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Runes & Masteries: A possible solution?

Zorvez·8/11/2015, 8:13:19 PM·1 votes·1,282 views

Before we jump into this topic lets go over a couple of things. Firstly, I'm no expert in game design, so while my ideas are good in my mind most of the time they probably suck and that's ok. Secondly, my ability to convey ideas when writing posts leaves much to be desired.

All right lets hop in and discuss.

My Idea is simple, remove the mastery system. Take the meaningful options in the mastery page and add them to the base stats of all champions. Now I'm not suggesting all the champions get the same stats, just the ones that are most applicable. This will be off set later by a new rune idea and will allow some of the mastery options to be included in this new idea. More on that later.

Removing masteries has a few benefits that will help new players. The first benefit is the ability to learn how to jungle when you first star playing. Now Riot would have to re-code bot AI to include jungle instead of a duo top, but this is good as it moves us to our second benefit. The second benefit comes from the other lanes getting used to being ganked.(Might I also add a great time to promote ward usage). The Third benefit comes from those who are level 30 and want to practice against an enemy jungler without the pressures of a real game. (small plug for an expert mode where the enemy bot team prioritizes objectives)

This leads us to our next question.

What about the leveling process and progression of unlocking mastery points? Well that's where the new rune idea comes in.

I'm going to use Diablo 3 as an example, so if your not familiar with how the game works go watch a couple of review videos on YouTube. (I prefer Diablo 2, but Diablo 3 has some good ideas) In Diablo 3, every time you level up you gain access to a new skill or passive [http://diablo3.4fansites.de/bilder/news/kreuzritter-passive-skills.jpg] As you can see from this picture you have a handful of options for passive abilities, but can only select 4. These passives due some interesting things like being able to use a 2 handed weapon in one hand so you can use a shield or simple things like you take less elemental damage.

Well that's great but how would this apply to League of Legends? Simple, Remove the rune system as it currently is and add in a passive system where every time you level up you gain access to a new passive. Each character would have the ability to equip 7 passives(This number could easily be lower or higher) These passives would be color coded to represent offensive options, utility and defense. So maybe red,yellow, and blue. Example: 9 Greater Glyphs of Magic Resist would become one passive option, call it Magic immunity and have it provide +12 magic resist.

Have 50 or so passives, where once you hit level 30 you unlock the other 20 and now you have a fun system that should be easy to balance.

In addition allow these passives to be view able in game. When you hit tab, double click a champion to see their passives or just give the information immediately. It would also be nice to have the ability to change our passives within the first 30 seconds of a match.

I've been using the word passives but you could still call them runes. I've also opted to keep them stat boosts instead of crazy new abilities as that is probably better suited for in game items. Lastly A rune/passive system like this would remove grinding for points or buying runes, so to compensate just raise the prices of champs. I do want riot to continue to be supported. I'm curious if anyone knows the info on how many people actually use runes in the first place?

I'm not sure how this would affect balance for the game, though I do think it is completely doable.

Give me your thoughts down below! :)

12 Comments

TairuSzoola8/11/2015, 8:21:55 PM3 votes

Honestly I do not find anything wrong with our system except the fact that Runes should be free. Plain and simple. Masteries and Runes add a lot of diversity and really do change up how each champion is played. Also on the grind to Level 30, you feel so weak and it also makes learning the game difficult when you can't try anything truly untill you have all Runes and Masteries. Start out with all Masteries and Runes unlocked then let the game just be played.

Krully8/11/2015, 8:44:57 PM1 votes

i dont think runes will ever be free since that'd free up a massive chunk of ip and then people would be spending less RP because of this.

Nekusen8/11/2015, 8:45:08 PM1 votes

i like how runes work, perhaps masteries could be reworked to be something like this though

Sona Ping8/12/2015, 1:32:14 AM1 votes

There's two areas to respond to about this and a lot of issues to be brought up but I'll choose both and write a wall of text in parts instead. So having some fun writing about game theory:

The "Diablo 3" idea is an interesting one. Not so much the ones like the Magic Immunity because that;s just MR runes under a different name but mixing and matching a large selection of passive could be a pretty cool one allowing a wide array of tactics.

Here's some areas we would have to discuss to flesh out the idea, things you would have to think about. The first issue is what this would do. You suggest adding the meaningful options in the mastery trees to the champion's base stats; this idea aims to solve the loss of power from the removal of the masteries, and looking at adding 5 armor to the tanks to make up for Hardiness works. But there are unaddressed problems. The question is "What would it do?" right? So adding 5 armor to tanks after removing the mastery means there is a net change of Zero, so what would be the point of doing it?

The next of these is "what about the other masteries that aren't so simple as '+5 Ar'." What about Tough Skin and Bladed Armor? Arcane Blade and Havoc? What about Bandit, Greed and Summoner's insight in utility? One could do nothing about masteries like this, but those are a lot of small bits of power that are now missing. They could be added to the appropriate champions as well, but now, if people thought champions being complicated with 3-4 passives was issue before, now they have 8-10 of them. And if that is done, that's another problem. So some guy at Riot picks the masteries for you, he decides what the champion automatically takes. What about the situational picks? It very well could nerf or limit choices for the player. Will picks like Malphite, Mundo, and Cho'gath in the jungle be disallowed from getting jungle appropriate runes and masteries or their equivalent, just because some guy didn't consider them? Would another champ get a possibly unfair gold generation advantage over the enemy mid laner because they are a "support"?

A fourth area is that removing these would remove player choice and situational customization. Players can take different runes and can dip further into the other trees for purposes, using things like 0/17/13 or 0/15/15 for tank junglers to give more security in early clearing.

Some of these areas could possibly be covered with Passives in the "Diablo 3 system" but even so there would likely need to be balancing of other things for the removal of masteries even with runes being replaced.

Removing masteries has a few benefits that will help new players. The first benefit is....

The thing is, I don't actually see these being a problem. Jungling is kinda hard and requires some experience and know-how, as well as levels. Keeping some things off the table so newbies don't have to worry about it isn't a bad thing; it lets people work on other things first and makes things less over-whelming. It's better than having the expectation that someone jungles right off the bat, and they do so and play their new game but while suffering the frustration of slow clears and getting killed by camps. It is actually possible to clear the jungle early player levels, even at level 1, but it's not rewarding, is less effective and most importantly, it's just not fun to do so.

The Part Two, which I have been putting off, is a party-crasher and the thing that scuttles the idea of removing Masteries and Runes. The Free-to-Play-Game have progression systems and getting masteries & unlocking rune slots and acquiring runes are League's Primary and Secondary Progression systems. They've played a large role in this game and having a good one. To treat it as a serious idea for submission, the fact of the matter is these systems simply won't be removed or reduced. It's a buzz-kill, I know