Boards›Gameplay

riot forcing people to play "the meta"

KevinKanada··6 votes·1,621 views

Reading through the patch notes I came across the information regarding changes to outer towers, and Riot's reasoning behind said change. Is Riot trying to force teams into playing their current meta (solo top, duo bot) with this change? Why should the lane match ups be dictated in this way? The dynamic aspect of League is, in my opinion, one of its best selling points. If you're going to implement changes designed to reduce people's ability to make those changes to "the meta" without taking penalties, isn't that stifling to the creativity of the players in the community? Lane swapping already gives up early pressure on Drake, and we've seen how much more popular Drake is than the Rift Herald - this is another nail in the coffin for anyone who would dare to be different. My patented Sion or Hiemerdinger bot lane swap, which helped carry me 5 divisions higher this season, is going to be a thing of the past :(

19 Comments

Sightless667 votes

Not all meta changes are a good thing. Lane swapping relies on having virtually no interaction with the enemies and following a strict script for the first 10 or so minutes of the game. It's about as dictated, non-interactive and boring as a meta can get. It should not be the go-to solution for laning, but that's exactly what it is right now in pro play.

The dynamic aspect of League is, in my opinion, one of its best selling points.

Making it more dynamic at high level play is the goal of these changes. In the pro scene, lane swaps are the meta. They are by a wide margin the superior option in most games. That's being pulled back a bit.

My patented Sion or Hiemerdinger bot lane swap, which helped carry me 5 divisions higher this season, is going to be a thing of the past :(

If your strategy relies on you being able to survive a lane while the opposing solo laner can't, then you won't be horribly affected. If your strategy relies on completely abandoning the tower from minute 1 like the pro meta, you'll be heavily affected.

Arakadia1 votes

What exactly they do when they laneswap and how does it affect the game?

Sightless663 votes

When pro players laneswap, they bring junglers up very quickly to dive the top laner and help them push the tower down. This is easy to do because they'll zone the top laner completely out from experience if he stays around. They then rotate towards the opposite lane to repeat this process. Of course, since top laners don't like to be completely zoned from experience and dived while they are at a very low level, they abandon the towers. I know there's another step that follows it that people do every game, but it's been a while since I've seen a pro game and I was usually zoned out from boredom by that stage.

End result: no one fights for at least the first 10-15 minutes of the game, and the best choice is to play as risk-averse as possible. It's so dull.

Axe2Handle5 votes

Lane swapping is boring to watch. No one wants to see teams macro the map for the first 5-10 minutes of the game instead of engaging each other. Its the same thing over and over and gets dull.

Tikail1 votes

The pros began lane swapping because Riot created a bullshit shift in the meta when it was actually fine. They are shuttering a perfectly viable strategy that relies on extremely effective team communication because it looks "boring."

Also, the first 5-10 mins is about macroing the map anyway. It's the laning and farm phase.

Axe2Handle3 votes

Laning and farm phase? 3-4 minutes in standard lanes you should be seeing the first gank, not to mention lvl 2-3 all ins that can force top to TP in to change the tides of battle. Early support/jg or mid/jg jungle invades. Or lane swapping into a 2v1 for an early jg 3v1 tower dive.

A lot more exciting things than trading towers and giving up first dragon, then bouncing wave for top laners to farm and lane swapping again to try and get the next tower for the sweet macros.

Critmaster Garen5 votes

{quoted}

Lane swapping is boring to watch. No one wants to see teams macro the map for the first 5-10 minutes of the game instead of engaging each other. Its the same thing over and over and gets dull.

this is the problem with esports and why i despise it.

the game is made shittier to play, so its more exciting to watch.

swiftsnipe4 votes

Lane swaps evolved to having 3 champs on one team top, and 3 champs on the other team bot. This was to prevent solo laners from getting behind.

3v0 is dumb.

Changes were made

CerealBoxOfDoom2 votes

when the meta is remotely healthy and begins to veer off towards something less healthy what do you think should happen?

HURRDURR BUT COUNTERMETA SO KEWL

Calabok1 votes

nothin wrong with the Meta.

Arakadia1 votes

They dont want people to lane swap.

Its like saying their reworking Yorick and thats bad because their forcing how you play him.

MatthewRT21 votes

but yorick can be played many different ways and he is a viable sup[port right now

Arakadia1 votes

Yorick isn't healthy though.

MatthewRT21 votes

he is mage that does magic damage based on how much ad he has, he can tank if he has all his ghouls out.

Arakadia2 votes

His class doesn't matter. He's a juggernaut btw, not a mage.

What matters is that he is unhealthy for the game so their changing him. Just like laneswaping in the case that its boring to watch so their changing it.

MatthewRT21 votes

he isn't a juggernaut, he hasn't been changed since he was released 5 years ago, all juggernauts were updated to be so like darius, How is he unhealthy for the game? that's like saying Himer is unhealthy for the game

Arakadia1 votes

He is a juggernaut. A juggernaut is usually an immobile tank who doesn't have allot of hard CC nor is as tanky as a true tank. They have a hard time reaching their targets but once they do they do massive damage.

Riot themselves classifies him as a juggernaut: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/3A5uuBw7-champion-subclass-list He's at the bottom of the list of Juggernauts.

Not all juggernauts were updated. Such as Udyr and Yorick.

He is unhealthy to play against for several reasons:

  • He's not at all fun to play against. He is so unfun and cancerous to fight they removed him from the "free to play" wheel.

  • He's heavily outdated.

  • The biggest reason: He dominates he laning phase without much counterplay but he's pretty weak later in the game. Ever heard the saying "Yorcik walks into a bar, there are no counters."?

warpenguin5551 votes

ive been playing everything mid all season. must be getting banned soon if thats the case

LU Vanilla Rice 1 votes

Screw the Meta, attack speed Bard is the only real jungler...

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by KevinKanada

Kassadin R while CCed (gameplay)
Report a Bug0 comments
1
votes