Short Game Times + Expensive AP items = Ooooops

Neahkahnie·11/21/2015, 3:08:30 AM·4 votes·746 views

Okay, so you are doing well on an AP caster. You've picked up some mana sustain via Tear, Chalice, or Catalyst. You now have enough to buy a Large Rod -sweet! More damage, here we come! A few minutes pass...

Now its time to decide what to "upgrade". Well guess what, since games are so short, slot efficiency doesn't matter, and completing items is so damn expensive, your best buy is... Another NLR! And another, and another! Why spend three times the cost of an NLR when you could just have 3 times the AP? Since the game is decided by 20 minutes anyway, what you really need to do is blow people up, not have nominal extra utility.

This is a huge problem right now. High end AP items are literally never worth buying. The balance team really f-ed it up this time. Even if games are extended a bit, costs are quite prohibitive in terms of power gained vs gold spent.

5 Comments

TheSeltzerBaron11/21/2015, 5:24:05 AM1 votes

My ARAM games are averaging 5-10 minutes longer than previously. Had one just a few days ago that ran 47+ min(very unusual). Maybe the high prices are delaying the snowball for my games but having a different effect on rift shrug

Rebonack11/21/2015, 6:49:59 AM1 votes

Rift is just a weird map.

My average game time has gone up on Dominion, too. The team-wide kill streak bounty has created another anti-snowball release valve.

Llanite11/21/2015, 6:50:54 AM1 votes

By the time you got the 2nd NLR, I would have 1 NLR, a blasted ward and a tome. By the time you got the 3rd, I would have a finished Rabadon. And guess who has more AP? Hint: Not you.

Totally don't get your point.

BadKid11/22/2015, 3:41:04 PM1 votes

The reason rift is so fast and snowbally is the fact towers die to a stiff breeze now. So you get a kill in lane and take a tower with the jungler. Then the team roams mid and takes another tower. The opposing top laner rotates mid to try to help defend and they lose a tower or two there. It snowballs, because once a lane gets an advantage, if anyone tries to assist that lane, you start losing towers. The lane phase never stops. As a top laner I just sit top and win my lane. If 3 people come to kill me, then great, we just took a tower. If not, I just get further and further ahead until the opposing top laner has to give up tower. It's really really dumb.