Idea for Teleport change(nerf)

GetLeBonked·10/5/2015, 10:54:28 PM·1 votes·660 views

Okay, I think its been no secret that Teleport is comparatively strong right now. Just today on reddit was a link to this interview: http://fragbite.se/fragtv/video/2505/vad-hade-proffsen-andrat-i-lol-om-de-fick-mojligheten Where pro players were asked what they felt like needs to be changed about the game, and 3 of them(xPeke, Neils, Incarnation) all said that teleport needs to be nerfed or removed.

IMO the main "issue" with teleport right now is its mandatory for toplaners to take in high elo/competitive play. This is because without teleport toplaners have much less map pressure. For example, if one team's toplaner has ignite and the other teleport, the team with ignite cannot force any plays around objectives or dives because they run the risk of a 4 vs 5, or 3 vs 4, ect. This same logic is creeping into the midlane too; teleport is one of the most common mid lane summoners at worlds (If I were to guess it would be behind flash and ignite).

But honestly, I think this is relatively healthy. If 90% of toplaners are taking teleport, and the only reason they take it is so they can participate in dragon fights/split push later in the game, then I think it's a healthy use of the summoner. After all, many other roles are dominated by 1 summoner, ADC's take heal usually, support takes exh, jungle smite, ect. And lets face it; teleport plays to dragon/baron are exciting to watch in the LCS and exciting to play as or against. Even teleport plays lategame with homeguards to make a pick or to splitpush are still balanced and appropriate.

What is unhealthy about this is how champions with teleport exert too much map pressure, especially early-game/during the laning phase. When a jungler ganks bottom, he shouldn't have to worry about his gank being countered by the enemy toplaner with teleport. Or an ADC and support diving the enemy team's ADC shouldn't have to worry about a midlane Diana with TP. I think this problem needs to be addressed ASAP.

Additionally there are two smaller, but much more unhealthy, problems with TP right now. 1). It lets weak laners start a camp at level 1, get 5 health pots and a doran's item, and TP back to lane at level 2 with an item and exp advantage. This really heavily punishes players who did not start a camp as now they are down EXP, items, and sustain. 2). It basically is a get out of jail free card in lane, as if you take a bad trade, get ganked, or even die, you can TP right back to lane with little to no advantage lost.

One of the most common proposed solutions is increasing teleports CD. This would certainly make teleport less attractive in general, but it does not actually fix any of the aforementioned problems. Teleport would still give laners too big of an advantage by doing a jungle camp/ getting a free out of jail card, and they'd still have almost as much global pressure.

I have two ideas how to fix these problems: 1). Make it so teleport literally is on cooldown until something like 10* minutes into the game; this would fix jungle camp starts, using TP to fix mistakes in lane, and the bigger issue of early game map pressure, while keeping TP's impact in the midgame/lategame.

2). Alternatively, make it so TP is not usable until 4 minutes, then make it from 4-10* minutes only to towers, and from then on to everything else. This would remove jungle camp starts, but allow laners to teleport back to lane. Most importantly it would keep teleport users from ganking/counterganking lanes during the laning phase.

3 Comments

Eedat10/5/2015, 11:00:31 PM1 votes

"OMG Teleport is OP! Now midlaners are taking it too!"

Meanwhile 95% of players all take summoner 4 regardless of what lane they're playing and nobody cares