The new "global homeguards" are given too slowly for how fast games are ending.

So with the changes to wards and minion pushing in recent patches, the games are statistically shorter and MUCH more snowball oriented. The lack of available vision and minions that greatly reward snowballing a lane make defending and making comebacks so much harder and games are ending much faster.

Patch info: http://i.imgur.com/1TS1WdZ.jpg?1 The "homeguard boots" changes into global homeguards were intended to allow for more diversity when picking boot enchantments while still allowing for teams to have that healthy "defensive counterplay" when the enemy team is beating their base to shreds.

http://i.imgur.com/D0yqDcq.jpg?1

Here are the most recent 24 professional builds. In this sample size, 8.3% of players chose distortion, 12.5% chose alacrity, and 79.2% chose to not enchant their 2nd tier boots. Why is this happening?

1. Tier 3 boots and their effects generally aren't worth the price and aren't a priority. More of a "I'm full build and need to throw money at something" choice.
2. I've only ever seen alacrity, distortion, and furor chosen in professional play. (captain is typically useless)
3. As I said before, most games are ending sooner and reward snowballing. That means buying damage or other key items is a bigger priority.

These changes actually make it a lot harder for the defending team (since there's usually an inhib or two already down at 20 minutes if you haven't all said ff@20 this riven is 16/0).

As an ekko main, I especially am salty about these changes. One of the key identities of ekko (even was put in his champ spotlight) is to back, use homeguards, then ult right back onto the rift at full health with a speed boost. Not only can you literally not even do this anymore before 20 minutes, but even after the wait, it's not viable because the healing at the fountain is usually too slow and the speed boost is 25% lower. Similar strategies would be teleport homeguard ganks, which was a massive nerf to teleport since you can't do this before 20 minutes. As an ekko player though, it felt like part of his identity as a champion was stolen.

So what could we do to help this situation?

1. Revert changes. Okay, so this isn't a great suggestion, then we'd go right back to everyone being forced into buying homeguards over other boot enchantments.

2. Buff/rework other boot enchantments. Captain has been changed slightly but is still rarely seen. I'd love to see a new boot enchantment related to giving a small amount of vision or one similar to distortion that amplifies other summoner spells (we also need better summoner spell diversity, but that's a different topic)

3. The time in which global homeguards are granted is too long for how short games are. Maybe closer to 15 minutes?

4. Give the option to purchase more powerful homeguards (like the original) or be able to buy homeguards before 20 minutes. This way if you want to make it a priority for your strategy (ekko, tp ganks) or if you desperately need to defend against a team that snowballed early and is taking your inhibs at 15 minutes, you can.

5. Make the original, more powerful homeguard and fountain healing effect a summoner spell, maybe combine it with one that got cancelled. I'm no balance expert but here's my first try: "Homeyclarvoyanceguard- passively gain homeguard ability starting at 5 minutes. Active reveals a spot on the map (maybe within a range for balance purposes) for 5 seconds, revealing nearby stealth units and wards.

I've got more suggestions but I'm sure the community has some ideas to bounce off my ideas by now.

TLDR: Games too fast. Need homeguards earlier. Not enough viable diversity for boot enchantments, summoner spells, and vision. Comment with suggestions.