I love Hextech Crafting, but there's room for improvement.

The Bearded Bard·Mar 17, 2016·2 votes·1,114 views

The biggest problem I see is the reversal of importance the chests and keys are going to have. In the beginning, it's gonna be super easy to get chests, so you'll have an abundance of chests with no keys to open them. Then as it gets harder to get chests (the more champions you get chests with the less champions you have to get chests with) you'll have a shit ton of keys with nothing to open.

My proposal to fix this is making it so that if you get an S rank with a champion you can't get chests from and you win the game, you get a key or key fragment instead (Or even make it so S- gives a fragment, S gives 2, and S+ gives a whole key). This way there's a reliable way to get keys, but it's not easy to do. Then for the chests, every 5th S ranked match with a champion that you can't get a chest with gives you and only you, a chest.

12 Comments

Envy SinMar 17, 20162 votes

The issues you bring up will be fixed in a single season.

Once the second season starts and everyone has those extra keys you're talking about opening chests won't be a issue. You'll also be gathering key frags for the rest of the season till the reset happens again.

IqqiMar 17, 20162 votes

First, every system Riot releases always has room for improvement. The question is whether they agree enough to improve it.

The HexTech system is ultimately another micro transaction system.

Here is how I anticipate the HexTech system to look like in a year tops... I expect it to look almost exactly like how the hearthstone system works. You buy packages, you open them, and you hope you get what you want....

What I mean is I highly anticipate Riot in a few months to slowly announce HexTech exclusive stuff. Make no mistake. It will be slow at first, but Riot will eventually create appealing HexTech exclusive content that you can not simply just "buy". Instead you have to buy chests and keys and play the RNG game hoping you get what you are looking for, or get the materials needed to unlock what you want.

There is plenty of evidence supporting RNG micro transactions and the huge amount of revenue a company can make by implementing them. Virtually every financially successful mobile game today operates this way to some extent. Riot and Tencent have decided to enter the game. It won't work this way over night, but make no mistake it will be expanded in this way.

Now what Riot also did was create a way for you to technically unlock HexTech stuff for free. Which is a first for the company. Am I complaining? No. This is Riot's first time ever giving stuff away for free, no matter the grind. It just happens to be a win / win. If we are willing to be patient, we get stuff for free. If we decide we don't want to be patient, Riot makes a lot more money.

CrossetteMar 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

What I mean is I highly anticipate Riot in a few months to slowly announce HexTech exclusive stuff. Make no mistake. It will be slow at first, but Riot will eventually create appealing HexTech exclusive content that you can not simply just "buy". Instead you have to buy chests and keys and play the RNG game hoping you get what you are looking for, or get the materials needed to unlock what you want.

Hextech Annie is Hextech only.

IqqiMar 17, 20161 votes

It has begun...

Critmaster GarenMar 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

It has begun...

hextech annie, and the hextech ward skin.

but the way its regulated is not bad. you have a chance of getting these rare gems from chests, and hextech content can be bought with those gems. so its not entirely random.

IqqiMar 17, 20161 votes

Yes that is true. The system is also built so you can eventually unlock stuff that you do not already have.

I don't want my post to be completely misinterpreted. I appreciate what Riot did. They took a big step and for the first time created a system that allows you to unlock content for free and even more, allows you to unlock content you don't already have. Sure the ladder costs 3x as much, but it still exists.

What I anticipate happening is some really cool and appealing content being released as hextech only. I have not seen the annie skin or the ward skin, but there will be something great out there. The only way to get it is to fight RNJesus with the chests and keys. Riot is building the hextech system around the for profit mobile games micro-transaction system. The RNG model is amazing when you create the motivation to use it. Right now Hextech is cool, but it does not contain exclusive content yet which is appealing to a huge proportion of players.

I expect to see like an ultimate or legendary Hextech skin which is very appealing in a few months. Who knows these champion mastery skins I keep hearing about might be Hextech only. Once you reach the needed level, it becomes available in your loot table.

RavenhaleMar 17, 20161 votes

The issue with making Hextech Exclusive skins is the issue Riot had with their Swag skins offered through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. In every situation, a free skin also gives the champion. Hextech Annie isn't a big deal because Annie is a 450 champion. If they decided to make other Hextech exclusive skins, I would expect something along the lines of Hextech Poppy or Hextech Amumu.

Presently Hextech Annie is unlocked by collecting 10 Rare Shards/Gems. I'm sure they could eventually have something for 25, 50 and so forth.

I don't know if this feature was implemented or not, but I was under the impression that Champion Mastery Levels 6 & 7 could only be unlocked via the Hextech Crafting.

http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-pbe-feedback/XT7eu7jz-champion-mastery-level-6-7

Valderis VandalaMar 17, 20161 votes

I don't think you'll have to worry about getting keys, they are not limited like chests and you can get them in more game modes, so you'll probably be getting them in excess of chests which leaves you with a lot of useless keys and a reason to buy chests instead. It's just another way to entice you into spending money.

The Bearded BardMar 17, 20161 votes

I dunno, I'm having a lot of trouble getting keys. Out of my 9 wins since this came out, I've only gotten 3 shards. My friends who were in the exact same games as me have gotten upwards of 5-7 keys out of the same games. RNG is not the way to go about this.

Valderis VandalaMar 17, 20161 votes

It's only been 9 games, which is way too small of a sample size to make judgments on, give it time, if you are unable to get 4 whole keys in a whole month then you should get worried.

The Bearded BardMar 18, 20161 votes

My issue isn't entirely with the odds, it's with the randomness of it in general. Why am I getting the shit end of the stick while my teammates gain key fragments? If you're going to give one person in a game a fragment, you should just give it to everyone on the winning team. If it was performance based, fine, cool, give it to only the ones that get high rankings, but since it's random it's not cool to have all your friends in a party yell 'Oh sweet a fragment' and have you not get one.

Valderis VandalaMar 18, 20161 votes

Yeah, I don't know what else to say about this. Good luck with your fragment hunting.