Current snowbally gamestate decreases emphasis on player skill.

UkeNeverSeme··77 votes·2,820 views

Currently I've been playing a decent amount of low elo (around gold elo) games, and i find that its harder to carry for me than it used to be when i climbed to diamond last season. I believe this is due to the large amount of snowball mechanics in the game that can make it difficult for even a good player to make a difference if the enemy team gets an early lead over your teammates. Ofc this is fine as long as you yourself snowball really hard, but every game cant be like that. Some days you are "just" doing better than your opponent. When i hit those games i find it hard to impact the game if my team is having a rough time. Some of that is definately just me being used to having a team that has some understanding of macro gameplay, and dont run around like headless chickens, but some of it is definately coming from a more snowbally tank/CC centric gameplay. Not only are game mechanics making it hard to come back, but the current meta state is making it even harder, which sucks if you are actually playing better than every other person in the game, and could maybe carry a worse team in a less snowbally meta.

76 Comments

Eedat21 votes

Honestly its not that its super snowbally. Its more that people absolute refuse to lose lane gracefully. Instead they keep throwing themselves back in with the "I'll get them THIS time!" mentality and just feed over and over. People just dont know when to farm as best as you can when it's safe to.

rtbf22165141226 votes

{quoted}

Honestly its not that its super snowbally. Its more that people absolute refuse to lose lane gracefully. Instead they keep throwing themselves back in with the "I'll get them THIS time!" mentality and just feed over and over. People just dont know when to farm as best as you can when it's safe to.

It's both actually.

Eedat5 votes

Not really. Over the years there have been a metic ton of anti-snowball features added while the only snowball feature that has been added is first tower gold

rtbf2216514127 votes

{quoted}

Not really. Over the years there have been a metic ton of anti-snowball features added while the only snowball feature that has been added is first tower gold

The bot tower is the weakest tower defensively. Bot almost always gets 4 people down in their lane every game. Bot has an adc that scales late game which gives even more of a reason to gank bot. To prevent adc to snowball and to grab the easiest tower, it's quite easy to just focus on bot first. What part of this is anti-snowball? If anything it snowballs the other adc, which isn't anti snowball. There is also proxy and tower diving is easy for champions like singed. How can you play 'safe'?

This is coming from someone with a decent K/D/A.

Eedat10 votes

Oh there have been tons of anti snowball features over the years. Some examples:

  • Vision. Before we had trinkets for free wards, you had to buy them. The team that was ahead could afford more of them. The support of the team that was ahead could buy an Oracles and just walk through the map which they had control of and take out all of your vision. You couldnt contest because your team is behind face checking the fog of war. The enemy team would then have absolute vision control while your team had none.

  • Dragon used to just straight up give gold to everyone on the team. At least Infernal takes some time to ramp up and the other buffs aren't inherently snowbally

  • Less first blood gold now

  • Teams now get global shut down gold

  • You now get free timers on epic monsters and buffs. In the past there wasnt even a notification if the enemy team took dragon or baron which means the team that is behind has absolutely no clue when its respawning unless they saw it getting killed. This means the ahead team has a huge advantage when the next one comes around

  • Riot has increased the bonus XP gain if you are under-leveled a few times over the years. It used to be if you died in lane once, you were 2 levels under your lane opponent for the rest of laning phase

  • Cheesy strats like when laners would take a jungle camp at level 1, ding level 2, base, then tp top with extra pots and abuse your lane opponent with your level and items advantage were removed.

ZephyrDrake6 votes

{quoted}

Oh there have been tons of anti snowball features over the years. Some examples:

  • Vision. Before we had trinkets for free wards, you had to buy them. The team that was ahead could afford more of them. The support of the team that was ahead could buy an Oracles and just walk through the map which they had control of and take out all of your vision. You couldnt contest because your team is behind face checking the fog of war. The enemy team would then have absolute vision control while your team had none.

  • Dragon used to just straight up give gold to everyone on the team. At least Infernal takes some time to ramp up and the other buffs aren't inherently snowbally

  • Less first blood gold now

  • Teams now get global shut down gold

  • You now get free timers on epic monsters and buffs. In the past there wasnt even a notification if the enemy team took dragon or baron which means the team that is behind has absolutely no clue when its respawning unless they saw it getting killed. This means the ahead team has a huge advantage when the next one comes around

  • Riot has increased the bonus XP gain if you are under-leveled a few times over the years. It used to be if you died in lane once, you were 2 levels under your lane opponent for the rest of laning phase

  • Cheesy strats like when laners would take a jungle camp at level 1, ding level 2, base, then tp top with extra pots and abuse your lane opponent with your level and items advantage were removed.

and yet the game is even more snowbally now than before... yeah they really didn't do anything when they also keep adding more snowball mechanics to the game

Gregor Gysi1 votes

So you've just gotten an extensive list of what Riot did to reduce snowballing since season 3. And instead of giving even one single example of a snowball mechanic aside from first turret gold you are just ignoring what Eedat wrote. Good job.

ZephyrDrake5 votes

[{quoted}](name=404 shitlord,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EwpdRYEr,comment-id=0002000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-12-30T12:01:01.524+0000)

So you've just gotten an extensive list of what Riot did to reduce snowballing since season 3. And instead of giving even one single example of a snowball mechanic aside from first turret gold you are just ignoring what Eedat wrote. Good job.

dragon is a snowball mechanic no matter how you look at it. Rift Herald is a snowball mechanic no matter how much you look at it. There's all the damage that's been pumped into the items and masteries that you really are only going to get use when you are even or ahead. Maintaining vision is harder now than before! There is a reason why the game is so early game focused right now. For every anti--snowball mechanic that Riot has taken out they have replaced it with another. Sometimes they take multiple anti snowball things before adding a new snowball mechanic but then that one snowball mechanic they added pretty much just negates the multitude of anti snowball things that were removed so... yeah, the game is just as snowbally if not even more snowbally now than before

Gregor Gysi1 votes

{quoted}

dragon is a snowball mechanic no matter how you look at it.

And it's less snowbally than it used to be, hence it is an anti-snowballing change.

Rift Herald is a snowball mechanic no matter how much you look at it.

It's not worth getting atm so that's irrelevant.

There's all the damage that's been pumped into the items and masteries that you really are only going to get use when you are even or ahead.

Firstly, defensive masteries are a thing aswell and items in general got weaker compared to season 3. Just compare it to the old BT/BOTRK/LW etc etc. Also, the second part is simply wrong and it's quite the opposite. The AD snowballing item has been removed (forgot it's name sadly), BT snowballing mechanic got removed. All items that are commonly used right now (Mejais is mostly used by safe supports) are not only useful when ahead. Stacking items that are used like tear and RoA are not snowbally, quite the opposite. tl;dr: items used to be much more snowbally

Maintaining vision is harder now than before! There is a reason why the game is so early game focused right now.

Only for supports. Have you played toplane in S3? Being able to afford wards was a goddamn luxury - and they were (and are) so damn necessary. Getting a pink right now is incredibly cheap and you get so much free vision. Be honest, for how long do you play this game?

For every anti--snowball mechanic that Riot has taken out they have replaced it with another. Sometimes they take multiple anti snowball things before adding a new snowball mechanic but then that one snowball mechanic they added pretty much just negates the multitude of anti snowball things that were removed so... yeah, the game is just as snowbally if not even more snowbally now than before

So we got FB turret (exchanged for smaller FB/higher gold for stopping a killing spree) and a useless Rift herald - opposed to less snowbally items, drakes, goofy anti snowballing gimmicks like the gates etc etc. The game right now isn't even half as snowbally as it was in S3.

rtbf2216514122 votes

[{quoted}](name=404 shitlord,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EwpdRYEr,comment-id=000200000000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-12-30T23:19:46.404+0000)

And it's less snowbally than it used to be, hence it is an anti-snowballing change.

It's not worth getting atm so that's irrelevant.

Firstly, defensive masteries are a thing aswell and items in general got weaker compared to season 3. Just compare it to the old BT/BOTRK/LW etc etc. Also, the second part is simply wrong and it's quite the opposite. The AD snowballing item has been removed (forgot it's name sadly), BT snowballing mechanic got removed. All items that are commonly used right now (Mejais is mostly used by safe supports) are not only useful when ahead. Stacking items that are used like tear and RoA are not snowbally, quite the opposite. tl;dr: items used to be much more snowbally

Only for supports. Have you played toplane in S3? Being able to afford wards was a goddamn luxury - and they were (and are) so damn necessary. Getting a pink right now is incredibly cheap and you get so much free vision. Be honest, for how long do you play this game?

So we got FB turret (exchanged for smaller FB/higher gold for stopping a killing spree) and a useless Rift herald - opposed to less snowbally items, drakes, goofy anti snowballing gimmicks like the gates etc etc. The game right now isn't even half as snowbally as it was in S3.

Did you know Hecarim's damage scales off wind dragon and the damage dragon?

Gregor Gysi1 votes

I am pretty damn sure than wind dragon grants out-of-combat movement speed.. And yes, I do know that Hecarim scales with the Infernal drake, just like every single other champion..

rtbf2216514122 votes

[{quoted}](name=404 shitlord,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EwpdRYEr,comment-id=00020000000000000000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-12-30T23:43:42.898+0000)

I am pretty damn sure than wind dragon grants out-of-combat movement speed.. And yes, I do know that Hecarim scales with the Infernal drake, just like every single other champion..

Warpath Passive: "Hecarim gains Attack Damage equal to a percentage of his bonus Movement Speed." -

http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/hecarim/

You are welcome. :>

Gregor Gysi1 votes

It's fine to be wrong and it's okay to be smug, but avoid being both.

"Stratus Walk" grants + 25 / 50 / 75 (+50% if they have Mark of the Elder Dragon) bonus movement speed while out of combat." That means Hecarim does not have any bonus movement speed when in combat - and most champions are in combat when they deal damage.

rtbf2216514122 votes

[{quoted}](name=404 shitlord,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EwpdRYEr,comment-id=0002000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000,timestamp=2016-12-30T23:55:37.351+0000)

It's fine to be wrong and it's okay to be smug, but avoid being both.

"Stratus Walk" grants + 25 / 50 / 75 (+50% if they have Mark of the Elder Dragon) bonus movement speed while out of combat." That means Hecarim does not have any bonus movement speed when in combat - and most champions are in combat when they deal damage.

He still gets damage from it no matter how useless.

The Governer2 votes

When he charges in with his E before the combat starts, his E deals more damage than he does during combat if he has Cloud Drake. This gives him a decent advantage over other champions, especially when he has 3 stacks of Cloud Drake.

Qiyeanu Reeves7 votes

Less first blood gold is kind of negated by the fact that turrets give their own first blood. Since the bot lane typically gets this, the ADC goes nuts. Idk, I really wish they'd just get rid of first tower gold and i'd be fine. :\

Glory ln Death1 votes

Nah, Sion still does that last one (thank you for letting us keep buffs on execution, Riot).

AMYS GRAVE1 votes

They've also added minion auto pushing as a snowballing mechanic, which can't be understated.

They also increased the jungle respawn timers so when the ahead team counter jungles it hurts more because they won't be back up to farm longer.

They've also added scaling damage to whoever wants them in masteries.

They also let you have exp after death for kills that you get an assist on.

Some snowballing mechanics added just off the top of my head.

GayFluffyUnicorn1 votes

You are actually right tho but nvm. Many here haven't been around for long.

Glory ln Death2 votes

Bot tower is only the weakest for the first five minutes of the game. After that, top and mid towers lose their fortification, as well.

rtbf2216514121 votes

[{quoted}](name=Glory ln Death,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EwpdRYEr,comment-id=00020000000000000001,timestamp=2016-12-30T17:13:19.798+0000)

Bot tower is only the weakest for the first five minutes of the game. After that, top and mid towers lose their fortification, as well.

What? The duration doesn't matter if it's base defensive stats are weaker than all the towers.

Glory ln Death1 votes

Bot Tower:

  • 3500 Health

  • 40 Armor

  • 40 Magic Resist

Top/Mid Towers:

  • 3500 Health

  • 40 Armor

  • 40 Magic Resist

  • Fortified - Expires after 5 minutes

Base defensive stats are exactly the same. All outer turrets are exactly the same after 5 minutes, and top and mid will go down just as easily as bot tower.

GayFluffyUnicorn1 votes

Yeah i doubt in any of these low elo games a bot tower falls before 5 minutes... Currently in plat4 and it's actually 50/50 either bot tower or solo lane tower first. Players below masters are propably too bad to actually abuse the 5 min fortification thing. Meaning tower would need to fall around level 3 to abuse that mechanic.

Glory ln Death1 votes

I feel like it would be more common in low elo, since players don't play as safe and everyone tries to dive and kill and make #bronzebigplays. Higher elo players know how to play the early game safe and know it's better to focus more on farming than try to get first blood at 2:15 by flashing under the enemy turret 1v2, top and mid theoretically have better map awareness, so they're more likely to come to bot lane's assistance, etc.

devdev4631 votes

{quoted}

The bot tower is the weakest tower defensively. Bot almost always gets 4 people down in their lane every game. Bot has an adc that scales late game which gives even more of a reason to gank bot. To prevent adc to snowball and to grab the easiest tower, it's quite easy to just focus on bot first. What part of this is anti-snowball? If anything it snowballs the other adc, which isn't anti snowball. There is also proxy and tower diving is easy for champions like singed. How can you play 'safe'?

This is coming from someone with a decent K/D/A.

As a diamond jungle main I hardly ever focus on bot lane. It's the lane with the biggest pay off for successfully ganking but it's by far the hardest lane to gank too. They have a champ down there that's there specifically to stop you from fucking their lane with ganks. Once the support gets sight stone it's so hard to find an opening unless your support is competent at denying vision with sweepers and control wards that I find it better not to place that trust in my ally and simply use my time to gank some where else.

Really the only time I get successful early ganks bot off is a very early game cheese gank, other than that I look for ganks top/mid and if I can't gank those lanes I farm instead. Once I hit 6 (I main j4) only then do I really even begin to look at bot lane at all as a possible place worthy of spending my time.

I find it best to be consistent and for me the most consistent course of action that gets my team the lead has pretty much always been focusing top lane with mid being secondary. Not to mention camping top lane for your riven has such a better pay off for mid game team fights in particular. If I could choose to get an adc ahead or a diving fighter like riven, I would choose to get the riven ahead almost every time unless their team has a stupid amount of peel that wound render riven less effective than she normally would, in which case getting her ahead wouldn't be a very good use of resources.

So when you say it's so easy to focus on bot lane I am rather confused, because bot is definitely the hardest of the 3 lanes to gank for (in general, obviously it can change depending on some matchups).

rtbf2216514121 votes

{quoted}

As a diamond jungle main I hardly ever focus on bot lane.

I can't say you are the majority. There are many reasons to focus bot.

devdev4631 votes

{quoted}

I can't say you are the majority. There are many reasons to focus bot.

As well as many reasons not to. It can be appropriate to focus on bot lane in some situations but it's definitely not a black and white choice.

KeKeTwist2 votes

couldn't agree more with this...especially in even lower elo if you lose your lane you are basically declared as "bad"

Troll for Trump2 votes

Instead they keep throwing themselves back in with the "I'll get them THIS time!" mentality

Half the time, with all the divers in the meta, they don't give a sht about how passive or defensive you are. If they're a bully, they'll freeze the lane and stop you from getting your cs. If not, they just dive and sht on you.

Pantheon, for instance. You play as defensively as you can, QQQQQQWE, you're dead.

KoKoboto4 votes

Nah the game snowballs a lot harder now. Though I understand the throw yourselves at the enemy part. You have to kind of do that though because if you don't you're gonna lose all towers and objectives because of how easy they are to take (you probably already lost a bunch off of one teamfight mid game) and unless you're a late game team comp letting the enemy take objectives isn't a good option.

Xonra2 votes

It is more like "I died once and suddenly the lane snowballs to the point Im getting dove lvl 4".

Papa Andrei10 votes

Lets take a look at all the pro-snowballing additions.

Less vision, especially early game and late game when it matters.

Minion vs minion damage reduction based on which lane is winning.

Towers being nerfed to hell (shield gone, now does % health vs supers. ) Towers being made out of wet cardboard

Increase in roaming champions and buffs to mobility creep (Taliyah, A Sol, Camille)

First tower gold

Nee Dragon effects (Infernal means you win more when ahead, Mountain makes wet cardboard towers into a single piece of soggy bready, cloud drake means consistent pressure, ocean means they can fight, and back off and out sustain.)

Decrease in ap for waveclearing champions.

Odinakos2 votes

Vision needed to be nerfed. Upgraded yellow was just outright broken (contant 3 wards up, a better SS). Talking as support main. Sometimes its frustrating but nice vision is a hard earned reward.

Minion was needed snowball for pro play. Games with clear winner would drag for extra 15-20 minutes before closing. Now gives winning team has an advandage to pushing while loosing has an advandage to farming. Because pushed creep waves are easier to farm if the other team doesnt bother to do anything. So mostly a pressure lever for winning teams to end the game. And not drag out. In the last case the comebacks are real.

Towers were buffed last season actually. They are better than last season, a bit weak. But far far from wet cardboard.

Lee was here since like ever. Yes there are more global champs but remember how much nerfed are the originals (shen TF) compared to seasons ago.

I agree on first tower gold. But its a healthy one. Adcs are weak and its up to the team to do the rotations right to snowball from it. Still i think needs to be toned down.

Dragons are considered weak now actually. They are taken less and less. Even so, the previous incarnations were snoebally also. Global gold and the 5 stack. And were prioritized more.

Victor decimating waves from 10 minutes. So balanced.... Also lets not forget that even LB can waveclear with decent ap atm. Heavy abusers got nerfed, but rest were brought up to date. You need to work to have good waveclear atm.

Papa Andrei2 votes

I am not saying whether these things or balanced. I am saying they were added since i started playing (S5).

Vision needs more options is all

Minions make snowballing hard to manage. The enemy lanes can just push and clear the wave and then roam mid while the other lanes are stuck trying to stop the minion wave push (Its damn hard for certain champion, especially early.) even when late game comes around and you are skirmishing for objectives but then the lanes super push and you have to back off or lose a tower due to minions.

Towers are very weak, not due to their "stats" which are super weak. But the sheer amount of damage added to towrs; Adcs on hit passive applying, Ziggs damage vs towers buffed. Ap rations damaging champ. Less damage to minions,

When did i mention lee? I just mean now there is even more mobility (Assassin update, new champs, Cloud Drake, Always homeguards etc.)

Dragons are not weak anymore, they give permanent stats, Old drake just gave gold, which the other team could make up in a few minutes. Now its stats that can not be gained back, or evened out.

They also Nerfed Victor, and other waveclear champions so they have more damage to their non waveclear spells.

Odinakos1 votes

I have been playing before S1 started. Vision is fine now, i have seen both too little (ah the good days of buying gp5 and only wards) and too much (upgraded yellow trinket perma 3 wards). Other options can be discussed, more vision is a no.

Minion snowballing comes after early-mid game when lanes are opening. Its up to the winning team to capitalize. If they dont, the loosing team will farm more and safer. Its one of the healthiest forms of snowballing. I have seen teams throw occasionaly on Gold due to not abusing that. So for the vast majority of the playerbase its neither.

"Towers are very weak, not due to their "stats" which are super weak". Stats are super weak but thats not the reason they are weak? Seems you are trying to hard to justify your opinion. Some buffs for Ziggs are not making tower super weak now. They are in a lot better position. Its been a non-valid complain since ever.

Lee is the best example for a high mobility champion. He has been here forever. Almost. I meant to show that the options were here before all the updates, not just lee. Even the best mobility spells (Shen/TF/Panth/Kass R) have been significant nerfed during their lifespan. Kamil is stupid indeed, but nowhere close to the examples above before they were balanced.

"Just gave gold" is a serious and dangerous understatement. Until 6 items it was the most snowbally of all incarnations. Mostly because it was flexible (carries bought damage, tanks health eg) and not targeted.

I told you why Victor was a problem. The same deal with why Ziggs is weak atm (compared to the abomination he was). Or why Anivia was nerfed. Excellent clear with 1 item is not healthy for the game. It had to be nerfed.

Papa Andrei1 votes

Ye i saw a post somewhere talking about actual cone shaped wards, wards with a smaller radius but can see through walls. Wards like Rek Sai tremmors, would be cool to see options ^.^

And Minion snowballing can be healthy if managed properly with a proper team and communication. Which sadly doesn't always happen. Rip solo que issues.

Sorry that sounded odd, I gave blood earlier today (2 full bags) and i got a nasty headache so things sound good to me but they really aren't. I just noticed since start of S5 that towers seem to die really damn quickly (I was playing a ranked SR game and was able to push from bot t2 all the way to Nexus with just me (Yorick,) and a Tryndaqueer. which is an eh example but, still, it only took one minion wave to do so. Maybe towers are better than they are since S1, but since S5... kinda hard to see how.

yes gold is very good, but in a very long game, the new dragons play a much larger role than old ones did. Especially with the semi objective based meta and cloud + Mountain drake. Tangent, but have you seen 4 infernal with 5 stacks rengar? Holy shit thats scary.

Yes i know Victor was a problem, that is why they nerfed Taliyah after release. Maybe I am only noticing how quickly waves can die because i moved away from jungle and Support roles.

(By the by its nice to have a good discussion for once :) )

dominusx7 votes

the game has not been about skill for the last couple of years. its only about who abuses meta harder and who gets luckier in matchmaking

Jaygo418 votes

This is horseshit rationalization for being bad.

dominusx1 votes

dunno how you gonan call me bad when im 600lp higher than you. And i dont think i'm good overall but coming from you dunno. and yes the game is only about who abuses what plain and simple.

Jaygo416 votes

Matchmaking "luck" has and never will be a factor ever in how you get placed. Enough games even out statistical anomalies.

Supreme Senpai699 votes

An infinite amount of games will place you at your skill. Some people get good games earlier, some get bad.

If you get bad games earlier, good luck. When you get 10 LP for a win but lose 15 for a loss, an infinite amount of games will still place you at your skill. But you can only play so many games in a season / a day. In theory it's all skill, in practice it doesn't always turn out that way.

GigaPube6 votes

this is probably the biggest consequence of the power creep over the years. whens the last time anyone played champions for their late game. when lee sin, elise, olaf, reksai, nidalee are/were all meta picks, focusing on early game ganks with huge late game fall-off, yet EVERYBODY picks them for their gank kill potential, well it might not be considered an actual "problem" but the meta is definitely in favor of champions that can snowball well into the mid game despite making them pretty weak or very weak in the late game as the downside for their requirement to snowball to stay relevant in the late game

Gregor Gysi6 votes

As a toplaner I have realized that just winning my lane, killing my opponent over and over again + taking the turret is still not winning me the game. I've got to roam much more than I used to. I think this is because of junglers being so strong right now - they are essentially roaming all the time and have a super high level with the new jungle making it so that they can easily snowball every lane at the same time.

I have kind off adjusted by roaming more myself, but I am not sure whether I like the current state or not.

MLDzXnRRR5 votes

Too much dmg from the keystone masteries + offensive summoner spell like exhaust/ignite = easy snowball for one of the teams. Game length was 30-40 minutes some years ago. Now it's 20-25. Losing baron is like losing the game, because of the empowered minions.

Every match feels almost the same - I've more fun in the casual rotation of the modes than SR...

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

Remember when they changed the baron buff because it was making champions too strong for the towers to defend? Yeah apparently riot forgot that concept & buried evidence of it.

NiceTryVi2 votes

"Low Elo is gold elo" ok buddy, whatever you say. Its only the top 25-30% of the playerbase, totally low Elo.

kS7jqhxrGi1 votes

anything under d3 is trash if your asking.

NiceTryVi7 votes

How about you go stick your head back up your ass. That is clearly where you keep it if you claim that someone is garbage if they are not in the top half percent of players.

kS7jqhxrGi1 votes

People are good and bad at things in life. Just cause your trash in a video game doesnt mean you are trash at making 6 digit salaries. You cant buy talent no matter how much you spend. You can practice and improve but will never be the best. Hence trash

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