Indestructible bases. The return of the 45+ minute game.

At the beginning of season four riot wanted to curb snowballing. A reasonable goal by all accounts, but their actions did not match the intent. They ended up increasing average game times to upward of 40 something minutes with plenty of games going into the 50-60 range.

Well let's look at the preseason changes...

Inhibitor: 2500 Health

Inhibitor Towers have a new mechanic - Beam: Inhibitor Towers attack their target continuously, up to 4 times a second. Inhibitor Towers slowly ramp their damage from 100% to 260% over the course of 6.5 seconds. Inhibitor Towers slowly ignore their targets armor from 40% to 100% over the course of 6.5 seconds. Ramp is reset when Inhibitor Towers change targets.

Inhibitors respawn timers increased to 300 seconds from 240.

Verses

Elixir of Ruin: Grants Health, +% Tower Damage. Nearby minions gain +% Tower Damage and their movement speed is set to 90% of your own, up to 500.

Baron Nashor Health and Regeneration removed (AD and AP boost remain the same) Baron Buff additionally grants you Empowered Recall, reducing your recall time to 4 seconds. This also massively heals you and grants you an 8 second movement speed buff once it finishes. Baron Buff buffs nearby minions around you significantly, causing them to gain up to 90% your Movement Speed as well as specific bonuses on type: Melee Minions: Gain 80% damage reduction from almost all damage types Ranged Minions: Gain increased damage and a minor increase in range. Siege Minions: Gain massive increases to range - such that they outrange towers. Their attacks are 50% slower but are AoE and deal 4x damage to towers. Super Minions: Gains 75% Movement Speed when nearby enemies as well as 25% Attack Speed.

On the surface what this tells me is a simple sad fact. Without baron buff cracking the base is impossible at least on the surface. Higher regeneration, 100% armor pen, Higher HP, massive damage, and attack speed buffs. The elixir does help but we'll have to see the numbers before I can feel good about it and I really hate that breaking the base requires consumables or baron buff.

The changes to dragon slow the game down even more. Less total global gold means the game slows down. The only saving grace is that once you break the base it stays broken for the cooldown of a flash.

I may be wrong who knows. I've read all the notes and I'm fairly sure these changes will go over 40 minutes minimum, probably more. I am all for strong inhibitor towers but this is likely too far. The towers damage buffs are just too much. Honestly anything going away would be fine. Armor pen is just the nail in the "Dive inhibitor towers" coffin because there's no way to dive with that in place. A full item mundo will die in about 4 seconds. Sieges and split pushing will become mandatory. Team fighting will be nigh impossible.