Boards›Gameplay

Did you know it costs almost half a million IP to buy all the champions?

disregardable··88 votes·24,651 views

In a few champion releases, probably by this time next year, it WILL cost half a million IP to buy all of the champions. A lot of players, particularly older ones who were here when Riot gave out more IP, don't think the champion reduction schedule needs updated, and they'll frequently point to the first win of the day giving out a lot of extra IP.

Let's be generous and say a first win of the day+normal game win is 250 IP. If you just started playing League of Legends today, it will take you 1,916 days (or 5.2 years) if all you do is play one winning game a a day. And that is to get to the amount of champions we have right now. That's not even including Tahm Kench.

Let's say the new player plays 4 games a day with a 50% win rate for 550 IP total. It would take them 870 days, or 2.3 years, to get to where we are now. That's almost 1800** hours sunk into the game at an exorbitant rate to be 2 years behind.

New players are starting extremely behind. This game is not new anymore. Riot can still turn a hefty profit while allowing new players to succeed. They needs to SIGNIFICANTLY rework the IP reduction schedule, revamp champion prices entirely, or come up with another plan to make this game accessible to new and newer players.

6300 IP champions x 32 = 201,600 IP 4800 IP champions x 35 = 168,000 IP 3150 IP champions x 25 = 78,750 IP 1350 IP champions x 21 = 28,350 IP 450 IP champions x 12 = 5,400 IP

Total Amount for all champions: 482,100 Minus 3 Free Promotional Champions: 478,950

And by the way, that doesn't include runes and rune pages.

Edit: **Corrected math. 2 hours for 4 games x 870 is not even close to 2500. If the games take 40 minutes each, then it's close to 2500.

169 Comments

Nameless Voice37 votes

I have every single champion, all bought with IP, but to be honest I never play more than half of them.

I don't think not being able to easily have all the champions is that crippling to new players, but the cost of runes is.

You can play the game fairly happily with maybe 20 champions, but you need at least five full rune pages to be able to compete fairly.

disregardable8 votes

Honestly, I think it has more to do with disincentive to play than being competitive. Why would you want to play if you only enjoy playing 2-3 champs of the 20 cheap ones you own, but the new ones you liked during free week will take months to get?

I also do disagree on the runes, you really do only need basic ad/ap pages to play competitively. Everything else is just sprinkles.

Nameless Voice16 votes

I didn't mean that you can play happily with only the 20 cheapest champions, but rather that you don't need the full roster.

For example, I looked at some of the champions that I play regularly or have played regularly in previous seasons, and picked 16 of those, which gives me 3-5 champions that I enjoy playing in every role. Admittedly, my selection mostly included mid-priced (3150 and 4800) champions, with only one 450 and three 6300s, but the total cost of that champion pool is 60,000 IP. A lot, but only a small slice of the half-a-million to buy all champions.

As for runes, I'd consider you to need at least these pages: AP mid / mage, AD champion, attack speed / jungler, support. That's two additional runepages that you need to buy for 12600.

For essential runes, I'd say you need at least: AD marks, AD quints, flat health seals, scaling MR glyphs, flat AP glyphs, flat AP quints, attack speed marks, attack speed quints, gold-per-10 seals, gold-per-10 quints. That shopping list is 32910 IP. (You could get that cheaper by not taking the gold-per-10 and swapping out the flat health for the cheaper flat armour seals.)

The total for my "minimum runes" setup is 45,510 IP, almost as much as my example "decent champion roster".

I'd say most players will want more runes and rune pages than that, most likely at least one page dedicated to their main champion, and at least a few of the other rune types, including hybrid damage, mana regen, CDR, and flat MR.

Having more champions to play is nice. It lets you try other things, or to swap in draft queues. Yes, I can understand why this costs so much - it's to encourage players to spend real money to unlock the champions faster, and also to give players a sense of accomplishment when they get to unlock more champions through IP.

However, having to sink such a huge amount of IP into just having the necessary runes to play effectively is harsh on new players. They have to choose between the fun choice of unlocking a new champion, or the necessary choice of buying runes and runepages so that they can play their champions effectively. Needing to buy runes also effectively makes the champions feel even more expensive, since players have less IP to spend on them when they need to buy runes.

Space Bum2 votes

My perspective on League has always been, "you get what you pay for"

Take a traditional mmo for example. Back when WoW was released it was $60 plus $15 a month in subscription fees. Now think about applying that to League, $60 worth of RP when you start playing and then $15 of RP a month. I'm not going to take the time to do the math but That seems like a healthy amount of champions and would leave you to save up your IP for runes.

M Schumacher19 votes

Oh and lets not forget this is neglecting the minimal 5-7 rune pages and runes you need.

XinZhao2WinNhao2 votes

[{quoted}](name=M Schumacher,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mnPu0E77,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-07-03T15:28:25.692+0000)

Oh and lets not forget this is neglecting the minimal 5-7 rune pages and runes you need.

you don't need 5-7. 2 (one AD and one AP) is good

insaiyanbacca10 votes

imo you need 3 atm an ad an ap and a tank one and that will cover all your bases

XinZhao2WinNhao1 votes

{quoted}

imo you need 3 atm an ad an ap and a tank one and that will cover all your bases

I never build tank

steampig6 votes

People do, though. Just because you don't doesn't mean nobody else does.

XinZhao2WinNhao1 votes

{quoted}

People do, though. Just because you don't doesn't mean nobody else does.

Yeah, but most people main one role, they don't play all 3 ad, ap and tank. they usually play 1 or 2 of the playstyles

kile14710 votes

And those are presumably the people that say mid or feed in ranked games. You should be able to competently be able to play at least one champ in every position, and about 3 in your main. That's not personal opinion either, the way the game works you may not always get to play your main role, or one of your champs may be banned. You need to have options, or you are going to end up being toxic to your teammates.

XinZhao2WinNhao1 votes

{quoted}

And those are presumably the people that say mid or feed in ranked games. You should be able to competently be able to play at least one champ in every position, and about 3 in your main. That's not personal opinion either, the way the game works you may not always get to play your main role, or one of your champs may be banned. You need to have options, or you are going to end up being toxic to your teammates.

I have a bunch of champs (about 10) that fall in the same type of runepage.

I doubt all 10 will be banned

kile1473 votes

If you can play those champs in every position on the map that's great. I think that two full runepages are the bare minimum to play the game competitively. However if I want to be able to play Malphite, Veigar , and Graves I need 3 rune pages (since we also can't modify in lobby). I just feel like having your runes limit the types of champions you can play is a shitty experience for everyone since sometimes you might need someone to go tanky, AP, or AD and they can't because they don't have the runes for it. People not being flexible in their roles negatively effects everyone in the game, and runes shouldn't be one of the things that contribute to that.

The Bearded Bard3 votes

[{quoted}](name=M Schumacher,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mnPu0E77,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-07-03T15:28:25.692+0000)

Oh and lets not forget this is neglecting the minimal 5-7 rune pages and runes you need.

Oh shush. I have 14 rune pages and every champion and you know how many I use? Like 3, and you start out with two and at one point they gave us one for free.

ShaftyMegee16 votes

You don't need all of the champs to enjoy this game. People need to stop thinking that riot should give into everything people ask, they are trying to make money.

I just don't understand why you people think this is such a bug deal? This game is free to play. Quit talking like you deserve something just cus you play the game.

Jofeyy7 votes

Agreed but you have to admit that new players aren't getting a good deal by starting now. Its hard to be new at league. Every time i try to help a friend thats a new player they get frustrated and don't continue. I feel like riot should at least look into that aspect.

ShaftyMegee4 votes

I think they have a good deal starting, sinve they have many cheap and very viable champs to choose from afree playing a few games. But I do agree that the new player experience is very lacking. Leagues tutorial is laughable, you only play as one champ, on ARAM... wtf kind of shit is that? And it tells you to build items you wouldn't normally build unless you had to given the other team.

Jofeyy6 votes

My beef is mostly with runes and rune pages tbh. Like i would get the fact that runes cost ip, but why the pages? Rune pages costing so much ip is just overkill. The problem is, if you've been around since season 1-2, you **want **an ip sink because you have so much of that shit lying around. But how do you do that without harming new players that will never have that much ip since it takes so long to catch up? If only they made icons cost ip... like they said they would.. Oh well.

MVDuneCats3 votes

If Riot gave every player every champ right from the start (like DotA 2), would that make things less frustrating though? A new player then has to choose from 125 different champs as to what they should try playing. The free champ rotation and 450 IP champs creates a forced focus for new players, which is actually helpful.

When I was looking into trying LoL, I checked the web site and started looking at the list of champions. It was such a huge list of choices, I had no idea what I should even start looking at, and just decided to put it aside. A few months later, when I finally decided to bite the bullet and give LoL a try, I had a much easier time than I thought I would since I had a much smaller pool of champions to choose from.

Solaxo3 votes

{quoted}

You don't need all of the champs to enjoy this game. People need to stop thinking that riot should give into everything people ask, they are trying to make money.

I just don't understand why you people think this is such a bug deal? This game is free to play. Quit talking like you deserve something just cus you play the game.

They already have tons of money from skins and LC$

Guy Fox Teemo2 votes

They don't make money from LCS btw, they've even stated before they LOSE money from doing the LCS. Yes its promotion for League of Legends, but only League Of Legend players that already play watch the LCS

Drukyul15 votes

Yeah, I'd prefer if they keep the champ schedule and just remove rune costs entirely. There's no need for the double IP sink anymore.

doiminat0r36005 votes

I just wish there was a permanent IP sale like they have had in the past. As well as removing anything below teir 3 runes as well to prevent wasted IP on them.

SlackerboyTC6 votes

Just buy the champs you need/ find interesting, you don't need to waste IP on all of them and I really need to buy new rune pages I still have the 2 default.

Nausicäa 6 votes

Fun facts

  1. You dont need every champion in game to be competitive. You dont need every rune or more than the 2 free rune pages either.
  2. It is highly unlikely that anyone actually likes or enjoys playing every champion in this game. In fact most people only consistently play 5-20 different champions.
  3. Its possible to get challenger just playing 450 IP champions.

So ya owning all the champions costs a lot. But whats the point of owning 120+ champions when dont play 100 of them?

The only thing this game really needs for newer players is the ability to try a champion before buying.

MrEly5 votes

The game does have a way for players to try out, champions of the week

NommyPancake5 votes

I just want them to increase the number of champions during free rotation :^)

Silents4291 votes

No it's done this way to keep people from playing ranked to soon.

Champion Skin3 votes

You can't play ranked soloQ with free rotation champions

You can only play with them in draft or team ranked (5v5 or 3v3)

ayNigerianPrince5 votes

Shouldn't people be learning to master their champion once they buy them? Instead of just moving on to the next badass looking champion, you can just master the champion you've purchased, then use the ip you got from that to buy another champ.

But runes need a change. The ip costs are ridiculous.

FantasySniper2 votes

Yeah, but sometimes you want to add someone to your champion pool because the one you have aren't working out as well for you.

For instance - I used to always play Vayne when I went ADC, but then I found Jinx to suit my playstyle better. I could take Fiora top every time I was stuck with the lane, but Gnar is more versatile and felt just as fun to play.

Gavran2 votes

Shouldn't you just be learning to master the champions that synergize with the runes you have? Instead of just buying new rune pages you can just use the same page, then later use your IP to buy different ones.

Less sarcastically; change is good. Playing more champions lets people better understand their opponents, teammates, and all the roles in the game. Having played every champ in the game for a few matches will help you far more than any rune page could.

Also, you know, new champions are fun, which is the point of playing a game.

KayVaugn2 votes

{quoted}

Shouldn't you just be learning to master the champions that synergize with the runes you have? Instead of just buying new rune pages you can just use the same page, then later use your IP to buy different ones.

Less sarcastically; change is good. Playing more champions lets people better understand their opponents, teammates, and all the roles in the game. Having played every champ in the game for a few matches will help you far more than any rune page could.

Also, you know, new champions are fun, which is the point of playing a game.

Here's the thing though, rune pages are very important in the early game at least. I remember when I first got runes after I hit level 20 and was amazed by how much easier it was to cs in the early game and in all honesty that's when I really started enjoying the game. Before I hit level 20 and started getting my runes, I didn't like league that much because it just wasn't fun, it wasn't fun getting stomped by people better than me and it wasn't fun getting stomped by people who had runes and masteries over me, It became fun when I got on somewhat equal footing with everyone else.

The Soulforged5 votes

I'm an older player who has all but 8 champs... Considering I've played for 4 years, I'm quite scared as to how hard it is to get ip.

Byakuya Kuchiki3 votes

where did you find this information?

disregardable27 votes

You go to the store in the client. Uncheck "Not Owned". Check sort by IP. You count the champions in each price tier. You multiply the number of champions by their prices. Then you add them all together.

Ancestor00714 votes

Math ftw

MVDuneCats3 votes

[{quoted}](name=The AFK Farmer,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mnPu0E77,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-07-03T15:24:50.246+0000)

Let's say the new player plays 4 games a day with a 50% win rate for 550 IP total. It would take them 870 days, or 2.3 years, to get to where we are now. That's almost 2500 hours sunk into the game at an exorbitant rate to be 2 years behind.

Lets say you play a champion for a week. Does that seem like an excessive amount of time to spend playing one champion? I personally don't. If you play one champion for a week, how long does it take to play through all 125 champs? It would take 875 days, which is quite close to the 870 day figure you calculated.

Lets say a new player had all 125 champs on day 1, and played that 4 games a day and spread them out evenly among all 125 champs. How many games would they play per champ over:

  • 870 days? A: 27.8 games per champ.
  • 1 year? A: 11.6 games per champ.
  • 6 months? A: 5.84 games per champ.

The issue with this line or thinking is that it implies new players have to collect every single champ ever made in order to enjoy the game. And that's just not true. If someone is a collector and enjoys getting everything, it doesn't seem unreasonable for that effort to take over 2 years.

By the way, I'm speaking as someone who starting playing in April.

disregardable2 votes

That was a really fair response. Upvote for you.

The problem, of course, is that it is true that players do have to spend more than a few games on 90-100% of the champions. Now it could only take 3 games of Renekton to 30 games of Kassadin to figure out that they don't work for me, but finding the champions I think would be fun means accessing them and playing them.

I've been playing for a year now (anniversary was on the 18th last month!), own just over half of the champion pool, and right now I still have 10 champs on my wish list to buy (some of whom I haven't even gotten the opportunity to play with). Leblanc Nidalee Vi Lucian Nami JarvanIV Jayce Yorick Sejuani Shaco

A lot of the fun in this game is experimenting with new champions, and I really do think newbies are being heavily denied that privilege for no reason other than Riot failing to update its unnecessarily costly system.

Also, by the way, 1800** (I was off on the math) hours is not a reasonable amount of time to collect 125 champions. Just going to flat out disagree with you there.

MVDuneCats3 votes

[{quoted}](name=The AFK Farmer,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=mnPu0E77,comment-id=00120000,timestamp=2015-07-03T22:51:23.380+0000)

A lot of the fun in this game is experimenting with new champions, and I really do think newbies are being heavily denied that privilege for no reason other than Riot failing to update its unnecessarily costly system.

To a newbie, every champ is a new champ, whether it's a 7800 IP Tahm Kench that has only been out a week, or a 450 IP Master Yi that has been in existence for over 6 years.

disregardable1 votes

I said that statement with the context in mind. I own all the 450s and 1350s.

MVDuneCats3 votes

You're also not a newbie, considering you've been playing for over a year.

During that year, every champ (with a few exceptions) should have been available in the free week rotation between 2 to 4 times. Granted, real life gets in the way. You can't always play when a certain champ is free to play. And even if you can, sometimes you just want to play what you want to play, rather than be forced into trying out a free champ simply because you might not get the same chance again for 3 or more months.

An on-demand, try before you buy feature with some low cost (or no cost but really limited opportunity like Heroes of the Storm) would be better than trying to simply reduce IP costs across the board. Because no matter how much you lower the price, people are still going to complain that it could be even lower. And at some point, the cost is going to be so low that there's no perceived value in unlocking the champ. And when that happens, the sense of accomplishment and progress for unlocking champs also diminishes.

Maximum Zilean3 votes

I would personally like it if there were champion IP sales, maybe even if they are 25% off their IP cost? Would help a bit with the prices.

Saianna3 votes

I still remember when one one of weekend days i've earned 960~IP per a game :D

My friend says he earned about 1,7k points form 1 game.

Those times were LEGENDARY!

It's all ogre now, unfortunately...

Serge THE GREAT3 votes

You really do need all of the champions to play ranked (efficiently) though. Not because you'll likely play them all, but so that you can swap champions in Champion Select.

Jaiger Denravi2 votes

I got to gold 1 with two rows of champions and one..and a half rune pages. Sure it's possible, but if given a few more rune pages and my choice of runes I'd definitely be happier and might have climbed out of gold. I'm always confused by the league community (or the bit that posts on the forums) they always want every new player / every other player to play some sort of hardcore mode of league. What harm does handing out an extra rune page and a few free runes cause? What a person might try running scaling over flat once a while!

The horror.

Tldr; more runes and rune pages is more fun.

wop1 votes

I think its not so much owning all the champs, but the most viable or strongest picks for most roles rn are 6,300. Almost all of the current strong ADCs are 4,800+, same with JG.

MVDuneCats6 votes

Sivir (ADC): 450 IP, 53.8% win rate (#1) Ashe (ADC): 450 IP, 51.6% win rate (#5)

Amumu (Jungle): 450 IP, 53.9% win rate (#1) Evelynn (Jungle: 1350 IP, 52.3% win rate (#6) Warwick (Jungle): 450 IP, 52.0% win rate (#9) Nunu (Jungle): 450 IP, 51.8% win rate (#11) Udyr (Jungle): 1350 IP, 51.5% win rate (#13) Xin Zhao (Jungle): 1350 IP, 51.5% win rate (#14)

Tryndamere (Top): 1350 IP, 52.8% win rate (#3) Malphite (Top): 1350 IP, 52.3% win rate (#5)

Annie (Mid): 450 IP, 53.7% win rate (#5) Cho'Gath (Mid): 1350 IP, 52.1% win rate (#11)

Janna (Support): 1350 IP, 53.5% win rate (#2) Malphite (Support): 1350 IP, 53.4% win rate (#3) Soraka (Support): 450 IP, 52.0% win rate (#9)

Win rates were gathered from leagueofgraphs.com, specifying Bronze+. I intentionally picked Bronze+ rather than a higher threshold, since Bronze is the more likely starting point for new players.

Given the win rates for these champs, I have a hard time buying into an argument that they are not among the "most viable or strongest picks".

ShaftyMegee5 votes

Annie, nunu, ashe, sivir, ammumu, and ryze are all played in the top tiers of ranked... riddle me that riddler.

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 disregardable

It takes 57 hours of teambuilder losses to get a single 6300 IP champion.
Gameplay213 comments
106
votes
You've been leaving or AFKing in fewer games recently.
Gameplay48 comments
98
votes
Replace the current IP reduction schedule.
[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous66 comments
98
votes
I shit you not, I played against a Zilean today.
Gameplay61 comments
50
votes
Why is red sightstone 5 slots and not 6?
Gameplay25 comments
31
votes
We need to be able to report someone outside loading screens.
Gameplay13 comments
18
votes