Foundation Items
TLDR: Foundation Items determine play pattern by limiting what items player can purchase, but open up opportunity for more exciting items since they cannot be abused by other class/role combinations. Foundation Items can also help the new player experience by removing the Rune and Mastery system thus making all levels of players equal in power.
Consider for a moment several of League of Legends' biggest pain points:
- Item Abuse Cases
- Support Experience
- New Player Experience
I believe that all of these issues could be solved with what I am calling "Foundation Items." Foundation Items are a set of items that the player chooses from at the start of each game that loosely determine each player's play pattern. Several examples could be Foundations Items for supportive Vanguards, split-push Skirmishers, jungle Juggernauts, aggressive Enchanters, utility Marksmen, and the list could go on. These items have stats like normal items, but they would also have a combination of passive and active abilities to nudge the player in the direction of their play pattern. For example, a support Disruptor Foundation Item would give stats required to survive the duo lane as well as the ability to harass the enemy Champions in the lane. Foundation Items also determine play patterns by defining what items a player can purchase and offering incentives for playing to the determined play pattern. An example of this would be that a supportive Enchanter would be unable to purchase Sterak's Gage, but they could purchase Redemption. This may feel heavily constraining, but it will allow new items to have more of an impact on play patterns.
The reason that Foundation Items will allow for future items to have more of an impact is because it will be easy to remove all Item Abuse Cases. Fighter items provide a level of durability to Assassins that feels frustrating to play against, but if Assassins are unable to purchase Fighter items, this frustration is gone. Furthermore, Assassin items can double-down on the Assassin play pattern because other damage play patterns are unable to abuse Assassin items. This is because each play pattern is unlocked by the proper Foundation Item and if an unintended play pattern is abusing another pattern's items, the Foundation Item can be adjusted make it more punishing to abuse. For example, if a Fighter is choosing to have a weaker lane phase by choosing a support Vanguard Foundation Item to abuse items within that set, then the Foundation Items itself can be adjusted instead of the abused items.
With items having a greater impact, the Support Experience can be improved. Since support play patterns will be locked behind support Foundation Items, support item prices can be balanced around the lower income while being just as powerful as "normal" items without being abused (Locket of the Iron Solari). This opens up the option to create new and interesting items that empower supports to fulfill their desired play pattern. For example, a support Vanguard item could exist that given the Champion a buddy-revive passive where once the support's health reaches zero, an ally Champion can come over, channel for a little bit to bring their support back to life. Obviously it is easy to see how Fighters, Slayers, and Battle Mages could abuse this item, but it is locked behind a properly balanced Foundation Item that would heavily punish any play pattern that was not a support Vanguard.
While the New Player Experience seems like something items could not fix, it has a unique opportunity to replace a troublesome system that impacts new player in a very negative manner. The Rune and Mastery system makes it so that new players are less powerful than they would be at level thirty. This creates a problem in learning how to last hit, a mechanic core to gold income, and makes it impossible to learn the jungle role until the player is well along in levels. If the Rune and Mastery system is "rolled into" the Foundation Item system, there is no longer any difference between a level one player and a level thirty one. Now, the exact details on how these two systems are rolled together are up to the professionals, but stats and passive abilities can be added to the proper Foundation Items (Dangerous Game, Runic Affinity, and possibly some Keystones).
Let me know what you think and ask questions if anything is unclear.
