Let's talk about the new HUD

As probably everyone noticed a new patch is heading to live with a brand new HUD update that's been out on PBE for quite a while. My plan is to summerize very quickly the possible differences, what's going to change and in which direction - according to my personal opinion. Let's get started!

First of all I have to say the new HUD is kinda fancy with all that new animations. That's not surprising at all, but represents how dedicated the designer team was to bring up something new we might've never seen before. We've got

• new level up animations
• new sound alerts when interaction happens
• new icons in champion info for each statistic (AD/AP/AS/MS/ARMOR/MR...)
• extra animation if an ability/active item is on cooldown or if casting requires more resource/mana then you actually have
• the scoreboard is now horizontally aligned which is really useful and definitely the best idea in the entire HUD concept
• buffs and debuffs/(avtive) passives are grouped and aligned to the center
• the spellbar now rearranged and positioned in the middle of the champion info and the item slots

Extras we didn't have before:

• ally levels, ult- and summoner spell availability timers are visible now
• as well as enemy death timers
• on the scoreboard items and summoner spells are (finally) separated

That sounds good you might think but in fact it's nowhere near to be called perfect. Or better. The whole idea behind this concept was to change players basic knowledge (understanding) about how League of Legends should be or should have been played. For instance that's why they put everything.. and I mean EVERYTHING on the bottom right of the screen around the minimap. Let me compare this with the previous HUD, the one we have today. How things are positioned on the screen?

• top left: information about your currently selected champion
• top center: buff timers/death recap
• top right: actual gametime/KDA/farm/team kill stat (FPS)
• mid left: teammates HP/mana/ult availability
• mid center: scoreboard/recently kill
• mid right: recently achieved kills
• bot left: champion- character info/item slots (chat)
• bot center: champion skills/summoner spells/HP- manabar
• bot right: minimap

Now take a look at the new one:

• top left: information about your currently selected champion
• top center: buff timers/death recap
• top right: actual gametime
• ???
• mid center: scoreboard/recently kill
• mid right: recently achieved kills
• ???
• bot center: champion- character info/item slots/skills/summoner spells/HP- manabar
• bot right: minimap/KDA/farm/team kill stat/enemy death timers/teammates HP/mana/ult availability/levels

Thoughts? I think that's a bit too much for me. If the HUD was created to be "simple", "clear", "straightforward" or "logical" they have failed in every aspects. But why? What is my problem overall? Why should I even mention it? Why can't I accept "the terms and conditions" and bow down for the greater good (at least once)?

• Well, the most important things a player want to know in any given time is the following: How many (finished) items do I have? What kind of stats they provide me? Are my teammates alive? Do they have ult? What are the timers on enemy summoner spells? Do they have ult? - if you follow the pattern you can see that all those informations are available for you right now IF you look at your screens left side (through top left/mid left/chat/bot left). The only question left unanswered is: "Where are my teammates?" - Which might be an explanation why they repositioned everything.. But still isn't a reasonable choice for me.
• Also why do they split up champion info and item slots? Aren't they represent the same? Isn't there a "logical" connection between them?
• Why is champion info hidden from us? I wanna see the stats I have!
• Ally icons are not just repositioned but they are smaller, thus less noticable than ever (combined with the extra information they provide it makes no sense at all)
• Actual gametime isn't connected to anything.. just hanging around alone, top right
• Same goes with a "if everything important is positioned bot center and bot right concept" than why top left a.k.a "currently selected champion information" remain unchanged?
• Finally it's nice to see that I can "drag n drop" champions in the scoreboard BUT WHY SHOULD I DO THAT IN GAME?! Okay.. I can compare lanes now... in LCS style... ...I think an extra "warded" smart ping would have been much more useful. Maybe next time...

That's it. That's all I have. The new HUD has it's pros and cons as you can see. What do you think about it, ladies and gentlemen? How do you see?