Lets talk about halting the "Mobility Meta"

CmereCupcake·9/27/2014, 12:59:16 AM·15 votes·2,202 views

As all of you know, we've had a pretty large period of time with every new champ having a dash of some sort. The mobility meta is at hand, and all who are left without are in many cases outclassed. So lets talk about the ways that we can fix such things. I'll start with an idea- Lets make slows more impactful by reducing the range of dashes/blinks for champs who are currently under their effects. Let me throw you a number here, so you aren't already calling me out. Lets say for every 10% your champ is slowed, you lose 1% blink/dash distance. 15% slow= 1.5% reduction to dash range, etc. etc.

Okay so lemme paint you a scenario, Summoners. You are playing talon, under his fresh new nerfs, and you blink to lucian reducing his movement speed by 99%. In the same moment he dashes away from you, returning fire from his new location. His normal dash moves him 425 units away, but since he dashed while heavily slowed, he is now 383 units away. It's a small change, but in my opinion it's a start to more healthy gameplay. Keep in mind that if talon is already under fire and his movement is being reduced, then his blink distance to close the gap to lucian is also slightly reduced. Tastes like counterplay to me.

Edit** I don't mean to say that we shouldn't have champs with dashes and blinks, moreso that these abilities largely increase a champion's power in "untracked" ways, or ways that don't have many downsides. Consider the flaws of Kassadin's ult and Tristana's Rocket Jump, and how mobility is just a thing that often doesn't get fine tuned in the same way that spell damage does.

Edit**9/27 I like this discussion. Plenty of fair points, but lets make it clear here that huge boosts to Movement Speed are not what I am referring to. You can catch and slow a fleeing Evelyn with a well timed slow at the start of her movement steroid, but you CANNOT stop an Ezreal from blinking away from you, even if you land a huge slow- like Thresh's Ult.

Also, I'm calling it the Mobility Meta, because champs that have mobility fit more easily into the current meta than grounded ones. As the game changes, the metagame changes right? Well, lets remember the old "metagolem" tanky bruisers with atma's impaler and warmogs was a huge staple. Now this meta ended when Rito nerfed Atma's Impaler. That is how that specific meta ended, and how others have ended. Think about how many times Lulu Mid has been nerfed, this also affects metagame. ^this is a good thing. The game continues to evolve, and playstyles change and different regions develope different styles. This is what makes this game so interesting and what holds our attention game after game in the same map hundreds of times. Every game is different.

TLDR:::: Now my problem is the stagnation involved with dashes and blinks. There are no items or skills that reduce the effectiveness of these mechanics, therefore this meta will not end.

30 Comments

Worgslarg9/27/2014, 1:09:55 AM4 votes

It's counterplay, but it will frustrate players for just nearly being unable to jump over that wall.

Mobility doesnt need to be outright nerfed( but it's not a terrible idea), what it needs are mobility-specific counters.

Instead, slows could be refreshed when one uses a dash, or a new summoner spell: Inhibit

Inhibit would be a targeted debuff that has a low cooldown, lasts for say.. 3 seconds, and prevents all non flash/thresh lantern dashes during its duration.

Thoughts?

CmereCupcake9/27/2014, 1:18:46 AM4 votes

I think "jumping over a wall" is the frustating mechanic for older/grounded champs who do not have these kinds of abilities. Slows refreshing after a dash could be useful, but won't help lets say Sona from saving her adc from Vi's Q with her slow.

I don't think the range of summoner flash should ever be able to be reduced, same for "unstoppable" ultimates.

Also Inhibit is an interesting idea, but probably too niche for most champs to take over lets say Exhaust

Remlap12239/27/2014, 4:10:16 PM4 votes

I had an idea of creating a new crowd control effect called "cripple" that would slow and prevent champions from using dashes (all other abilities would be ok.) Smite has that on both Poseidon and Ares, so why can't we have that on someone like LeBlanc who has chains literally locking down champions? (Even though Leblanc really doesn't need that.)

Sneak Dog9/27/2014, 6:02:21 PM4 votes

I think slowing the dash speed would be more appropriate than reducing the distance.

One could also make snares stop dashes similar to knock-ups/knock-backs, instead of only preventing them.

Teridax689/27/2014, 10:34:58 PM4 votes

I think the biggest issue with reducing your enemy's dash range is how it would affect wall jumping: jumping over terrain tends to be an either/or situation where you make the jump or don't, and when in a fight your success is going to be mainly dependent on muscle memory (i.e. what distance you can afford to jump at with the champion you have). Reducing dash ranges in any way would mess that up and risk confusing players. Generally, changing the range on an ability has a huge impact on gameplay (Ryze 's balance became way unstable when his ranges were modified), and should only be done as a last-resort balancing measure.

However, you're completely right that gapclosers are extremely strong now. I think the best idea here would be to rebalance these champions in a manner similar to Lucian by imposing a large tradeoff to their mobility. Tristana , for example, makes no tradeoff for her 900-range gapcloser, which when compounded with her increasing autoattack range and powerful self-peel means she's generally way too safe, and has no real weaknesses to exploit.

GreyXpelliarmus9/27/2014, 1:58:44 AM3 votes

Who are you talking to and why do you call them Summoners?

Sire Hippington9/27/2014, 6:23:28 PM3 votes

A clear and huge NO on makeing slows more impactfull. to powerfull slows overall are the main cause for mobillity creep. Ever played udyr vs nida 1v1? with trinity+rank 5 E-spam, u will catch her despite her frequen jumps, as ms-buffs are more potent on long distances...unless u eat cc, especially slow. The main reason why Scarner, Udyr, Darius, Garren and co rarly see play is that they suck in clashes.

So, why do they suck in clashes, do they lack damge? definitly not. Do they lack Tankiness? compared to other melees, nope. DO they lack cc? a bit, but they make up for it with massive damage. The single thing that holds them back in clashes is peeling. With every champ and their mother having atleast a slow if not hard cc, walking straight up in the face of a ranged champ is just imposible, no matter how strong ur ms-buff is, the amount of slows and cc will stop u.

The only way to effecktivly reach the adc, wich is a totally oppresing role, is a more or less instand gapcloser with good range that lets u reach the enemy adc befor u get in range of cc, and the either ccing or bursting the adc befor u eat the cc. If u just nerf gapcloser, adc will become even stronger and more dominant than they already are.

The only way to fight mobillity creep is buffing imobile champs by giving them better tools for dealing with peeling, Also, adc really need a nerf to theri lategame, even if u have enough sustained mobillity to reach the adc, unless u oneshot him it will be pointless, as he will shred u so hard during all the time u need to reach him. A lategame adc easily reaches 1000-1500dps, together with the damage from his mates while peeling, even a fulltank will die in less than 10 sec.

Also, not having a reliable range on ur skills is HUGE BULLSHIT ! Especially if u use smartcasts, having the fixed distance of ur skills in ur minde is crucial for champion-skill-proggression. It's one of the main reasons why a player that is experienced on his champ can react more quickly and effecktive than a unexpireienced one, as he exactly knows how far his skills reach without having to look, so he can fast capitalize on a sligth misspositioning. If the range now varys once u get cced, u will see alot expirienced assasins turn around and walk into there death as they normally would have rached the carry with their gapcloser, but thx to a slow they don't reach far ebough and istead stumble into their death. It would be horrible.

Chronomera9/27/2014, 3:06:16 AM2 votes

Riot can take their retcon and go shove it up their Anus, as far as I'm concerned summoners are the entire basis of LoL, removing that is basically saying "fuck you" to every player that joined prior. So no riot, fuck you, summoners exist and your lack of imagination is disturbing. Go read some books or something...

Knight SoIaire 9/27/2014, 9:38:02 AM2 votes

the mobility meta dies as all champ get mobility meta is the most effective way of playing so mobility meta means that mobile champs have upper hand over the immobile ones, but riot removes the latter and the meta cant exist

also the whole mobility trend is not about giving everything mobility to keep with already existing mobile champs, its about making the game more flexible and dynamic in a way of champions moving around the map

riot wants the game to be dynamic (not insanely fast like cod) which is a good thing, and skill oriented (less counterpick more outplay) which is also good cause elo hell kidds will get removed (lol i played on my freinds acc for like 2 games, he was bronze and those guys rly think they are the best )

also the flaws that you spoke off, well you are kinda late, like a year with the statement

riot dwells into changing the kits of champions instead of just pecking the numbers, kassadin will prove to suck for a little longer and riot will rmeake his kit, tristana is already on the list riot just waits for championships to end

basicaly speaking riot remakes the game to rely on skill instead of picks

Nhifu9/27/2014, 9:24:24 PM1 votes

Nothing wrong with mobility

I actually wouldn't mind if movespeeds were EVEN HIGHER

But then it'd be hard to balance % movespeed champs, runes, masteries, boots etc etc

My only complaint is some champs are more annoying than others, ie : lucian and caitlyn, very hard to catch

CmereCupcake10/18/2014, 7:57:46 AM1 votes

bump for more input

MrSlowDie10/18/2014, 8:14:35 AM1 votes

delete every ADC's jump/dash then buff tanks, supports, and anything that should protect ADC/backline

but don't nerf lucian's dash, buff it, nerf his armor/MR/hp/such and range, lucian should be very mobile ADC while having short ranged and fvcked if caught by CC