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Riot, you need to explain your game better.

PatMcGroyn··28 votes·1,215 views

I've been playing this game for over 2 years now, and what has really struck me is how much extra effort it takes to figure out how this game works. In fact, there is nothing in the client, or the front page of LoL's website that adequately describes how stats like Armor, MR, & Penetration work. I've had to actively search through lol wiki, and other outside resources, to be able to actually understand how this game works. Stats that have additive stacking vs. multiplicative stacking (and how multiplicative stacking ITSELF works), different types of CC and how they interact with champions, champion ability scaling... the list goes on. None of this information is easily accessible.

As it is right now, there is a huge barrier for entry, and an even bigger barrier for true understanding of the game. I'm sure this will fall on deaf ears, but it's just something that has been bugging me for quite some time now.

16 Comments

ValyrianBlade7 votes

Yes. I didn't know how to speak in game even (press enter before you type). Had a teammate in coop versus ai keep asking why I didn't use heal to save him and wanted to say it was on cooldown but couldn't figure out how to speak! luckily I asked after the game and someone was nice and told me plus gave some pointers. I was also lucky to get a nice smurf teammate one game who quickly explained why my character (tristana) was an adc or an apc and the way I was building I should be playing bottom Lane. He quickly explained the meta and last hitting which I felt really helped.

The tutorial needs to go through these one at a time. Press enter to type. attack when health is low to earn gold. avoid turrets until you have minions. Play passively. attack a jungle creep. Return to base and buy an offensive item. Buy a defensive item. etc... There's so much you need to learn externally that it's really gating. I like to read so it was fine for me. my brother started before me though and always got mad that he was always by himself in Lane (he played zed mid) and always seemed to die to 2 opponents and never had help from teammates. Obviously he didn't know the meta, with a jungler and using wards, etc... but to someone who wants to learn by playing and not by reading he had little opportunity (he also still used heal/ghost on zed through level 15, and bought t2 runes). In contrast I was without runes until 20 (then filled my 2 pages with t3 runes), used flash as soon as I hit 12, played in the meta for my roles, read build guides, etc... and clearly enjoyed much nicer progression.

TecToNiiC7 votes

The fact that they don't have this already is absolutely due to laziness. I'm not saying I could go and instantly make a better client I just don't see why it wasn't done in the first place.

Riot is on this crusade now of nothing between the play button and the after game report. They just showed us jungle timers so people wouldnt have to keep track of them or go look them up. Why don't they treat the landing page the same way? I don't care that I can easily go the wiki to find all my scalings. I should not have to leave the landing page to see something so fundamental to the game. The only argument I could see is "we dont want new players overwhelmed by tons of numbers when trying to view new champions." Easy way to solve that: check box at the bottom that says view/hide detailed info. Wow that took me all of 3 seconds to think about. They already have all the data anyway it shouldn't be hard to reference on the champ pages.

/endrant

/editrant

Inb4 rito or someone says "taking the time to look up these things seperates the ok players from the great players." No, having this information available, reliable, and easily accessible is the difference between people staying with league or finding a different game. Who am I kidding...riot doesnt repsond to criticism anyway...

Raptamei3 votes

The game does not explain which abilities are magic or physical damage. It has tons of really obscure passives you can't possibly learn until you play the champion or read about them. It has an enforced meta which is not detailed anywhere and which does not correspond with their own champion tags.

In Dota 2, all you have to do is click on a character and read their abilities. Hold down Alt and you see detailed information.

BUT DOTA HAS BURDEN OF KNOWLEDGE GUYS

The Aqua Snake2 votes

Exactly.

I still can't believe Riot never added the capability to read the enemy abilities in game.

Sohleks3 votes

I think there could be a few improvements in this area.

I often like to go to LoLWiki to check out what exactly the ap ratios are, as well as base stats and other statistics that can't easily be seen in game or in the lol client. I think it would be nifty to have a "detailed view mode" with this information inside the lol client itself.

League of legends's resistance/ damage calculation system is actually pretty simplistic compared to most games if you understand it. It's just you still need to go outside the game to find out exactly what each point of armor/resist does. And how penetration works.

Lammahh2 votes

It took me a long time to figure out last hitting, positioning, the proper meta and roles, even support and jungle. It was partly my fault because I stuck to bots for a while and people would be rage at me in PvP so I avoided it for a while. Note that I had no friend to guide me, so I was on my own for a while. Still managed to get gold last year xD

So yes, a better tutorial would help.

SeCKS Egai2 votes

They've been making an effort - but the real bane for new players is the afk leveling bots taking up player slots. The wiki is practically an essential resource that anyone with some motivation can find. Now as for concepts like zoning, last-hitting, etc - some of its already covered in the tutorial people tend to skip regardless.

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/GD/zkEUEmMU-riot-you-have-a-bot-problem-attempt-3-for-a-response

  • link to an example of how painful the new player experience can be.
HitsFromTheBomb2 votes

heres an easy fix 5 mins add it next update ... PUT A LINK TO THE WIKI ON EVERY CHARACTER PAGE ITEM ETC ETC . simple . bim bam boom. ayyyo babeee

Zanphyra2 votes

Not much to say. What I would say has been said. Just bumping in agreement.

Matthias91192 votes

It verges on unprofessional that some really critical information (like ability cooldowns and mana costs) is not available on the official League site anywhere.

The new "Intro" bots explains some stuff better, but they really need to have all the stats/ability information available in a definitive way.

DrCyanide2 votes

When you actually look at the lack of clarity in the game, it's pretty horrible. Not being able to see scaling stats, what constitutes an ability being "airborne" or "unstoppable", or even basics about what the stats even do/are capped at. This really needs to be addressed at a fundamental level. Yes, most people here are past it, but that doesn't mean new players should have the same struggles.

P.S. - Riot has said that despite Sion's ult having "unstoppable" in the name, it's not counted as unstoppable for Azir's ult... Because, you know, clarity doesn't matter...

PatMcGroyn1 votes

Bumparino

Lammah1 votes

It took me a long time to figure out last hitting, positioning, the proper meta and roles, even support and jungle. It was partly my fault because I stuck to bots for a while and people would be rage at me in PvP so I avoided it for a while. Note that I had no friend to guide me, so I was on my own for a while. Still managed to get gold last year xD

So yes, a better tutorial would help

RagnarokChu1 votes

The real question is what is people really asking here, if they put up a giant wiki that is linked from the game itself on top of already the champion info in game that also displays you a video on what they do and all of the second hand information, you still need to read it.

Also please people telling me that you didn't know that enter was to talk (every game ever, or chatting with people period)

PatMcGroyn3 votes

I don't think it would be unreasonable for the ability ratios to be included in the champion's pages inside the client. I also think that an explanation of game mechanics within the help menu, or the tutorial would be helpful and not that hard to include. Hell- even if they had a youtube link, where Phreak explains shit like how armor/ mr works, how penetration works, which stats stack additively & multiplicatively, etc.

TheRainInSpain1 votes

Because the professionals already know all of this stuff, or gets spoon fed behind the scenes. As such, there is no reason to tell the new player. The real money maker isn't you.

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