The 2016 Season Update

OK, so after reading these articles on the 2016 changes, I have many concerns regarding the several new changes to the game as a whole and gameplay. I have only been playing for roughly a month or maybe closer to a month and a half now, but after many hours of gameplay both within my cardboard 5 elo, and also as high up as diamond and plat grade elo's, I finally feel like I'm in a comfortable understanding with the game to understand my roles, what I should do in these roles, and what exactly I should be building as my main champions as far as masteries and item builds. So without further to do I have a few questions regarding the topic at hand.

1. The new Objective (The eyeball guy where baron would be.) ---------------------------------------------------------

   • Alright, so I understand that this objective is a new dragon like objective put in place where baron would normally arrive later in the game as to make the top laner feel more useful in the early game, and after reading it's section in the article it clearly states it's to help the top laner push their lane. This is something I feel may change how the entirety of the game may be played depending on what they make it do exactly, and how long is the objective available. If it's too powerful in the early game the top laner and jungler may try hard to secure it for the top laner, or even the jungler if the buff would help them take their own objectives. This is something that may change the game strategically, which I'm all for. However this being said I feel if it's too weak nobody will bother with it at all. Even more alarming for me, which I'm sure this is already discussed and fixed so please bear with me here, what will become of the baron? Will this new objective be present all game long? Does it replace the baron completely or simply when it's not really sought after; say 15 minutes into the game or 20 minutes for good measure; or will baron simply come up and snatch this throne stealing objective in it's jaws upon spawn? Most importantly, what exactly will make me as a top laner, a jungler, or even a mid laner care about this objective enough to make me want to go out of my way to secure it? What precautions will be taken to make this more difficult for just anybody to come and take? I understand that this objective will not be as simple as blue or red buff to secure, but if the target holder for this buff is a tanky top laner then will their damage be enough to secure it at level 6-9 or will the objective be swallowed up before the strength of the top laner is enough to secure it? For now I'm going to assume the answers to the obvious questions are equally obvious as to say, yes it's worth grabbing, and no duh like dragon it's expected there will be a jungler to assist you. With that let's move on.

2. Is the new pick ban style replacing the blind pick style? ------------------------------------------------------------------

   • This scares me a little, as a newbie I'm so used to the style of blind pick where you simply call out the role you want and hopefully get the role, and I despise when I get bullied out of my role by trolls in the chat only to have them feed after forcing me into a role I'm uncomfortable with. However that being said it concerns me that this new style of champ select is kinda more along the lines of team builder, where you pick your role and are then matched up with the corresponding teams that require that particular role. This is an issue mostly because of how annoying I find team builder, I hate the 15-30 minute process of building a team where people jump in and out of the builder because they aren't patient enough to sit and wait for a full team, and the issue I see here is the same issue I see with this new format, the wait times. I can see that if you make this new format the standard everyone will be objectified to this process of choosing their role before they pick their champion so they may secure their desired position without the hassle of people who say "this role or feed" or "'I called adc' 'No you didn't'" but the other side of this coin is the same as team builder, what if there are too many of a particular role and not enough of the other to guarantee a 30 second to as far as 3 minute wait time. In my experiences in all formats of play, support is the least popular role in the game, because everyone thinks they can just carry the team on their back and have no interest in being the person that backs up everyone in bad situations, nobody wants to be the one to die a lot if things go bad, nobody wants to take that harassment of "this crappy support doesn't know how to ward" and personally I like to be a support, but not all the time. So what steps will you take to ensure a balanced fast loading team builder if this becomes the standard? Granted it's not like the real team builder mode where you have to pick specific people and hope they stay, but the problem is that even though the person is randomly put into a group of strangers, what if there are 70 adc's, 73 mid laners, 63 top laners, and 78 junglers, but only 41 supports out of the hypothetical 325 people that are in the team select builder? Or even if it was on the other foot, say there aren't many top laners to go around, same question. Would you force a team together with odd roles? Of course not, I imagine that you would have a priority roster for these situations, but even then some people will be waiting for a very long time if there are 4 junglers, 3 mid laners, 5 adc's, and 2 top laners for every one support that comes into the cache. On the other hand the reward for playing the less popular roles would be faster wait times I imagine. But still, I would love to hear some insight on this method of champion/role selection as it raises a few problems. But all in all, I can see how this will fix a lot and weed out toxic behavior faster. For that I give you props, well done on weeding out the champion select trolls and making the only issue in game trolls, it makes reporting much more relevant than it already is!

3. The new wards ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   • I admit for me the new ward mechanics are not much of a big deal because personally, I barely got the hang of the Sightstone and the Warding Totem. But I simply request clarification on how these new mechanics work. I see that the Sweeping Lens has become much much more fun to use, though I personally always love seeing it used, but in your GIF example referring to the trinket corpses left behind once they are found and destroyed, I didn't really see the trinket corpse in the brush after Thresh destroyed that trinket, and forgive me if there was another GIF example in the article my page loaded improperly and for the life of me I couldn't get it all to load. So my question is pretty straight forward and simple here, what exactly does the marker look like? Is it displayed on the mini map or is it on field evidence of the trinket's existence? Should I ward less now so I don't give away sensitive positions like my jungler's buff habits, or should I ward more now to keep an eye on my enemy's warding patterns? That's really all that I'm wondering about these ward updates, but I would hope not to impose by asking if there are any cool new ward mechanics to assist replacing the blue ward in the future? No details required to satisfy my inquiry but I do find the loss of a ward to be disappointing and any new items to be exciting.

4. The new chest system ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   • I literally have no complaints about this chest system, I'm 100% on board with this idea and any questions I have about it are strictly for clarification because I find this new addition to be both exciting and far more rewarding for all players who put no money into the game for skins or bundles, myself not included I simply respect Riot for doing this for free to play players and actually making them feel just as special as people who do put money into the game. Not many companies actually do this for their players and I feel like people should be thankful for such a gaming experience. For those who do not know what i'm talking about I will basically sum this up to the best of my understanding. This new mystery chest mechanic rewards you for frequent, spaced out, or even sometimes scarce play by rewarding mystery chests and keys to open said chests at random to give equally random rewards that include but may not be limited to, PERMANENT skin unlocks which I imagine encompasses all skins not just cheap ones, not unlocked champions (pretty much any of them ranging in IPfrom Garen to Ekko, with maybe a few understandable exceptions like newly released champions like Kindred.), and all we have to do to earn these is play the game. If you complain about this, to me at least, that kinda makes you lazy and a whiner to not take this easier option if you don't want to ensure the champions you want are unlocked. What's even better, from my understanding you can even get redo's on the chests you don't like your item from, exchange the item you don't like to improve your loot in another chest later, or even sacrifice one item to make a rental item permanent if you want to KEEP it after you get a free trial on it. This is by definition a good deal. I don't expect them to tell me, but what do the payout's actually look like riot? What are the odds I get say Dj Sona, or Kitty Katarina, or say like even a expensive or mid ranged IP champion like Ekko or Pantheon, or even a cheap one like lonely little Amumu? I'm excited to see how this plays out, love it riot, well done!

5. Just in general ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    * In the future I may go into detail about the marksmen updates and the slew of new items that all terrify and confuse me to hell and back, but this post is looking lengthy and to be honest I would rather talk about the champions and their tweaks in it's own discussion. I want to know in general about these new starting items, new champion updates, mastery changes, new objectives, game play changes in general, I know on the rift it won't feel too much different, but can you full-heartedly assure me that this will not ruin the game I have come to love as one of my new favorite games to play? Can you assure me though it may change the meta or even make learning old champions with new tricks more fun, that in the end League of Legends will still feel the same, and that I; just one average player among thousands maybe millions of players who may feel the same scared anxiety I do; that in the end I can enjoy myself on the rift with all the tricks of the trade I have learned over hundreds of hours grinding to level 30 to participate in this game? In the end, will League still be the same after this?
   

Thank you to all who read this for your interest. I hope to hear some feedback from anyone, be it Riot, fellow cardboard players, veterans who have experienced similar updates, or even just your average casual gamer who plays with their friends.

I look forward to the input, Veit Setton