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5 Year Absence: A returning players thoughts.

piece 0f crap··56 votes·5,469 views

Just a few thoughts on the state of the game since I last played, which was 5 years ago.

So far I've played a few games of ranked solo play and I'm really enjoying the game so far. All the changes made to the game since I last played have been overall very positive. The visuals are great, the option to prechoose your lane is fantastic. I don't see an option to make premade item sets for individual characters anymore which is unfortunate. As far as toxicity goes, it seems to be less prevalent which makes the game much more enjoyable, although there's still some finger pointing and griping going on but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

I think my only gripes are the lack of premade item builds and the over abundance of too many items. I think riot should streamline the items in the game to be simpler and reduce the total number of items by atleast 30%.

Anywho that's just my thoughts on the game. I was a gold ranked player when I quit, so maybe that helps give my opinions a little more credibility.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: For those questioning my history I logged in once a few years ago to look at some of the changes but I did not play long term. I quit playing shortly after the game changed to the bronze,silver,gold and reached gold rank. Before that I was 1600ish ELO. I started playing shortly before they removed IP farming in AI games (around the time trundle came out.) Not that it matters. Point is, I've been inactive from a competitive stand point for a long time and I just wanted to share my thoughts. Thanks for all the responses.

EDIT2: Are they reworking the preset item system? And do we have a release date?

76 Comments

DrCyanide24 votes

They are planning on rebuilding Item Sets in the new client, but they haven't gotten to it yet.

EpicMusic3 votes

shiit you're the new client?

Dominick Destine21 votes

the over abundance of too many items. I think riot should streamline the items in the game to be simpler and reduce the total number of items by atleast 30%.

What the....

I've been playing for 7 years and I don't think I've ever heard that particular complaint before. People have been clammoring for more item variety since season 1. What's wrong with more items ?

I guess if you mean garbage like Ohmwrecker then yeah , they need to axe that immediately.

Anidan6 votes

Agreed. Feels like there need to be more niche items and a bit less universal items. IE is cool, until literally every ADC grabs it because there's no better option for them. At least Bloodthirster has some form of competition for melee (Ravenous Hydra) and AD Casters (Essence Reaver) and can be paired with them if desired, but it isn't the only one competing for attention in its type.

Flennel12 votes

Welcome back. Items take a bit time to get used to. There are go to items, others are situational. Recommended item list usually helps.

Challenger Ahri12 votes

item sets were in the game 5 years ago? been playing for 6 and pretty sure they were out only 3 years ago

ShadowParker11 votes

They definitely were not around 5 years ago

Dank Memes 333 2 votes

So OP is bullshitting?

Tmoose5 votes

I think he checked in to see the changes to the game a year or so ago and saw item sets, now he sees they are gone.

Borbland12 votes

Nah, LoL needs more Items actually. We need more niche items useful in certain matchups to prevent certain champions from being impossible to counter.

Karunamon4 votes

No thanks. If you want a bazillion items, go play DOTA.

Anidan7 votes

Diana

Yes, embrace the heresy. Join DOTA.

Best princess EU1 votes

hell no

we don't want league players that think they can learn dota in 1 hour

Tmoose1 votes

I didn't think it would be so hard to learn it, I mean come on its a moba, how hard could it be? Wrong.

Anidan1 votes

It took me so long to be able to not feed on Meepo and play Enchantress, and by lesser extent Chen, at a level where I'm not putting my team at a man down just by picking her. Then there's farming efficiently on Naga and getting combos for Invoker down... kill me.

(worth it though)

Nobody11111 votes

lets put meepo and enchantress aside, I still can't pull camps properly, and the various attack animations and turn speed made learning to last hit and lets not forget deny a long process.

Anidan1 votes

Oh there's definitely an entry fee of practice to play DOTA well, but if you're into that kind of thing it's worth it. If you're not, well, luckily you have other options for mobas :D

It's like one of those games you always see reviews for online where they essentially say "If you can get past the mechanics that modern gaming has mostly dropped and learn to use them, it has a depth of gameplay unmatched in its genre" kind of thing.

piece 0f crap2 votes

That's what league has over DOTA though, it's simpler to learn and less complex. It's more accessible to people who have no history with MOBA games. It's also alot more fun.

I think we can all agree LoL is more successful than DOTA.

Anidan1 votes

Erm.. fun is subjective. If you have more fun, more power to you! I won't try to say anyone should prefer one game or the other.

I'm just being pretending to be a heretic over here because it's fun. I personally prefer DOTA but, as I completely understand, League is easier to get into. This means it will be more successful for people not wanting the depth of complexity of DOTA to play a MOBA (which is overall a larger portion, which is not a good or bad thing) but want a bit more individual impact than HotS offers. League strikes a middle ground that many people prefer, but of course not everybody.

Nickssaa1 votes

... Lol has more items than Dota...

chipndip111 votes

We don't need a bazillion, but I think part of LoL's balance issues it that you sort of hit a dead end when it comes to planning on how to work out your situation in the game.

Too many champs share the same staple items, and there's not many filler items either. This strong lack of variety makes it so Riot just flips what's strong from one week to the next rather than there being a shared space of power.

ForeverLaxx1 votes

Glad someone else gets it.

chipndip13 votes

Like, think about it: There's not many items that help deal with a type of situation for different styles of champs. That means that instead of buying items to help deal with a guy or two, you ask Riot to nerf them because they're just blatantly strong.

ForeverLaxx2 votes

Plus, the stat-stick nature of every item ensures that every change to an item is going to push someone up too far, either purposefully or accidentally. You'd think that having a 75-80% "expected build" path would make things easier to balance, but it doesn't. Stat-sticks are dangerous for this reason.

Karunamon1 votes

They're called "bad matchups". Certain champions will be naturally stronger against other champions.

What I absolutely don't want is League turning into DOTA where you have about 100 different items with their own active abilities that have to be mastered and balanced all on their own. Too many actives reduces the differentiation between champions and makes balancing (something Riot is really, really bad at) that much harder.

chipndip11 votes

Oh yeah? And why does it seem like every patch there's a new 55%+ win rate champ that everyone's gotta ban and cry for nerfs on? Why does the LCS have such shit champ diversity? It isn't an issue of bad match-ups anymore. It's an issue of the game environment literally being unable to support more than a small percentage of the roster at once. There's simply not enough variety. Too many champs accomplish and build the exact same thing, and when you have 3 variants of the same general tool, most people flock to the best tool.

No one's asking for 150 full build items, but not having enough is definitely showing its side effects.

Karunamon1 votes

And why does it seem like every patch there's a new 55%+ win rate champ that everyone's gotta ban and cry for nerfs on?

Because this community complains about literally everything, justified or not.

Why does the LCS have such shit champ diversity?

LCS is basically enforced meta slavery. Nobody has the time to try new things.

Nickssaa1 votes

Except Lol has more items than Dota...

Karunamon1 votes

The difference being that a lot more of Dota's items are active use.

piece 0f crap1 votes

If you add more items to the game then you're increasing the learning curve and possibly making the game too difficult to learn for newer players. The accessibility and simplicity of LoL is why LoL is more successful than DOTA. (it's also more fun though)

Nickssaa1 votes

Well, it might not seem like it, but I'd say lol items are harder to learn since fun fact, Lol has overall more items than Dota does (excluding champion specific items)

xelaker4 votes

[{quoted}](name=piece 0f crap,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=QUpVvEXM,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-04-16T18:25:07.337+0000)

Just a few thoughts on the state of the game since I last played, which was 5 years ago.

you have an icon on your profile for season 4...2014...I did the math and got in touch with my local mathematician and that doesn't add up...

Snarflaz4 votes

Good to see someone liking the new changes. Everyone now seems to jump into the bandwagon of hating certain champs and items.

The Lexer2 votes

Agreed. People always complain about how LoL is getting worse, but they forget how much it's grown since earlier seasons.

piece 0f crap1 votes

Indeed. The game has been in much much worse conditions in the past. It's improved alot, but there are still issues with the game.

SirΤeemο2 votes

[deleted]

4th Chiming Lamb10 votes

He probably hopped on the boards for a comment or two. It's not difficult to grasp, buddy.

sirwaterfles3 votes

Item sets were only from preseason 4 if i remember correctly. Even though i mostly agree with his conclusions im still going to call bullshit.

piece 0f crap3 votes

No I did redownload the game to look at the changes at the time but I did not actively play.

Corvo Attano2 votes

I did this aswell in the period of time i was away from the game, its nice to keep updated

Saelon2 votes

Welcome back, personally I disagree heavily with your view on items. The game needs more items that have effects rather than just passively sitting there more interactive gameplay is, in my opinion, better and makes the game much more fun. Sure there are a lot of items but having more than enough items is much better than having too few items.

piece 0f crap1 votes

{quoted}

Welcome back, personally I disagree heavily with your view on items. The game needs more items that have effects rather than just passively sitting there more interactive gameplay is, in my opinion, better and makes the game much more fun. Sure there are a lot of items but having more than enough items is much better than having too few items.

Well my reasoning for why I think there should be fewer items is because over-saturation of items can make learning the game daunting for newer players. I think if Riot were to stream line items and reduce the number by a significant amount would make the game more accessible to newer players, which would be good for both long term players, riot (additional revenue), and newer players alike.

piece 0f crap1 votes

While I agree with the idea that more items improves champion balance, on the flipside, alot of items makes the game difficult to learn for newer players and could turn away potential revenue for Riot and could contribute to player growth stagnation.

I think the premade item system helps alleviate this issue though, and would like to see it added back to the game. This was probably my biggest gripe since returning. Back in the old days there were less items so there wasn't a need for a premade item set system.

Tmoose2 votes

They just recently took away item sets, which I liked a lot. They still work in game though Bard

Forhonor3211 votes

Didn't they say that they were planning on bringing them back into the new client?

Oelyk1 votes

I like Item diversity... but it lacks Item balance... I mean some items like item 3174 item 3091 item 3151 item 3030 item 3060 and others are hardly used except by certain champions.

Corvo Attano2 votes

A Graves on the enemy's team built Wits end : ^)

Seriously...

LichKing2341 votes

how did it go? im assuming not well

Corvo Attano2 votes

He built it end game, they had pretty much already won.

SociopathFriend1 votes

To be fair, that's because Banner essentially forces the enemy team to move around how you want when used correctly. It'd be the biggest pain if it ever became meta.

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