@Riot gameplay designers and players. What if luck was less lucky?

Blobby Flay·Oct 7, 2014·3 votes·709 views

So you're playing a game, and someone miscalculates their fight potential, then dies. A few seconds later "omg so lucky noob" or something to that effect spouts out of their angry little fingers. The overuse of the word "luck" in this game has become somewhat of a pet peeve of mine. There is only one thing that can be attributed to luck in this game (aside from external forces like lag spikes or a cat jumping on your keyboard), and that is coded RNG. In a game that is so heavily based on numbers and outplaying your opponents, I honestly feel RNG has no place. Critical strikes are the biggest culprit of this plague to the game, and the make some champions coughcough reliant on it to the point where it will win/lose their lane. Now I understand that it's a deeply ingrained mechanic into the game, so you can't just get rid of it without filling that void. While thinking about it, however, I came up with something interesting.

What if critical strike chance was reworked to be an amplification of all basic attacks (except against structures) that dealt a percentage up to 200% (or 250% with ) of their normal attack damage? An example of this would be a champion with 100 AD and 30% damage bonus would deal 130 damage on every attack instead of dealing 200 damage for 3 attacks of every 10 and 100 for the rest. With this attack would add half of the bonus to the damage and deal 145 damage. I see this as a way of keeping DPs unchanged, but making things a lot more calculated/less spiky. I'm not particularly saying that this is something that should be implemented; but I'm wondering what kind of effects you think a change like this would have on the overall gameplay experience. Obviously there would be other things that would need adjustment like the mastery that grants attack speed on crit, but let's just pretend those don't exist for the sake of simplicity.

8 Comments

PsylentFoxOct 7, 20141 votes

Well, they saw fit to remove dodge from the game. I don't see why Riot wouldn't have the balls to remove Critical Strike Chance. Honestly I think its fine where it is. Yes, some people don't like the possibility of RNG, but with most CSC items as long as you pick your fights carefully it wouldn't really matter. I purchase CSC to further cement my leads as champions who can utilize this stat effectively, meaning I purchase it after I have my Bloodthirster as an ADC, etc. It just enhances my ability to deal damage, and isn't the sole reason for it. Most ADCs can deal every effective damage without purchasing a single CSC item, but if they're ahead they're going to pick one up because they can.

cshakesOct 7, 20142 votes

Actually, most ADCs rush IE now, which means that a single lucky crit can win a trade, since there's only a 20% chance for it, but it deals 250% damage. One ADC crits and the other doesn't -> critter wins.

PsylentFoxOct 7, 20141 votes

While that may be true on carries like Tristana and Caitlyn, the carries who have range enough to not need lifesteal to stay in the fight if they position themselves carefully, that isn't necessarily true of most other ADCs. The only person I've seen rush IE on Lucian is Sneaky, and I haven't seen anyone rush an IE on Graves or Vayne or Corki or Draven or Miss Fortune or Sivir, etc, etc. The bloodthirster early game is incredibly powerful now thanks to the shield passive on it, and for AD casters the BT makes too much sense as a large majority of their damage is going to come from abilities in the early to mid game. Only if they're horribly fed do they rush an IE. Most ADCs have 550 or less range, and whether they like it or not will be in the middle of most teamfights if they're positioning isn't perfect, so the BT is the safest, most logical choice for shortranged ADCs.

cshakesOct 7, 20142 votes

Not really. From what I've observed, most people in my friends' high-elo games (plat, diamond) rush IE, build vamp scepter if they have a spare 880g during the IE-building, or at the very least after they have a finished IE, then build shiv, then berserker's/LW and then a life-steal item.

Earl EulrichOct 7, 20141 votes

If you watch worlds you´ll notice that on most carries that aren´t Twitch or work very well with Trinity IE is always the 1st or 2nd item they rush, and even on most Trinity users it´s bought 2nd or 3rd very often. The impact of IE on Dps is just way too massive to potspone it. EVen in the one Game Sneaky played Graves he just straight rushed IE instead of BT, as the chance for winning fights by a lucky Crit obviously were more important for him than being able to take a lot more dmg before going down with a SHortranged/resilent Carry.

Earl EulrichOct 7, 20141 votes

I think this is actually the most important thing that has to change in S5 to further improve LoL-Gameplay. And there are a lot of of arguments brought up for it lately, so it seems I´m not the only one that feels that way:

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/live-gameplay/hbEj1jWi-can-we-finally-phase-crits-rngesus-out-of-the-game http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/nAOB9AZs-lets-talk-about-infinity-edge http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/live-gameplay/EaEEhNEJ-critical-chance-the-last-bastion-of-rng-in-lol http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/tdgWOnZ1-ghostcrawler-the-very-long-discussion-about-crit http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/1Ju1f5EW-why-is-crit-chance-still-a-thing

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NoMonkuOct 7, 20141 votes

I don't like it. Crits are technically what make ADC's the damage powerhouses they are late game. I don't feel you can change the crits to amping their damage without either making them either OP or gutting them late game. This seems like it would require a whole revamp of how the items work and how it works with all the champions (who it would be OP on and who it would cripple). It sounds interesting, but I don't think its worth doing.

MasterTeaDrinkerOct 7, 20141 votes

Crit damage is essentially a proct and, i don't see how it isin't working as intended my only concern would be to this point. I'm sure as you have notice Criting is a proct that happens on a certain percent variable of the champions attack. Now, this being said i'm sure you have all seen your basic attack criting 10 times in a row and, also not criting 10 times in a row. This is an issue that could cause some unbalance as it is essentially a ''Luck'' type variable.

I do not agree with the original post i think that the crit system is tested and, working as intended. Many other game's employ this system to great effect and, some don't. I think a game with a crit system or, a game without one both play well.

IMO, adding an element of ''Luck'' to a video game where the player is unsure of the results to exact measure introduces an element of fun to the game. I think it would be interesting for Riot to add new terrain types to summoner's rift, such as doodad's of tree's or bushes or, rocks that add to a chance to evade or, reduce the chance to be crit or, high ground low ground advantages ect.