SAVE OUR BOOTS! Patch 6.9 Boot Enchantments Gone?!

Just finished playing some of the latest 6.9 games and playing without boot enchants just feels disgusting. Boot enchants were what kept boots viable items that deserved our late game item slots. Before boot enchants, ADCs would just sell their boots for Zephyrs during end game. Now that we're back to a basic boot system, I wouldn't be surprised if ADCs start selling their boots for again (Season 2 Style). Once again, boots have become midgame items that aren't worth their slots after ~40 minutes. This is a disheartening change I frankly feel came out of nowhere.

Mobility creep has been an issue in LoL for years now, but it's been historically linked to individual champion's kits, not items. If anything, boot enchantments provided counterplay against mobility creep by letting slow/immobile champions purchase a momentary edge over their more mobile opponents. By paying 475 gold and delaying their core build, immobile champions ( , , etc.) could buy additional movement utility, hopefully compensating for their weak positional abilities until their opponents bought similar enhancements. Boot enchants created compelling mid/late game decision choices, such as "Do I need more health to survive longer in the fight, or do I need captain boots so my team can follow up when I engage?" This was HEALTHY decision making that need not have been removed, at least not without a replacement system of some kind.

Mobility creep is relative -it happens when SOME champs get to juke around the map while others do not. Boot enchants were universally available across all boot types and were not limited to any specific build, and consequently contributed little to mobility creep. For example, if EVERY champ buys the Alacrity enchantment, the endgame movement differential cancels out and mobility creep does not occur. Ironically, the new 6.9 Hextech items - namely, the Hextech GLP-800 and Hextech Protobelt-01 - explicitly create mobility creep, because they allow AP bruisers mobility options that other champion types cannot viably build. Personally, I have no problem with the current mobility trends, but if Riot believes that mobility is a problem, they should be targeting exclusive mobility options (i.e. individual champion kits, unique items, etc.), not universal mobility options like Tier 3 boot upgrades.

**TL;DR: Riot, please keep Tier 3 Boots in the game. Choosing your boots is a mandatory decision for every champ in every game, but that choice becomes substantially less important without Tier 3 options. I don't want to sell my boots for a or a - please make boots worth keeping! **

, we need you, and we await your return.

EDIT: They even removed the icons for the Boot Enchants... -_-