@Riot The Crit Meter, a poorly thought out solution to the RNG crisis.

CheapShotter·Nov 16, 2014·3 votes·1,164 views

So as a lot of you know, as patch 4.11 rolled out to live servers, with it came buffs to various markspeople and "more diversity to the marksman role", while the patch was designed to "increase the power of the marksman role in general", we all know that it gave birth to a monster, late-game hypercarries became relevant because they could hit their power spikes earlier thanks to the Infinity Edge buffs, and as such, the crit meta was born, and ever since, wishes have been granted and dreams have been crushed because "one adc was luckier than the other", the focus is that a RNG-tied stat has become more of a meta, which doesn't reward strategic play and makes fights very unpredictable, but today I have come up with an idea that can salvage all the things we love about critical strikes while still rewarding strategic play and offering more counterplay, ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to...

The crit meter!!!

The crit meter is a small buff visible to both allies and enemies, no critical chance items should be touched, although such items are open to further balancing to prevent abuse cases. (looks at and ) Players can fill their crit meter by simply autoattacking something, and once the crit meter hits or exceeds 100, your attack will critically strike, and if the crit meter exceeds 100, then any overflow will be taken and set for the starting attack, I know this sounds confusing, so I wrote an example to help you make sense of this idea. If someone would have 40% Crit chance, attacking an enemy unit would fill the meter from 0 to 40, attacking again would fill the meter from 40 to 80, and your next attack after that will critically strike, and the buff will reset at 20 after factoring overflow. If you have 75 crit chance, attacking fills the meter to 75, attacking again will critically strike, and the meter resets at 50, attacking again will also critically strike, and the meter will reset at 25, and that attack will critically strike as well, and the meter will be set at 0, and the process repeats.

So now that all this is out of the way, please feel free to discuss this, is it a good idea? Will it solve the problems with the game at the moment? What becomes of champions like Yasuo or Tryndamere whose passives are tied to critical strikes?

28 Comments

67chromeNov 16, 20143 votes

is it a good idea?

NOPE.

You'd changed every in-lane AA poke to a critical strike. Even with the 0.5% crit chance from a single Crit chance mark.

The current critical strike algorithm isn't exactly random - if you have 10% crit chance and attack 10 times there's a really high chance 1 attack is going to crit and the other 9 aren't. Riot normalized crit to an extent so it largely circumvents a lot of potential RNG abuses your system would mostly be aimed at - except crit is still random enough you don't just get a free headshot every 10 CS to throw around in each trade.

With your system you've essentially doubled Caitlyn's in-lane damage though. And if crit is designed around any dynamic, it's weak early, strong late.

Kuroi86Nov 16, 20141 votes

Actually with .5% crit chance, you would not have a crit until your 200th attack. The idea is that each AA increases your crit chance until it hits 100, when you hit 100 you have a guaranteed crit, every other attack before that will NOT crit ever.

You're right about the current crit system though. From what I've read it was designed so that as long as you have 1% crit chance, your crit goes up with each AA until you crit, then it resets to whatever crit chance you have. The only thing is it's based on a higher number like a die roll. If you have to hit higher than a 50 to get a crit, then you only need to roll a 51. The thing is with 10% crit chance, you can crit once in ten attacks, or four times...

FrikgeekNov 16, 20141 votes

That idea is stupid because the crit meter is both predictable and visible. You "stack" it on creeps and then get a guaranteed crit on the enemy champion. And if they run away from you because your crit meter is full then you've made them miss several cs and you can just start stacking your crit to do it again. This would make long-range ADCs that much more powerful in lane, everyone else would just be completely unviable. And no, you can't crit 4 times in 10 attacks with 10% crit, the system isn't just random. The chances of that happening with a completely random system are 0,025%, even less when the system is trying to prevent you from getting more crits than you're supposed to.

Kuroi86Nov 16, 20141 votes

A. Why make it visible? Can you see if someone has Statikk Shiv stacked or when Jax' passive is stacked? The point is it wouldn't be visible, predictable yes but not visible. Predictability is the point though. It would take away all possible random factors and turn it into a steady system. B. Yes, I'm afraid you can, the current system is designed to make it less likely, but it CAN still happen on rare occasion. That's why people whine so much about the current crit system is that they feel it's too random and why I think this system would work.

FrikgeekNov 16, 20141 votes

I'm not sure you understand just how small a 0,0025% is. To meet those requirements you'd need to buy at least 10% crit and then autoattack, assuming average conditions, around 65000(65536 to be exact) times. Critting on creeps doesn't mean much, you can't crit turrets anyway, so you'd need to autoattack champions 65000 times before you get this lucky, and that's on a purely random system that doesn't actively try to prevent you from getting multiple lucky crits. You're not going to have crit in the laning phase and 10 autos should be enough to kill anyone but Mundo or a supertank, so you shouldn't be autoattacking champions more than ~150 times after you've got your crit item(unless the games goes into super lategame, but those games are offset by 20 min surrenders). So this super lucky crit streak would make a difference once in 433 games. I really don't think that something this rare is an issue that needs to be adressed. Things that will most likely happen more often than once per 433 games include your PC crashing, your connection getting reset or your wireless mouse/keyboard(if you have them) running out of juice.

And making it invisible would be so much worse. You'd basically get a guaranteed crit and free harrass on the enemy champion and they'd never see it coming. And don't tell me that calculating how many "crit points" you have is difficult because basic addition is taught in kindergarten. Many ADCs don't even have a crit animation so if you only last hit they'd never know when your crit is up.

Kuroi86Nov 17, 20141 votes

And making it invisible would be so much worse. You'd basically get a guaranteed crit and free harrass on the enemy champion and they'd never see it coming. And don't tell me that calculating how many "crit points" you have is difficult because basic addition is taught in kindergarten. Many ADCs don't even have a crit animation so if you only last hit they'd never know when your crit is up.

Dude, crit is currently invisible. You never know when your opponent will get their next crit. How would this be any different? Remember, we're talking laning phase, who's going to blow cash on an early crit when a dorans or long sword can make for better long trades? It would be a big risk going for early crit in lane. Cloak of agility and maybe a pickaxe vs a bf sword?
I realize the idea needs work, but it would deal with the randomness that people complain about right now.

FYI, where are you getting your facts on crit chance?

And no, you can't crit 4 times in 10 attacks with 10% crit, the system isn't just random. The chances of that happening with a completely random system are 0,025%, even less when the system is trying to prevent you from getting more crits than you're supposed to.

I've not seen any statements about crit like that from Riot before, where did you hear that? This is curiosity talking.

FrikgeekNov 17, 20141 votes

You never know when your opponent will get their next crit

Yeah, but he doesn't know that either. With your system you could easily calculate when your next crit is going to hit and just use it for free harass. And no, a few dorans wouldn't be nearly as good as free predictable crits, longer trades wouldn't even matter if you outrange your lane opponent, just poke him with free crits and he'll always be too low to all-in.

I've not seen any statements about crit from Riot

Statements about the crit system actively trying to make it less random? I'm sure you can find it by googling, I think it was in one of the patch notes around season 2. You know, when they actually changed it from a purely random system.

Kuroi86Nov 17, 20141 votes

Yeah, but he doesn't know that either. With your system you could easily calculate when your next crit is going to hit and just use it for free harass.

And no one in bot lane ever harasses as it is.

And no, a few dorans wouldn't be nearly as good as free predictable crits, longer trades wouldn't even matter if you outrange your lane opponent, just poke him with free crits and he'll always be too low to all-in.

I didn't say all in, I said extended trade. Two or three auto's compared to one, which is hardly a major thing, you might lose one CS in that trade but due to more lifesteal from double dorans you would have more health at the end of it. As for free crits vs range, range can trade for longer and make you regret getting into range for that "free harass". Come on! This isn't cardboard elo we're talking about here. Getting early crit wouldn't mean your opponent automatically just throws his hands up. "He's got early crit, GG, I got him in AD and range but he's got crit, I can't beat that, might as well stand still and die, GG."

Statements about the crit system actively trying to make it less random? I'm sure you can find it by googling, I think it was in one of the patch notes around season 2. You know, when they actually changed it from a purely random system.

That was before I joined the game, I took a cursory look but couldn't find anything, I'll keep looking though, helps to have info.

FrikgeekNov 17, 20141 votes

Extended trade but not an all in

Well, if you get crit they can all in you. It's that simple, this isn't silver we're talking about, if you get crit you NEED to stop trading or they'll all in you and you'll die or blow your flash. As soon as that crit lands you either run or lose the trade or go for an "extended trade"(something that should never happen in botlane anyway) and get all inned.

If crits would predictable getting early crit would most definitely be a huge deciding factor in winning the lane, especially since you also get bonus AS after critting while your enemy is chunked and unable to win the all in.

Botlane would be impossible for shorter ranged carries because those with longer range would simply be able to abuse those predictable crits for basically free harass.

This isn't cardboard we're talking about

You're bronze 2. That means you're probably worse than most unranked players, as the average rating is silver.

Kuroi86Nov 17, 20141 votes

Botlane would be impossible for shorter ranged carries because those with longer range would simply be able to abuse those predictable crits for basically free harass.

Because Caitlyn has a 100% win rate...

You're bronze 2. That means you're probably worse than most unranked players, as the average rating is silver.

Wow... you actually dropped that low? And here I thought you were actually thinking before speaking.
Mk, you looked up my rank, did you also look to see how long it's been since I bothered to even play ranked? Or how often I play at all? Much as I would love to try climbing the ladder, between tard city and a lack of time, this game is here for me to play for entertainment, not to build rank for forum cred.

FrikgeekNov 17, 20141 votes

implying that you're bronze because you're not trying, not because you're bad

You've played more than 15 games, which is how long it took me to get plat s4(on a fresh lvl 30 acc), so lack of time isn't really much of an excuse. Not to mention that 4 wins and 13 losses isn't the best record. If you played more you'd probably just drop even lower.

implying that not playing for 4 months somehow makes your rank less valid

There's no decay below gold, and I doubt you've managed to massively improve by playing bot games(though intermediate bots might be a bit more skilled than bronze players).

And playing PvP once in 4 months probably means you really don't have the experience needed to understand how these changes would affect the game.

implying Headshot is anywhere near as good as a real crit

Caitlyn's headshot is nowhere near as dangerous as a crit. It only does 50% bonus damage compared to 100%-150% for a crit. It also doesn't give you free AS to win the following all-in. Not to mention that caitlyn pays for those halfcrits by having no other passive or damage stereoid, which makes her weaker in all-ins. Imagine if Tristana with her 110% AS stereoid had that passive. Rapid fire wins "extended trades"(seriously, long trades that aren't all ins only happen with tanks in the toplane) and predictable crits win 1-auto trades. There would be nothing you could do against her.

Kuroi86Nov 17, 20141 votes

You're still insinuating that I don't understand a simple mechanic based solely upon rank. You're still insinuating that a stacking mechanic means won trades for whoever stacks theirs first. Look at champs who use stacking mechanics such as Cait and Annie, simply because they get their stacks up doesn't mean they auto win the trade. If it were that simple then people would rush Statikk Shiv for how strong it would make their trades.

You're saying there's nothing to do against it, but do you realize how long it takes to build stacks? Simply put, you either get zoned between crits and can't stack or you are forced to lose trades because you went for crit for a single shot.

FrikgeekNov 17, 20141 votes

You simply can't compare cait's passive with a crit. Cait's passive hurts, sure, but it doesn't take a quarter of your HPbar. A crit does, especially on champs with AD stereoids. Annie's passive is a champion feature and it actually is really strong for zoning unless you outrange her. And if you actually let annie stun you that means you will almost surely lose that trade, very few midlaners can eat her Q+W combo and trade back before she's in the safety of her creeps again.

Stacking bonuses aren't the problem, it's the power of crits that is. Crit is just too powerful to be given predictably for anyone who buys it. Annie and caitlyn are balanced around their kits(Annie with her relatively low range and no mobility, Caitlyn by having no other steroids) , Lucian isn't balanced around having a guaranteed crit whenever he goes in for his E->passive combo. Statikk shiv does 100 magic damage when it procs. IE crits can add around 250 damage midgame and they give you 5% AS(which is around 150g worth of stats).

You're basically saying that some stacking passives/bonuses are alright, therefore stacking crit would be alright too. That's ludicrous, it's like saying that some point-and-click CCs are fine on their respective champions, therefore it wouldn't be a problem if everyone could buy an item that gives them a point-and-click stun.

Gato MuertoNov 16, 20142 votes

Problem is you invalidate several champ/skills with this idea. Trynd, Ashe, Cait all get buffed/nerfed with this idea.

Kuroi86Nov 16, 20142 votes

I imagine it would be a solid buff to all three.

Lord DusteonNov 16, 20141 votes

This would be horrible. Any adc trades would change entirely to be based on who had the closest crit in the meter.

MEMEME670Nov 16, 20142 votes

Which would be a skill based interaction, no? Much like headshot, or someone having their steroid off cooldown?

CheapShotterNov 16, 20141 votes

Its either that or we increase Attack damage so it's in line with AP in terms of numbers and stuff. But having 600 AD is just stupid, so we're left with the Crit Meter.

Sightless66Nov 17, 20141 votes

Its either that or we increase Attack damage so it's in line with AP in terms of numbers and stuff.

There are other options. Just have crit give a %damage increase for autoattacks. 1 point of crit chance would increase autoattack damage by 1%. Mathematically, this means we would expect the exact same dps with the new crit system as with the current crit system, just without randomness. This would maintain all current gameplay patterns while just removing crit (and obviously, Trynd would need a change because he gets extra fury from critical strikes).

This solution fixes the problem without introducing a new gameplay pattern to every crit-based AD champion. I find that preferable. I'd rather not have to play a stack building game on every single AD carry.

CheapShotterNov 18, 20141 votes

I was actually thinking of that idea, but anything is better than getting undeserved kills from lucky crits or ~~dying from lucky crits~~ getting outplayed.

Kuroi86Nov 16, 20141 votes

Early game though you're not going to have nearly enough crit chance to make much of an issue in laning. Unless you want to buy an early cloak of agility, but then if your opponent buys another doran's blade or a long sword, you could be royally screwed if your trade gets drawn out.

darkdillNov 16, 20141 votes

This would only work if the crit meter resets to 0 if you don't attack for several seconds.

CheapShotterNov 16, 20141 votes

I was thinking that after I posted this, I didn't really think about how ADCs can rush an early Cloak of Agility and use the crit to zone people out of lane indefinitely, but I feel that a time limit is a good idea.

Kuroi86Nov 16, 20141 votes

I think it would work, I had a similar idea. A static stacking system for crits. You could even give it an icon on the hud similar to Shiv so that you can tell where your crit chance is at. It takes away all possible randomness that people seem to dislike without making a massive change to the system.

SmokingPuffinNov 16, 20141 votes

I really don't like this idea. It creates really weird gameplay. It's possible to arrange for your first attack in every teamfight to be a guaranteed crit using this thing. Think about what that means, both during teamfights and during the lead-up to teamfights, like tower sieges.

CheapShotterNov 17, 20141 votes

Which creates more strategic play, because you have one crit, if the enemy team chooses to back off then you will probably waste that crit on something that provides no large benefit to the team, eg. a minion or the enemy tank, who will likely shrug it off and spam emotes, needless to say, I feel it eats the old system for breakfast and poops roses.

SmokingPuffinNov 17, 20141 votes

Everyone on the team being able to guarantee their first attack crits is likely to warp the game heavily in favor of AD champion lineups and against tanks. Expect to see a lot of MasterYi Fiora Twitch .

Adding frontloaded damage to the game also wrecks pacing. Teamfights are going to be shorter with your plan, and they're probably already too short for healthy gameplay. What's more, a crit storing mechanic will strongly favor the aggressive team; defending a tower will be extremely difficult because the sieging team will all have stored crits and the defending team needs to use their stuff to wave clear.

I really don't think you are thinking of how this is going to change the game. Having a guaranteed crit available feels more comfortable than the system Riot currently has, but they designed the game with random crit and moving to guaranteed damage windows is a really big mechanical change with significant downsides.

Hullabaloo907Nov 17, 20141 votes

I think the problem with this is that it would turn every adc into a burst champ, and it would also be a huge buff to every ad caster. Think Talon, who already builds ie and ghostblade, but now he would know when he is going to get that massive crit.