Holy shit I had an idea. Please. Just think about this.

Look guys, we all know that melees get some handicaps in this game. The idea is that they are melee and need it or else the game would be all about range. Most melees have higher base movement speed you know. They have a ton of other little stat boosts that they "need" as a form of band aid.

Most ppl agree minion blocking n stuff kinda sux cause it feels random and we dont really understand how it will impact the pathing that results from a given movement order. Check this idea:

Minions no longer hard block you. They apply a decent slow instead so you cant move thru them effectivly, and can still use them offensively or defensively. Champions CAN hard block you, but melee champions also apply the minion slow when you are inside their auto attack range.

I think if you do this and give most melees a decent aa range buff, then it would free you up to make ranged characters a little more on par in terms of base stats like move speed which should be more or less even across the board. So in return, ranged characters get to live the dream of being lightweight, independent characters that have the opportunity to bait out engages and dodge skillshots. Sadly, gap closers that are also skillshots will become more important for melees to have and use well because ranged champs like Ashe can have enough MS to feasibly dodge a well aimed shot and make a play off of that.

This would mean that these skills need to be on lower cooldowns. I think that would be fun and good for the game though, to be kiting, trying to bait and then dodge a hook once every 3 seconds, like a bullet storm game. Or on the other side, to anticipate a failed thresh hook from your thresh and prep your own hook for defense, while thresh gets his hook back in the next 2-3 seconds.

Adc would be more about consistently baiting and dodging engages, rather than denying them due to your innate range and overly safe positioning. You dodge one hook and get caught by the follow up? Ok you are decent. Dodge three hooks in 4 seconds and then flash the malaphite ulti? Ok you are wild turtle.

I was thinking that this could be a pretty good start. But the idea of a short range aura that melees get is pretty attractive tbh. If its not enough to have the stickyness, you can also do something like increase cooldowns when inside that melee aura and reduce attack speed. The way to think ab it is that once a melee gets their hands on you, they are sort of clawing tooth and nail and really fuck your shit up.

I would like these changes because they make dodging things like those wide ass thresh hooks more feasible as an immobile dmg builder. As thresh, I would also like these changes because my hook cooldown could be lower, meaning I get more up time, and yet still balanced since it is actually dodge-able. As an adc, I would be more interactive with thresh because I feel more able to counterplay him for at least the first hook. That means there would be less of that "baiting dance" (get it? like mating?) right before a teamfight, when ppl are really interested in getting a blown engage cooldown, but still terrified of actually being in range when that ability is cast. Ok so the baiting dance would still happen, but people would be less inhibited with their hooks, so you would see that happening more frequently.

I think these changes will make engages more deadly, more frequently available, more counterplayable by individual skill, and less suitable to melee duelists and their way of dominating things. Under this system, what you would want as a melee who isnt super far ahead is another melee to back you up with some threatening engage so that you can miss yours without being kited to hell before your engage comes back up 3 seconds later.

Other ideas: Melee aura gives a shield wall thing. Two melees in lock step get bonus defense, non-linearly increased reduction auras, and reduced tenacity inside of their auras. If any character gets stunned inside of three overlapping melee auras they are literally stun locked until you get a grey screen. Yes, this is super strong. Thats why you start giving ranged characters MS buffs. Melees get their group auras and teamwork dynamics and get push lanes and towers as a unit. Towers can be buffed a little bit, with %hp ramp up. Eventually one melee will fall and weaken the shield wall significantly, since it is non-linear with shield wall members. Ranged characters get to feel like mobile and independent rogues rather than vulnerable targets that depend on their team mates for safety. They get to split push and try for outplays rather than wait for follow up opportunities.