Riot DOES NOT CARE what we think

Anatera··3 votes·402 views

This recent change to sightstone is quite obviously meant to achieve one thing. To reduce the number of options people have against early gankers, since it'll take quite a while to get practical wards now.

Just about everyone who's played the game since the runes released knows that snowballing is a major problem, and of course they've vocalized it quite a bit. Looking at the patch notes, you'll notice there's very few changes that address this specific problem.

Therefore, we can deduce from this recent change that Riot does not care what we want. What conclusion we draw from that is uncertain though:

  • Are they doing it for money?

  • Are they doing it because they don't know how to balance their own game?

  • Are they doing it because they think they know better than everyone else?

  • Are they doing it because want to cater to the lowest common denominator?

  • Is it a combination of these items?

Really, it could be any of these, but without a direct answer from Riot (which they'll never give, outside of "we're listening to your feedback," even though we know they aren't listening), we can only really speculate.

I've never made a post before saying that his game is terrible, because if it was I wouldn't be playing as much as I did. However, I can confidently do that now.

League of Legends is in the worst state it's been in since beta (which is when I started playing).

27 Comments

Kai Guy3 votes

Game Pacing Update We're still looking into game pacing/snowball this week. As of Monday (time of writing) we're getting some changes in for testing to make towers a bit tougher early game. Average game times after the pre-season patch times didn't change that much. Almost all of the time lost however was from laning phase and we feel that’s pushed laning phase down to too short a duration. We’re testing changes to restore a bit of time to it as a result, along with potentially some changes to a couple of snowbally elements (e.g. a potential nerf to Triumph on the gold and/or HP regen). One thing that makes snowball/pacing trickier subjects to work on is that player viewpoints on them are very disparate. We see some online communities of players for example currently argue that games need to be much longer and snowball is very excessive. Other groups however have different takes. We also do some randomized surveying of LoL players, with a recent (start of January) survey to players in North America, Brazil and Korea (1500 players after they'd finished an SR game). That suggested that on average those people at least wanted a slightly shorter game than they’re getting at present. They also felt that snowball is in an ok state and similar in magnitude to when we surveyed at the start of 2017 and 2018. Strong contrasts in opinion like that make for a trickier space to navigate. We're going to keep digging into snowball and pacing over the coming weeks though of course, see which hypothesis we can build enough confidence in to act on them. We're confident enough in the loss of laning phase time, based off a combination of player feedback, direct observation of games and collected data for example to test changes to address that. For changes beyond that we'll need to do some more work though. First we'll be processing survey data from other regions (China’s up next). We’ll then looking into how perception of game pacing/snowball does or doesn't change at different MMR bands (e.g. how do opinions in Silver compare to opinions in Diamond?). We also need to break down a bunch of the data we’ve gathered by other segments too (e.g. what’s the exact distribution within those averages of people with strong feelings either way, versus comparatively neutral about things?).

Anatera1 votes

Yeah, they say that. Thing is there are easy buffs/nerfs they could implement that don't require "tests"

NocturnalSheild4 votes

Nothings easy with as many variables exist in this game.

Kai Guy2 votes

So I encourage you, if there are easy buffs nerfs that can be implemented with out testing please share them. I'm curious if you have some great ideas and I also expect I would get a good chuckle from community response. If your unable or unwilling to back up that there are changes via buffs and nerfs that are easy to make, perhaps its reasonable to assume that testing is a good thing?

Anatera1 votes

What's your problem? Did you wake up with your foot over your head?

Kai Guy2 votes

Its nothing personal, I just think that untested changes would be a unwise decision. As I said, I'm quite curious if you have any great ideas on balance, if so share them. If not then I don't get where your coming from with your statement that there are easy changes.
Is it unreasonable of me to try to hold you to back up your statements?

Anatera1 votes

I think I'll pass, based on your posts I think it's safe to assume you're someone who's already made up his mind. And honestly, why would I waste time on someone who won't change their mind?

Kai Guy2 votes

Is it unreasonable of me to try to hold you to back up your statements?

Anatera1 votes

I doubt you actually care.

ModWulf Helhammer3 votes

On the other hand, it's that the views expressed on the boards do not represent even a minority of the game population, and opinions you see here are not entirely likely to be held by the actual majority game population.

meowwow72 votes

at this point on being a support i'm not taking the potion start anymore i'll be taking 2 item 2055

Anatera1 votes

Might be worth your time, though that of course means you don't have pots, which means it's less likely you'll live through the laning phase, making snowballing a problem. Again.

meowwow72 votes

i play Taric with guardian so i don't lose much hp in the first place to heal back

KlydeFrog1 votes

There isn't many people who can use guardian effectively you got taric and braum are the only melee supp who can

meowwow71 votes

well conventional melee supports anyway...

KlydeFrog1 votes

Conventional melee supp or not they don't really engage that's why you take that over after shock . I'm not taking that on Leona alistar or j4 yes I go j4 supp it works exactly like leona only your not forced to engage

meowwow71 votes

i was talking about lee sin support but yeah trundle is the main reason i'm not taking aftershock much

Zed genius2 votes

I actually like the support item changes. Not only it enables the supports to be active in lane phase but also it can stop the "supports" from not having sightstone and gives a potential extra space for another item to them. Also the FQC and TOA will be back on other items. Overall I feel it's a step in the right direction and something fresh for the support role.

Anatera2 votes

Is this your opinion as a support player?

Zed genius2 votes

support was my second main role in late season 6 and early season 7, so yes

Anatera1 votes

Not season 7 or recently huh?

Zed genius2 votes

support was my second main role in late season 6 and early season 7, so yes

?

Anatera2 votes

Sorry, I wrote that before your ninja edit.

NocturnalSheild1 votes

The loss of the shield and FoTM is a HEAVY loss to tank supports.

Like crazy heavy.

Zed genius1 votes

it's not that big of a deal, tank supports are already strong at the moment

Infernape2 votes

I don't really mind considering I usually bought the Eye of X item rather than the completed support item + sightstone.

KlydeFrog1 votes

I don't understand the whole snow balling issue

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