What I (a game designer) would change to improve League if I was in charge.
**Dragons: ** First off.. I'd change dragons so that they gave a "mini baron buff" to the players that participated in securing the objective. I'd remove the 5 different types.
It is hard to get your team to help you secure one sometimes, much less get them to put their lanes in a position that you can solo one. I've even dealt with jungles (or laners) that WILL NOT dragon because they don't care about it because it isn't Infernal/Mountain...
A lot of times nobody will help because "It's just a mana/wind dragon"
This would also remove the random type mechanic which I feel can throw a match in turmoil especially when teams start stacking the right one (I.E. Zed has three infernals, Brand has three mana dragons)..
When a team has three of the same, it can do a lot for the right champs... it makes it harder for the other team to fight them at that point. Especially if that team is already oppressive to fight.
A mini baron buff removes that RNG factor and encourages participation in the fight. It is a benefit that everyone can immediately see and makes securing it more important.
Rift Scuttles
The amount of gold and exp tied up in these things are atrocious. If you steal a single camp early game, get both scuttles and both your buffs... The other jungle is going to be playing catch up for a hot second if they can't get a gank in. I've been on both sides of this.
The high amount of gold also encourages your "team-mates" to come steal them, which makes it hard to stay on par or catch up if if you fall off.
The vision they provide makes it a nightmare to dragon/baron or gank nearby lanes if the other team kills it, especially if the other jungle is power clearing or the other team is more active in helping them.
I'd remove them from the game ultimately, but I'd also support lowering the spawn frequency drastically, and/or lowering the amount gold/exp they provide.
Rift Herald
Nothing like losing an entire lane to this thing because the other team gets it and no one wants to help prevent it from shoving down your lane.
I'd either remove this completely or change the reward for defeating it.
I think some kind of buff and a mass amount of gold/exp would be more appropriate.
There is enough going on the in the game, that a successful rift herald shouldn't practically end the match.
Wall Jumpers
Kayn, Talon, Akali, etc etc
This shit is ridiculous sometimes. Most of the champs that can do it, quite often have no problem completely wiping you out in a straight fight anyway.. so it makes it SUPER FRUSTRATING when they can easily kill you anyway, but the moment you get them close to dying, they just escape through a wall.
I'm not saying I'd remove this completely. I think some champs can use it really well and it provides some interesting gameplay.
Talon at least can't jump the same wall twice for a period of time... Kayn however can free-run across the map..
Kayn jungle can be oppressive because he just shortcuts across the map and clears the entire board before you walk to your second/third camp. I can't count the number of times I've cleared three camps just to find Kayn clear my other half of the jungle. By the time you discover it, he has cleared the rest of his.
What I'd do with these champs is lower the overall frequency of wall hoping so that it has to be a strategic choice and not a "get out of jail free card"
I have no problem with Graves or similar champs being able to use his E to jump through a wall, but being able to cover vast distances provides too much mobility.
FIRST BLOOD and early kills/Snowballing
First blood should be rewarding.. but league is one of those games where a single kill can cause the killer to snowball out of control. I'd change the game mechanics overall to award a small buff for getting first blood.
In addition a team getting a few kills early shouldn't determine the majority of a game. I'd lower the worth of early kills.
This would encourage players to participate in early fights and minimize the impact of a failed/successful invade.
Players tend to FREAK THE FUCK OUT when someone on the team dies. Lowering the value of kills early would provide a safety net for error.
Also.. players sometimes put too much effort into trying to get kills, rather than trying to secure objectives.
I'd handle this potentially in several different ways.
- First 10 kills overall are practically worthless with a slowly ramp up in value.
Going with this, it would provide a fair amount across the board to prevent any one player from being targeted.
- A players first 3 deaths award little gold and afterwards full value.
This would give each player equal chance of lowering their impact to the enemy.. but at risk of being a major target (Lets all gank Mid because he's died 3 times)
- Kills are worth a little more than siege minions, but offer higher experience points.
The reward here is a little bit of gold and an increase in levels. This would lower the impact of a player getting "FED AF" because they wouldn't be stacking items while everyone is still finishing the first. Giving a lot of experience would give them a level advantage, rather than an Item advantage, which would allow the losing player to play smarter...
- Kills are worth more early, but become worth less later.
I'm of the opinion that at 10 kills, you've probably got enough, and should probably be trying to get the rest of the team fed at this point.
Players become ABSOLUTELY obsessed with kills over objectives sometimes.
I've lost a lot of games because a midlaner is spending more time roaming than protecting their tower. It is incredibly frustrating to watch a player leave lane to chase a kill and lose a tower each time they do.
Kills would be almost triple their current value on the first three, and worth about the same as an assist at 10 kills..each kill after that would reduce their value until they were worth the same as a siege minion.
Case 4 would be one of the more optimal paths because it would encourage focusing on objectives instead of a KDA. After 10 kills, you are going to start looking to end the match, and more profitable solutions.. (CS, Objectives, ETC)
Some champs with the right items can just nuke you under your tower if they get a good 3-4 kills on you in the current system..
Remakes, Surrenders, Match Integrity
First.. The Remake window is too short. It should also never be put to a vote. If a player is AFK and the system detects it.. The match needs to end.
Also the AFK player needs to be ANNOUNCED right away to both teams.
"PLAYER NAME is AFK, match will end in 5 minutes if they do not return"
In addition.. the remake period needs to extend to at least 10 minutes, and include situations where a player was present, but AFK'd after purchasing items.
FF@15 needs to go. I'm tired of the other team getting First Blood and someone on my team deciding the match is over.
AFK matches need to end with loss prevented. If a player AFKs they have 5 minutes to return or it ends. No more 4v5's
To prevent the "Getting a friend to afk" abuse riot is scared of.. this would be a simple fix:
Every player has a visible "LEAVER LEVEL" to alert them of how high their AFK levels are.
Blind matches, Draft, etc would have a lower impact on their score. RANKED matches would have an EXTREMELY HIGH impact and about 3 AFKs in ranked would result in maxing the level out.
When the leaver level is high.. RANKED would be unavailable for say 10 games and consistently high or excessive levels would result in stricter punishments. This would be balanced around allowing room for circumstances beyond a players control and malicious AFKing.
The 3x in ranked would stand, because even RIOT has said that if you are having issues with your connection, you shouldn't be playing ranked.
If an AFK is worth 10 points.. it should take 20 games without an AFK to clear that off. (2 points per game.) 33 points for an AFK in ranked (33 x 3 =100). Points should also decay per day to help in situations where say a players connection was faulty one week and they had a higher score than they would normally.. this allows them to take a few days off play to ensure their connection is ok and give room to test it.
The week of a patch would also have a smaller impact on Leaver Levels to accommodate the issues that arise.
Weekly Rotating Bans
There are a lot of champs in this game.
To the point I feel like you could give each play 5 bans.. and still face a hardcounter in your lane.
Not only are there a lot of champions.. but you consistently see the same champions every day.. day in.. day out.
It would be nice to see about 20 champions per week be Auto-Banned.
This would give a total of 30 potential bans per match.
In addition.. players would have to be able to play more champions and have a more diverse champion pool.
I've felt the requirements to entry into ranked are too low.
Ranked Requirements
I'd make the following changes (based on current system)
40 champions owned.
Level 99
Mastery 5 + champions only (40 champs at Mastery 5) (This is because ranked shouldn't be the place you are first timing a pick)
These changes would give a little balance.. level 30 doesn't take long to reach anymore and is barely enough time to master a few mechanics, much less the ones you need to be successful.. this would also make your account more valuable.. and probably discourage people from the "I'll just make a new account mentality"
Starting Items
I'd add a few options in there to diversify against a wider range of opponents.
I'd like to see MR and Attack Speed starting items. As well as HP/Mana Regen
Mana Potions/Clarity
These would come back... mana champs really suffer when they get matched up against non-mana champs.
Jungle
Nothing sucks more than having a player swipe up a camp that you are trying to fight.
I'd change jungle so that if the jungler is within a certain distance, they receive the gold/exp for the camp.
This would especially be handy for leashes.. because I'm always super nervous some troll is going to steal my camp.
If I'm taking 10g less for CSing their lanes.. they shouldn't be farming mine.
I thought I had more.. but I'll stop here for now.
