Just wondering, why do new players not automatically have all summoner spells?

Vettahn·3/15/2015, 6:59:48 AM·56 votes·7,029 views

While I get that Clarity, Heal, and Ghost are the three most fundamentally simple and easy to understand summoners in the game, it really doesn't make sense that players only start with these.

They act as a sort of noob trap, and can convince unimaginative players that these are the three best summoners for them to use on all champions. Also, players who are already experienced in MOBAs and are just now starting to play league would most likely prefer higher-level summoner spells such as flash and ignite, due to their knowledge of these types of games. I just feel that any new players coming to the game who actually bother to ready the descriptions of the summoner spells would much rather prefer playing the "harder to use" summoner spells at levels 1-10 than having to learn the game using worse and, ironically, more difficult to use spells (imo).

Also you don't get smite till level 10. That's an issue.

52 Comments

67chrome3/15/2015, 7:47:59 AM9 votes

Just wondering, why do new players not automatically have all summoner spells?

Probably has a lot to do with how people learn.

Dumping all the information ever regarding a subject on people is disastrous. Ever play a game where the tutorial just won't end and you've been board 10 minutes ago? The best games and learning experiences tend to break down the knowledge necessary into stages, giving players a chance to learn 1 thing before moving on to the next. So, LoL's system of staggering the summoners, leaving the most universal and difficult to replace ones until last, allows players to learn and use all the tools in a more natural way.

Also you don't get smite till level 10. That's an issue.

You need the right runes and masteries to actually jungle with any champion that can't jungle without Smite (Warwick Udyr Fiddle). You pretty much have no runes and masteries until you're summoner level 10.

Phrixscreoth3/16/2015, 1:34:31 AM6 votes

Having just recently gotten two of my friends into the game and been with them every step of their 1-5 experience, I have to say that they have enough on their plate to worry about which summoner spells they should be taking. My friends had enough trouble understanding where they were in a 1v1 fight and would constantly stand still as Ashe in the middle of the lane while the bots would walk up and kill them. Between positioning, items, the skills of both the person they are playing and the person they are fighting, minions, turrets, gold, last hitting, brush... there is a LOT of stuff that you learn early in your carrer that you take for granted at level 30.

Heal, Clarity and Ghost are very straightforward in their use cases that a new player can intuitively understand how and why they would use them.

But, take flash. You can use flash to get in range to land a skill or get in that last auto attack. But you might not have enough damage to actually kill them. You can use flash to get over CERTAIN walls. You can use flash to get out of the thick of a fight, or dodge a skillshot- but you can just as easily use flash in a situation you can't actually escape from. When an enemy has a gapcloser, or waited to use their stun until after you flashed, or are just faster than you. Flash has so many uses compared to heal ("get more health"), clarity ("get more mana") or ghost ("run fast") that any new player won't be able to effectively use flash until they get the basic skills down first.

junglerboy163/15/2015, 8:35:20 PM5 votes

The reason you don't get Smite until level 10 now is that it is legitimately impossible to jungle pre level 20 unless you have a ton of IP to waste on tier one and two runes. That and Smite as a summoner spell is the single most complicated one in the whole game. You take it, and can damage creeps with it. But you can also buy items based on it, upgrade it to smite enemy champions, and end up with 4 relatively unintuitive spells all in one slot, which is not something a brand new player should be dealing with until they at least know the fundamentals of the game.

Jungle Lux God3/15/2015, 6:10:41 PM5 votes

It's basically a matter of "how easy is it to understand how to use these summoner spells?"

Clarity, Ghost, and Heal all have clear use cases: Clarity gives you more mana to do things, Heal gives you more health to do things, and Ghost gives you more movement speed to do things.

At level 4, you get Exhaust and Barrier. Barrier has uses similar to Heal, but the uses are a lot stricter and may be harder to understand, while Exhaust also has some well-defined use cases, but has a lot of broad interactions that are not easy for a new player to understand.

At level 6, you get Cleanse and Teleport. Both are really difficult to use properly because Cleanse needs really good timing to use and Teleport needs a level of map awareness that new players won't have. Same with when you get Flash and Clairvoyance at level 8: Flash has too many champion interactions for newer players to understand and new players don't understand the importance of map vision at early levels.

Smite and Ignite are gotten at level 10 for very good reason. Smite is unplayable at anything lower than 10 because of how hard the jungle currently is, so Smite is useless until at least level 10, although the difficulty of the jungle would likely push the role until much closer to at least level 20. Ignite, on the other hand, has a really specific use case that is easy for new players to not understand. Ignite is used to help secure kills, but it is very likely for newer players to use this off cooldown just to deal some damage.

In addition to providing newer players with Summoner spells as they learn the basic skills needed to grasp the uses of these spells, gating the summoner spells like this also prevents new players from getting too overwhelmed by the concept of summoner spells when they first boot up the game. They can learn the basic game mechanics without being overwhelmed by the intricacies of each of the summoner spells.

You mentioned that players already know how to play Mobas would likely prefer to use the high-level summoner spells, but the problem with this argument is that players experience in playing Mobas would level their account up fast enough for the level gating not to matter. In addition, not every single game of a genre is the similar, and Mobas are no different. Even players of other Mobas may have trouble adjusting to League of Legends, so the gating of summoner spells would still be useful as they learn how different League of Legends is from other Mobas.

UPfreely3/15/2015, 3:59:01 PM4 votes

just like runes and masteries riot heavily neglects this part of the game. wouldnt be surprised if they removed clarity/heal and left new players with only 1 summoner spell

lojician3/16/2015, 2:03:44 AM4 votes

These people are feeding you the pr line. The real reason is that they want the leveling system A) for the addictive element like in mmos B) so they can sell XP boosts.

RoyaiChaos3/15/2015, 3:45:47 PM3 votes

I remember thinking that flash must be the most amazing thing in the world after seeing everyone get it, but then I used it and somehow failed everytime and died.

The5lacker3/15/2015, 11:47:02 PM3 votes

Because working for things makes people appreciate them more. ... I'm sorry, I can't keep a straight face. It's pretty bad. It's nonsense.

FedAsFuk3/15/2015, 7:06:07 AM2 votes

Regarding smite, you honestly shouldn't be concerned with jungling pre 10, you will not be able to clear efficiently until 20 minutes into the game, not something that is fun for anyone on the team. As far as leveling to unlock spells, I see nothing wrong with this system, yes it sucks you don't have flash, ignite but those aren't gamebreaking, yes flash is insanely valuable, but you can play without it. It is a system of reward for newer players, because the current state of the game, what do you feel you achieved by leveling without summoner spells? You don't have the Ip to buy a champ, shouldn't invest IP into runes, you would honestly get nothing for the first 15 levels of the game without the current system

Silents4293/15/2015, 3:41:02 PM2 votes

They act as a sort of noob trap, and can convince unimaginative players that these are the three best summoners for them to use on all champions.

I think it's a little unimaginative to think anyone is dumb enough to think the early spells are the best because they don't unlock them.

While I agree it would be nice to have them all unlocked, it does mean we won't have fools taking smite in lane, or jungling at level 1 etc. It's a way of keeping everyone's experience tied to what they can do.

BLU Medic3/15/2015, 4:22:11 PM2 votes

Leaving them a bit until later is fine, but at low levels, it's very unfair and rather east to be matched against people who have Flash and Smite. The first time I entered PvP, I was level 11, everyone else had Flash apart from me. I was at a huge disadvantage.

I do know they decreased the levels, so you get Flash at level 8, but Smite and Ignite are both locked until level 10. What happens if a level 9 player gets matched against a level 10 player? Varied level matches happen.

TehNACHO3/15/2015, 7:05:03 AM2 votes

It enforces a learning curve. Most players would automatically recommend flash and so the noobs always equip flash. They will never get to experience many of the other summoner spells enough to build a good understanding without spending way more time than we already see.

Also, with the new Jungle, refraining from Smite is a good move to be frank. New players with no runes and very little understanding of Jungle kiting will almost always die and just get frustrated in the Jungle.

SirSneeksAlot4/18/2016, 3:17:29 PM1 votes

i think its funny reading half these posts cause the problem is not how skilled or not skilled a player is or how quick or slow someone picks up the mechanises of the game its really about the fact that it is unfair.

smite how ever complicated it may be or seem is a role spell and should be able to be taken at any lvl i was just in a match and we had 1 person on our team that was lvl 10+ and did not use smite, were as the other team had 2 ppl lvl 10 + and 1 of them did take smite and he knew how to jg.

so add on to the fact that ppl are still learning and all that and there is a lot to take in. ( the match making should not be putting or allowing ppl over lvl 10 into matchs with under lvl 10 at least not for norm's but as alot of ppl on this topic say and i agree duo top is a bad habit there should be position tutoirials and game Etiquette tutorials ie how to call a lane and wat ever else and we see no reason the lane/position meta should be different )

they straight away had the gold advantage and xp advantage and there jg had the whole map cause the only person on the other team that could take smite and jg went teemo top i was udyr top i could have jg but i'm lvl 7 and can't have smite yet and as for the runes and masters well your playing against ppl that have just as much a lack of them as you so that evens out.

i would also like to add that i believe there are ppl out there that could clear jg at lvl 3 ( why don't you try make a custom game use no runes and no masters and have a go i bet you may be surprised)

IcyPepper3/15/2015, 7:11:56 AM1 votes

Because there are people who only go to mid lane with flash and ignite (even against Zed), supports and adcs who only take exhaust/heal and flash, top laners who only take teleport (and maybe rarely ignite) and flash, and junglers... well, okay smite is necessary.

The point is that new players discover that's there's other spells available. If they're smart, they'll know how useful they are in the future.

I saw an adc take cleanse into a tournament match and walk out with a triple kill because he got stunned and exhausted at the same time and utterly clutched it.

I like taking ghost on some junglers for epic ganks because jungler flash isn't as important as laners' flash.

Barrier is a counter to ignite.

Exhaust can be used both offensively and defensively, and its utility can really aid in a teamfight. But midlaners seem to forget that while ignite is useful, exhaust lowers defenses, damage, and movement speed which can also help you snowball during the laning phase.

But that's just my two cents.

bad arcade kitty3/15/2015, 11:48:37 PM1 votes

at least we dont buy them with ip

The Bearded Bard3/16/2015, 2:09:53 AM1 votes

Also makes no sense as to why they can't use masteries. I get why you don't get to just have runes unlocked, but masteries aren't bought. Everyone should have them.

Auryiel3/16/2015, 2:43:10 AM1 votes

You gotta have something to look forward to other than the endless IP grind, ya know

ofart3/16/2015, 8:31:29 AM1 votes

More incentive for XP boosts...

Greeds 6 Sins3/16/2015, 5:39:51 PM1 votes

From a gameplay perspective I think the reason Riot makes you earn these spells is because they want players to master playing without these high level spells. I'm sure many will agree, if you've learned to play without these high level spells you should know, when you should or not use the spell.

Another thing to note that is a bit weird to say is that the less times you use the spell the more useful it is. I'm sure many have that moment when they think to themselves, "I shouldn't have wasted that summoner 4 back there" or "I would have gotten away/the kill, if summoner 4 wasn't on cooldown".

As for summoner 11 , It has been known that the jungle is best for players who are lvl 30 because they have the rune and mastery slots to help them in the jungle.

JC DarkOmen3/16/2015, 7:58:54 PM1 votes

At my first college, there is a dorm hall that all freshman males are required to live in. in that hall, there is no air conditioning, nor are you allowed to buy an air conditioner. there is only one microwave in the lobby, and you're not allowed your own, or any portable grills or anything. people literally slept next to their open fridge during the night in fall, spring, and summer. and when freshmen complain, upperclassmen say "i had to deal with it, so stfu! you want better rooms, suffer through this!"

So, in answer: suffer, as i have suffered.

Leti the Yeti3/16/2015, 9:36:44 PM1 votes

I don't think the reasons you provided really compelled me... however, theres always "why the fuq not"let them have access to all the summoners spells lol

shadecrapper8/27/2015, 12:24:13 PM1 votes

It doesnt make much sense to me, why not have these lvl's to play around with while you are trying to figure stuff out. I mean yeah, you have the rest of playing lol to try a figure stuff out. But how does waiting until lvl 6 to use TP helping me?