I'm a little surprised at how no one is talking about the bounty gold changes.
Coming in 8.10, some pretty heavy changes are coming for bounty gold.
https://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-810-notes
Kill streak bounties are now granted only to the killer, not the team.
Currently, the rewards a player gets for performing well are too split amongst the whole team, and we'll be looking to remedy that over time. We're starting this patch with Bounties, shifting the reward from a team one to a personal one, and we'll be investigating other team rewards going forward HEADHUNTER Assists on bounty kills no longer grant bonus gold.
ONE KILL 100 gold split among team ⇒ No bounty TWO KILLS 150 gold split among team ⇒ No bounty THREE KILLS 300 gold split among team ⇒ 200 gold to killer FOUR KILLS 350 gold split among team ⇒ 250 gold to killer FIVE KILLS 450 gold split among team ⇒ 300 gold to killer SIX-PLUS KILLS 450 gold split among team ⇒ 300 gold (+25 gold per kill beyond 5) to killer BOUNTY CHANGE ON BEING KILLED Dying removes 3 bounty levels ⇒ Dying resets bounty to 0
These changes could very well be far more impactful than you may think. At the moment, one problem people really dislike is that teams tend to snowball too hard, and games are generally decided very early into the game. you would think that bounties would help counteract this, but if you happen to notice, at the moment, even one kill makes you more valuable to the rest of the enemy team.
Even in stomps, it is still completely possible for the losing team to get maybe 1 or 2 kills in a teamfight, but then, those that got the kills will likely die due to being so behind, and will likely get cleaned up by the enemy carries. Thus, that extra little gold makes the enemy team snowball even harder.
One of my favorite youtubers, Bricky, is currently moving away from League. In fact, he just recently made his very last video of his most successful series, that being his "So You Want To Main" series, where he chooses a champ, and describes the champ to the best of his ability. Anyway, he has moved away from League, because his view of the game state could be summed up in one sentence:
"The game can no longer be decided by the best player on a team, but by the worst player." Essentially, a 9/1 Riven will not determine that outcome of a game, but a 1/7 Lucian certainly will.
So, how does these changes help that? Well, in 8.9 if that 9/1 Riven goes down after she has gotten maybe 5 kills in a row, she gives 90 gold to every single player on the enemy team. This helps push the players that are likely falling behind on the enemy team into a more favorable position. Maybe that enemy top laner needed another 90 gold in order to complete a core item, and hit a power spike, and due to that Riven going down, he now has enough to do just that.
Now, in 8.10, if that same Riven goes down, but the enemy team doesn't play it right, and all of that extra 300 gold accidentally goes to the support.......well......I think you now see my point.
Also, lets talk more about that 1/7 Lucian. In 8.9, whenever that Lucian got that one single kill, he was immediately worth an extra 20 gold to every single player on the enemy team. When he likely died, again, that would help the enemy team snowball even harder. Now, in 8.10, that one kill doesn't inadvertently hurt his team. He is worth the regular amount of gold even after he gets the kill.
Speaking of supports, these changes may very well impact them the most out of any role in the game. They already rely on only getting assists, and all of this extra gold being thrown around helps supports keep up with the rest of the team. Well, this is no longer the case, and supports may actually become quite gold starved because of the changes, and when the supports are weaker, the carries, in turn, are weaker.
Now, you might be thinking "Well, all of this is only noticeable in high kill games. If games have a total of less than 10 kills for the entire game, it's not very noticeable.", and you're not wrong. The lower of an elo you are in, the more kills you will see. It's just how it works, since the lower elo players make more mistakes, and do not know how to stay alive as well as higher elo players. However, even in higher elos, this is quite impactful, due to how important even slight advantages are for high elo players. A challenger elo player can make FAR more use out of an extra 20 gold than a Silver elo player can. Now that all of this extra gold won't be thrown around, kills actually become slightly less important in higher elos. Now, don't get me wrong, they are still pretty impactful, due to experience, farm, pressure, and what not. However, due to getting one kill no longer being actually detrimental to a losing team, it gives just a few more openings for losing teams, and in higher elos, one small opportunity can turn into an entire game being won.
Of course, I could be completely wrong, and it may have even the reverse effect of what I'm predicting. Towers are still giving out a ton of team wide gold, and the way you win League is by bringing down the objectives. Being killed, and losing your tower because of that may hurt even more, because you can no longer come back, kill your lane opponent, and get something of a compensation back. In the end, your opponent still wins.
All in all, I think these changes do warrant some discussion, for they could be very impactful, and might actually help some of the problems that many people really do not like right now. And with the marksman changes coming in 8.11.......we could very well see a very big shift in the meta.
Or, it could all make the situation even worse. Who knows!
TL;DR
The bounty gold changes could warrant some discussion, since they could be actually very impactful, especially when combined with the upcoming marksman changes.
