League of Legends: The Vision Minigame
The Vision Game
With so much emphasis in League being placed upon mechanical outplay and individual champion awareness, sometimes it's hard for the average player to appreciate the strategic value of vision items over straight up offensive/defensive items and their actives. As an average League player myself, I can only see that League of Legends' vision game is in its infancy compared to its champion versus champion game. It's especially evident once I point out the number of uniquely functioning non-trinket wards in the game.
Yea. Just two types. One type of ward grants vision while being stealthed, and the other is a visible one that grants true vision. I couldn't help but feel that this whole side of League, the vision game, could be so much more. So after ideating on possible ways to introduce more strategic gameplay to League of Legends in the form of vision battles, here's what I came up with. Hope you enjoy.
1. Sight range of all units (including champions) can be reduced.
If vision is to become a more valued resource, the vision of all units has to be reduced by a good amount to really make players feel their lack of vision. With minions and turrets granting so much of it throughout the map, it's rather hard to appreciate the advantage granted by purchasable vision units, a.k.a. wards. For example, a reduction in sight range of 8.3% would be about a Teemo-sized reduction in all champions' sight ranges and would be a fair reduction for all vision granting units (including turrets and minions).
2. Number of purchasable sight-granting items can be increased.
Without a good number of vision items available for purchase, the vision game just feels lacking. Season four introduced trinkets to the game, and it has since then evolved into what we currently value and enjoy watching in professional matches: a game of vision placement and vision denial separate from that of the support versus the support. Still, the vision game can be further developed with the addition of more unique items. One example of such an item that sparks my interest is the Mandrake Ward, which is available on the PBE for testing. It's an interesting item that doesn't provide direct vision, but can aid a team in the game of positional information, which is a pretty cool concept. I think it's a great idea to implement more for players looking to play the hidden game of League. Some of my ideas down here as well.
Long-Range Ward (3 HP) -Places a visible ward that sees straight ahead in a certain direction. Has a much longer range than normal.
Clairvoyant Ward (1 HP) -Places a visible ward that can see anywhere within its large radius, but can only see a certain area. Place the ward at a certain location and then click on it to position its sight radius on a nearby location.
Anti-Ward (1 HP) -Places a visible anti-ward that disables all enemy wards within its small radius. Does not reveal or destroy them.
Flying Ward (2 HP) -Places a moving and visible winged ward that travels across the battlefield.
Specter Ward (3 HP) -Skillshot ward that ignores terrain and travels a certain long-range before stopping. Once it stops, it becomes visible and invisible at alternating intervals of two seconds of visibility and four seconds of invisibility for its duration and grants vision in the surrounding area.
Predator Ward (1 HP) -Sends forth a visible ward-eating ward that grants very little vision around itself but can be controlled with alt-click once summoned. Cannot be used while another controllable unit is summoned. Allows the player to eat wards seen with the predator ward, consuming the ward and earning gold.
Trap Ward (0 HP) -Throws a trap ward that latches onto a nearby unit that grants true sight of the first unit that attacks it for a duration. Only lasts a very short duration after being attached. Can be disabled by sweepers and anti-wards, and eaten by Predator Wards. If thrown onto a location, it lasts an even shorter duration, but will reveal units that step upon it.
Ward bugs (0 HP) -Lights up a patch of brush with ward fireflies for twelve seconds (duration refreshes each time an ally steps into it). Cannot be disable by sweepers or anti-wards, but the fireflies are automatically consumed when a predator ward enters the brush.
Oracle's Ward (1 HP) -Places an invisible ward that grants true sight in an area for sixty seconds.
Speed Ward (1 HP) -Places an expensive, visible ward that grants a small area of vision and a huge speed boost upon entering its radius. Lasts for 45 seconds.
3. Trinket system can be modified/reworked.
If more vision items are introduced into the game, I hope to see the trinket slot become a trinket inventory that stores all related items (wards, sweepers, etc.). That way vision can be a valuable resource in the late-game without the disadvantage of being highly slot inefficient. One way I could see this work is the trinket inventory being summoned whenever the trinket slot is pressed with alt held down (default is self-cast). Users would be able to change the current trinket/vision item with a mouse click or a toggle/scroll key of their choice. Overall, I think the trinket system is great as it is, but could also be expanded so that it can include more vision items if the vision game of League is expanded upon in the future.
Sweeper -Disables visible non-champion/minion vision granting units as well.
Sightstone -Allows the purchase of various vision items for a discount in addition to granting ghost wards.
TL;DR -The vision game of League of Legends can become its own chess/rock papers scissors-like active minigame with an expansion of vision mechanics. If you have cool ideas to add, be sure to post them in the comments below.Together, let's show Riot we enjoy and would like a more diverse vision game!
Until next time, Cardi
the best ward in the game
