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@Riot, What's the counterplay to mobility?

Audiomancy·2/15/2015, 10:06:47 PM·63 votes·4,445 views

Patch notes are often accompanied by a paragraph detailing the reasons and context for champion nerfs which are usually littered with dozens of uses of the words 'counterplay', 'unfun' and 'unhealthy'. For example, instant or targeted CC is toxic because it prevents you from being able to act whilst making it impossible (or at least very difficult) to dodge. That's all well and good; nobody likes being made helpless with no chance of retaliation. But I ask you this:

Where is the counterplay to mobility? What tools does every champion have to stop a Leblanc teleporting across the map? Or a Zed , jumping in and out of a fight without repercussion? You put so much emphasis on being able to 'outplay' every ability yet you fail to realize that there is no way beyond crowd control, which not every champion has, to prevent mobility. Yes, I agree it isn't fun to get stunned and then bursted down to zero instantly, but neither is it fun to have an enemy simply jump in and out of your range and being powerless to stop them.

tl;dr mobility has no counterplay. rito pls fix.

68 Comments

Retillin2/15/2015, 11:07:09 PM41 votes

Well Riot's answer as counter play to mobility is........ to have mobility.

KaisadiIIa2/16/2015, 3:27:41 AM15 votes

there is no way beyond crowd control

There is no way beyond targeted crowd control. Skill shot-based CC is really easy to dodge for a mobility-based champion.

Troy2426212/15/2015, 10:08:58 PM15 votes

Hell it's hard to even gank highly mobile champions, God help you if they're also lane bullies.

SanjiSanada2/16/2015, 4:24:33 AM13 votes

The counter to Mobility is targeted spells and cc, which they have been slowly removing since the new season started. They say they dont enforce a meta, but the current meta is mobility and the only counter to it is steadily getting removed. Really getting tired of this shit

Jillfinger2/16/2015, 7:07:52 AM6 votes

Mobility is what makes the LC$ BIG PLAYS so no, its not supposed to have counter play

xLegendary Troll2/15/2015, 10:29:23 PM6 votes

It depends on the type of mobility.

There's speed increase, dashing, blinking, and jumping.

For speed increase the best counter is a slow. Rooting in place won't do much if they have tenacity and will quickly escape after the root. However, slowing someone with a speed increase greatly reduces their velocity allowing you to even the playing fields or even catch up to them.

For dashes displacements are the most effective. Anything that can interrupt the champion from completing their dash is extremely effective. Most champions require the full animation of the dash in order to inflict damage like Aatrox and Leblanc

For jumps the most effective is a knock back. Jumps are extremely fast dashes that position the champion in a way that it's difficult to target them with your mouse mid air. A regular dash is very predictable, however a jump makes the enemy arch. That's why knocking them back before or at the same time they use their jump ability is the most effective. For instance, to counter Jax's Q as Vayne simply press E on him. Both abilities will trigger at the same time, but your knock back will push him back mid air.

The only counter play to blinks are slows. For instance if you want to catch Ezreal, slow him as he performs his blink that way you can actually catch up to him after his blink.

Here's another example. Taric throws a stun at Ezreal. What 99% of Ezreals would do is blink out to create more distance from the initial spot he would've been stuck at. It's most likely that by the time you cover this extra distance, Ezreal would have recovered from his stun and safely run away. Now let's say you slowed him instead. The distance that he's able to create with his blink is not very effective if he's still slowed. For example Ashe auto attacks Ezreal and the arrow follows him and slows him. It'll be easier to chase him as long as your movement speed is significantly higher than his.

I hope that helps.

Danica17082/16/2015, 6:39:02 AM5 votes

Technically, CC is what counters mobility, but since Riot is trying to make CC harder to hit (thereby buffing mobility further) it's a little bit ridiculous because mobility counters skillshots (which is now what most cc is now) Taric has one of the few (are there any others???) point and click hard cc's that isn't an ultimate. Everything else is either a skill shot, ground cast, delayed, or any combination.

Auryiel2/16/2015, 3:55:17 PM5 votes

Play the next champion that comes out, he or she or it will have even more mobility! :D

2016's first champion won't even have MS Instead, he'll just instantly teleport to a selected location within a certain range determined by his TD, his Teleportation Distance This, of course, won't have any cooldown

But it's ok because he won't have targeted CC

SinatraZ2/16/2015, 3:38:50 PM4 votes

I think champs with a lot mobility should have longer CDs. Thats the only solution I can think of but honestly I think it would make a BIG difference.

The Chin2/15/2015, 10:18:23 PM4 votes

CC

Lakega2/16/2015, 9:52:05 AM4 votes

Everyone talks about the insanely high mobility champs... are you forgetting these high mobility champs are also getting slows, stuns, silences, etc. in their kit as well? Overloaded to the max.

So not only do I have to worry about a zed teleporting freely in and out of my fight, but god forbid if I try to get away he'll teleport ontop of me, go untargetable, do massive damage, and then when I have a remote fighting chance to get away he slows me. Counter play where?!

Yasuo... nuff said

Now our only chance is hoping our support can get in range.. oh but wait.. zed just isnta teleported somehwere again and dodged all the CC and snares.. yea gg riot..

Vlasimuthe2/15/2015, 11:53:34 PM4 votes

This is why mobility creep is a thing, the only counter to mobility is cc or more mobility and riot seems to hate guaranteed cc.

Kitten of Evil2/16/2015, 5:42:09 PM3 votes

The counterplay would be to add in a bunch of point-and-click snares. Or "you can walk but you can't dash" cripple abilities. Ashe, Varus, and most immobile ranges all say idgaf if I'm rooted, but it gives Kalista, Zed, and Lee Sin a hard time.

Oh, you mean current counterplay? Yeah, doesn't really exist.

Hard Penetrator2/16/2015, 12:05:16 AM3 votes

Best mobility counter from s1 was strong point and click cc like Ryze rune prison, taric stun, Rammus taunt, WW ult and so on.

Most of those champ feel pretty medicore right now but all of them had shining points in their short life.

KayFishandChips2/16/2015, 7:32:44 AM3 votes

The problem with branding cc as an effective patch all for high mobility is it effects all camps evenly, sure you can knock-up/stun a kalista to catch up to her and maybe kill her but you can do the same thing to ashe with better results.(The best argument against this would be to look at effective movement loss I guess, but in reality a stun is a stun.) Mobility creep isnt the core issue (imo) the core issue is when champions don't have to pay for their mobility. I'm fine with mobile champions as long as the rest of their kit shows the price.

Chaotic Reks2/16/2015, 11:45:27 PM2 votes

Taric Ryze but don't get used to them, they will be nerfed because they counter mobility

McAllister2/15/2015, 11:22:18 PM2 votes

The counterplay to mobility is skillshots (because if it's not a skillshot, Riot's making it into a skillshot). The counterplay to skillshots is mobility. If Riot continues in this direction, every champion will have really great skillshots, really great mobility or a combination of the two. That wouldn't actually be a bad thing, if they did it right. The danger is champs like their new Mordekaiser idea, where neither the skillshots nor the mobility are any good.

Xemeron2/16/2015, 12:13:47 PM2 votes

Better Nerf Veigar

A Slime Appears2/16/2015, 3:18:06 PM2 votes

The counterplay to mobility is point and click CC and insta.....wait a minute...

straight4free2/16/2015, 7:38:27 PM2 votes

Back in my days of WoW playing, there was this thing called "Flame Wreath" -- if you're unaware, it was a fire spell that a boss cast on you that did ungodly amounts of damage.... if you moved.

Want Flame Wreath for LoL. Or in a way that is applicable to LoL, like you cast it on an enemy and then after X seconds it explodes for Y * Their displacement from the point of original casting. That way if you run you get bursted, hard, but champions who are extra mobile get slaughtered by it.

Zahz2/16/2015, 8:38:08 PM1 votes

is this really a topic. Counterplay to mobility is CC. Pretty obvious really. Also wards. An assassin hits you by suprise, take that away and he is cut down in options pretty hard. Problem is not everyone wants to spend money on those wards