Black Market Brawlers Review
Just some comments on the whole thing after playing the even religiously, including things I like and things I didn't, or thoughts about how they could be used/changed.
TL;DR - Minion upgrades yes, fix the Kraken system, and the new items are generally broken. All good "testing grounds." P.S. The script and the art were exceptional, but the grinding leaves little room for people to play who can't commit to several games per day.
MINIONS I LOVED the overall concept and strategic nature of the minion upgrades. I think it brought a depth to the game that can really change the face of LoL. It gave a team the flexibility to complement what their wanted to do, and it still worked in the spirit of a true team (remember that one guy that ended the game with 40 krakens unspent? I do...). Attack, defense, range, vision - great concepts here. KRAKENS Despite how much I loved the minion upgrades, I have very little love for how Krakens were obtained. The overall set-up allowed for too much snowballing on a map generally designed for a longer, strategic game. Kraken rewards that I think are counter-productive Kills - I get it, but in general, I think it works towards snowballing. If I'm already winning kills, then my minions get to passively push harder? This is great if Rito wants to shorten games, but it makes momentum swings even more dramatic (i.e. basically, there are fewer comebacks. ever.). Assists - Again, same as above. Counter-jungling - Early game, this is a good incentive. Mid-late, one team has pushed past mid, is already snowballing hard due to other factors, and stealing more and more counter-jung exacerbates the issue. It becomes an exponential curve (roughly) on kraken gains. Kraken rewards I think are great Passive time-earned - There obviously has to be a way to upgrade minions as time goes by. Even if this was the ONLY method of earning krakens, it would still keep the team talking and thinking about how to spend their precious krakens. If Dragon/Baron - I think this can go either way, since it puts even more pressure on teams valuing these objectives. However, something like Baron is no small feat, and it should be rewarded. Maybe, nerf the current dragon/baron rewards in favor of forcing teams to talk about what they do with their rewards. Generally speaking, if krakens were more valuable (e.g. they were harder to get), there would still be a use for them and they would require teammates to work together.
New Items I loved a lot of the concepts in the new items, but they certainly need some balancing before they become permanent options. They opened up a lot of avenues/kits that may have been inaccessible before. In general, these items as they stand hugely favor melee AD champs, and even disfavor tanks IMO. A few notes: Flesheater - Simply put, OP. Take any melee champ, put them in any lane, and watch them snowball uncontrollably. Took Yi as ADC against a salty bot lane and lost early, but snowballed mid-late so hard that I was singlehandedly dominating the map. Must nerf either 1) when an AD stack is added (e.g. ONLY if the usage kills the minion) or 2) how often it comes up. I could take a singe wave and add 4-5 AD per wave. Typhoon Claws - Generally okay, but it seems a poor overlap for anyone but the melee people. As ADC, I felt it was better to buy two more expensive items than just this one item. As anyone melee though, Flesheater+Typhoon Claws = GG. I use the case study of Yi again, but I had several other teams do the same to me (Darius was one I remember). ** Puppeteer** - Generally, I thought it would be great for a support and add to a utility kit. In practice however, I found the "tug" to be effectively useless, and the buy to be a waste. I think tweaking the ranges may help, or I just have slow supports... Trickster's Glass - Now this, this is simply brilliant. I'm not sure about the balance of the item in general, but the UTILITY of disguising as a teammate adds such incredible depth to the play strategies. Please keep this in some form. Rite of Ruin and Netherstride Grimoire - I love how these balance the differences between ADC items and APC items. It makes me think that Rito should repeat what they did with the jungle items and focus on a modular approach that truly allows people to customize their play-style. Martyr's Gambit and Dead Man's Plate - Tried the Gambit, but it seems to be a niche item for health-based champs. Also, I was unclear whose resistances were applied. I didn't try the Plate, but there are great concepts to both of these.
Black Market Brawlers Event I loved the depth that went into the event, from the art to the story to the actual play. Simply wonderful - it's events like these that make me remember why I buy champs/skins from Rito. However, it got me thinking that I really hate the commodity of REAL TIME in my games. Seriously, if I was busy until August 10th, I'd miss this exceptional piece of work. Rito, what if you changed things and added a lobby that would let people play quests and storylines? Basically, add a team and/or single-player experience, similar to this one, that guides you through the lore. I want to BE the characters, to PLAY their story, like what we got here. You could turn part of LoL into a playable comic-book - and the quests wouldn't even have to be that long! There are so many great ideas that could come out of this.
Think about it Rito. ~Oriksagtaria