Should Flash Be Removed/Changed? [Video + Suggestions]

el zanko··1 votes·490 views

In this video, "Necrit" points out the negative aspects of flash, and asks the following question: Should flash be removed? I wanted to put this up for debate, as well as propose a solution to what seems to annoy players like Necrit.

[Necrit's opinion summarised] When Riot introduced summoner spells, they introduced a pretty wide variety of unique spells. They were aimed at making the game more flexible, so that players could play their champions however they wanted. However with time, some of these spells predominated the others, namely : flash, ignite, and teleport. (He doesn't mention smite because of its particular role in the game) Because these spells are available to everyone, using these spells kind of goes back and forth. Flashing in for the kill, enemy flashes out as well. Some might think this is not too much of a problem, but low mobility champions such as Kog'Maw have a very difficult time dealing with flash engages, even if the player has flash himself, the escape potential gained for Kog'Maw in outweighed by the opposing champion's chase potential. Many champions that rely on summoner spells to be viable have therefore a reduced skillcap.

His solution is the REMOVAL of flash.

[My idea for a solution] A potential solution would be a nerf to Flash's cooldown, but with a twist. I believe that if Flash's cooldown was increased significantly by default and remain that way throughout the game, the same problem would occur with champions dependant on Flash to do well. Instead of giving Flash a flat nerf, a possible alternative would be to increase general cooldown, but have it reduce as live games go on. The cooldown of flash could be determined my the game's average champion level or simply by time. Side note: I think having Flash scale with individual champion level is not necessarily a bad idea but would require careful balancing to avoid snowballing.

4 Comments

Sasogwa1 votes

So the video says Galio would be garbage without flash but doesn't give any actual solution to that problem. Also it doesn't talk about flash cooldown managing, it acts like everyone has flash everytime, so basically every time one burns flash; the other burns it too, to counter it. Yet that's not true. You can force a flash without using yours. Some champions also have great impact spells if they flash that can't be flashed out unless you have insane reflexes (Galio, Amumu are examples). Sure, you could bandage toss for amumu, it's still way longer. Also the absence of flash would favor even more mobile champions/ kite champions because it's extremely hard to get them without the use of a flash, to finish them off for instance. Removing flash would cause huge balance issues, and I think we're already too much in a balance mess to even consider it to change in the close future.

el zanko1 votes

Points taken and understood :) What do you think of my solution though?

Lugg1 votes

I think Flash should only be allowed on champions that don't have a dash or flash like ability that allows them to go thru walls. This would help even the playing field for the low mobility champions.

AquaticSolstice1 votes

Every champ should have Flash. But not as an ability. It should be automatically on every single champ.

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