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Hextech chests are getting to be a chore.

Quepha·Nov 30, 2017·2 votes·351 views

Keeping up with Hextech Chest drops is not hard. Even by myself I can just spam the champion in normals and easily earn a chest within the week, and if I'm playing with friends then it will go a lot faster.

That said, I still don't always enjoy doing it and it's creating a needless conflict about which champions I want to play vs. which champions I should play. At this point I've earned chests for 53 different champions so all that remains are champions I have little to no interest in playing. There are a lot of champions I haven't touched in months that I'd like to play right now and test the new runes on, but I already earned chests on them so they have to wait their turn until the latter half of the week after I've earned my chest drops.

This is also negatively impacting games I play with friends. While it is easier to earn chest drops with them since any of us earning an S- will give me the chest, the fact that I'm playing on, at best, my 54th most favorite champion means that my performance in the match is probably going to be way below how well I usually play and make the game a lot harder for my friends.

While I see the merits of rewarding players for occasionally stepping outside of their comfort zone, it seems like Hextech Chests ask players to do it way too often to the point where it feels like it's interfering with me playing the game how I want to play the game.

19 Comments

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

How often do you think is the right amount?

As it stands, they're comfortable giving us one 'free' hextech chest per week, and while they could lower that, it probably wouldn't go over well with people who want every bit of free stuff they can get.

You don't necessarily have to earn every single chest possible, and as long as theres any sort of side goals people are going to feel conflicted in what they want to put their time towards. Even the mastery system itself is something that puts me in a conflicted state of wanting to play something I'm not already mastery 5 at instead of what might be an optimal choice or even simply a more fun choice, but I'm not convinced that Riot should remove the mastery system for example.

I mean, I feel you as someone who also has all the chests earned possible thus far, and things are certainly getting tight. I do try to spam ARAM a bunch in order to 'naturally' play stuff that I wouldn't otherwise in the hope of getting a new S rank chest on someone, which occasionally means I might randomly find myself getting a chest for my 100th least favourite champion, instead of intentionally working down from my best. It certainly makes it feel less grindy up to a point, but of course ARAMs aren't everyones jam, and even there I'm getting to the point where it's "Uh...this is strong in ARAM, but I have the chest for it already...maybe I should reroll but my team will hate me...".

Theres an argument to be made for the old days of no achievements or distractions from simply playing to win/have fun, but as long as they are going down that road (which certainly does have merits), I'm not sure theres any balance that won't upset one group or another.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

{quoted}

How often do you think is the right amount?

Once a month. Gimme my 4 drops for the month when I do it once.

Or maybe make a sliding scale so you can earn a chest on a champion again, but it takes more S's. 2 for a second chest, 3 for a third, etc.

It's not like it matters how much easier they make getting chests because how many we actually open is REALLY capped by the keys we earn which take a ridiculous number of games in a month to cap out on.

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

Sure, but keys are currently capped at 12 frags/month (+ the occasional bonus ones from honour capsule or events), so the two systems are currently balanced with respect to one another for those who play a lot, and in fact it's very biased towards people building up an excess of keys rather than chests, so theres a fraction of the community for whom chests are the biggest limiting factor. Causing people to get 1/4th of the free stuff they previously got probably wouldn't go over well to say the least.

Multiple S's on a champion leading to more chests would be nice, but then most people would just spam their mains and it'd defeat the purpose to get people to broaden their pools.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

{quoted}

it's very biased towards people building up an excess of keys rather than chests

This is completely backwards, it takes an absurd amount of games to cap your key drops for the month and the rare cases of key fragments being available through other methods do not come close to making up for the deficit the average player will run into.

If you have a surplus of keys then that's your own fault for choosing not to get chest drops.

most people would just spam their mains and it'd defeat the purpose to get people to broaden their pools.

It would take 1,378 S-'s to earn 52 chests on the same champion with the system I proposed. That's about what most players will play across an entire year and we aren't even considering the fact that most games are not S-tier. The last week would require 7.5 S's achieved per day in order to get that last chest drop which is astronomically unlikely even if you do nothing but sleep and spam your champion.

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

I don't think it's that absurd, I've pretty consistently managed it and theres loads of people who don't have jobs/school who have more free time then me to play (not to mention the people whose 'jobs' are streaming who play significantly more). I've missed a few months where exams and so on were a thing, but my chest backlog has been diminishing over the last few months because of those bonus ones. (And I don't think I'm a rarity who puts a lot of time into league, given I'm 'only' level 43 atm when theres plenty of people higher level already.)

Every now and then theres threads complaining about how chests should be easier where people show off their 20+ completed keys with no chests (e.g. rather poor players who actually cant pull off the S ranks, and one tricks who cant/wont stray from their champs), and similarly theres threads complaining about how keys should be easier where people show off their dozens of chests and no fragments (e.g. people who don't have issue with S ranks but don't actually play much). If people have a surplus of chests, that's their own fault for not putting aside the time to play, to the same extent people with a surplus of keys aren't putting the effort into other champs.

Besides, if you're not capping out on fragments, then you really don't need to be getting your chest every week and can opt to just earn enough chests to match your own fragment rate.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

You played an average of 8.3 games per day over the last week, which is probably around an average of 4 hours of time per day. For someone with a job that is basically the absolute maximum amount of time you can devote to a leisure activity (and it's actually impossible for someone with a job and a family). You are at the very limit of devotion to this game short of quitting your day job.

There's no such thing as a "poor player who can't pull off S ranks" because the mastery grade system adjusts to players at your elo. Getting an S- or better is exactly as easy for anyone to achieve. Players who one-trick are intentionally avoiding earning chests and that is their own choice.

Capping chest drops is easy but interferes with enjoyment of the game. Riot should instead make it easy without interfering with enjoyment of the game.

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

Mastery grades are independent of ELO, they confirmed that pretty early on when mastery grades came. Bronze players do earn less S ranks than challengers as a result, but since bronze is generally facing bronze and challenger facing challenger, the difference isn't as big as people might initially think.

Managing 4 hours of leisure per day on average is not terribly unreasonable, particularly when people can potentially load those hours into weekends. If people would rather do other things, than that's their choice as well.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Managing 4 hours of leisure per day on average is not terribly unreasonable, particularly when people can potentially load those hours into weekends. If people would rather do other things, than that's their choice as well.

On weekdays it's the absolute maximum with very little time budgeted for essential daily activities. Having to use 6+ hour sessions on the weekends every weekend to make up for that deficit puts the absurdity of that value on full display.

Not to mention that League taking up the entirety of your leisure time every day of every week is already an absurd standard. That means zero TV shows, zero trips to the movies or theater, nothing done with friends outside of League, no video games other than League, no consumption of Youtube or Twitch despite their popularity among the League community...

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

Some of us have multiple monitors and manage a couple things at once, and besides whether you think it's reasonable or not doesn't change the fact theres loads of players who play much more than me. Even if one worked or had classes from 9-5, that still leaves open 7 or so hours per day if sleeping at midnight, and that's a full time person. If someone has fewer classes on a day or works part time, that's even more potential hours (and some folks stay up even later than midnight anyway).

In any case, your suggestion for fewer chests only has merit for those who are maxing out fragments anyway, so if you're not hitting that cap then you're complaining about something you're imposing on yourself, rather than riot.

The only people who should be getting every chest possible are those who enjoy the distraction from their usual play, and those who are capping on fragments so 'need' the chests in order to avoid waste. If for some reason you feel a compulsion to earn chests you can't use at your play rate, that seems like a you problem where you're intentionally doing something you don't enjoy for no benefit.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

You're talking about reducing the amount you sleep at night and people who do not work full time. Those are unhealthy life choices or simply not options for a normal person and the game should not be built around that idea. Obviously the Rioters themselves can't follow such a schedule.

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

I'm not recommending anyone reduce the amount they sleep at night, and I literally pointed out how it's viable for someone working full time to achieve the absolute maximum and still have 3ish hours for other stuff. The system is balanced so people playing less still get the majority since the drop rate falls off rather than being a line, and people don't need to get the maximum.

Individual players lifestyle choices aren't really the point though. Regardless of how people are juggling their lifestyles, you're talking about a problem that only exists for people who regularly max out on fragments. If you don't think those people are a majority, why should the system be changed to accommodate them?

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

No, I'm talking about a problem for everyone who wants chests but has to play champions they don't want to in order to earn them.

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

Wait, why do they want chests if they don't have keys to open them?

Hexs FortuneNov 30, 20171 votes

It breaks up the monotony of playing the same champs, by forcing you to get an S rank in something new once per week. Not all that oppressive.

It would be nice if they reset the "box locked" champs in the preseason though as opposed to making us wait until the next season start.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

I can break up the monotony whenever I want, give me the chance to enjoy some monotony for a bit.

Hexs FortuneNov 30, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I can break up the monotony whenever I want, give me the chance to enjoy some monotony for a bit.

Meanwhile others are feeling that they need a reason to break up the monotony.

So you see riot can't please everyone.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

Link me to one thread where someone is asking Riot for a reason for them to not spam the same champion over and over again. Most players already spread their champion pools way too thin even in ranked games when they're supposed to be playing seriously.

Mysticman89Nov 30, 20171 votes

I mean, you have the chance to enjoy your monotony, and it's even roughly in line with your earlier proposal of once a month.

You can stockpile up to 4 earnable chests, and then set aside a few days to grind out all 4 chests in one go after you've had a month of just playing what you feel like, and you'll not miss out on anything that way. You don't have to do your monotony break every week as soon as they become available.

On the other hand, theres those who need motivation and welcome the weekly chore. You have the option to have your random chore be up to 4 weeks (or even longer but then you do miss out), but those people don't have any options to have their 'chores' show up even more often.

QuephaNov 30, 20171 votes

{quoted}

You can stockpile up to 4 earnable chests, and then set aside a few days to grind out all 4 chests in one go

That doesn't actually reduce the amount of time I spend playing champions the system chooses for me relative to time on champions I actually want to play. Every time I start learning a new champion I'm going back to square 1 to learn them. If it takes two days on average to earn a chest then it doesn't matter if it's 8 days at the end of the month or 2 days a week, that's still 8 days of the month spent treating matches like a chore rather than a game.

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