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Another player voicing their opinion on abilities that can affect units in a "toxic" way

Lost Eye··3 votes·497 views

I figure if enough people don't like something, Riot will change it. I remember when they changed the name of Lux's ult, and enough people disliked it that they changed it again.

So here I am voicing my opinion about abilities that affect the opposite (incorrect) team, or abilities that can make units invincible which could potentially negatively affect your gameplay, with you being helpless to do anything about it.

Basically, I am just adding my humble opinion (and reasoning) to: Please stop making these type of abilities. As a player who has played since S1, although I know there are tons of champions already, and there are only so many possible unique ideas in a game like this, I am absolutely confident that it is still very possible to continue designing new champions who are both fun to play, and innovative, without giving them abilities that can be misused (accidentally or intentionally) in a "toxic" manner, and/or abilities that can directly affect your own personal gameplay with no agency from yourself. I have enjoyed this game since S1, until these champions have started appearing. For me personally, it's beginning to ruin the game.

Sion (invincible minion)

  • The most minor one. Can potentially ruin something like a Malzahar E. I don't actually see much reason to make the minion invincible. It could simply take the damage from Sion's attack at the end of the push. It would be very rare that Sion is trying to push a low-health minion that a teammate is about to last hit.

Syndra (invincible minion with potentially huge minion displacement)

  • Syndra support. Syndra follows teammate jungler. Just before teammate jungler takes blue, Syndra grabs it and throws it very far away. It's invincible, can't smite it. By the time the minion resets position and you get it low again, Syndra grabs it away again. Game is over because of "hilarious" mechanics.

Poppy

  • Casts invincibility on enemies. This has lost two games for me because the Poppy knocked up a high value target while they were intended to be nuked. A teammate that can Kayle ult several enemies is not exactly fun.

Bard

  • Self explanatory. I realize that a good Bard will use this well, but being with one who messes up his ult is too frustrating.

Kindred

  • I've lost several games where I intended to turn-and-burn on the enemy team (cooldown management / baiting) with low HP, and I do so, only to have Kindred ult everyone, saving me and the enemy Irelia/Riven/Fiora (etc) who kills me and then wins the game. Nothing I could've done. You can communicate with pings but you cannot stop someone from using an ability anyways.

Tahm Kench

  • Have had plenty, PLENTY of games with angry teammate Tahm Kenches who get upset because they lose their lane, and/or they want to surrender and the surrender vote fails. Therefore they eat teammates and bring them into the enemy team. Yes I know you can "manually exit" but the delay on that is WAY, WAY too long.

Kalista

  • Being ulted into a Kalista in the middle of doing something. I'm doing my own combo - I know what I'm doing. Do not interrupt me because you want to ult. Let me play. I have had combos ruin and free kills get away because of being pulled away while I'm performing a combo. Yes, I realize it gives you a dash with a knockup. But when you know the enemies' cooldowns (i.e. Ezreal arcane shift), there are absolutely situations where ulting me away from the target will save the Ezreal due to cooldowns. Plus, being ripped out of what you are doing without consent is simply annoying.

------ I know that in many of these examples, a common response is, "Well if a player's gonna troll, they're gonna troll regardless!" To that I have two counterpoints:

  • 1.) Giving someone the means to troll will, no doubt, increase the likelihood of it occurring. If the means are taken away, it's possible that that player would simply play normally, even though they may be naturally tempted to troll.
  • 2.) Many of these abilities can directly affect your own performance/gameplay, which is even less fun than if you simply have an AFK. Far less fun. I think you'd all agree.

------ Thank you for reading

4 Comments

shyv1 votes

i think all of these are actually really interesting mechanics.. you have total control over a tahm / kalista grabbing you so i don't see the issue, just point and click where you wanna go? bard however... probably the most troll champ in the game.

Lost Eye1 votes

For Kalista, there is still a significant time which - out of your control - is lost. With Kalista, she can potentially ult you out of a combo / play, in such a way that it would've been more beneficial to just let you finish your play first. This mistake can save the enemy, and it wasn't your fault. It's also possible that Kalista is too far away and she pulls you in just as the enemy regained their jump CD - which would have normally been fine, if only you weren't pulled away. You try to ult back to them, but they're just barely out of range now. The worst case scenario is an angry Kalista that might intentionally get caught and then pull you in as you naturally try and go to help. (Intentional misuse - only ever happened to me one game)

For Tahm, the time at which you cannot control (before you can manually jump out) is much longer. In the case of an angry teammate Tahm who wanted you to vote Yes on the surrender, he can intentionally eat you and then run into the enemies. Or - as the enemy kills your nexus - intentionally eat you (off of the platform), and spit you into their team, or intentionally eat you as you are trying to clear minions out of your base, or just before you get a kill, etc. This has happened to me about 10 times, if not more.

Let me talk about the "angry Tahm Kench" for a minute:

In the case of the angry Tahm Kench player, all of those misuses only happen when your teammate lost his lane and wants the game to be over. He's mad, he just wants you to surrender. So misusing TK's abilities in this way WILL guarantee the loss, which is what he wants, because in his mind, the game is already 100% over. I'm sure you've played games where all seems lost in lane phase, and everyone is yelling at each other and hates each other, until you gain a foothold, and make an epic comeback and win, and everyone congratulates each other at the end. This is not possible with Tahm Kench - or I should say, it's very much less likely to be possible - with Tahm Kench, because he has an epic troll ability at his disposal. Once he starts spitting his mid Lux (who is trying their best to carry) into the enemy team, the game is guaranteed to be a loss. Now, if he had not picked TK, and had instead picked Taric, and they still lost their lane, and they were still extremely mad and still wanted to surrender.... it's still possible that you can make a comeback, because Taric cannot troll you directly and teamkill you with his kit, as fabulous as he might be. So, if you are allowed to continue playing, without the detriment of an epic troll ability like TK's devour, and you gain a foothold and begin to make a comeback, the Taric may be like, "hmm eh well maybe we can actually win" and start playing again. As I mentioned, that's not possible if he is TK instead, and actively disrupting your gameplay and teamkilling you with his devour. This is why I'm firmly against these kind of abilities. People get mad in these games and say and do things they might regret later. Troll abilities are too "tempting" to use when you're mad, for 99% of the player base.

Thank you for the reply

shyv1 votes

you have a point, i think we've all had the angry tahm at one point in time. but none of them have ever fucked up my ranked games so .. whatever i guess. in norms just report and move on.

LadyRenly1 votes

On the flip side, enemy Tahm and Syndra can take that jungle minion you were killing and steal it for themselves, laughing all the way back to their side of the map.

Sorry you get terrible teammates, but I personally love using Bard and Tahm Kench, the things they can do is amazing, but it comes at the cost of messing it all up and ruining everything but I think thats the payoff for being so incredibly powerful

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