Boards›Gameplay

On kill stealing

Karunamon··1 votes·662 views

Just wanted to get people's thoughts on this.

I, as an unranked by choice, probably bronze 3 or 4 skill player, find that stealing kills gets a lot more hate than it otherwise should.

Pretend you're a jungler for a minute, and bot manages to burn down a significant portion of the enemy laner's health after they overextended. They're headed back up the lane, running home, one chasing the other, both champions having already burned flash. You now have a decision to make: you're in the jungle closest to where the enemy is running to. if you jump out in front of them you will certainly get the kill. Your ADC is ranged, so if the other guy misclicks, they're toast.

You believe your ADC isn't going to secure the kill - no flash, no gap close. You jump out and nail the guy. ADC immediately flames you in chat "omg ks!!!!1".

Burning questions:

  • Should you have done that?
  • Is kill stealing a big deal? (What's more important: That the enemy dies, or who kills him?)
  • How can you deal with a player who's upset that you "stole" or stole their kill?

20 Comments

Revali4 votes

In my eyes

ks just spreads more gold around the team.

moneys money.

Handy Sandy 2 votes

KS Does not matter, people are just greedy and want to carry all the time. People need to** LEARN HOW TO BE EQUAL WITH THE REST OF THEIR TEAM, OR LEARN HOW TO BE CARRIED**. As long as someone on the enemy team dies, it doesn't matter. Have some trust in your teammates for once.

OneMustFall1 votes

Always secure kills that you're unsure your teammate can get. But don't come in late to a 1v1 and KS when it's obvious your teammate had the kill, that's bushleague.

Karunamon1 votes

{quoted}

Always secure kills that you're unsure your teammate can get. But don't come in late to a 1v1 and KS when it's obvious your teammate had the kill, that's bushleague.

Sometimes that's not always clear either, especially when there's a chance health is going down at the same rate that your guy will die. So again you have to decide: secure a kill you know you can get, and eliminate any possibility of feeding the enemy, or stay back due to risk of annoying your laner.

It seems like the sane thing to do is always blast the enemy whenever you can do so with impunity, but people always scream about kill stealing. I'm wondering if that's even a thing, or if it's wood-league tier complaining about "muh kill ratio" when team score is more important.

OneMustFall1 votes

{quoted}

Sometimes that's not always clear either, especially when there's a chance health is going down at the same rate that your guy will die. So again you have to decide: secure a kill you know you can get, and eliminate any possibility of feeding the enemy, or stay back due to risk of annoying your laner.

It seems like the sane thing to do is always blast the enemy whenever you can do so with impunity, but people always scream about kill stealing. I'm wondering if that's even a thing, or if it's wood-league tier complaining about "muh kill ratio" when team score is more important.

Whole idea of the 1v1 is to see who's the more skilled of the two players. You coming in and disrupting that is gonna get people pissed off and rightfully so.

Also if you're taking kills from your ADC and sticking them on your low damage Jungler, you're also hurting your team and preventing your ADC from scaling harder and potentially snowballing their lane. It's very common in LCS games to see teams intentionally try to get their ADCs or Mid Laner fed because they need gold the most.

TTK Dreadnought1 votes

Whole idea of the 1v1 is to see who's the more skilled of the two players.

This is a big thing for me. i'll have a random jungler want to gank my top lane and i tell them to leave me alone until i request it. its because i'm judging their timing, skill and looking for patterns i can abuse during a fight.

zlumpy1 votes

Right up until they are dueling and the "losing side" manages two consecutive crits that net him a kill I could have prevented.

Sometimes you just gotta be safe and then use the faster kill time for more uptime doing an objective. Sometimes killing someone 2 seconds faster is the difference in a dragon or a tower.

EndlessSorcerer1 votes

Actually, taking the kill in that situation (or at least getting an assist) would be better for your team.

Otherwise, the assist gold is just lost entirely.

Risk of Fate1 votes

Personally, I do get miffed when a kill or two are taken from me, but in the long run I think "They're dead, that means we can push an objective." This isn't Call of Duty. If you're worried about your KDA, go elsewhere. What ticks me off more is "Oh, your score is 3-7 which makes you unskilled." I'm a support and you jerks leave me to die at dragon after pinging it....

Anyway, those who think Kills = Skill, I'd rather trust the person with A) Least amount of deaths and B) has taken more objectives or the guy who runs around the map looking to make his score look good.

MagicFlyingLlama1 votes

Killstealing is a nonissue.

The team gets the same amount of gold, and if you "steal" a kill you would otherwise not get an assist for, the team gets more gold.

hureNNN1 votes

there is a reason no one gives a shit the higher elo you go up.

literally the only way you can piss someone off by kill stealing, is if youre walking up to your solo laner in the early game who is clearly winning the 1v1, has burned ignite/flash and you come in and just take it. the problem isn't you were selfish, it's that you've essentially lost the lane for your teammate. they've sacrificed major resources in order to build a lead, and you've taken it from them. they now are relatively even with their opponent as far as gold is concerned, just less summoners, and if the opponent is running tp while your teammate has ignite, you've just set him behind significantly.

this is literally the only situation where it's not acceptable.

Matezoide1 votes

KS itself is bad.

But the problem is that people dont understand what KS is. It is perfectly fine for a Support to get a kill when he is going all-in with the ADC, you should almost never stop attacking in a serious fight. To complain about this is just idiotic.

What can be considered bad is when someone blows a flash just to get a random kill on a defenseless target.

Karunamon1 votes

{quoted}

What can be considered bad is when someone blows a flash just to get a random kill on a defenseless target.

A defenseless target with nothing stopping them from running back to fountain?

Anyways, it appears we have consensus here ([slayer-pantheon-rainbows]) so the next question is how to deal with someone who got tilted that you KSed them. Telling someone to calm down works precisely zero out of zero times, and I have had no luck trying to explain this to people (look man, they died, you didn't, we're ahead).

How does one deal with people who are annoyed over a non-annoyance?

RogueWill1 votes

{quoted}

A defenseless target with nothing stopping them from running back to fountain?

Anyways, it appears we have consensus here ([slayer-pantheon-rainbows]) so the next question is how to deal with someone who got tilted that you KSed them. Telling someone to calm down works precisely zero out of zero times, and I have had no luck trying to explain this to people (look man, they died, you didn't, we're ahead).

How does one deal with people who are annoyed over a non-annoyance?

you apologize even if you don't mean it "sorry bro, I wasn't sure you would get it/ I though he woudl get away' as long as it doesn't happen quite often you should be fine

OneMustFall1 votes

{quoted}

A defenseless target with nothing stopping them from running back to fountain?

Anyways, it appears we have consensus here ([slayer-pantheon-rainbows]) so the next question is how to deal with someone who got tilted that you KSed them. Telling someone to calm down works precisely zero out of zero times, and I have had no luck trying to explain this to people (look man, they died, you didn't, we're ahead).

How does one deal with people who are annoyed over a non-annoyance?

A non-annoyance to you is not an non-annoyance to them. If you're looking to go around KSing people and not have people get pissed off, it won't happen. Especially if they were even with the guy and could have been ahead and now you've taken away their advantage. The "Oops didn't think you were gonna get it" might defuse them or it might not. If they go on to win lane, it's probably a moot point but if they lose lane on an obvious KS, there is no defusing that flame.

Matezoide1 votes

Yeah thats what i meant. Someone that obviously cant get any help or escape, and even then, this only really applies when the person blows a high CD (Like a flash or an Ult) just to get the kill on a low priority target.

Anyway, the best way to untilt someone from getting mad at KSing is by being friendly, and trying to be reasonable. Something like ''Hey, at least you didnt die'', or ''I was just trying to help, i am sorry'' are probably the better ways, but you cant do too much about this.

You cant control people. Unfortunately, just like some people might run mid and feed after dying in lane, or because someone took a minion, people might do it over KS too. There is no sure way.

RogueWill1 votes

If I can let my teamates get the kill I usually will let them, I tend to play tanks or utility based champions anyway so is the same to me if I get a bunch of kills or assists to me. Here is the exception when I will try to actively KS is if y teammate is incredible fed (think 5-0) and I'm slightly behind or barely equal, then I will go for the KS since it will probably benefit me more than my teammate. The only thing better than a fed player on your team is a fed team, so if someone has a big enough lead already, they should share part of it since having all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. The other case is when someone is incredible behing (think 0-5). Lets be honest, if by that point he didn't go for a tanky/utility build chances are he is already useless and 1 more kill won't change that so is better to direct that gold to somewhere that could be used.

There are also times when I will attack without concern about who gets the end kill, I might get the kill I might not, that's not the original though. My teammate is dueling someone, is really close and I'm uncertain who will win, then I attack. I have sometimes end up "killing" my teammate by trying to let him take the kill so now unless I'm certain my teammate will not die I attack until the enemy is dead. Some people will see this as KS so I politely say after this "sorry, I wasn't sure you would win that trade" if happens once or twice on a game usually they won't rage over it.

Teh Song1 votes

This is a team game. Kill stealing does not exist.

Besides, it's team gold that matters, not individual gold. A kill & an assist is better than a kill alone.

The only form of "kill stealing" that is legitimately a thing is a support taking all the CS. If the support happens to get the final on a champion, that's fine. Support's shouldn't be trying to get the final hit, but it doesn't matter if they do. Team gold goes up the same amount regardless of who got the kill/assist.

Astôlfo1 votes

I'd just ignore the ADC. There's no such thing as "stealing" unless you burn something like Flash or a spell to get it when they obviously could have finished them off (low enough health + in range/some DoT/CC/etc), but even then, it's just a dick move rather than "stealing". It secures it for the team as a whole.

L0ve Is Blue1 votes

Is the enemy dead? Yes.

Did someone on the team earn money? Yes.

Are you getting advantage over the enemy team by killing someone? Yes.

Whatever happens, its never a bad thing for your team so nothing has to be said about it and keep the game rolling. Its a team game for a reason, you win as a team and if you absolutely need to have kills to perform well you are simply bad with your champion. A skilled player can be usefull even when behind in kills and KS is not an excuse for your poor performance.

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by Karunamon

Stop calling every poor call or stupid death "inting"
Gameplay138 comments
127
votes
On 'thin skins' and 'SJWs' and other tired, toxic player talking points
Player Behavior141 comments
85
votes
Meanwhile, over in DOTA land:
Player Behavior98 comments
66
votes
A quick visual guide to the reporting system
Player Behavior44 comments
56
votes
(Rant) Riot, your system makes it very hard to maintain principles of good sportsmanship
Player Behavior87 comments
52
votes
If I were God Emperor of Riot and could do whatever I wanted for season 10..
Gameplay85 comments
49
votes