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@Riot Why is ward jumping still a thing?

OwlMechanic·10/30/2014, 2:00:32 AM·2 votes·664 views

I've been reading through the forums for years, and after so much time of Lee/Jax/Kat coming up as problems ... namely lee because he is the worst offender I just have to ask, why can people jump to wards?

We're looking at 3 perfectly balanced and interesting abilities, each can be used offensively as engage, or defensively but only if either good team work or awareness of the positioning of the minion wave (giving a very interesting ebb and flow of safety in the lane).

Wardhopping unbalances all of these abilities, and in the case of lee sin there is really no sacrifice (since he isn't giving up an offensive ability to use it like the other two)

It seems like a gimmick that people discovered (similar to being able to teleport to jarvan flags/zac blobs) and it should have just been dealt with early. I'm guessing people had fun with it and that's why you left it but the abilities weren't balanced with that in mind, it is clearly an unintended use of wards and it is unintuitive enough to put newer players at a disadvantage because they wouldn't expect that wards could be used that way... and they really shouldn't.

3 Comments

Squeaky Dreemurr10/30/2014, 2:07:32 AM4 votes

My friend! Ward jumping is a crucial mechanic for Lee in high ELO play. Removing this mechanic would remove a chunk of Lee's play making ability, and would effectively be a significant nerf. As someone who has played hundreds of games on Katarina, I can tell you that the only thing that lets her survive her remarkably weak laning phase is the fact that she can ward jump out of high CC jungle ganks. Again, removing the ward jumping mechanic would mean a significant nerf for champions that rely on them for much of their play.

Hayaishi10/30/2014, 2:29:11 AM3 votes

Lee's ward jump is the ONE thing that makes him viable high elo.

THough i wish Katarina couldn't do it, it makes it impossible to gank her.

OwlMechanic10/30/2014, 3:07:10 AM1 votes

If lee couldnt ward jump they might be able to balance him around actually intended mechanics, rather than repeatedly nerfing his other abilities that actually were part of his kit. ultimately he is part of the issue that creates this ultimate tier of jungle champs, yet he has never left that position and it will never matter how they alter him he just isn't a champ meant to be designed around a free flash.

As for Kat again she benefits less than lee for sure (because she sacrifices a long cd large chunk of damage) however if this were removed they might be able to approach her problems in lane from a less obtuse angle, if in reality it actually takes her win rate down much at all. it also does not remove the ability to use wards to gain vision of jungle creeps to jump to, nor does it take away her jump behind the ganker and run trick, nor does it keep her from using team mates to assist the getaway.

Ward jumping just straight up seems like bad design that ultimately hurts the maturity of the game, these kinds of excusable bugs are fine for early games, not something that should be as refined as league has had time to be.