What I want done with Masteries
Recently I have been in denial about the bad state of masteries. I saw the keystone setup as a nice way to create your playstyle, but then I took another look at them and realized just how locked into place you are. Just look at ferocity- Mages go right, fighters go left. In theory, you have a nice choice of keystones, but some champions are so locked into one keystone that it’s ridiculous. Question is, though, what should be done about them? I personally like the dynamics of keystones, and think that they should be kept in spirit. I once saw an idea where the mastery system would be replaced by just keystones, and it intrigued me.
The idea is that instead of spending 29 little tweaks and 1 on a limited choice of keystones, you spend about 3 points on mildly influential masteries. Each would be about as powerful as the next, and no one single mastery would overpower the others. Currently with keystones, often one will be so much stronger on certain champions that they are almost forced to take it. If given a choice of 3 in 30 masteries, one may appear more often on certain champions, but you still have leeway with the other 2.
I thought I'd try to put this idea to paper, and decided that it must have some general rules to work right.
- You have a choice of 3 out of 30 possible masteries, put into a 3x2 grid. The 3 columns are consistent with the current ferocity/cunning/resolve system.
- 12 of the masteries supplement stats (stronger early game) and 18 scale with the stats you have (stronger late game). These are separated into rows. You can only pick 1 from the first row and 2 from the second. There are no restrictions to which trees you can use, but some masteries are mutually exclusive.
- Each mastery has to affect the way you play each champion, being more efficient if used correctly.
- Most of the masteries help both spellcasters and autoattackers. It gives better selection to everyone.
*Numbers in the format (x-y) scale linearly with level. Now here's my idea for a new mastery tree. It’s not tuned in the least bit, but it gets the idea across.
Ferocity- Top row. Basic combat stats that help in laning phase. Natural Talent: +(6-15) attack damage and (9-22) ability power. Increased by 50% for 2 seconds after killing a unit. Fury- +(10-20)% attack speed and 5% current/max cooldown reduction. Doubled for 2 seconds after killing a unit. Precision- +10 lethality and (4-10) magic penetration. Single target abilities/attacks deal 5-10 extra damage to minions and monsters. Viscious- +20% damage to minions and monsters.
Cunning- Top row. Passives with visibility that help with harass. Fresh Blood- Damaging a champion causes them to take an extra (10-40) damage, of the same type as the damaging spell/attack. 6 sec cd. Predator- Damaging an enemy champion grants you (10-20)% movement speed for one second. 6 sec cd. Bloodthirsty- Multi-target abilities that kill units apply overkill damage to the next unit. Instantaneous abilities apply that damage to the highest health enemy hit. Max damage: 50% of ability's premitigation damage to that unit, 25% against champions. Runic affinity- Buffs from neutral monsters last 20% longer and are 20% stronger.
Resolve- Top row. Increases lane sustain. Confidence- Killing a unit gives you a small shield (10-30) for 10 seconds. Shields stack infinitely, but stacks expire independently. Perseverance- +50% base health regeneration, increased to 100% below 50% health and 150% when below 25% health. +50% base mana regeneration. Siegemaster- +(10-30) armor and magic resist while near an allied tower. Tough Skin- Take 5 less damage from all sources except DOT's. Reduced to 2 against minions. Applies before resistances.
Ferocity- Bottom row. Amplifies damage. Warlord's Bloodlust- heal for up to 15% of damage dealt to enemies, based on missing health. Reduced by 50% against minions or with multi-target spells. Ambush- Deal 10% extra damage for 3 seconds upon entering combat with champions. 10 sec cd. Does not apply to first instance of damage if you strike first. Battle Trance- Deal up to 10% extra damage, increasing over 5 seconds in combat with champions. Heavyweight- Basic attacks deal 1% of your max health as physical damage on-hit. 1 sec cd. Battering Blows- 10% armor and magic penetration. Double Edged Sword- Deal 10% extra damage, and take 5% extra damage.
Cunning- Bottom Row. Passives that provide utility or conditional damage. Thunderlord’s decree- Same as live, but with base damage reduced to (5-90). (25-15) sec per-target cd. Chain Lightning- AOE non-targeted abilities that damage more than one enemy champion deal an additional (5-90) +30% ad +20% ap to all targets hit. (25-15) sec per-target cd. Cannot be taken with thunderlords. Expose Weakness Basic attacks mark one enemy champion to take 10% more damage from your allies. 50% strength for ranged attacks. Stormraider’s Surge- Same as live Oppressor- Inflicting hard cc on a champion slows them for 99% beginning when the cc ends, decaying to 0 over one second. 5 sec per-target cd. Merciless- Deal 10% more damage to enemies under 50% health, but 5% less damage to enemies to enemies above that amount.
Resolve- Bottom Row. Masteries that actually help with defense. Grasp of the Undying- Every 2 seconds in combat with champions, empowers your basic attacks to steal 1% of your max health. Courage of the colossus- Landing hard cc on an enemy champion consumes a stack of Courage to shield you for (15-100) + 2% of your max health per enemy champion nearby for 3 seconds. Stacks generate every 30 seconds, 2 stack limit. Defiance- Taking damage from enemy champions twice in under 10 seconds heals you for 5% max health. 20 sec cd. Windspeaker’s blessing- Same as live Unyielding- +10% bonus armor and mr, and +5% bonus health. Savior- Basic attacks mark one enemy champion, making them deal 5% less damage to allied champions. 50% strength for ranged attacks.
Look through, think of your favorite champion and what masteries you would take. Would you enjoy a game with this mastery system? Would you feel that you have a lot more choices? You may wonder why they’re all so strong (and they may very well need some tuning down), but remember you can only pick 3 of them. It’s less secret 5% extra stats, and all 3 will be visible to everyone. Also, most champions can take most of the masteries, especially the top 12. For each choice you make, you know that you could take several alternatives. The power of each mastery also changes per matchup. If the enemy Caitlyn is hitting hard with Natural Talent, you know that you could take siegemaster and noticeably cut down on her sieging power. I also changed the scaling on thunderlords to make it weaker on champions that don’t put a lot of gold into offense.