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Design philosophy

VonCesaw·12/16/2019, 8:36:12 PM·5 votes·3,280 views

When and why did design philosophy change so much? (Not to imply for the better) Back anywhere from 2-7 seasons ago and before, there was a way to counter a champ, even if you didn't exactly know how they worked like

Nasus Gangplank Deny farm Malzahar Warwick QSS Blitzcrank Thresh Sidestep

But it's quickly turning into "you have to know how this champion works, down to abilities and stats to counter him" like

Yasuo Know the timing of his wall know the timing of his shield passive know how his ability passives work (his ult ignores 50% of armor, his ult works if another champion knocks you up) Jhin He has a 4-shot ability, and the 4th always crits he does not gain bonus attack speed, so standard AS items give him more damage his grenade does bonus damage if it kills his Q does bonus damage to anyone caught in a trap

To actually get acclimated with a champion, standard says anywhere from 20-200 games 20 games times a forced minimum of 20 minutes a game times 146 champions divided by 60 to put it into hours puts it just under 1000 hours, at a VERY CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE Which, if you want to actually play the game, you either do that, or get stomped because you didn't know how the champ worked

The worst part is that the only person who can see those effects is the person playing them The client does NOT tell you scalings, flat damages, or even passives If you go on the official website, it STILL won't tell you accurately (my favorite is "Jhin sets up and channels, enabling him to fire 4 super shots at extreme range in a cone in front of him. The shots stop on the first champion hit, slowing it by {{ slowpercent100 }}% for {{ slowduration }} seconds and dealing {{ damagecalc }} physical damage, increased by {{ percentmissingamp }}% for each 1% health the target is missing (up to {{ maxincreasecalc }}). The 4th shot crits for {{ fourthshotmultiplier100 }}% damage.")

11 Comments

Josh Sand12/16/2019, 8:59:12 PM5 votes

I think that Riot has just given up on that and just started releasing champs that have "solved" kits.

I think the best term for them is "Unilateral Power Fantasy" where only one side of the fight gets to experience their power fantasy - due to the fact that they are so powerful that their only way to lose is if they screw up, regardless of how well their opponent might be playing.

The person playing a champion like Akali, Irelia, or Yasuo is the only one having any fun in thier fights - the rest of us just have to deal w thier bullshit until they make a major mistake.

Meoth12/16/2019, 9:39:51 PM2 votes

I like the theme of "attack 3 times and x happens".

Not really.

I actually hate the amount of new champions that have this occur in their kit.

Taterbug712/16/2019, 10:55:22 PM2 votes

I agree with your post. It is rather annoying having to learn so much about a champion to even begin trying to deal with them. I enjoy having to know a lot about the game, but it's already a time vampire. However, I'm only commenting because of this part:

{quoted} To actually get antiquated with a champion, standard says anywhere from 20-200 games

I think you meant to say "acclimated". "Antiquated" means "old-fashioned or outdated". Just a friendly correction. ^_^

TehNACHO12/17/2019, 12:19:45 AM2 votes

I think you're putting a bit too much hyperbole in your examples.

You don't really need to know the timing of Yasuo's windwall to the exact second because unless you're REALLY bad at remembering how long it lasted last time, in which case you have bigger problems to worry and not remember about. Furthermore, Yasuo will walk into lane with a fully charged shield. The very first time you hit him, it will pop for a second, his white and noticeably different resource bar will go down, and it will slowly fill back up again. You don't need to memorize anything at all really, you're literally watching it fill up and how fast it fills up. And if you're really going to use his armor pen as a problem, there's a menagerie of old champions from your golden age of design philosophy with "invisible" stat bonuses. At least Yasuo's is tied to an ULTIMATE ability.

And then you try to use Jhin as this supposedly complicated nightmare of a design philosophy when he's one of the easiest champions to figure out just by retroactively watching him. In a game where Aphelios exists, and you chose JHIN as your example, I'm not sure you have any clue what you are talking about.

HurraKayne12/17/2019, 12:26:45 AM1 votes

Part of the problem is the scope of league. with like 150 champs, a number of designs are limited as they are already used. To make new champions you have to push the limits and look at it from a different perspective. Sett is a new and simple champ, but people are commenting about how his abilities are just like other champs. If the design philosophy was the same, we wouldn't have as many unique kits in the game.

Garen is adopted12/17/2019, 2:21:22 AM1 votes

Btw Nasus with no items and stacks can 1v1 you now at early levels

Garen is adopted12/17/2019, 2:24:44 AM1 votes

Meanwhile there's Aphelios for what you can and must write a book just to explain his passive, then a sequel to explain his Q.