My issues with the game [Fishing for a red post]

Disclaimer: Fair warning, wall of text incoming. I tried to not just cry about things, but to propose solutions to it. While some of my math might lead to silly consequences, i firmly think that the general direction is good.

summoner spells:

We have Flash, Heal, Ignite, Exhaust, Smite, and Teleport. There are a select few who run barrier. It’s rumored that spells such as ghost and clense exists. We also heard myths about summoner spells like clarity, clairvoyance and revive.

Jokes aside, the game has six summoner spells that cover 98% of all summoner spell usage, and 5 with a grand total of 2%. 90% of that 2% is barrier. If we assume that the popular summoner spells are in a good spot, the question is, how can we make the others viable option.

Barrier: The fact that heal is blatantly better is obvious, if you are not ignited, you get roughly the same hp permanently, and a speedboost. And you can save an ally. How should be barrier balanced? The selfish carry’s anti-burst summoner. My idea for it:

Gives 5+2,5xlvl armor&MR (7,5-50) while the barrier is active. Shields for 20+35xlvl (75-650) Maximum duration is 3 seconds, BUT the barrier falls after 0,75 second of not receiving damage from champions (DoT do NOT count)

First and foremost, 0,75 second is not the end of the world. In a teamfight, you can chose to ignore the barriered guy till it runs out, or burst him down regardless (it’s a bit harder, but still possible). In a duel, you can simply disengage, and wait it out.

This is meant to work well against burst mages and assassins, to give it a nieche. It is still vastly inferior to heal in lane, but in teamfights it can mitigate a lot of damage.

Clense: First, to make it work, it needs the full effect of QSS. While all Zed/warwick/skarner mains got quite angry with me for that, I’d like to point out that forcing the enemy champion to take a summoner into lane that is not ignite/heal/barrier, just by picking a champion is not a small feat in itself. Yes, you are hard pressed to gank when your ult gets instantly cancelled, but your teammate could get a first blood just off the fact that he has a heal/barrier/ignite over the other guy.

Second, the three seconds of high tenacity makes absolutely no sense. Champions who can survive for three seconds of being focused do not care about being CC-d, as they are most likely tanks. A better thing would be 1 second of CC immunity. It would serve as a get out of jail card, as you can get out of the cc that hit you, and be immune for a follow up CC, thus allowing you to get the hell out of there.

Third, reduce the CD to 180 seconds.

Ghost:

The biggest problem of ghost is the laning phase. It is much harder to escape a gank with ghost, thus most players opt to use flash. My idea is twofold, for one ghost should get a QoL change, so while it’s active, slows are halved both in effectiveness and duration. This would mean that don’t try to slow the guy who is ghosting. The other thing is, upon activation it should give a burst of speed, decaying from 100% speedboost to 28/40% over a 500 unit distance. This “pseudo-dash” would help to avoid key skillshots, and to quickly make some distance between you and the guy with hard CC.

Clarity + Revive+CV: To be honest, i don’t have any ideas to make them worthwhile.

Champions: This is gonna be a long one.

Champion design:

Disclaimer: Most (probably all) of my proposed changes are nerfs. Some brutal, some just slight. I say it here, every champion, should he get the proposed change needs to be compensated in some way, let that be more base damage, better scaling, better base stats or lower cds.

My biggest issue with champion design is not the mobility creep, nor the overloaded kits. The thing i hate the most is the low risk high reward abilities. To illustrate my point:

Blitz’s hook IS a game breaking ability. You can play perfectly for 95% of the game, then get hooked ONCE and lose. But, beside the fact that it’s a skillshot, has CD and mana cost, it has one really important thing, that Riot’s designers forgot since then. Built-in risk. You CAN pull an amumu/karthus into your team as blitz, or the guy who got pulled gets an orianna shield, and it goes from a good pick to a 5 man shockwave. It has incredible potential, but high risks as well.

Thesh’s hook on the other hand has 0 risk involved. If you hooked someone you did not meant to, you don’t press Q again. Then hook again, and again, and finally when you hit someone you meant to, you go in. Not to mention the fact that thresh’s every other ability is really good as well (Lantern is yet another game breaking spell). Just with the fact that thresh goes in whenever he lands a hook, he could have been a much more interesting champion (nidalee spear problem all over again, should i use my good spell that could net a kill, but has little to no risk involved?)

The best example is of course Yasuo. From his wind wall, that in itself is a broken ability, with 0 risk involved (the fact that if you use an ability, it goes to CD is true for any ability in the game), as well as his dash, that used to have negative (!) risk attached to it. You dash around so you are harder to hit with a skillshot, and for that you get a shield if you actually get hit. Nowadays it’s “just” a 0 risk spell. And of course, hard CC on an assassin. Yet again, much more interesting if you have to choose between dashing and a shield. As for the wind wall, a half second cast time would have made all the difference. It would have gone from a “something is about to hit me, press W” to an interesting choice (do i windwall or dash away from the ashe arrow/nida spear/whatever). As for Q, it would have been fine to keep the melee knock up, but as a ranged “harass” it’s unacceptable.

Overloaded kits can be toned down a bit, but these no risk- any reward abilities can’t. And to address the most probable response, yes yasuo has a low win rate. He was olafed. For the aforementioned reason. His kit is so potent (you not only have incredibly strong abilities, you have 0 risk involved in them), that with any viable numbers, he is a pick or ban champion.

Yet another fine example is Fizz/Zed, and to a smaller extent Vladimir. Chronologically Vlad had his troll pool. While incredibly frustrating to play against, since he could simply negate your spells, it was attached to an immobile dps mage, so not THAT problematic. Also, as the pool had a fixed duration, you have some counterplay, since you can time your skillshots to the moment he becomes targetable.

Then came Fizz. The same issue of pressing a button to fully negate what you did (as does yasuo), on a mobile assassin, and it lacks vlad’s counterplay as you can end it early, AND move with it. I’d say fizz should become untargetable the moment he lands on his trident, not the moment he starts playful. It would mean a small, roughly half second delay where he will be untargetable, but he’s not yet. Suddenly it becomes risky to E over a dangerous skillshot, and can’t just mindlessly press E whenever something is about to hurt you. For example, a point blank veigar ult/elsie stun would hit, even if fizz pressed E the moment he saw the projectile. And last, if fizz is hit with a hard CC while he is not on the pole yet, the whole playful/trickster should be interrupted.

As for Zed, the press one button to negate a ton of enemy damage AND start your damage is kinda silly. What would be a decent alternative is: he dashes to the target in a straight line, leaving behind the ult shadow, (with the shadow animations and the X on the target) then after a brief (0.5 second) untargetable state he’s behind the enemy. He’s still able to dodge a delayed spell, but it’s not a something is about to hit me, get out of jail card!

Champion viability:

I don’t exactly remember who said the infamous “renekton bar”, but i’m pretty sure i saw a crapton of renekton even months after it. I believe that it would make a much better competitive environment if everyone knew who are those champions who will be viable next week. It would tone down the FotM fever, as it’s not about a few champions you must learn quickly, but a pool of steady champions who are always viable, and a constantly changing smaller pool of “OP” champs. This of course implies that the viable champion pool gets constant small buffs/nerfs.

A few champions with glaring issues (whom i play with):

Akali: She is the queen of lower levels, partly because of her invisibility, and partly because of her high mechanical requirements (press all the buttons). When i look at her, i see two obvious problems, her relatively high damage gapcloser, that has three charges AND gets resets, and her burst of sustain.

Her ult’s base damage should be lowered to 75/125/175, and the ratios adjusted to 0,35 AP + 0,35AD. To adjust this, her Q’s detonation should have an additional 0,4 bonus AD and 0,1AP ratio. This would make it so that her lvl 6 is same-ish as it was before, but later into the game the ult is mostly for gap closing, not for damage. As for her sustain. She needs some to stay relevant in lane, but with 6% spellvamp runes, 6% from her passive’s base, and 20 +7,5 (her passive) from a hextech gunblade, she has nearly 40% spellvamp. Most definitely not fun to play against. My solution to this is to adjust the Might part of her passive, so it heals for 6 + 36%(+6% /10 bonus AD) of the on hit magic damage akali deals. It would still allow for some burst healing (lich bane), but mostly serve as an in-lane sustain tool. (honestly the math here is kinda fuzzy. The point is, the larger part of her sustain should be based on auto attacks, not spells.)

Diana

Oh dear. Her biggest problem is the fact that a tanky, do or die, go in and burst the guy champion either do works, and not fun to play against, on does not work, and not fun to play with. You just can’t consistently find that knife’s edge where it barely works, half the time, barely does not the other half. Knowing that a bruiser-ish assassin can’t be balanced properly, and seeing that an assassin-ish bruiser is not AS hopeless case, (ie: Irelia) how can it be done? My take on it is, the burst has to be lowered. An assassin-ish bruiser has to be able to pump out high damage over a roughly 5 second time, while being tanky enough to not die in the process. The first thing is to lower the viability of going full AP, while rewarding a tankier build.

P: 20+(10/100 AP)% AS bonus.

Q: AP ratio lowered to 0,55 mana cost to 50,

W: Making her shield’s damage scale with AP, and the amount of shield scale with bonus HP would serve this purpose well. Also, to reward using basic attacks, the shield’s cd should be lowered by 1 second for every passive procs, doubled against champions. The base should be 40-80, with a scaling of 10% bonus HP (that means with a RoA+Rylai build the doubled shield is 370 . The base cooldown should be 12 second, and the mana cost is 50-90

E: New passive: Moonsilver blade procs extend the slow by 0,5-1 second. Not a perma slow, but can extend the duration up to 4 seconds (if you can keep autoattacking, AND have sufficient attack speed)

R: 75/120/165+0,45 AP. Akali treatment, the ult is a gapcloser first, nuke second.

Kassadin:

I’m not gonna get friends with this either. The problem with Kassadin is, he’s in an awkward spot. You can build him RoA+full AP, and put out damage, then go oom after 5 seconds, or you can get CDR, mana, and the like, and deal no damage. I honestly don’t know how can he be viable but not oppressive, but i do have an idea for his ult.

The thing with his ult is, it’s supposed to do damage, forcing kassadin to go close and personal, but it lacks counterplay, as you don’t know if he’s planning to ult on you for damage, it feels clunky with the cast time, and all around problematic. I’d say let’s make his ult his defense mechanism.

At the start of the cast, Kassa should enter the rift, and after a half second delay exit (like master yi does with his alpha strike). The two sides of the coin are: He can use it to dodge skillshots (BUT! it’s not supposed to destroy projectiles as most untargetable spells do, he’s leaving the gate open...), since he just disappears. The flipside is, the void is open both at the point where he entered, and where he will exit, making it possible to know in advance where will he arrive, making counterplay possible. To refute the obvious question. Yes this is similar to what i hated with Fizz and Yasuo, press a button to avoid skills. The two key differences are that this does NOT destroy projectiles, and has a fixed time and end destination that you can work with (like a zhonya). Also, as Kassadin lacks any other means of mobility, and has to get close, but he could avoid key spells with his ult, it does become a question. Do i use it now to go in, or do i do nothing and wait to dodge something?

Shen: I don’t even know where to start. Truth to be told, Shen is much stronger in coordinated teams than he is in soloQ. The simple fact that your teammates tell you to ult, and they know that you will makes a ton of difference. That said, he’s not touched even in competitive play. He’s so weak it’s not even funny. On the other hand a simple numerical buff would not help, as his laning is all about spamming Q. Sometimes using W and E. Then spam Q again.

R: I’d say to curb the power of his ultimate, any damage taken (like Rek sai’s ultimate) interrupts the channel, and once the channel is interrupted, the shield is gone. Also, 200/500/750 base shield is quite enough. Also, global warning sound.

With a lower impact on highly coordinated play, he can be buffed into a decent laner.

P: The passive’s scaling was good back in the day, but nowdays HP stacking is a really bad idea. If you are willing to do it, you should be rewarded, so the scaling should be 15% bonus HP, or scale it with max HP.

Q: That heal is weak. Assuming shen keeps attacking for 6 seconds (it has a 5 second duration), it’s on par with a Gragas passive %HP wise. For others shen’s 1.5% max HP is quite a lot, but for himself it’s weak. It should be be 50% more for himself. As for the damage, spamming Q without meaningful resource is bad, so base damage should go down to 40-150, but it deals double damage to enemies under 40%HP.

As to add some depth, using Ki strike on an enemy who has vorpal blade mark on them, but not taunted by shen deals additional 10% missing HP magic damage.

W: As a tank, Shen could use some actual tank ability. 10-50 bonus armor & MR while the shield is active.

E: Same as now.

With these changes, shen becomes a slow but steady pusher, who has more and more dueling power as the fight goes on.

Veigar:

He has issues. The biggest problem he faces is the fact that the only skill that requires any skill is his E. After you landed that, press all the buttons. Even then, his E feels terrible to play against, as it’s an instant stun, possibly for multiple players, without any counterplay. My suggestion for him: E: Let’s take inspiration from the name. Event horizon is the “point of no return”, thus whoever is inside it, cannot escape by any means. I’d say make the edge of it a 99% slow for 1-2 seconds, and the ability itself a one-way barrier for everything, except flash. It becomes an incredibly potent ability (cage in their adc with your assassin), with built in counterplay (their support CAN dash/flash in), and high risks (cage in your adc with their entire team, or yourself with someone who can kill you).

R: It needs some depth, maybe turning it into a skillshot?

SoloQ Draft pick:

Who played on lower levels know the fact that some players don’t understand many things, let that be supporting, positioning, warding, etc. One of the most infuriating things i’ve ever encountered is the “we pick the same time” argument. I’d like to ask to enforce a rule, if it’s made, since WE as players, lack any proper means to do so. Yes, you can try to report the guy after the game (refusing to communicate? maybe?), but it could be solved with a simple, un-abusable solution. If two players pick simultaneously, the guy who is lower on the pick order should not be able to lock in, till the other guy already did so. He of course can select the champ, so if the other guy is afk, he won’t get punished, or to wordlessly communicate what he wants to play. This is incredibly frustrating when you are 4th pick, and the last pick instalocks, usually something that’s “OP”, then you are forced to be the better man, and try to play a game that you started with a foul mood. Or dodge and lose LP. Or series. Lose-Lose situation at it’s finest.

Pick position in series:

Yet another small, but really annoying thing. I played quite a few soloQ games. I know that sometimes you gotta take one for the team, and play something you don’t want to, or not comfortable with. That said, when you lose a series with 0/2, because in both games you were last pick, and in both games got forced into a role (in this case support) with an adc that does not have the foggiest how to play adc, now that’s something that sticks with you. Back in the day, higher MMR meant higher in the pick order. That made sense, the best rated player is the most likely to carry. This random order, especially in series does not.

If i play something in fifth of my games that i’m not comfortable with, it’s just another game. I don’t really care. BUT. If some of the games are artificially more important, i want to win those games more. I can accept a defeat when someone better beat me. I can’t really say that i did not do my best. I got a role that i’m good at, played as best as i could. Even if a teammate of mine caused the defeat with a silly mistake, i can honestly say that if not for that mistake, we could have won. If i did, my bad. Being stuck in a role I’m not comfortable with (jungle in my case), and suffering a defeat is something else. I don’t feel like i did enough, since i could have done much better in another role. The keyword is agency. Don’t put the guy in series as a last pick. Just don’t. Even as 4th pick, you feel you picked the lesser evil, that you had a choice, or at least some agency over the game.

ps: I'd appriciate any feedback.