How we can fix the key fragment drop rate system
I see a lot of outrage on the boards over how the drop rate decreases. I understand why people here are frustrated, but think of who this system was made for, casual players.
If you're active on these boards, there's a good chance you play pretty regularly and you probably don't need much of a boost to unlock stuff. On the other hand, casual players might be able to buy a 3150 IP champion every time a new 6300 IP champion comes out. The key fragment system was tuned to give these players the ability to earn things since buying runes and champions can already be a daunting task.
If Riot made the drop rate linear, the drop rate would have to be low, because at the end of the day Riot is a business and they don't want everyone to just swim in key fragments, that ruins the whole point. Now the only players who play enough games to benefit from Hextech Crafting are those who need it least, because they're the most likely to have champions.
That's not to say the system is perfect. Casual players are looking to earn things like champions whereas regular players use Crafting because they want to earn cosmetics such as skins. In fact, casual players are less likely to even want skin shards because they probably don't most or a significant portion of champions, meaning they can't use those shards.
There is a change that could satisfy both casual and regular players.
#Change the current one key system into blue keys and orange keys.
Blue keys would have the current, scaling drop rate. Opening a chest using a blue key results in any items that would make in blue essence, such as champion shards.
Orange keys would have a linear drop rate. Opening a chest using an orange key results in any items that would make orange essence, such as skin shards or ward shards.
Now both casual and regular players can get what they want out of Hextech Crafitng.
As an example, let's say you play for a month, winning one game every day. During the first week, you're going to be earning a lot of blue key fragments and maybe one or two orange key fragments. By the second week, you'll be earning very few blue key fragments and some orange key fragments. Third and fourth week, you'll be earning almost no blue key fragments, but the rate at which you're earning orange key fragments hasn't changed.
What are your thoughts on the two key system?
#Tl;dr: Read the bolded part.
