Riot, change mastery categories to: Carry, Support, Jungle, and Fighter.
The problem with masteries in their current form is there isn't really an thought in the decision. It's just math, min and maxing. There's a one size fits all maximum way to do masteries regardless of play style for each individual champ. Let's look at some current choices:
- +10 attack at level 18 verse +6 AP at lvl 18
- Picking between increasing Ap or AD by 6%
- +5 armor verse +6 magic resist
None of these have any real meaning. But if we broke the mastery categories into positions like Jungle there could be real tactical choices.
For example, let's say this is your choice on a row of jungle masteries:
- -8% damage from monsters.
- +12% damage to baron and dragon
- Monster camps you kill respawn 8% quicker.
That is a meaningful choice. If you look at the comp and realize the game is going to come down to dragon fights and baron steals you can make a tactical choice to emphasize that. If the lanes you have to gank are ez+janna, leblanc, and singed you may want to make the tactical choice to respawn camps quicker because successful gank options might be limited.
For carries if you gave them this choice:
- +5% damage
- +8% damage against a champion who hasn't damaged you in the last 5 seconds
- -10% damage from champions who've damaged you in the last 3 seconds.
How much more meaningful is that pick than our current "offense" options, how much more do they fit with the role of "carry" be it mage or ad. The middle choice is probably the best if you feel your team can keep you safe, the last is probably the best if you feel you're gonna have assassins on you or be dueling a lot, and the last is if you aren't sure or are an assassin yourself.
You could create real choices by changing masteies to roles rather than general
One last example, take a support option:
- Nearby allies who are below 50% health heal 20% more
- Nearby allies who are below 50% health deal 5% more damage
- Nearby allies who are above 50% receive 1 additional gold per minion kill
How nice would it be if supports could make the meaningful choice of "just survive lane, fight, or farm"
Feel free to post your suggestions of meaningful choices for each role.