What Shaco taught me about Sight & Stealth
Shaco's clone, by it's nature, counteracts detection effects such as
and
s.
Some examples where detection effects come in handy:
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When you're fleeing from an enemy and you cut the corner around terrain to break LoS and deny vision to enemies,
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When you run through brush, which effectively makes you invisible,
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A timely allied ability Nearsights your enemies, Nearsight being a beautiful form of vision-denial,
In all of these cases, the clone still allows for confusing and misleading your prey. I imagine that even more interesting and tense situations and scenarios (gameplay) would be enabled if the forms of sight available were less powerful. It's the difference between ward-like constructs such as Yellow Trinket and Pink Ward and effects like FQC and Scrying Orb. Ward-like constructs have been, and still primarily are, circular AoEs of sight. Yet we've seen Riot express sight in different ways before, most notably Kali's Sentinels. More of this kind of design is needed!
Sight is countered by stealth and nearsight, but is more powerful than detection.
If sight where more scarce, if sight where more varied in form, if sight-denial effects like Invisibility and Nearsight where more commonplace, detection effects would be far more useful, and in greater demand. They would be another way to counter stealth, without being as crippling to stealth as
, while not being as powerful as sight - detection does not grant targetibility! Equally important, detection effects would be desirable in their own right if they could give you information on par with any sight options. What is more valueable, a ward that grants sight in a 750 radius range, or a ward that grants no sight but periodically pings out enemies within a 2000 unit radius range?
By detection effects I mean how
's Blood Scent could be represented by a visible 'scent trail' (I imagine and orange-red version of
's Poison Trail) or things like Echolocation (imagine a pulse / screech that radiates outward in the form of a few white lines, extending far out into the Fog of War and outlining the silhouettes of enemy champions it passes over) or Aura Awareness (like a semi-blurred blue silhouette but one that doesn't distinguish between champion models - you don't know who's in that bush, only that someone is). Have you ever considered that Rengar's Ulti could be a special form of detection ('thermal vision') that just happens to grant targetibility?
Is it also inconceivable that the each form of invisibility would have its own tell-tale signs and audio clues? 20thCenturyFaux expresses some disdain for Shaco's puff of smoke, but it's an incredible way of telegraphing his stealth (updated particle FX wouldn't hurt either). If he had a audio clue - a laugh maybe - then more power to him and his enemies. A chance is all anyone can ask for, right? I imagine if
granted invisibility, the bluish ghostly silhouette (that is already a feature) would be like Red Trinket's silhouette in function, something that indicated the champion's presence but only updated every .X seconds.
Have you ever noticed that
is the only stealth champion with a unique SFX for his prey to hear? Why? Sound is important for communicating info, but it also emphasizes a champions theme and flavor, which in turn communicates function!
TL:DR;
Guinsoo was ahead of his time. So was Shaco it seems... I find it amazing that Shaco has 3 ways of playing with vision: his Q stealth, his Boxes which have a huge sight radius, and his clone, which at the very least is nothing more than a mobile FoS you can scan areas with, and, incredibly, serendipitously, hilariously, counteracts the detection effects that would counter him BUT are largely absent from the game!
Riot gives me some hope though. They hint at changes to stealth here and there. I can only pray the Joke isn't on us.
