A suggestion to buff summoner spell barrier, making it great again!
Some years ago, barrier was the dominate summoner spell in the game. Almost all ADCs took it to survive bursts. However, ever since heal was buffed to include movement speed, it became the dominate choice of all ADCs. 'Many consider barrier to be vastly inferior to heal, namely because you can waste/mistime barrier at any time while alive, it only affects one person, offers no speed boost, and only has around 100 extra effective health at max level.' - League wikia.
Here I propose a change, or a slightly buff to barrier. As the barrier and icon suggests
, it should've been able to block incoming damages. Right now, it adds value to its targets effective health, and is consumed by taking damage, which means, if you have 300 health barrier up, and take 500 damage at once, not only the barrier is destroyed, your own health is decreased as well. And here is where the change is going to happen. As long as you have your barrier up, no matter how much health it has left, it will block incoming individual damage, all together before breaking.
Here are a few examples of how it affects gameplay.
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You have only 1 hp, and barrier left, and enemy Caitlyn has her ultimate on you, which does 500 damage. You pop your barrier, adds 400 hp to yourself. ---- Live: You die, because 500>400+1 ---- Change: You live! Even thought 500 damage is greater than 400 barrier shield, barrier still blocks the entire damage, and you are left unharmed with 1 hp.
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Enemy Zed engages on you, using his ultimate. You pop your barrier, blocking the incoming shuriken damage, leaving only 10 effective barrier hp. But Zed has done enough damage, and you can see the death mark on you spinning. --- Live: You die. Without QSS's former active, there is no way of escaping destiny. --- Change: You survive! Because even Zed's death had enough damage to finish you off, there are still barrier hp left to block the entire damage. You get to live another day!
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After a length fight, you survived with 10 hp left. Uh oh, you stepped on Teemo's shroom, and you pop your barrier! --- Live: You die, barrier only last 2 seconds, and Teemo's shroom has enough damage to kill you through barrier. --- Change: You die, too! Even though barrier will be able to block incoming individual damage, shroom's damage is over time. Which means, barrier will block the entire shroom's damage to the point it breaks, and subsequent damage will damage you.
That is all I have here, making barrier a different summoner spell specifically to survive burst, not just a worse version of heal.
What do you guys think? Leave comments below!