About Debuffs

N Jenkins·Feb 12, 2018·1 votes·334 views

No, this is not a thread crying about nerfs XP. More, it is something that i have noticed over the course of this game's life span.

Basically, i've noticed that champion abilities that apply "Debuffs" on the opponent have been kinda disappearing. Not talking about CC here btw, but abilities that make your opponent fight worse, like reducing their stats. And every time a champion that has these abilities gets reworked or just returned, they tend to lose them, Like when and Lost their ability to reduce enemy attack speed and just recently lost his damage amplification ability (granted it only affected him). The only champions that still have abilities like this are older champions who still haven't been reworked, and who still can reduce armor.

As someone who loves to play as characters who make the enemy fight worse in all games, i find this bit of a shame. But is there any reason for this? Were they broken?

4 Comments

Hey h0w r yaFeb 12, 20181 votes

There isn't counterplay to it.

When Darius's W reduced attack speed you simply could not fight him. There wasn't any strategy to play around it you just lost every single trade and counterplay was non existent

Rindin14Apr 20, 20181 votes

I see what you are saying, but the same could be said about things like self-buffs or cc abilities.

I don't think that debuffs themselves inherently lack counterplay, but rather that they have been stapled onto champions that shouldn't have had them in the first place.

If you look at how debuffs are implemented in similar games, they are given mostly to characters who lack a way to capitalize on them. This forces tighter team coordination, and provides counterplay in the form of peeling for or protecting a debuffed teammate.

Essentially, I agree that debuffs might be frustrating, but I don't think they are any more frustrating than things like stuns or slows. If implemented correctly, I think they could provide a lot of interesting design space.