Skill expression (more sermon than rant)

An activity is only skillful if it can be performed badly. There are no good rune setups or mastery pages or build paths unless there are bad (or at least worse) ones. So, each time you "require", simplify or automate an interaction you lower the skill ceiling of the game. The Ornn item level gate prompted this, but it's hardly the only offender. Consider, you're a top lane Darius with a jungle or support Ornn on the team (under the level gate). You have around 1000 gold to spend and have already completed a black cleaver. An infernal drake is about to spawn. What should you buy? A giant's belt gets you closer to your deadman's plate. The Ornn upgrade is more power now in exchange for a later 2 item spike, but maybe worth. A ruby crystal and elixir is an even harder power now trade, but maybe not so worth. The skill is in making the correct decision based on the circumstances. By removing a decision, you take away from the player's potential for skill. So stop saying it's almost always wrong please (Jatt, yer killin' me) Ever see a pre-bike? It's a bicycle without the pedals and gears. It's meant to teach the balance necessary to ride. It's something of a counterpart to training wheels (which teach the coordination of pedaling and shifting gears). I don't have the data to know which skill is more necessary to learn, but in either case the constraint eventually needs to go.