Can we have Masteries that promote Mastery of the game?
One thing that's always left me a bit confused...
They're called 'Masteries' but they don't actually promote Mastery of the game, AFAIK. All of our options are stat related with the occasional conditional effect or something. (Keystones obviously being powerful enough to be an outright item effect.)
There is this idea in game design that if you're designing a game you want rules and mechanics that encourage the kind of gameplay you (the designer) would like to see / want the player engaged in.
So what kind of gameplay does Riot want to encourage? Well, I would think peeling for your allies, focusing the same target, contesting and taking objectives, using the minion waves effectively, scoring kills and assists, invading the enemy jungle, warding, grouping, etc, etc.
For example, we don't actually have a mastery that rewards last-hitting. We have the 'Savagery' mastery, but that facilitates last-hitting, but it doesn't actually reward, or put the emphasis on, scoring the last hit. Likewise, we don't actually have a mastery that rewards us for warding or finding wards - both behaviors that you would think Riot wants to encourage in its players, since both actually indicate mastery of the game and are closely related to skill and rank.
So rather than:
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/5/58/Butcher_mastery_s4.png/revision/latest?cb=20131121235724 Basic attacks and single target spells deal 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 bonus damage to minions and monsters.
We'd have:
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/5/58/Butcher_mastery_s4.png/revision/latest?cb=20131121235724 Scoring the last hit on a minion or monster grants X addition gold.
This is just an example. Riot would obviously have to rework the trees and come up with some new effects that promote Mastery, which would probably be harder than thinking up bonus stat and conditional combat effects.
Can I get a Rioter's thoughts on this?
