Towers Season 7: Problem and Solution

#The Problem: The risk involved in taking a tower does not match the reward for taking a tower.

>Summation of How to Take a Tower in Season 7:

• Rift Herald
• Dragon (Red and Mountain and Elder (Elder buffs the Red and Mountain Dragon buffs))
• Baron
• Zz'rot, Ohmwrecker, Banner of Command

>Summation of How to Defend a Tower in Season 7:

• ... crickets ...

#The Solution:

• Lower Monetary Reward. With Rift Herald on the map, it makes sense to lower the value of towers in general and Baron being easier to take and use gives twice the reason that the risk involved in taking a tower has gone down. We need to see a corresponding decrease in the monetary value of a tower.
• Change the Dragon Buffs: Give a Dragon that helps players defend their towers.
• We need to see a keystone that helps players defend towers, not because defending towers is the best strategy, but because player want options available to them to play the game the way they want.
• Create Items that Buff Towers.

>Possible Buffs (as keystone, dragon reward, item):

• Tower Regeneration, Increased Tower Damage, Increased Tower Resistances, Tower Shield, Buffs to Champions or Minions based on Friendly Tower Proximity

>Why This is the Solution That Should be Considered:

• Raw Stats Are Boring:
• Raw increases to tower strength across the board doesn't provide player-tower interaction. We want players to feel as if they are actively involved in the defense of the structures that matter to them.
• Players Want Defense Options:
• There have been many posts over the years by players who for one reason or another were dissatified with their defensive options around towers. Quite simply: there are no defensive options. RIOT has never seen fit to provide players with customizable defense strategies. RIOT has tried various passives that players themselves don't have any control over and it's never satisfied RIOT's design team as providing a meaningful defense option. One reason for this is that RIOT never gives players actual choices. How much do you want to defend your tower? Is it worth buying an item to help you do that?
• Many Attack Options Exist but No Defense Options Exist
• The increase in attack options hasn't been balanced by an increase in defense options or a corresponding decrease in the monetary value of taking a tower. It just makes sense that if you are going to give players customizable attack options, why not give them customizable defense options? If you only increase the attack options, then it amounts to giving out the rewards for taking towers without increasing the risk in taking them.

>Closing Thoughts:

• By making tower defense a player investment instead of a free block of stats, you empower players to make decisions that affect their gameplay. Instead of giving free shields to every champion that walks in tower range (no choice, it just happens), players could be investing in an item that regenerates their tower as long as they hang out near by or when they proc an active (making it a choice players make at the sacrifice of other options, is this the tower I want to buff?). Not every player wants these defensive options, so why grant them for free to everyone? Let the players that want those options invest to get them.