[Diamond Design] How Many Decisions Do You Really Have?

Hey Happy New Year's everyone!

Welcome to the first installment of a series I hope becomes a regular part of the new boards, currently titled "Diamond Design" (subject to change). In this series I'll be taking what I believe to be important concepts regarding designs in League of Legends, primarily about champions, and expanding on them, describing what makes them worth paying attention to. I'll be pulling topics and arguments from things I've read (Riot and otherwise), things I've done, and of course arguments that you the reader make or bring to my attention. So let's get this started!

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#How Many Abilities Do You Really Have?

I know what you must be thinking. “Obviously, apart from the obvious exceptions (here’s looking at you, transform champs!) champs all have four abilities!” And you know what, you’d be right! Good job everyone, discussion’s over. We can all go home.

Just kidding, what we’re more interested in than the number of abilities you have, is the number of real choices you have when using those abilities. There are a couple important things we need to define here so we're all on the same page. The first being, what constitutes having a choice?

We’ll start by defining what isn’t a meaningful choice on your basic QWER, and give a couple examples of each.

• Passive stats
• Ryze getting 2/4/6/8/10% cooldown reduction on his Q (Overload)
• Teemo getting magic damage and DoT on his E (Toxic Shot)
• Negligible cost undodgeable abilities
• Evelynn’s Q (Hate Spikes)
• Zac’s W (Unstable Matter)
• Autoattack resets
• Jax W (Empower)
• Darius W (Crippling Strike)

Now why aren’t these choices? Because there’s no meaningful decision you make when you use them, if you even use them at all, they are simply part of a larger decision or there is a strictly best way in which to use them such that not doing them in a given way is actually playing suboptimally.

The second and third sets do have the argument that you have to manage mana/energy when you use them, but I’d argue that is part of a larger decision on resource management. Generally speaking, these abilities follow the logic “If there is an enemy it can be used on and it is off cooldown, I will use it.” Go watch a streamer play Evelynn, watch how much he spams his Q button in a teamfight, or when clearing a camp. That’s not a real decision.

We’re interested in whether an ability presents an interesting decision every time that you use it, or at least as often as not.

This also means that abilities that are simply used as part of a single larger decision are not decisions on their own. An example of this is using Karthus' E (Defile) when going all-in and toggling it off when you disengage. Using E isn't a meaningful decision in itself, it is simply something you do as a result of making another larger decision.

We also won’t be discussing choices that are available to differing degrees in all champions. All champions have access to basic decisions like movement, autoattacking, fighting and disengaging, recalling, and summoner spells. We will be focusing on decisions that are unique to the player when playing a specific champion.

#So What Counts?

So what kinds of abilities qualify as presenting interesting decisions?

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Skillshots

By their very nature, all skillshots provide a situation where you (and your opponent) have to make a decision, as you have to decide where to aim. Will my opponent dodge? Which way will they dodge? Is there something in the way that I need to kill before I throw it? The answer you come up with to these questions represents a decision where there might not be a best answer at the time you do it.

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Tradeoff Stats

This is a bit of an odd concept, most clearly represented by Jinx’s Q (Switcheroo). In each of the two states, between which you can freely alternate, you have different stats. The minigun gives you more attack speed, but the rocket launcher has more damage and range, but at the same time costs mana. Other examples of this include Aatrox’s W (Blood Thirst/Blood Price), Master Yi’s E (Wuju Style), and all transform champions (excluding Gnar, damn yordles). These are all theoretically interesting decisions, as which stance you are in presents clear tradeoffs depending upon which you choose.

Things that this category does NOT include are stats that you simply “turn on” with no significant repercussions. Irelia’s W (Hiten Style) simply gives you more damage at what is effectively no cost. Rammus’ E (Defensive Ball Curl) and Kog’maw’s W (Bioarcane barrage). This category of free stats is actually one of the largest subtypes of abilities, see if you can find them all!

http://i.imgur.com/3NNOEXO.png

Self Movement Abilities

Many abilities involve moving yourself to a new location. These usually present interesting decisions, especially when you don’t need to jump to a specific target. Think about when you see the ADC dash in, using their escape to try and do a little more damage. (Ezreal E (Arcane Shift), Graves E (Quickdraw), Tristana W (Rocket Jump), Corki W (Valkyrie), etc.) They now have increased vulnerability. Initiators jumping in, in order to start a fight, put themselves in the middle of the enemy team, hoping they don’t die too quickly. Should I use my dash to dodge that skillshot? Should I try and close the gap? Should I save it so that I have it in a couple of seconds when I really need it?

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Crowd Control

Especially hard crowd control. It presents an important decision every time, should I use my stun to stop the assassin from killing my ADC? Or is it more important that I use it to make sure that their mid laner dies?

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

Terrain Creation

Ah yes. Jarvan trapping his team with his Cataclysm. Anivia walling off the enemy team behind her Ice Wall, letting you all escape. Trundle completely blocking off a corridor with his Pillar of Ice, cornering a target. These abilities are iconic of their characters because of how important the decisions revolving them are. Whether or not the new terrain is placed correctly is so incredibly important that every creation of terrain is its own decision.

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Conditional Abilities

These abilities are important decisions because they do different things based on how, when, or to whom they are done. Does Irelia’s E (Equilibrium Strike) stun them or merely slow? Did Poppy’s Heroic Charge stun her target? Is it better to shield my ally or do damage to the enemy with Pix?

http://i.imgur.com/RdUd9U5.png

Significant Cost Abilities

This is the most obvious one, but I chose to leave it for last so I could get other points out of the way. Significant cost abilities use up a lot of mana, or have exceptionally long cooldowns. Blitzcrank’s Q (Rocket Grab) uses up half of his mana at level one, making it important not to use it idly. Karthus’ R (Requiem) and Shen’s R (Stand United) have cooldowns that are three minutes long when you first hit level six. Summoner spells like flash, teleport, and heal have cooldowns even longer than that. These are important decisions because using them now means you can’t use them later, limiting your options when you might need them.

The last important note about abilities being real decisions before I move on to the rest of the discussion is comboing of abilities. Many abilities, such as Jarvan IV’s E/Q (Flag & Drag), Alistar’s W/Q (Headbutt/Pulverize), Orianna’s Q/W (Command Attack/Dissonance) and others, are often effectively one decision. While there are definitely instances where you might want to perform one without the other, in general it is better to simply use them together at the same time and I will often refer to these abilities as “half choices” because of this.

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#Alright, So What?

This question came up as many often do, a bunch of friends and I were sitting around a room talking about what makes champions good and bad, and what exactly made them that way. An important argument that I would often make is that a champion is not necessarily “good” or “bad”, but rather was ”broken”. This lead to an examination of characters that fit into these categories of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Err… broken.

What these characters had in common is that they either had significantly more or significantly fewer decisions in their abilities than other characters did, and this made it harder to balance the abilities so that they were balanced and still felt rewarding.

The problem with having too few decisions to make is that every decision you make is an interaction point between you and your opponent, and an opportunity for one of you to outplay the other. With fewer decisions, it is usually possible for one player to find abuse cases within their abilities and dominate the game. On the other hand, when there aren’t effective abuse cases, these characters tend to be underwhelming, because they don’t have opportunities to make plays.

Let’s take a look at a couple offenders of this.

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Warwick

Wow, who would have thought that a champion from beta would have a simple kit with relatively few interaction points? Oh, everyone.

• Q – Hungering Strike: Takes a bite out of an enemy unit and heals Warwick. Target an enemy, deal damage, heal yourself. Low mana cost outside of laning phase and a low cooldown means you should usually be using this as often as possible. Not really a decision.
• W – Hunters Call: Warwick lets out a howl, increasing all nearby friendly champions' Attack Speed for a short time. You mean I get free stats for me and all my friends? At half the cost of my other damage ability? There is no reason not to use this whenever you’re fighting.
• E – Blood Scent: Warwick passively senses weakened enemy champions around him. The scent of blood sends him into a fury, causing him to move at incredible speeds. This one, since it is a toggle, has a minor decision involved. Stealth vs speed. We’ll call it a minor decision.
• R – Infinite Duress: Warwick lunges at an enemy champion, suppressing his target and dealing magic damage for a few seconds. This is Warwick’s iconic ability and only decision that is always important to make. Target selection is of huge importance, and the complete control of the enemy character makes this his biggest decision.

So let’s look at this. Warwick really only has one important interaction with other players where he can make a choice. We’ve seen Warwick become very strong recently, because his stats have been favorable, and his stats are often enough to overcome the lack of play in his kit. The smite-ultimate combo that was very popular in Patch 4.20 really had almost no interaction between Warwick and his target, and when he does enough damage to just kill a target, Warwick will be strong.

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Xin Zhao

Does anybody remember Xin Zhao upon release? I don’t, I wasn’t playing at the time. I’m told it was absolutely awful, and videos definitely seem to confirm that sentiment. Let’s take a look at his current kit and see why he could be such a problematic champion.

• Q – Three Talon Strike: Xin Zhao's next 3 standard attacks deal increased damage that reduce his other ability cooldowns, with the third attack knocking an opponent into the air. While the third attack does present some decision making, as the target you select could be important in context, there’s almost no reason not to just use this as often as you can.
• W – Battle Cry: Xin Zhao passively heals every 3 attacks and can activate this ability to attack faster. Again, this one is even less of a decision. Why would you ever not use the free stats given to you?
• E – Audacious Charge: Xin Zhao charges an enemy, dealing damage and slowing all enemies in the area. This one starts to present more decision making than the other two abilities so far. The self-movement allows you to dodge or to keep up with enemies, or even escape in the right conditions. The interplay with his passive also determines who is gonna stick around when he uses his ultimate.
• R – Crescent Sweep: Xin Zhao deals damage to nearby enemies based on their current Health and knocks non-challenged targets back. Xin Zhao gains bonus Armor and Magic Resist based on number of champions hit. This is again, Xin Zhao’s most iconic decision to make. It can be used in ways that are aggressive and defensive, scattering enemies in all directions, but keeping the primary target isolated.

At least Xin Zhao is better than Warwick, but that really isn’t saying much as Warwick has a decision and a half. Xin Zhao at least has two whole decisions. Also similar to Warwick, we have seen times when Xin Zhao is absolutely dominant in the meta as a frontline diver, or an insane damage dealer coming from the Feral Flare, but apart from his times when he is dominating he tends to be hiding in the shadows, pretending to be relevant.

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So we’ve looked at champions that have too few decisions, next we’ll have to look at champions who have a lot of decisions. As mentioned before, every decision you have is an opportunity to outplay your opponent. Similarly, every decision has at least two options available, and options are power. By giving players access to more options, it gives the champion more opportunities to outplay their opponent both offensively and defensively.

While there are a lot more points of interaction when characters have more abilities, and therefore opportunities to outplay your opponent, or mess up, when your opponent doesn’t have access to as many options can feel frustrated at their lack of ability to respond.

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Riven

• Q – Broken Wings: Riven lashes out in a series of strikes. This ability can be reactivated three times in a short time frame with the third hit knocking back nearby enemies. On her first ability, Riven already has three movement abilities which can be used to dodge or close a gap, the third one providing crowd control and the option to hop over terrain, the only resource being used being the cooldown. There are already three potential decisions on her first ability, that’s as many as the previous two discussed characters already!
• W – Ki Burst: Riven emits a Ki Burst, damaging and stunning nearby enemies. Probably the least interactive of her abilities, simply doing damage and a brief stun directly around her. However, due to the nature of crowd control, it at least still qualifies as a decision.
• E – Valor: Riven steps forward a short distance and blocks incoming damage. The movement of the ability as well of the shield again ensures that this will remain an important decision when you use it.
• R – Blade of the Exile: Riven empowers her keepsake weapon with energy, and gains Attack Damage and Range. During this time, she also gains the ability to use Wind Slash, a powerful ranged attack, once. While the first activation isn’t really an important decision, since Riven just gains free stats when she wants to fight to the death, but the second activation, which is a skillshot and execution has enough considerations to remain an important decision.

There’s a reason Riven is such a popular character, whether you love her or hate her. She has so many options available, and everyone has seen plenty of situations where Riven will massively outplay another player, because she has 6 important decisions, twice as many as Xin Zhao and Warwick combined.

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Lee Sin

When Riot talks about playmaking champions, Lee Sin is usually one of the main ones pointed to, and for good reasons. He has so many decisions to make, so let’s take a look at them. Due to the nature of his abilities this section will have to be formatted differently than the rest.

• Q – Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike:
• Sonic Wave: Lee Sin projects a discordant wave of sound to locate his enemies, dealing physical damage to the first enemy it encounters. If Sonic Wave hits, Lee Sin can cast Resonating Strike for the next 3 seconds. Skillshot damage. Easily one decision on its own.
• Resonating Strike: Lee Sin dashes to the enemy hit by Sonic Wave, dealing physical damage plus 8% of their missing Health. Now this is what separates this ability from so many others and makes it actually two decisions total. Now, Lee Sin gets to decide if he wants to go in, moving himself into the enemy and either dodging or starting a fight.
• W – Safeguard / Iron Will:
• Safeguard: Lee Sin rushes towards a target ally, shielding himself from damage. If the ally is a champion, they are also shielded. After using Safeguard, Lee Sin can cast Iron Will for the next 3 seconds. While this is all one decision, there’s actually a number of considerations here as well, due to how it changes when depending on how it’s used. Do you need the shield? Will the lower cooldown really matter or do you just need to get over this wall right now?
• Iron Will: Lee Sin's intense training allows him to thrive in battle. For 5 seconds, Lee Sin gains Life Steal and Spell Vamp. This one really isn’t much of a decision, because it’s just free stats again.
• E – Tempest / Cripple:
• Tempest: Lee Sin smashes the ground, sending out a shockwave that deals magic damage and reveals enemy units hit. If Tempest hits an enemy, Lee Sin can cast cripple for the next 3 seconds. This whole ability is mostly just one decision, whether or not you need the slow. The damage is good, but it’s rarely the reason it’s used.
• Cripple: Lee Sin cripples nearby enemies revealed by Tempest, reducing their Movement Speed for 4 seconds. Movement Speed recovers gradually over the duration. Again, this is the reason this ability is used, and as a whole this ability is mostly one decision.
• R – Dragon’s Rage: Lee Sin performs a powerful roundhouse kick launching his target back, dealing physical damage to the target and any enemies they collide with. Enemies the target collides with are knocked into the air for a short duration. This technique was taught to him by Jesse Perring, although Lee Sin does not kick players off the map. First off, that’s actually on Riot’s info page for Lee Sin. Go check it out if you don’t believe me. Secondly, while using it is only one decision, the number of ways this ability can be used, into the enemy team, into your own team, to disengage a fight, makes this an incredibly high impact decision.

Altogether, Lee Sin easily has 5 important decisions to make in his kit alone. This is again, not only more than the examples that have few abilities, but more than the supposed number of abilities you have. With how much stats the character has, no wonder Lee Sin has been a staple of the competitive scene since his release.

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From the examples we’ve seen, the number of decisions characters have can be really important in terms of trying to balance them. Too many decisions and you end up with characters that will remain viable in almost all metas, like Lee Sin and Orianna. Too few decisions and you end up with characters that will either be overpowered or really weak, like Warwick and pre-rework Sion.

While neither extreme is necessarily better than the other, it is important to keep in mind when designing or reworking champions at how much unique agency you give to the player when playing that champion. Similarly, the number of decisions you have available will draw different kinds of players. Someone who just dives onto the enemy carries doesn’t necessarily need as many decisions for the player to make, as it will usually end up with one of the two characters dying. An assassin on the other hand needs a lot of options available to them so that they can jump in, do their dirty deed, and jump right back out unscathed.

From an esports perspective, it’s also important to give options to players, as every interaction point is a place for one person to outplay their opponent. Characters like Zed, Lee Sin, and Ezreal, regardless of whether you think they are weak or strong, are interesting to watch because there are so many opportunities for them to display skill.

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Of course, I didn’t talk about everything abilities can do here. Ally buffs and enemy debuffs, Invulnerability, Invisibility, and Waveclear are all examples of things abilities can do which I didn’t mention. Do you think they count as making something an important decision?

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Wow you read the entire thing! And if you just scrolled down a tl;dr, shame on you. Go back and read it, I worked hard on creating something I thought you would enjoy and you’ve made me a sad panda.

Quick shoutout to dialMARK4acti0n’s Facts, Myths and Theories series, as a great read and one of the inspirations I had for starting my own series! Go check him out if you like lore.

Let me know what you thought about the article and whether or not you think I should write more of them, and if you have ideas as to what I should write about, leave ‘em below!