Cooldowns, damage, and consistency when upgrading abilities or buying items

Hi. A few years ago I proposed a change to Karma that ended up making it into the 4.17 patch, and thanks to someone else here on the forums, also affected similar champions like Heimerdinger. Today, I'd like to discuss a few design decisions likely made by Riot nearly a decade ago that I recently discovered. I've noticed inconsistencies, something that may confuse newer players, and perhaps a few bugs or oversights in specific champions when dealing with ability cooldowns and damage. Unlike last time, I would not consider anything discussed here high priority, but I believe it's something to look into and could cause problems in the future. Plus, I like consistency.

-----ABILITY COOLDOWNS IMMEDIATELY AFTER UPGRADING AN ABILITY-----

PROBLEM: The cooldown a player has to wait is sometimes longer than the maximum cooldown displayed in the UI tooltip for that ability. This occurs when casting an ability then quickly upgrading it, since the cooldown you must wait is based on the rank of the ability just cast, rather than the new rank of the ability. This is most noticeable when casting ultimates with long cooldowns. Karthus is a good example.

This link will take you to an Imgur post with 2 pictures.

Karthus's rank 1 ult has a 200 second cooldown. His rank 2 ult has a 180 second cooldown. If I cast rank 1 ult, I will have to wait 200 seconds to cast it again. If I cast rank 2 ult, I will have to wait 180 seconds to cast it again. However, if I cast rank 1 ult, then immediately upgrade to rank 2 ult, I will still have to wait 200 seconds to cast rank 2 ult, even though the ability says the cooldown is only 180 seconds.

**FIX: **

1. When upgrading an ability, change the cooldown to the new, upgraded ability's cooldown, rather than using the old level's cooldown. This will eliminate cases where someone using an ability with say, a 200 second cooldown (Karthus rank 1 R), levels up, upgrades to rank 2 R (180 sec cooldown), but then has to wait more than 180 seconds to use that ability. This will also eliminate any confusion for players who look at the UI and wonder why they have to wait 195 seconds to cast said ability when the ability tooltip says the cooldown is 180.
2. Nothing. It ain't broke, don't fix it. And/or you disagree with my design rationale.

Considerations: This is a rare occurrence. Most players will never notice this or encounter it often, but this change would very slightly increase how often spells are cast. This can be either a pro or con. Since it is so rare, I choose consistency over the tiny gameplay impact it would have, as I see no way to abuse this.

-----BUYING COOLDOWN REDUCTION AFTER CASTING AN ABILITY-----

PROBLEM: Same inconsistency as before. When casting an ability, the cooldown is based on how much cooldown reduction you had when you cast it, not how much CDR you have now. So, if I cast Karthus R at rank 1 (200 sec cooldown), then buy Morellonomicon (which gives 20% CDR), I still have to wait for the initial 200 seconds to pass, rather than up to 160 seconds as shown in the ability's UI. This may confuse players during the window that their cooldown is actually longer than what ability tooltip says.

FIX:

1. Change ability cooldowns to be based on current CDR rather than how much CDR you had when the ability was last cast.

Considerations: The impact of this change is still rather small, but more noticeable and more common than the other change proposed. There are also abuse cases that must be considered. What if you buy cooldown reduction items while dead in order to reduce your cooldowns, then undo the buy as you leave the shop? You shaved a few seconds off an ult, perhaps. However, this would be consistent with what currently happens if you have CDR items, ult, then sell your CDR for other items. You will actually have a longer cooldown than what the tooltip says. It's rare, and probably more trouble than it's worth, but still a possibility that should be addressed. This can be avoided by reverting cooldowns changed by items bought then undone.

And lastly . . .

-----UPDATING ABILITY PROJECTILES DURING TRAVEL, AND OTHER DAMAGE CALCULATIONS-----

PROBLEM: If you upgrade an ability mid-flight (like after firing a Jinx ult but before it hits an enemy), sometimes the ability deals increased damage and sometimes it does not. This varies between champions. This situation is also rare but does happen, and is most noticeable with long range abilities like Ezreal, Jinx, or Ziggs ults.

**FIX: **

1. Change all abilities to either update mid-flight if upgraded, or not. Just make it consistent. Choose a design philosophy and stick to it.

Considerations: From a realism perspective, I think it's best to not upgrade abilities mid-flight. However, when you consider that abilities damage/CC are calculated when they connect (and not from when cast), I think it's more consistent with other game mechanics if abilities are updated mid-flight. I'm in favor of pushing realism to the side to make video game interactions more consistent.

P.S. I used the practice tool a lot while researching these interactions, and I understand kicking people out of games for being AFK, but if you're AFK in a solo custom game or practice tool match, who is that really hurting? Another tiny, low priority improvement, unless you want to kick people out of games to reduce server load or something. Idk.

Thoughts, questions?

Thanks for your time, especially if actually read all that.

TL;DR There are some interesting/odd design choices dealing with ability cooldowns, upgrading abilities, and CDR items. Consistency is good, eliminating possible confusion is good, and I'd love to get a designer at Riot to explain Riot's design choices to me, if you have a moment.

Note: I moved some earlier text down here so people hopefully won't be scared off by a wall of text . . .

Additional explanations

---ABILITY COOLDOWNS IMMEDIATELY AFTER UPGRADING AN ABILITY--- As a designer, I can see 2 schools of thought here.

1. When a player casts an ability, it takes a certain amount of energy/magic/power, and it's shown to the player what that cost is. If Karma casts her lvl 1 Q (Inner Flame, and without CDR), it drains her of both mana and "power". She must recharge that power before casting it again, meaning she must wait 7 seconds before casting it again. The recharge time (cooldown) is linked to the last time she cast the spell, regardless of rank. It doesn't matter if she upgrades her Q (with a lower recharge time) - it still took her X amount of power to cast the spell last time, and she must recharge before casting it again. This design perspective focuses on champions expending a resource to cast abilities, and an ability's cooldown is one of those resources.

2. When a player levels up an ability, they've learned a better way to cast that ability. Before, Karma was a lowly mage with a rank 1 Q, but now she's discovered a more powerful way to cast her Q! The cooldown of an ability is linked to the champion's current knowledge of that ability. Why would Karma have to wait 7 seconds to cast Q when she's just discovered a way to cast it in 6.5 seconds? Why would Karthus have to wait 200 seconds to cast his rank 2 ult when he's just learned how to cast it in only 180 seconds? This design perspective focuses on players becoming more powerful as they level up.

Another way to think about this is to imagine a novice archer "reloading" her bow/arrow to fire again. Maybe it takes this archer 4 seconds to reach into her quiver, correctly place the arrow onto the bow's string (nocking), and be ready to fire. If an expert archer comes over and shows her a faster way to nock an arrow, maybe now it only takes her 3 seconds to fire again, because of this new knowledge. It doesn't matter that it took her 4 seconds to fire last time. This is the school of thought I am choosing.

---BUYING COOLDOWN REDUCTION AFTER CASTING AN ABILITY---

You will notice this more often than the other change. For instance, say you're a lvl 9 Maokai with 0% CDR, and you just died in a teamfight while using your ult. Your ult's cooldown is 60 seconds. If you buy Frozen Heart 5 seconds after dying (since you can buy while dead), your new cooldown won't be 55 seconds, it will be 48 seconds (60 * 0.8, aka 20% CDR). This effectively reduced your next ult's cooldown by 7 seconds. Most of the time it's really not much, but it is a change.

[Ignore this paragraph if you don't want to read my number crunching) The largest theoretical cooldown decrease is if a 0% CDR Karthus with rank 1 ult has enough gold to buy 40% CDR immediately after death (from passive), in which his ult cooldown with decrease from 197 seconds (200 sec - 3 sec channel) to 120 seconds, a reduction of 77 seconds. If combined with the other change proposed, it could actually drop from 197 seconds to 72 seconds, if a level 16+ Karthus purposely keeps his ult at rank 1, then upgrades it to rank 3, then buys 40% CDR. Significant, but extremely unlikely, and probably will never occur in a real game, plus there's no benefit since had you just upgraded your ult as usual, you would still benefit from the lower cooldown.

---UPDATING ABILITY PROJECTILES DURING TRAVEL, AND OTHER DAMAGE CALCULATIONS---

For instance, thanks to the amazing PRACTICE TOOL that was just released, these calculations are easy and quick to try.

Abilities that DO update during travel if upgraded include: Ashe W, R Karma Q, R+Q (when upgrading Q), R+Q (when upgrading R) Twisted Fate Q, W, E Ziggs Q, W Malzahar Q

^^^These mean that if you fire an Ashe R at someone and then upgrade your ult (rank 1 > 2, or rank 2 > 3) while the arrow is traveling through the air, the arrow WILL deal the increased damage from the new ult rank. However, this is not the case for the abilities below. This is not a complete list btw.

Abilities that do NOT update during travel if upgraded include: Nidalee Q Jinx W, R Ezreal Q, R Karma W, R+W (when upgrading W), R+W (when upgrading R) Ziggs R Malzahar E, R

Note: Imagine you are playing Janna, and your adc is Jinx. You're both in the bottom lane fighting the enemy adc/support, when you notice the enemy top laner is very low. Jinx could ult top and get a kill. You want to use your E on Jinx to increase the damage her ult will do. Do you use your E on Jinx right before she casts her ult, or right before the ult hits an enemy? Luckily, this interaction is consistent, AFAIK. Damage is calculated when it occurs, and not when an ability is cast. So if you're Janna in this situation, you want your shield active on Jinx when her rocket hits an enemy. I know, because I just confirmed it in practice mode. Jinx's ult is calculated based on your AD when it hits an enemy, and not how much AD you had when you fired it. That's just an example of why consistency is good, though I'll admit that kind of interaction is far more common than ones dealing with ability level ups and cooldowns, so it needs to be consistent.