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League of Legends has forsaken Strategy in favour of Gimmicks

ExternalLink·4/29/2018, 6:40:24 PM·100 votes·17,680 views

Key stones - fulfil XXX battle conditions for extra power. Champions rise and fall depending on synergy with keystones, Keystones promote generalisations and they're flashy ( you can literally envision an LCS shoutcaster screaming about how Phase Rush has activated and XX is going to be impossibly hard to peel now or about whether YYY will land that 3rd ability/auto to proc electrocute)

Jungle Plants - gimmicky, again contributes to generalisation as now most every champion has access to a variety of gank paths or a cheeky dragon/baron steal, whereas such flexibility used to be limited to a select few mobile champions. (again, you can literally imagine a LCS shoutcaster screaming about whether XX will make it to the blast plant to survive or YYY will be able to use the blast cone for an objective steal/sneaky gank that shouldn't be accessibly to him in the first place)

RNG Dragons - HUGE gimmick. Games can literally be decided by which dragon spawns first. The dragons give generalist stats that interfere with the strengths/weaknesses of champions and AGAIN promotes what? You guessed it, generalisation.

First Blood Tower - Man, back when I used to peep at the LCS every now and again I remember casters screaming about who would get the first turret in a lane-swap like it was the best thing ever...I honestly wouldn't have a big problem with FB tower if not for the fact that, for some reason, Bot Lanes turret is the squishiest in the game.

Baron. Honestly, bring back the old baron. As of now Baron is simply a gimmick that is being utilised to cover for how imbalanced the game currently is. A lot of winning teams need it to end (because catch-up exp, increase of damage across the board and so on has actually made leads less impactful. With damage how it is when fed you quickly reach a point where you're simply 'over-killing' someone, while the excess of damage and catch-up exp means that people who shouldn't be a threat because of how you've denied them still are'. Or, a losing team gets it and is suddenly back in the game. Either way Baron essentially distorts team comp weaknesses (suddenly a team bad at sieging will be good at it, while a team with great anti-siege will become lack-luster.) Baron was fine as it was. Dragon was fine as it was. The only improvement of the Keystone system is that its free and can be edited in champ select.

Jungle was healthier and more fun to play back in season 4-5. The current scuttle changes being discussed again reek of a gimmick that will simply give some LCS shoutcaster a lot to scream about.

This is my opinion.

I'm also of the opinion that the game should be reverted back to season 4-5, though, so take what I say with a grain of salt I guess?

I'd like to see other peoples opinion on the matter, but personally I feel this game has gotten worse with each passing season.

31 Comments

SEKAI4/29/2018, 6:46:45 PM47 votes

Blast cones were made to mitigate the fact jungle was absolutely dominated by mobile junglers.

Others are gimmick as fuck tho.

And I wouldn't call the new Baron a "gimmick". It's instead just the literal manifestation and exemplifies the very notion of deathball. It's completely brainless. Once you get baron (which can be killed within 10 seconds), you proceed to just shove into the enemy team basically for an autowin.

Marshbouy4/29/2018, 7:45:25 PM20 votes

Can you please define what a "strategy" is and what a "gimmick" is? What makes a gimmick a gimmick? What are the differences between strategy and gimicks? Examples? What change made them gimmicks? What are examples of a mechanic that aren't gimmicks?

WalkingInACircle4/29/2018, 10:33:39 PM15 votes

I think Riot has no vision of what they want the game to be any more.

Ahri Body Pillow4/29/2018, 10:45:27 PM13 votes

please format this post lol

SpecterVonBaren4/30/2018, 12:48:32 PM5 votes

Can people stop bitching about dragons already? Aside from it being a cloud drake, there's never a time outside of LCS that you WON'T go for a drag, and even then people will go for a cloud drake eventually once lanning phase ends. Everyone deals damage, everyone takes objectives, everyone has health and most need mana, and everyone likes moving fast. Some like certain ones better than others, a Trynd will love Mountain drake more than say, Nami, but that doesn't mean its never good to go for.

There is no reason to not go for a drake when you can, regardless of what drake it is. If there's an issue with drakes it would be that they give permanent advantages for one team that another can never catch up with, as apposed to gold eventually evening out with the old dragon. The RNG is not an issue with dragons because there's never a reason NOT to go for them.

Eleshakai4/30/2018, 3:50:53 PM5 votes

Every game more than 5 years old has people who feel that 'the old days' were so much better, conveniently forgetting the problems the game had back in those days. That's not to say its universally better now, but nostalgia is a sweet sweet drug.

Mister Support4/30/2018, 3:48:43 PM3 votes

What you seem to not realize is that all of these "gimmicks" offer varying new strategies that need to be played around and considered.

Keystones -- These offer windows of power that need to be used properly by the person with the keystone as well as the enemy. Some keystones emphasize this great, such as Conqueror, Fleet Footwork, Lethal Tempo, Aftershock, Guardian, Electrocute, Predator, and Phase Rush. Each one of these has a time slot they can be used and is signaled to both the user and the opponent, allowing for them to play around it. Should someone waste the window their keystone offers then the enemy can engage knowing the enemy is not at full strength. Some keystones, however, could really use improvement. These include Press the Attack, Grasp of the Undying, Kleptomancy, Glacial Augment, and whatever that middle one in Domination that no one uses is...Dark Harvest? These ones are more or less just there and don't have much opportunity to play around (could maybe argue for Glacial Augment with the part tied to item actives).

Jungle Plants -- Every single one has a set of locations they can be, with indicators for when they will spawn (go on LoL Wiki it's well described there, about a 1 minute pre-spawn indicator) and have their necessary uses. Blast Cone is one that can be used to screw over and enemy or save yourself or an ally during a fight, used to jump over walls in the jungle to increase mobility, attempt to steal an objective, or some niche interactions like using it to hurt someone with Taliyah's E. And this can be played around by understanding when they are available and adjusting your play for such reason. These plants have enabled much greater variety in the jungle for champions and it is lovely. Honeydew plant can be used to heal up after a fight or jg clear, slow down an enemy chasing you, or even make the scuttler come to you so it's easier to secure. Scrying Plant doesn't have too many uses, but can be nice to help ensure from far away you aren't being invaded or have wards in your jungle, keep an eye on some key objectives, or check brushes without getting too close. But again, these are all things to be played around and need to be taken into consideration.

Drakes -- The drakes I feel are a great addition to the game, each one has their own use cases (aside from Infernal, that one is a bit too generalized). Ocean can be used to play more aggressive or safe, knowing you can sustain a bit when out of combat, Cloud Drake makes for better roaming and feeling safe to back knowing you can return to the team faster, Mountain Drake let's you take objectives faster, allowing for potential split pushing pressure not there previously.

FB Tower -- Causes teams to consider where to place pressure and resources to get that first tower gold, or protect their own tower under pressure. This could be done in a better way (especially with bot tower being the squishiest, makes for the need of too much pressure in bot).

Baron -- Baron buff hasn't changed much over the years, and the changes Riot is making are definitely for the better by making its damage more AoE so that a single tank isn't enough to take Baron fast early on. It's still the same end game necessity to go against anti-siege comps specifically, otherwise the best teams would always just want an Anivia or Ziggs. Even then those two are still pretty effective vs. Baron minions, just not AS effective.

I Love Roses4/30/2018, 3:30:04 AM2 votes

you are so salty man, I would hate to go back to the cancer days of fucking s3-4

Modl Ryden l5/1/2018, 5:52:26 AM2 votes

YES! FINALLY A POST THAT RECOGNIZES THIS CONCERN!

Holy fuck I've been trying to make this point over and over for the past 6 months. Never made an OP for it, just through comments.

But jeeze, louise. Ever since the introduction of keystones, champions essentially have been granted a handful of extra abilities, outside of the direct control of the player via the HUD. I say that if you can't cast the ability via the HUD, then it's a gimmick.

PePsiLemoNN4/30/2018, 8:25:22 PM2 votes

Jungle was healthier and more fun to play back in season 4-5

The devourer farm for 20 minutes or the cinderhulk ''you can't kill me'' ?

Draehl5/2/2018, 1:31:39 AM2 votes

I can't speak to the 'gimmick' side of things, but will agree the game has moved in a decidedly 'flashy' direction at the expense of strategy. Especially if you look at damage levels. The game becomes more about who lands a vital skillshot (IE a hook) rather than which team plays better overall in the fight. That one skill dictates how everything goes from there due to burst levels.

For example- as a Bard main if I land a 4-5 man ult and my team is even half competent we absolutely shred their whole team and more often than not end the game or take Baron. Even though it represents lower skill, I'd much rather intentionally ult 2-3 players to zone them out while my team takes a temporary numbers advantage on the rest of the team. It creates more of an even keeled 'fight' rather than the combo massacre you know the LCS announcers would prefer so they have something to scream at the top of their lungs about. "THE PLAAAAAYS!", "Pogchamp", "Bard Carry", "Clutch brah." Etc.

/Snore

League has become more about inflating both egos and vicarious egos rather than simply offering great gameplay. You can thank LCS, Streamers, and Top Play clips for this decline.

The Bad Touch4/30/2018, 11:25:57 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Key stones - fulfil XXX battle conditions for extra power. Champions rise and fall depending on synergy with keystones, Keystones promote generalisations and they're flashy ( you can literally envision an LCS shoutcaster screaming about how Phase Rush has activated and XX is going to be impossibly hard to peel now or about whether YYY will land that 3rd ability/auto to proc electrocute)

Jungle Plants - gimmicky, again contributes to generalisation as now most every champion has access to a variety of gank paths or a cheeky dragon/baron steal, whereas such flexibility used to be limited to a select few mobile champions. (again, you can literally imagine a LCS shoutcaster screaming about whether XX will make it to the blast plant to survive or YYY will be able to use the blast cone for an objective steal/sneaky gank that shouldn't be accessibly to him in the first place)

RNG Dragons - HUGE gimmick. Games can literally be decided by which dragon spawns first. The dragons give generalist stats that interfere with the strengths/weaknesses of champions and AGAIN promotes what? You guessed it, generalisation.

First Blood Tower - Man, back when I used to peep at the LCS every now and again I remember casters screaming about who would get the first turret in a lane-swap like it was the best thing ever...I honestly wouldn't have a big problem with FB tower if not for the fact that, for some reason, Bot Lanes turret is the squishiest in the game.

Baron. Honestly, bring back the old baron. As of now Baron is simply a gimmick that is being utilised to cover for how imbalanced the game currently is. A lot of winning teams need it to end (because catch-up exp, increase of damage across the board and so on has actually made leads less impactful. With damage how it is when fed you quickly reach a point where you're simply 'over-killing' someone, while the excess of damage and catch-up exp means that people who shouldn't be a threat because of how you've denied them still are'. Or, a losing team gets it and is suddenly back in the game. Either way Baron essentially distorts team comp weaknesses (suddenly a team bad at sieging will be good at it, while a team with great anti-siege will become lack-luster.) Baron was fine as it was. Dragon was fine as it was. The only improvement of the Keystone system is that its free and can be edited in champ select.

Jungle was healthier and more fun to play back in season 4-5. The current scuttle changes being discussed again reek of a gimmick that will simply give some LCS shoutcaster a lot to scream about.

This is my opinion.

I'm also of the opinion that the game should be reverted back to season 4-5, though, so take what I say with a grain of salt I guess?

I'd like to see other peoples opinion on the matter, but personally I feel this game has gotten worse with each passing season.

More like runes can be edited at champ select.. but you never need to because 4 pages literally cover every champion.

SKlNHEAD5/1/2018, 1:01:30 AM1 votes

all of season 4 and the first half of season 5 was perfect. i think if riven/vi/blitz/ori/jinx and champs of this calibur aint meta-ish then leauge is in a questionable state

Risen295/1/2018, 6:10:09 AM1 votes

I dont think anyone here has done an good job of actually defining what a gimmick is.

The best thing you can say about a gimmick is that its meant to attract attention but has no substance behind it.

I do think a lot of the changes Riot has made have been geared towarfs surface level ways of forcing early conflict and ending games quicker in an effort to make the LCS appear more interesting, but the changes dont go very deep in terms of strategy. In many cases you lose deeper strategy in exchange for flashy surface level tactics.

PaladinNO4/30/2018, 11:04:07 PM1 votes

RIP season 3, back when this was a game "for gamers, by gamers". And it was fun to play.

Teemo Gromp4/30/2018, 1:39:02 PM1 votes

Yesterday I wanted to chase an enemy as Bard, so I picked up a nearby chime and followed him through the jungle down the river: I clicked on a plant, on that fruit (that I also picked up and slew me down) and lost a meep at the Scuttler. This shit made me so mad I raged at the screen. You can't click anywhere without triggering random fucking bullshit appearing from out the fog of war.

AquariusGine4/29/2018, 10:25:25 PM1 votes

It's very hard to read your post, can you add a line of space between the paragraphs?

Spârky4/30/2018, 12:34:30 PM1 votes

So the way I look at these so called "gimmicks" is riot doing unorthodox things they haven't done before. So many times I have seen people not like a season and list reasons and then compare them to season 5 and 6. What I have noticed a ton (not saying it applies to you) Is riot went out of their way to make major changes so that the game wouldn't be the same. That's what makes this game so successful is the fact that it is always changing. People loved season 6 as did I but I also love this season. Why? Because I'm not the one to be stuck in the past. I like the challenge of learning the new stuff every patch and the ebb and flow of the game its what got me into it in the first place. It just seems to me people want one meta the way they want it and don't want it to change. I get people don't like change and balance is a subjective thing hence why there will NEVER be a perfect balance. Overall to address one of your points more in depth I think plants were a little something that was a great addition in a time where mobility junglers reigned supreme. So blast cones allow more variety in the jungle role. It isn't that gimmicky because you only have to remember to have someone hit the blast cone by the baron or dragon so it rewards your setup more. Just my thoughts though. I should say I'm a very upbeat person and like the new challenges of league no matter what the change is. I'm not one to complain about something I'd rather figure out what i did wrong and improve to fix it. Just some rambling thoughts from a person who nobody will probably agree with but here it is any way ;D