State of Preseason [Solo Lane Experience]
Currently, I'm liking a few of the changes that preseason has brought us. Others, not so much. Keep in mind, these are my own opinions and experiences. I'm not the best player in the world so these are observations of a low gold. Sorry for being a noob and not knowing what I'm talking about. (I'm gold but not an idiot. I can see issues when they arise.)
This particular post is about Solo Lane Experience as the title describes. Overall, I'd say that I very much DISLIKE the solo lane experience buff. A few of the reasons include (and I will explain them after the list):
- It extremely favors snowball champs.
- It extremely favors cheese.
- Oddly enough it promotes leaving top as an island even more so now post ~4-5 minutes.
- Junglers can tip the lanes too hard too early.
- It extremely favors snowball champs.
The reason I say this, is because of how fast you level over a lane opponent that you killed early. Due to how a snowball champion works, if they get ahead they are able to continuously kill or kick the enemy laner out of lane even under turret. (Obviously, this isnt news to anyone...) Now, the problem is if a snowball champion gets an early solo kill at say level 4 and doesnt lose too much health or has pots rolling, they are able get to level 6 before the lane opponent reaches back into lane. This allows said snowball champion to dive this level 4 champion while having access to their own ultimate, kicking them back out of lane for another full level of experience. This obviously will lead to said snowballing.
Cases: Leblanc, talon, zed, zoe, kat, rumble, trynd, yasuo, fizz, diana, qiyana, etc. (assassins mostly)
- It extremely favors cheese.
The reason i say this, is because of the same reason as the first. A support, jungle, or even the other solo laner can roam to mid/top and kick the lane op out of lane for you while you just sit back and farm. Now, without you having done so much as throw a beartrap on a rope, you are now level 3-4 while your lane op reaches lane at level 1. This leads to the same scenario as the first. This also allows for early turret diving or proxy farming because the lane op cant do anything to stop you at level 1.
- It promotes leaving top as an island even more so now post ~4-5 minutes.
The reason I say this, is because the jungler is only near the solo laner's level until around 4-5 minutes in. Passed that stage, the jungler is now ganking a champion that is level 6-7 while being at level 4. With bruisers being the primary champion placed top, they do pretty high base damage. So, post 4 min, ganking top and failing the gank will open the high risk of, a gank on the more important bot lane, losing a now very important dragon, or a gank on the more important mid lane who has a high chance of snowballing. In fact, the only champions who are the same level as the jungler post 4-5 minutes is bot lane. So, might as well gank that lane because not only is it a safer gank, it kicks 2 champs out instead of 1 if the gank goes well.
Due to more importance being drawn to bot lane and top now having such a huge level lead on the jungler, there's no reason to gank top as all it will do is open up the bottom half of the map for the enemy jungler. So, the solo experience buff is working against its intended purpose of making top lane more of a target in the game.
- Junglers can tip the lanes too hard too early.
The reason I say this is due to the same reasons as 1 and 2 and there's nothing the opposing jungler can do post 4 minutes due to the reasons in 3. So, this solo experience buff will lead to the resurgence of hyper early junglers and high snowball champs (assassins) being played mid. All leading to games being decided in the first 6-10 minutes. So many afks because the opponents mid laner got solo FB.
That's pretty much my thoughts on the buff to Solo Lane Experience. Buffing solo lane experience had the opposite effect of trying to bring junglers back top lane (or at least not abandoning them). And honestly, even if he spawns twice, herald isnt as important as getting that red dragon soul or getting your bot lane ahead, so there's even less reason to sit top. The best thing to do top now is to pick a split pusher and run spellbook so you can take smite and grab herald yourself, or to counter jungle while their jungle is sitting bot lane. Split pushers already had a huge level advantage. Say hello to trynd at level 18 while everyone else is 14, and say goodbye to your inhib at 13 minutes because the jungler still wont go top. All in all, I think the change to solo exp put the game into an unhealthy state.