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Taking care of queue times from a different angle

Morticianjohn··1 votes·476 views

The issue with queue times in large part is that everyone wants the same role. If the same number of players wanted each role the queue times would go down significantly. I know that this is a pipe dream to a certain extent but instead of ignoring the issue that all players want the same role why not try some things which will make each role just as fun to play.

  • 1st mid is the most desired role. Take away one minion per wave from spawning in the middle lane, see if that gets some regular mid mains to change their main role. With less gold and experience to work with you may see some mid mains choose a different role.

  • 2nd support is the least selected role. I for one was a support main who enjoys playing all of the positions. I won't choose support or fill when I play ranked because I played it so many times in a row it just got boring. I made a suggestion a while back of some things that could help the support role be more fun. Summary of that suggestion is to share kill gold and experience from support with the nearest champion so "kill stealing" is not a problem and supports can go all in without fear of being flamed. Or give the champ with the least kills on a team a 5-10% movement speed buff. Supports can really use this as they spend a lot of time warding and running away from the enemy.

I know there is a way to get the roles at least closer to evenly desired and I don't understand why this angle of "fixing" queue times hasn't even been explored.

6 Comments

DaStruggIeEzreaI2 votes

Support isn't as fun because they don't have a competitive gold flow and unless the map is drastically changed, that isn't going to change. Punishing mid lane and shrinking the viability pool[Which is what your first suggestion would do] is not a good way to help that situation at all.

Morticianjohn1 votes

The change to mid lane is obviously just one suggestion. There are plenty of other ways to attack the desire to play mid over the other roles such as moving the bushes a little closer to the lane so that when the bushes are unwarded ganks will be easier. The champ pool is already pretty large for mid laners as compared to the other roles so lowering that might actually be a good thing moving some of those player to other roles. Additionally it will open up some other options for mid such as (just speculation) Karma, Lulu, and Morgana who should be fine in a supporting role even if they are slightly behind in gold compared to the other lanes.

Also support buffs were suggested which help to make up the gold differential. For example there used to be alacrity enhancement on boots which was worth 500 gold. If supports get a movement speed buff theoretically it could be worth 500 gold. You could also weight the dragon and turret kills so that the player with the lowest gold gets a little bit more than the other players.

The point is to make the most wanted position slightly less wanted and to make the least wanted position slightly more wanted. Balancing the champions with or without these changes will be an ongoing process. Some champs will become meta while others rotate out.

BeeCuz1 votes

Making a lane less desirable to play will not improve the game. It will make it less desirable to play.

Morticianjohn1 votes

You're missing the point. Obviously they are trying to get a better matchmaking system which theoretically would improve the game. It isn't about making the lane less desirable it's about making each role equally desirable. You can do this either by making the other roles more desirable or by making the more sought after lanes less desirable.

Another angle is to give an extra minion per wave to both top and bottom lanes. Then you're really not taking anything away from mid, but simply buffing the other lanes.

I think the bigger issue than the clog of mid laners is the lack of supports. So really making support more fun is a greater priority IMO. I don't know if my suggestions to do so are the answer but I feel like there should be some attention made to the fact that support simply is not as much fun as the other roles.

I've heard the suggestions to get rid of sightstone which would free up some gold for supports and there are other good suggestions out there. My point is simply that these kinds of things are not being addressed when they talk about queue times and clearly this angle could help to reduce the wait time for games.

BeeCuz1 votes

How are you acquiring data on player-base desired roles?

One method might be to examine the 1st and 2nd pick numbers.

Morticianjohn1 votes

The numbers are here

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/features/dynamic-queue-and-future-league

and in the discussion they also talk about how it affects queue times. So clearly this is an issue but they don't even talk about why support is so undesirable instead they talk about other issues with dynamic queue.

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