Question for RIOT balance/champion design team on dashes and blinks

SonicÐeHedgedawg·Jul 5, 2016·4 votes·2,534 views

What is your opinion on giving a champion a dash as opposed to a blink and vice versa?

Obviously, for some cases where the champion has an active hitbox for the entirety of the ability (such as Sejuani, Shen and Gragas) using a dash as opposed to a blink is obvious, but, otherwise, how much of a difference do you tend to think giving a champion a blink as opposed to a dash makes on the power budget of an ability and how does that weigh against "better flavour" when developing a champion? (i.e. if tristana/kha zix had blinks instead of dashes, would their reset on kill need to be taken away?)

I'm just interested in some general ramblings and insight into the design process.

11 Comments

RiotMeddlerJul 5, 20167 votes

I generally feel dashes are the better choice. They're easier to follow visually (you see the unit follow a path), they can be interacted with (interrupted, sometimes dodged) and they're a chance for some cool visuals/other ceremony (animations, visual trails etc). They're usually easier to do thematically too, with blinks fitting fewer themes (most of them magical) comparatively.

Blinks can be the appropriate choice if really high reliability and/or rapid impact is what you're trying to offer. On average the power budget needed's going to be higher though and as above there's some other gameplay considerations in favor of dashes too.

DecritJul 5, 20161 votes

How would you value flash as a dash rather a blink?

edit: derp, english iz hurd. i meant "How do you see Flash being a dash rather being a blink?"

SonicÐeHedgedawgJul 5, 20161 votes

Given that, I'd love to hear some examples for why, for example, Ezreal has a blink built into his kit as opposed a dash given how tremendously powerful escapes and mobility are for AD Carries and what you think you could add to the rest of his kit by turning his blink into an interruptible dash, for example.

Since it takes from the total power-budget and diminishes counterplay, I'd also love to hear what, in your opinion, at least, makes a blink the right choice for a champion's kit. Shaco, for example, has a whole lot of frustration coming from his blink/stealth but is undertuned in many other places. What do you think is the value of keeping his blink vs giving his Q some other form of mobility (a dash or a haste) in exchange for giving him some potential power elsewhere. In other situations, like Zed, where he has spent time being a very powerful champion, do you ever consider removing the blink and turning it into a dash as a form of nerfing the champion? Or does the amount of new assets necessary for doing so make changing blinks to flashes prohibitively inefficient from a cost-benefit standpoint?

RiotMeddlerJul 5, 20166 votes

Ezreal - champion concept's a really slippery, pokey marksman. Being the only marksman with a blink's a significant contributor to that and a source of uniqueness. Wouldn't want to homogenize him with other marksmen by trading a blink for more combat power as a result (also, wouldn't want to make another marksman with a blink without good reason).

Shaco - Could be a dash instead of a blink, a lot of the benefits of a dash are removed when the champion's stealthed though (can't generally track, interupts are often chance rather than deliberate). Wouldn't want to work on Shaco meaingfully without a clear idea of what the goal for him was. At present he's still pretty frustrating, but does at least do some really cool and distinct stuff. Wouldn't want to lose that and just make him like any other assassin.

Zed - Zed gives up upfront burst in exchange for safety and reliability hence blinks in his case. Some secondary thematic argument too (taking the place of his shadow - 'haha, I was this one all along, I'm a sneaky ninha' narrative, rather than swapping with it like Azir does with his soldiers).

Assets are a consideration, and if there's not a strong argument for a dash instead of a blink that could be the deciding factor. Wouldn't block a change if it was clearly a good one however (though might determine the exact timing depending on when we could find some artist time).

LankPantsJul 6, 20169 votes

Zed - Zed gives up upfront burst in exchange for safety and reliability hence blinks in his case. Some secondary thematic argument too (taking the place of his shadow - 'haha, I was this one all along, I'm a sneaky ninha' narrative, rather than swapping with it like Azir does with his soldiers).

Zed doesn't give up shit. He's an atrocious example of design and that's why he's still the most banned champion in the game in spite of his win rate.

DevlinCrowJul 6, 20162 votes

He's extremely popular and many players know how to play him really well. I think that has a big effect, so many players have mastered him so most Zed's you face are just really really good, rather than him being broken.

Although he is a bit too strong imo I don't think he's an "atrocious example of design"

Zero Skill TankJul 6, 20162 votes

He's extremely popular and many players know how to play him really well. I think that has a big effect, so many players have mastered him so most Zed's you face are just really really good, rather than him being broken.

That's not true, majority of Zed's have quite small experience with him, and average ranked experience is low-ish too.

Kosm1KJul 8, 20161 votes

I can confirm as the first time I went zed when he was free I went 10-6 in 20 min, he's just too easy, skill floor is below even Annie.

TNHA BaritoneJul 6, 20162 votes

As someone who has made terribly mean posts about certain Rioters in the past, I have realized that they wont respond to you when you keep the aggressive tone. Just calm down and reword your sentences. Instead of saying "doesn't give up shit," say, "it doesn't appear that he gives up any thing."