Dragon and Baron timer changes?

JimmyNtheKudos·Jul 1, 2015·1 votes·5,911 views

I thought part of the strategy aspect of this game was having precise timers. What's the point of automatically getting them?

9 Comments

RiotMeddlerJul 2, 201512 votes

Our thoughts:

If you've got any vision of an enemy champ when dragon or baron is killed you already know the time of kill, given both give a buff. In baron's case you're also able to get the respawn time even if you don't have vision on someone at the time of kill by timing from the buff expiration point.

Clearly communicating when a kill's happened removes a 'skilltest' we feel's a cost rather than a benefit (watching stats/clicking on people for buff counts/pushing tab regularly to check dragon status). Fighting the UI basically.
Tracking dragon/baron timers you accurately know in chat's similarly is something we don't see as an interesting skilltest (see: jungle timers).

This is also a chance to reduce snowballing. We'd like to see a few more close or comeback games than we currently do and we believe the amount of power having a vision stranglehold offers is a significant part why that's not happening (map control's extremely powerful of course). We also feel that contested dragons in particular lead to more interesting, healthy games. Farming/pushing, taking dragon easily because the enemy doesn't have the timer and then going back to farming/pushing does feel rewarding for the winning team, it generates less interesting play than a contested team fight or possible steal however.

There is some gameplay that'll get lost with this change too of course (e.g. Ambushing people who've come to check if you've finished yet when you're already done and killing dragon as 5 then all recalling to shop so the exact kill time's hard to guess). We feel the benefits above solidly outweigh that cost however.

HighKingOfSkyrimJul 2, 20151 votes

I understand your point, but keeping skill/summoner timers in mind still is a skill you need if you want to improve above a certain level. This could be an Argument against this decision.

For me the changes are fine, cause i dont think the entire team should suffer because they got one single timer 10-20 seconds wrong.

Plus: The defending team is normally struggeling to handle all the hotspots on the map anyway. Especially the second baron gets lost waaay to ofter just by everyone being extremly busy and then arriving like 5-15 seconds late or arriving with only 2-3 mates in time.

Another last point: Dragon and baron teamfights ARE the most interesting teamfights!

exe3Jul 2, 20153 votes

What about a middle ground where you only get the timer once you get vision of the empty baron/dragon pit? This could preserve some of the "Ambushing people who've come to check if you've finished yet" and similar gameplay that you will lose with instant timers. It also makes getting the timer a bit more active than passive.

Angry MonsterJul 2, 20151 votes

I am disappointed about these changes. How brainless are you going to make the game?

People will no longer have to use wards or trinkets to see the dragon being taken to get the timer. Their is no longer any consequence for letting a objective go. You have the exact information.

JimmyNtheKudosJul 2, 20151 votes

Thank you for the response! Did not except a Rioter. You cleared that up nicely.

canpan14Jul 1, 20152 votes

Honestly people often don't look at them anyways and miss timings. To get the timers you have to have visions when the buff/camp is cleared. They said they didn't like that it became a game of who can keep track of various numbers better and scrolling around in chat to see what the last thing they said was.

At first I was against this change for similar reasons but I think it helped a lot (especially from my support main view) in giving me time to focus on objects and the next thing to do rather than making sure I remembered all the timers for the various buffs.

OGMBJul 1, 20151 votes

Maybe at high level, but do you really think that Silver and below would all automatically mark when Dragon is up?

JimmyNtheKudosJul 1, 20151 votes

Well this is obviously aimed at dumbing down the game a little... meh who I am kidding, I hardly ever keep track of timers so this benefits me as much as anyone haha

ValadrixAug 7, 20151 votes

Yes, loads of my friends are in bronze and silver... Even though they are completely skill-less brain balls - its one of the things they do consistently. keeping track of timers is something they do. I even see people doing it just because it makes them look better even though there skill level is beyond trash. lots of people watch league videos, and one of the most obvious things people pick up from them, is the fact that these amazing players note down flash times and monster timers.