Anyone else worried League is going to lose its 'magic' with these S6 changes?

YossarianSensei·11/6/2015, 1:11:24 PM·31 votes·2,120 views

I'll get straight to the point I play a ton of MOBAs, primarily LoL and Heroes of the Storm. I'm no master at these games but I'm not a nooblord either; I'm sitting at Diamond 5 in League and I'm the equivalent of Mid Masters in HoTS so I feel like there's some merit to my statement when I say LoL is trending heavily towards the same type of gameplay as HoTS and I think it's going to hurt League because its just not League's strong suit.

But what do I mean? Traditionally League has been pretty lenient in that you could do almost anything you wanted and it'd probably be OK as long as you didn't suck, it almost feels like a sandbox RPG compared to Heroes of the Storm in which the equivalent of Joseph Stalin tells you to pick X specific team comp then group up and push such and such objective right now or lose immediately. Meanwhile in LoL you can go Tons of Assassins, Pick comp, protect-the-ADC, Bruiser comp, stack damage, stack CC, double jungle, good jungler, Trick2G in the jungle, Tank-comp, split push all day erryday, Press R team, get carried by Mage team, early pressure, kill lane, late game scaling, etc etc.

There are so many strategies to carry with or feed with that all worked because items were OP except everyone was poor, objectives weren't 'take them or lose instantly', it was really hard to have any kind of global presence, and there were so many different forms of 'power spikes' that you could never be too sure who was winning. In addition to all the diverse strategy, League has always had an honestly magical balance between 'team focus' and 'solo #carrieed' that I haven't seen in other MOBAs.

Now I think League is Trending heavily towards HoTS style gameplay where the game just tells you to 'do this in this fashion now or lose':

  • Heavy team fight focus; League is more Team-Fight oriented than ever before - double TP is common, there are a bajillion global mobility spells, much higher mobility in general, and the new items/kits make it much easier to force a fight. Overall its just way easier for a team to be at some objective and have the tools to force that objective. Y'all might think this is all well and good but keep in mind Team Fights are by far the least predictable facet of games. An increased team fight focus just means for most players winning and losing games is going to be even more volatile and luck based than before.
  • Giving out so much free $$$. I mean literally, global GP10 was boosted, Jungler items are so cost efficient it's like Obama-care for Junglers, Support items literally give out so much gold for doing nothing, and now you just buy a trinket instead of wasting gold on Wards/Oracles and it's only going to be more socialist in S6. Again this sounds great, but then recall that item advantage is most significant when everyone has no items. 2 Dorans blades to 1 is literally double the other dude's bonus stats, but IE+PD vs IE+Zeal is basically nothing. When everyone's getting all this free welfare, it's become much harder to snowball and solo carry which makes the game far more team oriented. We spend less time trying dikking around AFK farming and denying our lane opponents and more time beating the crap out of the enemy team over objectives. This SOUNDS good, but consider that dikking around in lane is part of what makes League so great.
  • Increasingly reinforced meta. It used to be you could do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted and it'd probably be OK, but over the past year or so Riot's made it very clear that there's an 'optimal' way to do things. Support and Jungler items are ridiculously cost efficient but are virtually restricted to that class, what this basically means is that theres increased class differentiation where certain roles have very specific tasks to fulfill e.g. if you're a Support Riot's telling you, "build ancient coin and Sight Stone; your job is to ward, set up engages, and peel." And now Riot's taking that to the next level with Marksmen reworks as well, there is literally a new item that rewards ADCs with 15% more damage when they smack tanks so instead of having the freedom to melt anyone that comes close to an ADC you now just wanna focus Mundo to get that bonus dmg. You might say 'well gee I like it when people tell me what to do' but increased class differentiation is just taking away freedom from the players. You're not going to want to stack like 5 tanks on a team like you might have in S2 because you really need the utility offered by other classes. So essentially Riot's just saying 'have a team comp that consists of 1 or 2 tanks, a DPS, a mage/assassin, and some utility'. Sounding like Heroes of the Storm yet?
  • It's getting sooo damn hard to kill anyone. Everyone's so mobile, Assassins keep getting nerfed, erryone runs so fast now, walls and terrain don't mean anything, there are friggen free wards EVERYWHERE, the blue trinket is like an NSA satellite, Ashe is always Watching, there's a billion different ways to peel, there are defensive itemization choices even for DPS champs like BT's cancer shield, and to add insult to injury Riot's literally been adding even more 'haha u can't kill me' abilities like Tahm, Kindred, Kalista, and Bard. So in other words, Riot's again saying, "don't do shyt alone because you're going to need your team to do anything meaningful."
  • The Marksmen reworks look suspiciously like the DPS classes in Heroes of the Storm Like it or not, LoL's troll-mode late game ADC crit damage has always been a signature hallmark of this game. Crit ADCs put a timeline on late game teamfights that make it so you can't just have Mundo and Shen running around for 4 minutes 'team fighting' while minions push. ADC lays down enough unavoidable damage that both teams are given a clear goal of 'killing the other one'. Now S6 promises to remove crit, add diverse itemization, and is giving 'unique' autoattacks like Graves's new shotgun. I agree this sounds cool and stuff, but I've seen first hand that crit-less ADC is basically cancer in HoTS. They're either too fkin strong or virtually worthless; There might be a very very thin sliver of 'balance' for crit-less ADCs but HoTS certainly hasn't found it and I'm doubtful Riot will find it either. When you remove the RNG of crit on Autoattacks you're making it so now there's this unavoidable source of damage that's now 100% predictable as well as 100% dependable (as opposed to mages who miss like half their skill shots). What this means is you either have ADCs that snowball incredibly easily because once they get the smallest lead they're just going to utterly shyt on the other team, or you have ADCs that take so long to scale in you might as well play any other class.

TL;DR Riot keeps telling us what to do and this old timer doesn't like it.

29 Comments

CPU BIanc11/6/2015, 1:13:19 PM13 votes

Its lost his magic after s2. I dont even enjoy this game anymore its just like a bad crack addiction.

Veraska11/6/2015, 1:32:20 PM6 votes

You bring up some good points, except they're not removing crit, no idea where you're getting a that one.

I don't think leagues losing its magic, if anything the teamfight focus is going down with the teleport nerfs and even then I don't think team fighting is a bad thing, it's super annoying to play top lane when your opponent Is just "imma top laner imma push top lane" you know what I mean?

as for your team comp concern that makes sense, there's not a lot of support for 5 tanks team comps buy I don't think that's a bad thing, the current meta teamcomp does a good job of allowing everything to be an option when your picking for your team, and you have a generally easy to understand path to success for each role often protect/kill the carry, 5 tanks isn't exactly a comp that has an easy answer to deal with, and God help you if you wanna play zed.

I dunno I'm not diamond I'm a low silver/unranked player who just does blind pick with my friends, and most of the upcoming changes (the new champ select mostly) really strengthen everything I personally like about the game

Keevalroy11/7/2015, 3:18:22 AM5 votes

This is probably going to be my last season. I'm against probably 80% of what they're doing on the PBE, and I'm not going to accept the whole "oh its PBE and it's the preseason so it'll be messy" thing. You can claim to alter and fix the broken shit you're unleashing in the preseason, but that doesn't change that this is in line with what you want to create.

Look at these lazy cookie-cutter masteries. In what way is this going to be for every champion to have a unique feel to them or should we look at how obviously AD-centric the masteries are ? You're on the same path as Blizzard, where eventually, we're going to have 5 or 6 choices to choose from in our talent "tree" and we'll have to accept that no matter how much we oppose it.

How long are mages and tanks going to suffer from these changes? With the itemization cost increase and efficiency decrease. why even bother trying to play when you're going to be dominated by ADCs and AD assassins who benefit far too much from the new items and masteries? Wouldn't you think more care needs to be taken when you're updating them beyond giving a few mages slightly more mana?

Take a look at the crit changes. Why the fuck is every other item getting crit chance? We want to REMOVE crit, not add it to every item! "Oh but it's easier to get to 100% so the RNG isn't there hur hur hur!" Ignoring how this idea was possibly even considered, let me ask you this: when you're in lane, trying to get to that point in the LATE GAME, you still have to go through the EARLY GAME, where you're still going to be relying on RNG bullshit to win trades right? You've solved nothing and made the game even more snowbally. By the way, you're still not going to address how cancerous Yasuo is with the item and mastery changes at all or getting 60% crit with his first item alone? Gee thanks a bunch, he totally won't be a problem.

How about the item changes that benefit champions way too much? Like Vayne with the new PD chasing you down even faster? Or Cait with firecannon - oh boy, can't wait for her to show up with red buff so I can never get away. What about any AD assassin with death's dance? Great, now they're going to heal even more with this item, lifesteal (which is also on everything,) and the crit mastery in addition to having this bleed damage protection if they get bursted down before they can kill the target.

"OH but they NEED this to fight all the overpowered ADCs."

No they don't because the ADCs shouldn't be this overpowered! How long ago did Riot stop arguing that they don't enforce the meta before they gave up lying to us? They envision, create, mold, and enforce the meta, and this one won't be any different. We don't want cycling metas, we just want balance! This is setting itself up to be the worst meta you've ever created and you're not doing anything to fix it! Are we supposed to Ooooh and Awwwe about new things being cool, or do you plan on fixing the game you're about to completely break before it's too late?

New isn't always good, and there are too many new things in the preseason that will undoubtedly be too problematic to be adjusted with nerfs alone. Please reconsider your approach over the next few weeks. Please try and make sure what you're doing will actually be healthy for League...because considering the state of health and balance currently, I don't want to say it can't get worse, but I would much rather prefer this than anything on the PBE.

Spoofghoul11/6/2015, 2:50:39 PM4 votes

It isn't just Riot it also meta sheeple adding to this shitpile.

I enjoy playing Sion mid with devourer and titanic hydra, yea i know sounds silly. But it works, i play normal as in i do help objective try and win my lane. I actually pay more cheesy stuff like that because it is fun it is something unexpected by opponents it works it has goals and objectives you work towards in lane and later in teamfights. Another example is Mage fortune.

But you go ahead and try something cheesy or off meta in teambuilder, have fun waiting 6 hours for a game because people cant wrap their head around anything but Tank/fighter top/jungle mage mid and adc & support bot.

Now Riot reinforces this even more over the past seasons and you pretty much have a one dimensional game where anything off meta gets hated on by the meta sheeple gestapo, or Riot nerfs it to shit so it dissapears.

It is just taking away freedom from the players in how they want to contribute to the endgoal of grabbing that 50 nexus gold.

Dukues11/6/2015, 4:17:40 PM4 votes

Damn lots of good points. Yea I checked out HoTs for a bit and it was alright, but got sick of it pretty quickly, which is why I am back here. But now its just... meh so much meta shit (and im a sheep so it helps me I guess), but the diversity of the game, team comps, and things you see is hardly there anymore.

Idk if its because season is almost over, but my last couple of ranked games I have seen some strange things. Like I had a gnar support for the first time ever, and a TF jungle - I dodged that came cuz.. i mean yea I can see it but this late in the season and ranked? Dude was probably a plat/diamond smurf but... wasn't taking the chance.

In my last ranked game I let our vayne go mid, because she wanted mid for w/e reason. So I went both with my duo as Annie with a support blitz. Haha it ended up being a lot of fun and we wrecked them, but hardly seen anything off meta most of the season.

effyboo11/6/2015, 1:23:43 PM4 votes

Yeah League is so team fight centric now all for the interest of E sports...

I for one liked it when nobody really knew what to do other than go to lane then magically shift to 'team fight mode' at 40 minutes.

Ionian11/6/2015, 1:49:07 PM4 votes

Losing its magic? As in AP CHAMPIONS ARE GETTING DESTROYED BECAUSE AD CHAMPIONS GET ALL KINDS OF BUFFS AND AP ITEMS HAVE THEIR COSTS INCREASED? Then yes, s6 makes League lose its magic. Its magic damage.

CasterGilgamesh11/6/2015, 4:21:21 PM4 votes

I personally love league and the direction it's going.there is a reason some champions get Nerfed out of certain roles is because they are broken in that role.thats the reason Soraka was Nerfed out of every lane besides bot lane.its extremely hard to make a balanced game where every champion is viable in every role without overloading the kits.

Kitten of Evil11/6/2015, 5:27:51 PM3 votes

Who's telling you that crit is being removed?

ModKnightsKemplar11/6/2015, 8:45:50 PM3 votes

No. People say this every season.

Myyse11/6/2015, 3:12:29 PM2 votes

Removing crit? Have you seen the new AD items?

Sasogwa11/6/2015, 1:16:39 PM2 votes

^S2 was the dream

t0ad511/6/2015, 3:20:11 PM2 votes

Been on its way out for awhile now, and this seems to be worse. So many simple things still not fixed, while so many other things being broken for the sake of change and historical champions losing their identity... there's more, but I need to wipe my bottom now.

LaserDeathBlade11/7/2015, 1:11:04 AM1 votes

I've also had similar concerns. It seems Riot is constantly pushing towards a more established meta revolving around teamfighting and objective control.

I know a lot of people don't like laning but laning phase is what makes League so carryable even if you have poor mechanics because rotations + laning strategy has always had a huge impact over the outcome. If we're always teamfighting it'll be just like OP said in which the game will be much more mechanic and luck based.

Vuuduu2/10/2017, 3:23:31 AM1 votes

I'm here in 2017 because I agree with all these points. My teams just suck and I can't climb out of bronze. I know I'm a terrible player but I still really feel that I can't do anything meaningful because if I don't group every single time that my team flirts with the possibility of a teamfight then we will lose the game. Honestly teamfighting to me is kind of boring, but I really liked the strategies before and map movements. Also 1v1 dueling. I liked the fact that you could push down a lane before and then roam, now with the nerfed minion shit it means that my splitpush doesn't mean anything and I have to group up with a bunch of tools to teamfight. Malzahar tries to frontline, Sejuani engages after we kill baron and dies for no reason, and half the time we are just 5v5 loitering mid and I'm feeling bored losing the poke war and waiting until my team makes a bad engagement and dies.

I miss the days of splitpushing, and pushing waves when it actually meant that if you were map aware you could force your enemy to respond. now you push the wave and they just sit mid like "Ha, our minions will just push yours back. Now we're going to kill your dumb teammates 5v4 because you didn't group."

If this type of gameplay is something Riot got spooked about and created because Heros of the Storm came out, then I think it' a huge fail on their part. Blizzard pivoted again anyway with Overwatch, like a left hook punch to the face of Riot out of nowhere, and now League is really left out to dry because its no longer even better than Heros of the Storm. It's just this slowly failing giant, trying to revive itself with more skins than ever, but at the same time forcing players to play the same boring way they always want you to.

I'm seriously considering quitting now. I feel really depressed after every game I play. I really liked this game before, but now I feel forced to quit.

Yaskamasandwich11/6/2015, 3:40:18 PM1 votes

Every game no matter how big starts to creak and wane, It is natural, as for now? Who knows preseason is not even out yet, we have to wait and see. Start looking at Riot's playerbase to see if it is dropping before and after. Also yeah the meta enforcement isn't helping. I can understand ranked since it is stressful, sometimes off meta works great other times it is worse. Sadly though now normals are not even fun, and fully enforced meta instead of practicing for fun, and trying crazy things. Aram is the only loosen-up-don't-care-about anything-mode. Even then that doesn't look like it will last.

ZT Xperimentor11/7/2015, 6:58:09 AM1 votes

Considering their lackluster lore when they rewrote several champions for the addition of azir, the increasing obliviousness of the community's feedback, and sickening focus on the 'championships'; I'd say the overall enjoyment has been dropping in season 5.

Athenes Lulu11/7/2015, 8:56:01 AM1 votes

It went from something "original" to "generic" when they destroyed the lore with summoners.

So not a surprise if they're "destroying" the "magic" of the game.