Now it's only fun with friends.
It's easy to point fingers at DQ or balance or whatever, but honestly I'm not sure why this is the case. I've just noticed that I've been having less fun playing league lately and I wanted to open a discussion around it.
inplane4 votesI play League mainly to have some fun with my friends and to enjoy the few things I still like about this game (there isn't a lot left). Yeah, it doesn't feel very fun going solo. It just feels empty. Ranked isn't very fun anymore. Unique mechanics are being removed here and there to accommodate the newer players and the casual side of League.
Fjork32 votesI'm curious what unique mechanics you're thinking of, because my vibe is that they've been adding a lot more unique mechanics overall. (e.g. elemental dragons, lots of cool stuff on new/reworked kits)
Starfish H5 votesUnique mechanics are being removed? If anything unique mechanics are multiplying like a group of mature rabbits during spring.
inplane2 votes[{quoted}](name=Starfish H,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=K0jAtNAH,comment-id=00020001,timestamp=2016-08-15T04:12:33.774+0000)
Unique mechanics are being removed? If anything unique mechanics are multiplying like a group of mature rabbits during spring.
Taliyah's W being changed to satisfy people who couldn't bother learning it is one. The Lockout mechanic was also removed to accommodate those people. Karma's inability to shield minions is another. A lot more to name but not going to name all of them lol.
EDIT: Since it's clear that people aren't convinced, I'll name more off the top of my head.
's ability to stop dashes with E. 
's ability to proc Q with her E. 
's AS increase in passive and ability to damage turrets with W. 
's old W (the current one is unique too and I like it, so I'm kind of cheating here). 
's ability to see into FOW with W before it is sent out. 
's ability to ult allies and her ability to heal herself. 
's ability to AA reset with her passive. 
's ability to heal minions.
Hyrum Graff3 votesTaliyah's W being changed to satisfy people who couldn't bother learning it is one. The Lockout mechanic was also removed to accommodate those people. Karma's inability to shield minions is another. A lot more to name but not going to name all of them lol.
EDIT: Since it's clear that people aren't convinced, I'll name more off the top of my head.
I'd say there's a difference a unique mechanic and excess power.
Ekko's W vision is a great example of this. There are still plenty of abilities that grant you vision in the FoW. They're not removing that mechanic, they're removing that mechanic from Ekko's W, where it arguably does not belong.
On the other hand, removing Raka/Lulu/Karma's ability to shield minions is in fact removing a unique mechanic from the game, because they've removed it in all instances. They have reasons for why they are removing that mechanic. I can't say I totally agree with those reasons, but they are reasons nonetheless.
I could go through the rest and list those that are/aren't unique mechanics removed from the game but I'm here to bring some clarity, not dissect your post.
JustMyBassCannon1 votesTaliyah's W being changed to satisfy people who couldn't bother learning it is one. The Lockout mechanic was also removed to accommodate those people.
You mean, the change that logically made sense for her W?
Being forced to double-tap W to get it to do what it's supposed to do, even with quick-casting, was a pain in the ass. There was no point to having it just knock them straight up, either. That's called streamlining a mechanic, not removing one.
Karma's inability to shield minions is another. A lot more to name but not going to name all of them lol.
Champions being able to target minions with shields/heals has been a thorn in the side of supports, because the only way to guarantee you don't accidentally do that is with a certain keybinding. You can respec your keys to make it less of a problem, but in the end, there are almost no situations where you actually want to heal minions instead of allied champions.
EDIT: Since it's clear that people aren't convinced, I'll name more off the top of my head.
The only CC that's supposed to stop dashes is Airborne type CC (knockup, knockback, knockdown, grab, pull). Charm is effectively a Taunt effect, not within the same category. This is fixing a mechanic.
That was a mechanic they added onto Akali when they felt she wasn't very powerful. They subsequently removed it, because that mechanic actually gave her too much power. This is a reversion.
They didn't remove the AS, they shifted it into a different part of his kit because it gave him too much early game power. As for removing his ludicrous turret nukes, some abilities are imbalanced and don't fit into the playstyle that they wanted out of a champion design.
There are still AoE spells that expand out from the center, albeit much faster (Zyra and Lissandra), so the mechanic isn't gone from the game, and they gave her a different, still pretty unique mechanic to replace it.
A case of removing power, as Hyrum Graff pointed out. They looked at it and said, "Okay, this ability doesn't need that effect, it's excess power."
Again, removal of excess power. The heal was for her jungling, but it made her far too hard to remove from the lane, so they exchanged it for more common jungle abilities. Being able to ult allies gave her ultimate far more reach than could easily be balanced.
Removing power...
Removing pow--okay, you know what? The biggest thing is that removing excess power almost never actually removes mechanics from the game. It might take one mechanic out of a specific champion's built-in repertoire, but either they can still build an item for it, or their kit is better off balanced without that mechanic at all.
Mechanics that have been removed are things like Mana Burn and jungle leashing. There have also been a few (Spell Vamp, Blind) that are slowly being phased out for newer versions of the mechanic.
SSJTribe4 votesBeing able to play with a friend that makes you feel like you have an advantage = fun
Being forced to play with multiple friends or else you feel like you're at a disadvantage = not as fun
Hyrum Graff2 votesBeing able to play with a friend that makes you feel like you have an advantage = fun
Being forced to play with multiple friends or else you feel like you're at a disadvantage = not as fun
Ehh, my feeling is just as true of norms as ranked.
YoiNeko2 votesplaying alone is alot more fun than playing in groups at the moment. everyone just argues lol
Starfish H2 votesWho are you playing with? Then people I play with laugh like donkeys someone fails flash. And then proceed to also do something equally as retarded later.
JustMyBassCannon1 votesYeah, it's hard to pinpoint, but there's something about League that makes it really hard to enjoy playing with randoms. If it's not a lack of communication, it's someone auto-locking a champ that they have no idea how to play, someone talking trash on everyone despite not being the best player on the team, or someone intentionally trolling and responding by saying it's just a game. Sure, it's just a game, but if you wanna fuck around, Minecraft exists for that reason, unless the only way you can get it up is by upsetting people with whom you are supposed to work together.
Even when none of those problems arise, the enjoyable games are few and far between if you're not queuing with friends.
Hyrum Graff1 votesYeah. Thing is, I used to have more fun playing solo. I'm not sure what changed.
DeltaRaven1 votesI think it's that more people are playing with friends so now if you play solo you feel at a disadvantage.
Meta Phyton1 votesWell, right now in my opinion, a lot of people have just done it to themselves.
I play LoL with a friend. I sit right beside him almost every night, and we play together. He is .. sometimes a show-off, but he is not a troll.
He plays well, sometimes extremely well, but there are times when he has lost a lot of points to the opposing team. At times, he has fed them badly, and so have I. So have all of us. None of us have perfect track-records.
Yet when he has fed, because the majority only base their assumptions based on the single match that they have encountered him, then many others have called him a troll, and their paranoia has made them on the miserable defensive. People are deluded with this notion of "trolling" - really, almost living completely apart from reality by now. They see trolling in almost everything now, and that is nobody's fault but the players' fault. People are not trying to see the good in each other anymore; all they are looking for is another example of a troll.
More than balancing changes, new champs, or anything else like that .. just relaxing and smiling and taking the game fucking lightly by a lot of players who are too intensely miserable right now would do a lot of good.
And go outside sometimes!!
Great Muta1 votesIf you are playing ranked with anything less than a 5 man Q, you are in for tough times. We've had multiple 4 stacks where 1 idiot was enough to undermine the rest of us.
Hyrum Graff1 votes[{quoted}](name=Great Muta,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=K0jAtNAH,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2016-08-15T16:32:24.883+0000)
If you are playing ranked with anything less than a 5 man Q, you are in for tough times. We've had multiple 4 stacks where 1 idiot was enough to undermine the rest of us.
It's not just ranked. It's Ranked, Draft, Ranked on my smurf, blind on my pre-30 smurf.
Great Muta1 votesYep. Blind Pick is the worst game mode ever created and is absolutely disgusting.
Hyrum Graff1 votes[{quoted}](name=Great Muta,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=K0jAtNAH,comment-id=000500000000,timestamp=2016-08-17T18:57:35.190+0000)
Yep. Blind Pick is the worst game mode ever created and is absolutely disgusting.
Amen. Now if only I didn't have 5-20min draft queues on my smurf...
M00nKryzalid8241 votesWhat anime is that? it looks familiar for some reason.
PayaThePapaya1 votesDynamic queue is a huge issue since the pressure of winning is emphasized more - you feel you have to do well or you'll let people you actually care about down as opposed to strangers. On the same note, if your friends are bad, you dread having to play with them in ranked, since ranked has become the new norm for a lot of people.
Atanchan1 votesI think multiplayer games just start becoming less and less fun to play without friends in general.
There are probably specific reasons for League why friends have become more and more essential to the experience, but ... basically any multiplayer game I play, even those I have a lot of passion about, just drop in interest when I have no friends to play with yet spike in interest so hard when I do. Not only League, but DOTA, Overwatch, various FPSes - I just end up with no desire to play solo.
It's probably just an innate thing. Playing with friends is just more fun than playing solo, unless you've got friends that don't match how you play.
