Are New Masteries a Success?

Tatsianna·12/26/2015, 5:37:08 PM·1 votes·376 views

Before the season began, this was the stated goal of mastery changes:

We're updating the mastery system to offer focused, high-impact choices rather than a slew of nuanced micro-math optimizations. Each successive "tier" of masteries will grow in importance, ending in a tier 6 "keystone mastery" that fundamentally impacts how you play your champion. By condensing power into clear decision points, the masteries you take from game to game should have an impact on your playstyle, and we want to offer multiple mastery paths for most champions in League.

My question is simple:

Do keystone masteries offer players meaningful choices for most champions, or are they traps with only one correct answer per champion per role?

Please discuss.

8 Comments

The Whamboozler12/26/2015, 5:45:58 PM2 votes

The second. There aren't really many cases where there is a meaningful choice. Pick Deathfire if you're Brand, Swain or Malzahar. Pick Bond of Stone if you're a tank support. Pick Undying if you're mundo. Pick Thunderlords if you're ANYONE ELSE.

Dreadlocks12/26/2015, 5:44:12 PM1 votes

I think after the next patch which is buffing 6/9 of the keystones, it'll be easier to say. I think after that patch the answer will be yes. But for now, precision and thunderlords is too strong to pass up.

ForgiveColour12/26/2015, 5:46:43 PM1 votes

"diversity in masteries"

"9/10 in games are thunderlords"

Wînter Fox12/26/2015, 5:52:45 PM1 votes

The theory is solid. The execution - not so much. They really need to drill into each and every keystone mastery and make them feel impactful and worth it to the type of champion its aimed for. At the same time they all have to be at the same power level balance wise against each other. That's the only way to make them "I feel like playing this way" choices rather than forced. Considering the history with how Riot balances champions it seems we'll be stuck with 2 or 3 good masteries while the rest are trash for 80% the season.

Abyssphere12/26/2015, 6:04:22 PM1 votes

Eh, Meddler himself said they were more focused on making every champion have something to suit them rather than every champion having multiple keystones to choose from. When they talk about choice they just mean making it so that your choice of masteries matters (which it does), not making it so that you have a huge number of options.

They're going to flesh out the masteries more in the short-mid term future, but right now the main problem is just imbalance in certain masteries. In terms of making masteries more impactful and interesting, the rework has been a success.