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Gameplay Change Idea: "Boots Only Slot" aka 7th slot

Chønklord··2 votes·558 views
Gameplay Change Idea: "Boots Only Slot" aka 7th slot * r/leagueoflegends

Introduction I've been pondering this for a while now; as League progresses and changes season to season, we've seen an increase in item variety and champion pools, but we've still been at the static max amount (6) of item slots since I can remember.

It's very often as a carry or mage you end up selling boots in a long drawn out game to get that extra damage item, or as a tank/juggernaut need to sell boots for extra defense. This sacrifices movement speed in a game where mobility creep / champion mobility is at an all time high.

The Concept Create a "7th slot" for the purchased boots ONLY. This can go underneath the trinket slot and will only accept boots and boot upgrades, which frees up the player to have full access to 6 item slots for ITEMS.

Now I know you're probably going to say.... "But if you allow 6 items PLUS boots, the mobility creep will stay the same or even get worse". My answer to that very valid question: Not if you (slightly) nerf boot upgrades alongside this proposed change.

Balancing Things Out This is where the fine-tuning balance changes would need to happen:

  • Lower movespeed on all upgraded boots slightly (maybe -10)
  • Nerf Ninja Tabi damage reduction (to compensate for someone buying a 6th armor/tank item)
  • Other miscellaneous movement speed item movespeed reductions, etc. Since as of patch 7.9 we are seeing an increase in tank item stats and (another) nerf to lethality/armor pen items; I feel this change of essentially creating a "free" extra item slot (by moving boots into its own separate slot) would not affect damage creep much, if at all.

Why move boots into its own slot? After all, right now you can STILL build 6 items, but at the cost of movement speed. This hinders many, many champions that have poor to bad mobility, versus high mobility champions like fiora/lee/graves/scissor woman/et al.

Another great reason for this gameplay change is that I believe it will open up many new builds and build paths for all champions; whilst allowing carries to carry harder, tanks to tank stronger, and assassins to assassinate ... deadlier? Without some champions sacrificing movement ability in favor of a desperately needed 6th item.

It might be a good change toward the end of the season/new season and/or whenever Riot starts their rune/masteries rework.

Thoughts? Comments? Criticism? Post why you think it might be an interesting/good change, or not.

9 Comments

KVbqbFsC8e1 votes

I wouldn't be a fan, damage is already high enough lategame.

Chønklord2 votes

Damage was reduced/nerfed across the board a few patches ago, remember?

It's very rare to see any champ top 50-60k damage on the charts anymore.

Anyway as I stated in the post, nothing is stopping anyone from selling boots to buy a 6th item right now; the trade-off is you lose some mobility or utility from your boots.

The issue is that champions like fiora/camille/etc can sell their boots for a 6th item and still retain extremely high levels of mobility without boots.

Think of it as leveling the mobility playing field so to speak, for the low mobility champions that need to keep boots and also need a 6th item for lategame.

I'll give you an example.... playing Quinn mid/lategame, in ult form I can catch or outrun practically anyone while having 6 full items and no boots.

If someone like... say... Veigar needed to sell boots to get a 6th item to compensate / do more damage, that's immediately an uneven playing field between our two champions; while at least this way, veigar might have a chance of getting away if we both kept default movement speed + 6 items.

Proxy3451 votes

When does a tank ever actually sell their boots? lol Turtle movement speed is useless for initiating fights during late game.

Chønklord1 votes

When you need to tank more.... Like if you had item 3742 item 3512 item 3143 item 3068 item 3105 item 3102 for example.

Tanks aren't supposed to go fast to begin with, they're just there to soak damage and uh... "tank" things.

Champs like Nautilus Maokai Amumu have decent gap closers as well, so it's not like they're stuck out of fights if they sell boots.

There's also item 3800 to help some specific champions gap close without boots.

Rebonack1 votes

I vote remove boots from the game and give everyone 45 more movespeed.

It was a holdover from DotA that never really made any sense in League.

Chønklord1 votes

Mmm that's an interesting option, too.

I do like having boot options though; like the extra MR from item 3111 or damage reduction from Tabi's, etc.

Removal of all boots would necessitate redirecting those upgrade passives somewhere else...

Rebonack1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Bôôsted Bonobo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=m912Jywi,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2017-05-03T05:12:22.932+0000)

Mmm that's an interesting option, too.

I do like having boot options though; like the extra MR from item 3111 or damage reduction from Tabi's, etc.

Removal of all boots would necessitate redirecting those upgrade passives somewhere else...

Bringing over Moonflare would be a solid way of keep Tenacity in the game for Tanks/AP. Something akin to Zypher of old would be a solid means of making Tenacity available to auto-attack focused classes.

With Tabi gone, I feel a better solution would be to improve the functionality of Warden's Mail items (and possibly add some new ones while we're at it, still waiting for a Recurve+Warden's attack speed stealing item) rather than just porting the passive to a new item. The attack speed slow is a more noticeable effect than the invisible damage reduction Tabi offers while doing basically the same thing.

With no Sorcerer's Boots Riot could add a few more magic penetration options to the game. A Haunting Guise upgrade that kicks its pen up to 30 would do the work of boots+Eyes of Pain.

That basically leaves us with the Boots of Mobility effect. I honestly think it would be neat if it were rolled into all the upgraded Jungler items since getting around the map is sort of core to their function.

R1NGW0LF1 votes

so you want everyone to be a cassipoia in a sense?

Chønklord1 votes

Mmm not quite... cass has built-in movespeed whenever she lands a spell or whatever it is (I don't play cass I just know the basics).

This change I feel would just allow low mobility champs to be on the same page with high mobility champs when it comes to the 6th item slot versus boots. The former cannot adequately sell boots and maintain mobility while the former can sell boots and maintain mobility.

Additionally it opens up the game to let everyone be creative with full access to all 6 slots instead of 5 + Boots (and then having to make a decision to sell boots for a 6th item).

Since damage creep was addressed a few patches ago with nerfs to damage across the board on masteries, and I believe Riot said they're still going to fine-tune masteries/runes in an upcoming patch, PLUS the addition / changes of Tank items/stats, PLUS additional items being added almost every season, makes this change more and more realistic, imo.

It's not like you're suddenly going to start doing "tons of damage (hi phreak)" or become "invulnerable" (if you're a tank); it's only going to allow you to do what you can do right now (sell boots for 6th item), but keep your boots' movement speed.

Like I said in the OP, boots would have to be finetuned with balance changes (e.g. nerfing Tabi damage reduction) etc... but I think it's workable.

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