Boards›Gameplay

Next season Pink Wards will no longer reveal a lot of "In-Combat" Stealth abilities

DeltaRaven·10/5/2016, 3:55:05 PM·54 votes·23,842 views

For those of you that haven't seen, Riot has major changes for next season that include an apparent buff to many stealth champions. If this change goes through, Vision (pink) wards will no longer be able to reveal champions who are able to use stealth that labels as "Invisibility" (NOTE: This is mostly for in-combat stealth mechanics, so champions like evelynn and rengar will not be able to hide from Pink Wards), some examples of champions affected include Leblanc's passive, Vayne ult + Q combo, and Akali shroud (W).

Riot's logic behind this is that Pink Wards are very cheap and are a hindrance to certain champions being viable in higher levels of play, I can understand that but this change also takes away a lot of counterplay for the people fighting against them. Typically if you wanted to 1v1 a Vayne or Akali you would bring a pink ward so that you could counter their stealth mechanic, otherwise they would just destroy you in the battle.

I don't know if this is the right way to go about balancing stealth champions but i want to hear what people have to say about this below. If this change goes through I expect Lee Sin to be picked a lot more since his e can reveal invisible targets (Unless this gets changed too).

EDIT: Source where the change is noted in-detail

http://www.surrenderat20.net/2016/10/red-post-collection-system-changes.html

168 Comments

Lugg10/5/2016, 4:01:25 PM62 votes

If they do this, they will literally have to gut every single champ with stealth. Otherwise there will be basically zero counterplay against them.

I see this as a lose/lose situation for all of the stealth champs.

Chamuel8510/5/2016, 4:38:09 PM30 votes

Why does this feel like removing Oracle's Elixir all over?

DeathBurst10/5/2016, 4:47:27 PM22 votes

My main worry is Vayne, to be honest. I can't see how we can actually fight against a Vayne in late game without revealing her. I try to reassure myself with the fact that currently, we don't always use pinks 'cause it takes an item-slot anyway, so I'm probably over-reacting. But still, I'm not convinced...

The Bearded Bard10/5/2016, 4:00:31 PM18 votes

If they do that, they need to make it so taking or dealing damage takes you out of stealth. That way anyone with a skillshot can take people out of stealth.

CppL10/5/2016, 4:29:40 PM18 votes

Jesus ,first green wards ,now pink wards...In season 8 we gonna play without vision at all...

Ralanr10/5/2016, 4:25:09 PM14 votes

This is going to make Akali insane.

Oh wait, no one gets a pink ward when I play and I'm not fast enough to place them in combat. This change means little to me.

Athenes Lulu10/5/2016, 4:23:53 PM8 votes

As long as there are ways to fight back WHEN they use stealth, I'm fine.

Though I like the "take damage to leave stealth" mechanic, which also adds a little "drawback" for people who don't have skillshots.

Malicious Metal10/5/2016, 6:10:22 PM8 votes

It's like the change to QSS, they're trying to make champion kits not be entirely invalidated by pinks.

Too bad that's literally the only countereplay there is against stealth.

As if Vayne wasn't obnoxious to pin down anyways

BananaJannana10/5/2016, 5:20:46 PM7 votes

this will make vayne the best adc post-6. Her stealth is the reason gosu can make his 1v5 pentakills

Nidalee SO NYAAA10/6/2016, 1:16:20 AM6 votes

A 75 gold item would counter most of stealth champion's kits that seems really unfair don't you think? Look at Dota stealth champs can't do much because you have Dust,sentry wards and a gem. Riot wants this to be fair on both sides of the table.

Sightless6610/5/2016, 6:29:22 PM5 votes

I can understand that but this change also takes away a lot of counterplay for the people fighting against them

The way it introduced counterplay was by basically removing the mechanic from fights. If you payed a gold tax, then champions like Akali, Vayne, and Kha'zix basically didn't have stealth. You dropped a pink, and then it might as well have not been on their kit in the first place. It's not really good design when the main counter to in-combat stealth is to make in-combat stealth not a part of the game.

I mean, I play support, and I can't actually remember the last time someone got to use a stealth in a fight against me once the midgame rolled around. It's always worth it to spend the gold to remove their stealth, so I'm always sititting on a pink ward, so their stealths are always pointless. All it does is apply a tax on me. Can't really say that it's very fun, for me or for them.

I'm sure it will cause some short-term balance problems that will have to be addressed, but so does any change that we make. I think it's going to lead to much better design down the road if champions with stealths can actually use them, instead of just having them exist solely to drain gold from the support.

Of course, with that said, I would like to see some new options for dealing with stealth (hopefully ones slightly less braindead than "have a new pink ward for every single fight").

JerulEon10/6/2016, 3:54:36 AM3 votes

This change is just like the QSS change a while ago. QSS provided counterplay to strong targeted ults but ultimately it nullified certain champs and opponents used to rush the item toplane - making toxic gameplay.

Riot is going to rebalance all stealth abilities accordingly and will make it so one item won't completely nullify certain champs.

MysteriousBootie10/6/2016, 9:16:26 PM3 votes

Why does riot have such a fascination with invisible units? They're not fun to play against at all, they're actually nerfing wards EVEN HARDER lol

RisenDarkKnight10/5/2016, 11:36:21 PM2 votes

TBH, it was fine when red trinket revealed stealth champs and you had a pink ward trinket. Now that they've already removed the pink ward trinket and made red trinket not reveal, they are removing the only option left to reveal stealth champs?
[zombie-brand-mindblown]

Dominick Destine10/5/2016, 11:42:04 PM2 votes

So basically a big eff you to Evelynn ?

Sigh... thanks Riot.