@riot: Balance flash after worlds?

Wolfenix·9/18/2014, 12:54:37 AM·1 votes·1,014 views

We all know flash is OP. it is used by almost all players on all champs. If any other summoner spell was being used as often as flash it would be nerfed almost immediately. This has obviously been discussed hundreds of times on the forums over the years.

Take, for example, placing a .5 to 1 second charge time on flash use. The spell is still useful in almost all cases, but the general power of it is slightly reduced and counterplay is possible.

Either way, why the free pass on flash for so many years? I understand that it has worked it's way into the game as being so important to various balance mechanics that it simply can't be removed, but surely there are tweaks that can be made. If you (riot) intend on it remaining the summoner spell taken 95% of the time, just make it available to everyone and allow the players options again.

Are there plans for any changes to flash in the near future?

12 Comments

Worgslarg9/18/2014, 1:01:40 AM1 votes

Because league as is is balanced around players having flash in its current state. You would need to rework nearly every champion with cc or a dash/jump/blink were flash not available.

Solution: Players can choose 1 summoner spell, and flash is default like recall. ( it's a minor nerf to a handful of players who might avoid flash, but the overwhelming majority of times flash is taken atm does justify it.)

The Queen Viper9/18/2014, 1:02:21 AM1 votes

Flash is just fine as it is... giving it for free would be OP and removing/nerfing it would just bring more problems.

ValyrianBlade9/18/2014, 1:48:15 AM1 votes

absolutely do not make it a default, that makes the few champions that don't use it underpowered. It has counterplay (as you said, other flashes, but also silences, stuns, other champion abilities, its long cooldown. Maybe it's only optimal in fewer situations than it gets used for but everyone uses it because the pros use it (and those who use what is more useful for them would have an advantage). Really, it's fine because everyone has equal access to it regardless of who they are.

redniwediS9/18/2014, 1:48:47 AM1 votes

I personally prefer Ghost over Flash, but that is because my champion pool typically has issues sticking to a target. That said about the only way one could lower the power of Flash without breaking it would be by increasing it's cooldown to a ridiculous level. You could add in things like a charge time, but Flash is the counter to many things that require a fast reaction.

The only way to lower the power of Flash without making it useless and keeping the price of using it low is by raising other summoner spells up to it's level, or by adding new spells. Right now there are only three movement effecting summoner spells, with two seeing a fair amount of use in game.

In my opinion either Ghost needs to be buffed to a point where it is competitive with Flash, or additional movement based summoner spells need to be added.