[SUGGESTION] A second upgrade for boots

gaby1best··4 votes·703 views

Warning! Huge wall of text incoming

Everybody knows boots. Those you get when you don't have enough money for an item in your build path. They give flat movement speed: 25 for tier one and (mostly) 45 for tier two. Yes, a higher movement speed is essential, especially early and mid-game, but late-game boots fall off considerably. Yes, you'll reach places faster, but now everything revolves around teamfights and MS only matters a little for repositioning in those. This results in many players switching boots with a better item: ADCs go for a second PD, Yi goes for Trinity, Mages go for Luden's and Corki fuels his ROFL-copter with anything else than boots.

So, what do you suggest, you may ask. Well, as the title says: a second upgrade. The first upgrade is classic: go for Alacrity if you need more speed to wander around, Homeguard if you're losing, Captain if you're the support or Distortion if you're a horse. No-one buys Furor.

Anyway, let's get to the part where I actually show you my ideas:

There are different upgrades for each type of boots. I'm not very good with balance, but I think these upgrades should be available at level 16. As for the cost, it could be anywhere from 1000 to 2500 gold, depending on how strong these upgrades will be.

  1. item 3158 - 15% hybrid penetration. Champions who need these boots are obviously casters, both AP and AD. So best way to boost their effectiveness is give them penetration. Not too high I'd say and they'd stack multiplicatively with other %pen items.
  2. item 3006 - Gives AD**/Crit chance/**Life steal based on champion's attack speed OR gives Attack Speed based on crit chance/damage. As I said, I can't do this much balance by myself. Champs that usually buy these boots are AA reliant and they will buy AD/Crit or life steal(sorry Teemo, Kayle), so giving them stats based on other stats they buy would be nice. Not too high though, we don't want any Draven with full crit chance wander around the jungle, waiting to one-shot yordles.
  3. item 3047 - Physical damage received grants stacks of [insert cool passive name here]. At 100 stacks, you can cast [Ability] to receive a normal**/physical dmg shield based on Max HP/**Armor OR Reduces damage taken from critical strikes by 15%(stacks multiplicatively with Reinforced Armor.
  4. item 3009 - Slows grant you a stacking buff(5 max) that reduces all incoming damage by 3%. The buff lasts 3 seconds and all stacks are lost at once. may be a little overpowered
  5. item 3020 - Dealing magic damage heals for 2% of the damage dealt(calculated before resistances and penetration). Dealing magic damage stacks this up to 5 times, for a maximum of 10%. Stacks multiplicatively with the passive from the new WOTA OR Dealing magic damage reduces target's Magic Resist by 4%, stacking up to 5 times for a maximum of 20% Magic penetration. Stacks multiplicatively with other Magic penetration items.
  6. item 3111 - Magical damage received grants stacks of [passive]. At 100 stacks you can cast [Ability] to receive a normal**/magic dmg shield based on Max HP/**MR OR Reduces damage taken from Area of Effect abilities by 7%(stacks multiplicatively with Evasive).
  7. item 3117 - No idea for these, most junglers switch these to other boots anyway. Any idea is welcomed.

Thanks for reading all this. The ideas are obviously here for referece, I just wanted to give you and Rito how boots could evolve, and maybe we will see something similar in the future. Waiting for feedback and I'll really like to hear(or read) a rioter's opinion on boots late-game.

Have a nice day(it's 01:33 AM here though). summoner 31

6 Comments

Sxli1 votes

Some of those might be a bit op but I really like the general idea.

Too Ton1 votes

ADCS go for zephyr instead of boots

gaby1best1 votes

That's a personal choice. I would even get Trinity if I played Vayne.

Jofeyy1 votes

item 3117 active grants a short boost of speed similar to item 3142 that is negated upon receiving damage.

JustMyBassCannon1 votes

The idea has merit, but I think that any further upgrades to boots need to be simpler, without too much overlapping with other items.

Ionians idea - Unfortunately, Hybrid Penetration is redundant and pointless. Buying resistance against hybrid champions is only half as effective, and the only champs that can afford to stack up the few existing Armor+MR items are tanks. On top of that, they're DPS-based champions that naturally scale to the point that they can handle tanks anyway. If worst comes to worst, they have anti-tank options in both AD and AP, and they can take whichever one is more convenient for their build.

Bers idea - Not a good idea. Auto attack scaling has been carefully scaled around how much you gain at a time. Throwing that to the wind and having one of the core multipliers freely grant another multiplier leads to much earlier late-game strength on Marksmen, let alone that it could give certain bruisers bonus offensive stats for building their core damage output stat.

Tabi/Mercs ideas - These are much more reserved ideas, a bit closer to what would be acceptable...just a bit too low-key. The active idea is weak, because you need to take damage in order to gain the shields; shields are reactive defense tools, even Hexdrinker/Maw auto-activates before the damage takes place. The two passive ideas--reducing Crit Damage and reducing AoE damage--are too specialized as well. Either they wouldn't reduce enough to be worth mentioning or upgrading, or they'd be oppressively strong.

Swifts idea - Reducing damage...by taking slows. Problem number 1: This is the definition of overspecialization. It specifically only helps if you are frequently affected by slows, and I would assume it couldn't auto-stack from contact with slows like Cassiopeia's Miasma, Akali's Shroud or Singed's Mega Adhesive. These upgrades need to be more general in effect, applicable to more situations, not fewer.

Sorcs idea - The stacking vamp idea is too specialized. You have to be on a mage that can hit frequently enough to build stacks, doesn't get held back by their resources for the stacks, and actually wants sustain. Vladimir, Mordekaiser, Rumble, Swain, Diana, Ahri, a few others...meanwhile, everyone else just doesn't buy the upgrade because it does nothing but waste gold. The stacking % shred idea is too strong, considering they've already got a stacking % shred item in the works.

When coming up with ideas for these upgrades, you need to think of something generally useful without being overpowered.

gaby1best1 votes

Yes, I have already stated I'm no good with balance and the ideas for every type of boots are just for reference. What I wanted to do is give you an idea of how the second upgrade for boots would look like and of course, if the idea was ever gonna be accepted by a rioter and brought up to a brainstorming session, they would come up with their own suggestions. Anyway, there are a few strong points you've specified and which I agree with.

Ionians - I wasn't thinking of hybrids buying these boots, but casters. Those like Varus mid, Riven(if ahead), Talon, Vladimir and others who don't have much CDR in their build path but desperately need it. I mentioned it as hybrid penetration because not only AD or AP champs would buu these, but it could easily give them certain penetration based on which stat is higher(AP or AD).

Bers - I agree, even though AS scaling was just one of the 3 options. However I have intended these to be a last item to upgrade, as you can only buy them after lvl 16 and they're very expensive, so most people would buy them after they've finished their builds.

Tabi - Actually, going in the middle of a teamfigt, getting some damage in your face and then popping up a strong shield would be pretty overpowered actually. Let's not forget that in order for the Hexdrinker shield to pop up your hp must be brought to below 30%.

Swifts - Yep, that's quite a dumb one. But I've only seen Garens and Udyrs buying these, and maybe Hecarim. Champs who buy these generally lack a gap-closer and need to just walk to them to get to hit someone, so they're very vulnerable to tenacity. So a second upgrade could be 35% tenacity, but I don't know Riot's direction with tenacity on other boots rather than Mercury.

Sorc - Yes, it's pretty hard to think of some stats to fit all the mages. I was also thinking of giving flat AP, but Riot already stated in the core AP items changes context that mages will still reach the ~same amount of AP with a full build, so this one would disturb the balance.

But in the end, there could be 2 ways for the second upgrade. That is make all of them utility-based(restore hp on kill, mana, etc), or the things I suggested, and that's damage-based. The upgrades should be strong enough to be worth a slot in late-game, but not overpowered in terms of a hyper-power spike.

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