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Teleport Fix Idea: Nerf the Pro-Plays, Increase the Fun

ModThe Djinn··75 votes·16,905 views

Hey all!

Recently a friend and I were tossing around thoughts on Teleport, a Summoner Spell that has warped gameplay around itself for quite a while. A little upset to see its utility as a cross-map tactical tool nerfed as a result of the over-sized effect it can have on teamfights and the ability to threaten other objects yet show up at a moment's notice, we took a spin at a fix that we think keeps a lot of what makes Teleport fun while putting a higher cost on the biggest, most game-defining moments it can create.

Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

#Suggested Adjustments

  • Teleport only targets allied towers or allied/enemy dead towers (excepting towers within the enemy base).
  • Cooldown lowered from 360 seconds to 280 seconds. Reactivating Teleport, issuing an attack command in the vicinity of the start location, or casting a spell cancels it. Issuing attack or movement commands around the destination location queues those commands up for once the Teleport completes.
  • Channel time reduced to 3 seconds.
  • A new non-keystone rune Wayfarer is added to the Inspiration tree on the Contraption tier (alongside Stopwatch, Magical Footwear, and Hextech Flashtraption). This rune empowers Teleport every 10 minutes (starting at 5 minutes). When Teleport is empowered and off cooldown, you may cast Teleport to target an allied minion or ward with a 50% increased channel time. This consumes the empowered effect, and starts the cooldown for the next empowered effect.

#Design Rationale

  • Teleport only targets allied towers or allied/enemy dead towers This retains a lot of the gameplay that non-pro players currently use Teleport for: responding to split-pushes, threatening objectives, and getting back in lane after being stomped. What it cuts down on heavily is the ability to push a lane or threaten an objection while still responding quickly to a fight or gank in progress elsewhere on the map, which is where Teleport often gets out of hand. A top laner who wishes to influence bottom lane, for example, must now either walk there or arrive at tower and reveal himself/herself on the approach. The expansion of the valid targets to enemy dead towers is a reward for greater map control, and retains the use of Teleport to push deep objectives and join allies in the mid-to-late game.

  • ** Cooldown lowered from 360 seconds to 280 seconds. Reactivating Teleport, issuing an attack command in the vicinity of the start location, or casting a spell cancels it. Issuing attack or movement commands around the destination location queues those commands up for once the Teleport completes.**

  • Channel time reduced to 3 seconds. These changes may be overly aggressive, but could be adjusted back up if needed. With Teleport more restricted in flexibility, however, it seemed reasonable to let it be used a bit more often and a bit more swiftly. Astute observers will note two additional changes: cancelling Teleport no longer lowers the cooldown, and movement commands no longer interrupt it. The former is to put a bit more cost on threatening a Teleport to end a teamfight, while the latter is simply a quality-of-life change in the case of accidental misclicks.

  • A new non-keystone rune Wayfarer is added to the Inspiration tree on the Contraption tier (alongside Stopwatch, Magical Footwear, and Hextech Flashtraption). This rune empowers Teleport every 10 minutes (starting at 5 minutes). When Teleport is empowered and off cooldown, you may cast Teleport to target an allied minion or ward with a 50% increased channel time. This consumes the empowered effect, and starts the cooldown for the next empowered effect. The addition of this rune allows us to let people buy into the ability to increase Teleport's versatility and get back the current gameplay, at the cost of rune investment and forgoing some other appealing options. It has multiple balancing points, including the time per empowerment, whether the cooldown starts when the empowerment is gained or when the empowered effect is used, what time it comes on, and what the channel time is. It's introduction means that you still have to worry about Teleport ganks when it is taken, but the frequency decreases to 50% of what it is in a current game, resulting in Teleport retaining some of its current power for ganks while gaining more strategic power in teleporting to towers. This allows pro players to seize those moments, while creating larger windows of opportunity when they are baited out or the effect is down.

#Updates/Concerns

#1 -- This might lead to deaths not being enough of a setback. In that case there are a few possible solutions:

  • Teleport is unavailable for the first X minutes of a match.
  • Teleport has an increased cooldown in general.
  • Teleport has a time limit on how often it can target the same tower.
  • Teleport grants you reduced experience for X seconds after using it (clunky, but addresses the issue).
  • Teleport has a death lock-out of 10-15 seconds.

#2 -- This may enable characters using Teleport to simply survive in lane too well, or swap lanes too frequently to avoid conflict and farm for the late game. Possible solution uncertain at this time.

50 Comments

Fízz v215 votes

I feel like this would either kill TP or force every top laner to go Inspiration tho.

ModThe Djinn4 votes

[{quoted}](name=Fízz v2,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=g0ELbyaR,comment-id=0003,timestamp=2018-07-27T01:05:40.330+0000)

I feel like this would either kill TP or force every top laner to go Inspiration tho.

Well, it kills one type of TP play, yes. It actually increases your ability to jump between towers though, so late-game your map reach is actually still pretty high -- you just pay a potential higher price for it by having a more limited scope of arrival points.

Forcing every top laner to go Inspiration was a concern, and it's why the effect is only usable 50% of the time that it is currently, with more obvious indications of when it's up. That should reduce the raw value of that selection and make it a bit more strategic, although it's possible that the exact numbers would need further tuning.

Z3Sleeper6 votes

Nah I'd easily take this TP and never touch that Inspiration Rune. Not everyone is looking to TP directly into bot lane or baron, some of us save it for doing the exact opposite (TP'ing out of a lane or a baron contest to go to another lane).

I've won so many games by baiting a baron and instead of doing a 5v5 turn, I simply TP to a wave near a turret and mow down the enemy base. This wouldn't change much of that due to the reduced channel time and the distance between towers not being that far off from a wave crashing into a tower.

Wacky98 votes

This is the opposite of what Rito didn't like about Teleport. They explicitly stated that their issue was people coming back too quick after being killed. Teleport should be used for taking objectives and split-pushing, not recovering from making mistakes and dying. The issue was that after being killed, they would just TP back into lane and prevent you from pushing tower. Unless you kill them within the cooldown window, you won't be able to push. It's better that TP doesn't let people cover their asses after making mistakes and getting killed. The negative effect is that you can't easily TP into objectives to take them. All this change would do is make it easier for players to not get punished for dying instead of letting them take objectives easier which is what TP should be used for.

(Also this would be a huge buff to champions with teleports like TwistedFate and TahmKench )

ModThe Djinn3 votes

This is the opposite of what Rito didn't like about Teleport. They explicitly stated that their issue was people coming back too quick after being killed.

Do you know where this was said? I may have missed this comment.

Wacky91 votes

"Teleport has emerged as a dominant summoner spell in most lanes. This is particularly problematic bot lane, where it's often taken on champions who simply wish to avoid conflict in the laning phase and scale into the late game. For now, we're increasing the cooldown to give combat summoners a longer window in which to punish Teleport users"

This is what the patch notes said. Their problem was always with the use of TP in lane rather than the use of TP for taking objectives. I will point out that what I said doesn't exactly mesh with what Rito said here because it's clear that they dislike the use of TP to simply recall when you're low and get right back into lane. They're both problems and they are somewhat different but with the similar effect of allowing for high lane safety for anyone who takes TP.

ModThe Djinn1 votes

{quoted}

"Teleport has emerged as a dominant summoner spell in most lanes. This is particularly problematic bot lane, where it's often taken on champions who simply wish to avoid conflict in the laning phase and scale into the late game. For now, we're increasing the cooldown to give combat summoners a longer window in which to punish Teleport users"

This is what the patch notes said. Their problem was always with the use of TP in lane rather than the use of TP for taking objectives. I will point out that what I said doesn't exactly mesh with what Rito said here because it's clear that they dislike the use of TP to simply recall when you're low and get right back into lane. They're both problems and they are somewhat different but with the similar effect of allowing for high lane safety for anyone who takes TP.

Thanks!

Not quite the same thing, but definitely something that this fails to sufficiently address. That said, I disagree that the use of TP to threaten objectives and enable 4-man ganks has never been an issue.

I'll take a look at this though, and I appreciate you tracking it down!

Fermi Paradox5 votes

but if that's their issue, why didn't they try setting teleport on cooldown for maybe 30 seconds after respawning?

ModKnightsKemplar7 votes

I really like this; the ability to teleport to wards seems like a really fair thing to restrict.

I do think, for clarity, that there should be visual indicators for the enemy team so that they know, before you teleport to a ward, that you took this rune. Some kind of glow or something when the rune is active would be nice; I think that's a fair trade for the power it provides.

ModThe Djinn5 votes

{quoted}I do think, for clarity, that there should be visual indicators for the enemy team so that they know, before you teleport to a ward, that you took this rune. Some kind of glow or something when the rune is active would be nice; I think that's a fair trade for the power it provides.

Agree. For one, the empowered Teleport would have a different icon or color on the tab board, and your character might indicate an empowered effect of some kind.

Andrey03452 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Djinn,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=g0ELbyaR,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2018-07-27T00:24:50.708+0000)

Agree. For one, the empowered Teleport would have a different icon or color on the tab board, and your character might indicate an empowered effect of some kind.

Yeah, just like Hexflash.

LatetotheRace7 votes

No thank you.

ModThe Djinn5 votes

{quoted}

No thank you.

Out of curiousity, what are your issues/concerns?

S0kaX6 votes

Inb4 this thread gets hundreds of likes and comments, but no comment from RITO.

Bobanamunjub5 votes

Sounds like splitpushers would just get even more obnoxious. Imagine a tryndamere with no vision control just TPing to your inner turret's ruins and winning the game while you're seiging his inhibs

ModThe Djinn2 votes

{quoted}

Sounds like splitpushers would just get even more obnoxious. Imagine a tryndamere with no vision control just TPing to your inner turret's ruins and winning the game while you're seiging his inhibs

Yeah, I recently limited it to enemy lane towers only (and only fallen towers) just so you get more warning against that. That's still a lot of backdooring potential, but you can currently do that with wards or minions as well without too much trouble.

swimcris1114 votes

Idea makes too much sense, Riot would never go for it.

Baval4 votes

personally i like the idea, but Riot wont because they have for the last few years had a focus on making games faster and this idea puts teleport solidly into primary use as a defensive tool. (RIP Fortify)

redniwediS3 votes

issuing an attack command, or casing a spell cancels it.

This is the only part I don't like. Not that I wouldn't get used to it, but as it stands I and I'm sure others spam movement commands in the last second of TP channeling. Not a particularly big concern, but a misclick could lead to a pretty big headache.

ModThe Djinn2 votes

{quoted}

This is the only part I don't like. Not that I wouldn't get used to it, but as it stands I and I'm sure others spam movement commands in the last second of TP channeling. Not a particularly big concern, but a misclick could lead to a pretty big headache.

I was under the impression that movement commands would currently cancel Teleport, but I don't typically enter them while teleporting so I'm unsure. Either way, you can still move -- just not issue attack commands. Additionally, I'd say issuing attack or movement commands around the point of arrival would queue them up rather than cancel the effect -- I'll call that out. Good catch.

VexingRaven3 votes

allied/enemy dead towers.

Uh, can you say backdooring?

ModThe Djinn2 votes

{quoted}

Uh, can you say backdooring?

I just exempted towers within the enemy base, yeah, 'cause you're right that this is a bit easy otherwise. But some back dooring potential is intended.

Joseph Gladstone3 votes

i like how players balance the game better than riot

R0XTAR2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Joseph Gladstone,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=g0ELbyaR,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2018-07-27T04:27:02.804+0000)

i like how players balance the game better than riot

Meh, only better than certain Rioters, but tis okay. I still play the game...

3TWarrior3 votes

riot always seems to have issues with teleport

if their goal is to make it just where you can't get back into lane after dying, why not impose a penalty onto the summoner spell that does just that, so they can't teleport within a short time after death

summoner spells are basically abilities after all, so all it needs is some tweaking

Salson3 votes

Rito hire this man.

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Laceration2 votes

Instant teleport would be a get out of jail free card and heavily abused by any champ who isnt keystone reliant. You'd have to add a restriction to that mechanics like being out of combat for at least 10 seconds

edit: realized it wasnt even a keystone. I think it would just be too powerful since you could splash it on any champ that uses tp and wouldnt solve the main issues with tp

HalcyonDweller2 votes

{quoted}

This is actually brilliant!! <3

I concur, props for the numerous tuning levers and for creating opportunities for more interesting strategies!

Glory to God2 votes

I'm sorry but I'll have to disagree. Besides the fact that this will encourage boring, get-to-lane-faster usage further, the idea of a rune that's SO niche is absolutely terrible. Hextech Flashtraption exists because in 9/10 games every player will have Flash as one of their summoner spells.

mikemcparty1 votes

But wouldn't this increase the use of TP? I feel like the general view at this point in time is that games are VERY snowbally and turrets are falling too early. Two players on a team taking TP would fix this issue, as they would be able to defend turrets easier and prevent the four man bot crash.

TheDevice2 votes

Wow I like how this idea completely shits on top laners but gives mid laners some wiggle room. Very nice.

Here's an interesting question: why is everyone so caught up with tp being popular when everyone has pretty much settled with the fact that 9/10 you are taking X/Flash spells? Flash is overused.... aaaaaand nobody cares.

ModThe Djinn1 votes

Here's an interesting question: why is everyone so caught up with tp being popular when everyone has pretty much settled with the fact that 9/10 you are taking X/Flash spells? Flash is overused.... aaaaaand nobody cares.

In this particular case, because I had an idea to tweak Teleport before I had one to resolve Flash. Flash is a bit more ingrained in the core design of the game, and a lot of kits are designed around it's existence, so tweaking it is much harder as a result.

R0XTAR1 votes

This is actually brilliant!! <3

Jofeyy1 votes

Great ideas. Its a shame people have to do riots job for them it seems.

Nice job :)

PICKLE RICK REEE1 votes

or make it so you can only teleport to minions or wards and reduce the cd to 240 seconds can return to lane with it but increases the risk since the lane opponent can prep increases skill cap on it essentially also makes it harder to stop split pushers which makes split pushing a more viable option

IDEMO NA MUDA1 votes

Good idea overall, but i think 2.25 seconds for channeling is small amount of time. I'd put it on 3.5 and call it quits. 2 reasons. 1st, some people won't necessarily take the new rune you have invented and small channeling time is just useless ( when it comes to going back to lane quickly ).

Yaskamasandwich1 votes

Hmmm I don't think these changes would be good. This would cause the old problems that when you killed off a champion they would just tp back to lane. It was a huge issue laning vs Nasus back then. That's one of the reasons why the cooldown was steadily increased to 300 before 360 nerf. Maybe all Teleport needs is to have the cooldown reduced to 300 when teleporting to an allied turret. Even that may cause other problems.

mikemcparty2 votes

When was that a problem? Been playing since s3 and never thought that was the general thought?

However, there IS a problem with turrets being blown up after one death in lane after about 8 minutes or so of playing. That would be alleviated with this fix... At least partially.

Yaskamasandwich1 votes

{quoted}

When was that a problem? Been playing since s3 and never thought that was the general thought?

However, there IS a problem with turrets being blown up after one death in lane after about 8 minutes or so of playing. That would be alleviated with this fix... At least partially.

It was a brief stint during season 4, pre season I believe too, when Nasus top was unbeatable because teleport's short CD. Something I did take advantage of as well heh. I can't remember the patch the cooldown was increased to 300 seconds, but patch 4.10 was increased to 240 seconds. Patch 4.1 was when Nasus' Wither range got double nerfed. Which destroyed his late game. Withering the enemy carry from the front line was a game changer. Especially since Mercurial Scimitar didn't exist until patch 4.3 I believe.

mikemcparty2 votes

So what you are saying is because there was one champion that abused this (the abuse is based more on his kit and not the spell itself), you are making a blanket statement that a change to teleport would be bad...

Yaskamasandwich1 votes

{quoted}

So what you are saying is because there was one champion that abused this (the abuse is based more on his kit and not the spell itself), you are making a blanket statement that a change to teleport would be bad...

Nasus is just one example, it was even worse on lane bullies like Renekton. Usually lane bully wins trade and slays you. Recalls and teleports back with an even bigger item, and continues the beatdown. When it was 240 it was nearly impossible to make any progress. Even with your jungler's help, their jungler could halt your progression, or since teleport was up most of the time, just teleport back. You wouldn't even touch the turret. Maybe now would be different since top lane isn't an island anymore really. While yes 360 is too high of a cool down for current teleport, but 240 was too low, 300 was good enough.

That and teleporting on fallen enemy turrets? That would bring split pushing to a obscene level. Top lane would only have split pushers.

Leonerdo1 votes

Teleporting to towers for tempo is the least interesting use case of teleport, IMO, so your fundamental goals are not what I would've picked. At least it's a thought-out and well-written post.

ModThe Djinn1 votes

{quoted}

Teleporting to towers for tempo is the least interesting use case of teleport, IMO, so your fundamental goals are not what I would've picked. At least it's a thought-out and well-written post.

You can teleport to towers for more than tempo here though -- bot lane, mid lane, and fallen enemy towers all become available. Your map-wide mobility is still actually pretty good, and I suspect that people would find ways to use and excel with this spell.

RankOneUganda1 votes

make teleport have a radius. non global. there is the fix.

FrozenFrostFyre1 votes

My only concern is the teleporting to dead towers thing in regard to shutting down or going behind a splitpusher without getting any wards behind them. Maybe any Ally minions controlled dead tower ?Seems to me that would be perfect.

SanKakU1 votes

Not being able to teleport to wards would kill it for me. I wouldn't think top laners reliable for helping with anything now if they take teleport that got nerfed that hard. Preventing teleporting to minions? I'm sold on that at least. I hate people being able to deny me killing a minion just by teleporting to it.

Prince S Jeager1 votes

A possible fix to using Teleport as a split pushing tool could be punishing the user if they use it aggressively. So maybe extending the cooldown of the Teleport per tier of turret closer to the enemy nexus (excluding enemy nexus turrets). Maybe you could even lower the cooldown (per tier) for using it defensively on your turrets. So there could be "5 or 7" (x3 and for each lane and technically it's 15 or 21) different turret tiers you can teleport to that will alter the spells cooldown.

Here's what it would look like having all 7 (technically 21) options available:

1 - Ally Nexus / Nexus Turrets (yes I believe we should be able to teleport to our own nexus)

Teleport Cooldown down by 20%

2 - Ally Inhibitor / Inhibitor Turrets (Inhibs are our structures too)

Teleport Cooldown down by 15%

3 - Ally tier two turrets

Teleport Cooldown down by 10%

4 - Ally tier one turrets

Teleport Cooldown Stays the same

5 - Enemy tier one turrets

Teleport Cooldown up by 15%

6 - Enemy tier two turrets

Teleport Cooldown up by 30%

7 - Enemy Inhibitor turrets

Teleport Cooldown up by 45%

Remove 1 and 7 from the list and you have the 5 (technically 15) list. Also i'm not to good with the numbers but what I put made the most sense to me

Let me know what you think of this here little idea~

~Prince S Jeager A.K.A. Pull Out God

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