isn't going to be able to utilize small vision like that, even if it's super free.

BubblyRainbowsDec 15, 20171 votes

Yeah. I had a friend join at the start of preseason. She wanted to start about a week before that, but I advised she wait because it would be a big change and would be better to learn one system than to learn the old one, and then the new one after a week.

I was appalled at how much of what I would consider basic content was level-gated for new players. I forget the exact level thresholds, but it was bad. Something like...

Until level 9, you get preassigned runes. You can't even choose from different preset pages. You get whatever Riot assigned to your champ. At level 11 you can finally create your own page, but you only get to choose the main tree. Everything else is locked in. And you can't choose Inspiration. At 13 you get to change the keystone for your main rune path. At 15 you can choose your whole main path, but the secondary path is preset. At 17 you can pick different keystones for your secondary path, and can finally choose inspiration. At 19 you finally get to fully customize your runes.

Something like that. It was insane. My friend had her own personal favorite runes and abilities by the time she was level 10. Earlier, I think. But somehow she doesn't have full customization until in the neighborhood of level 20? And that's not even counting that various summoner spells are also level-gated, game modes are level-gated (some rightly so... you don't want a complete beginner in ranked, but... why is the PRACTICE tool locked until like level 12? THE PRACTICE TOOL! Who needs more practice than new players?) No wonder she got tired of the game and stopped playing before she even hit level 30. It was such a restrictive experience.