Feedback/Thoughts of a Casual Player

I don't know how much Riot cares about feedback. But in case they do, I thought I'd write up a quick few things I've noticed.

For context, I played back when IP was a thing, but not much. I had caught wind of this "BE" thing, which many players seemed to dislike. I decided to give League another look so that I could form my own opinions.

• Blue Essence: I initially didn't like BE, but, after looking up the math, I think it's a great idea with poor execution. In my experience, getting a lot of Champion Shards is awesome. Whenever I get a shard, I have to decide whether it's worth keeping, which means I need to research that champion. Thus, I learn about champions that I may not see as often. (This could happen before, but it's a lot more common with the BE update.) But... At times, it feels pretty frustrating. If a player is really close to a goal, their natural tendency will be to want to achieve that goal. (It's illogical, but psychology is like that.) Nobody wants to have 6295 BE.

• Runes: Before Runes Reforged, I was too low-level to unlock runes. I'm kind of happy about this; they sounded like a dull IP sink. I hated having to grind through games to unlock Smite. I was not looking forward to grinding out runes. With the new system, I know that, when I suck, it's entirely my fault. (Yay?) I have just one criticism: For the runes in the Secondary Path, it can be a little awkward to change which rows are active.

• Rentals: This is the dumbest thing about the BE update. AFAIK, BE and IP coexisted a long time ago. If you had enough IP to buy a champ but not enough BE, it might make sense to spend the shard for the 7-day rental. Then, if you liked the champ, you could go ahead and buy them. But now? No! Barring misunderstandings and mistakes, I don't think anyone would do this. BE is far too valuable to exchange for a 7-day rental. I'm guessing that this is simply relic of the IP days. I don't like making specific suggestions, but...please change the rental system. I wouldn't mind paying a small fee to activate the rental.

• Quests: I love this system. Some quests (like "Win 1 game") can be frustrating, but ones that reward good practices are awesome. I especially like the one that makes players use wards. Vision is super important in this game, and badly place wards are better than no wards. I'm excited to see what's next for this system.

• Honor: Makes me be more mindful of my teammates...I don't want to honor bad players! I think this is good for the community, and I'm sure it will make me a better player in the long run.

• Emotes: Ehh...kinda mixed. I'm glad you can mute them. No idea why they are so costly.

• Mouse support: A long time ago, my two extra mouse buttons didn't work right. (I'm on a Mac.) But now they work! Thanks!

That's all I have. Again, I don't want to sound entitled; just wanted to share my thoughts.