How to resolve Lethal Tempo from Press the Attack

Rebonack·Nov 22, 2017·2 votes·1,059 views

Simply put, allow Lethal Tempo to trigger against towers and epic (not large) monsters.

Given that both Runes deal approximately the same DPS late game and given that Press the Attack has several very clear advantages (amps your team's damage, no cooldown, three-hit proc is amazing for lane trades) it seems pretty clear that Lethal Tempo needs to have some advantage over Press the Attack.

We could just give it way more attack speed, but I don't think that's a very interesting solution. It just means people will choose whichever option is statistically stronger.

HOWEVER! If Lethal Tempo triggered against objectives, suddenly there's a very clear use-case for it. Do you want to team fight harder? Or do you want to secure objectives more quickly? This is a compelling choice where as 'do I want to deal damage or do I want to deal MORE damage?' is not a particularly compelling choice.

7 Comments

QuephaNov 22, 20174 votes

Press the Attack is the keystone that needs to be redesigned, not Lethal Tempo.

Lethal Tempo has clear strengths, weaknesses, and counterplay.

Press the Attack is just generically 'good' at all stages of the game in all types of conflicts as long as you auto attack.

ModKnightsKemplarNov 22, 20171 votes

I think that's my understanding, too, after further reflection. All three of the precision keystones have pretty similar use cases. I could see any of them largely crowding out the other two if it's more powerful.

I see what they were trying to go for, and perhaps Lethal Tempo vs. Fleet Footwork is fine. I wonder if having the stats tied to the keystone, instead of the tree, could be useful here. Fighters have been complaining about not having a great keystone, and I think if they created one in place of Press the Attack, I bet that would make a lot of people happy. I bring up stats because the main reason to not do that is that rn, it would still give them attack speed.

RebonackNov 22, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Press the Attack is the keystone that needs to be redesigned, not Lethal Tempo.

Lethal Tempo has clear strengths, weaknesses, and counterplay.

Press the Attack is just generically 'good' at all stages of the game in all types of conflicts as long as you auto attack.

A team-wide damage amp is pretty great. Would you want to see that part reworked? Or the three-hit damage proc?

QuephaNov 22, 20171 votes

I think the team-wide damage amp is a lot of pretty invisible power that is hard to gauge, and this is in a tree for champions that generally aren't thinking of how they benefit the team over themselves, so it does seem pretty problematic.

Personally I don't see the problem with just giving us uncapped Fervor, something that ONLY pays off in LOOONG fights seems pretty interesting. Riot was just too afraid with the original version of that and gave it too many restrictions.

RebonackNov 22, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I think the team-wide damage amp is a lot of pretty invisible power that is hard to gauge, and this is in a tree for champions that generally aren't thinking of how they benefit the team over themselves, so it does seem pretty problematic.

Personally I don't see the problem with just giving us uncapped Fervor, something that ONLY pays off in LOOONG fights seems pretty interesting. Riot was just too afraid with the original version of that and gave it too many restrictions.

I see where you're coming from, but on the other hand I really like the idea behind Press the Attack. Amping your team's damage is a pretty neat effect. But given that PtA is also giving purely selfing damage as well (the three-hit proc) I feel like that distinction is a bit muddled.

A stacking AD/AP buff would probably work better as a keystone for a hypothetical Fighter/Vanguard tree. I'm personally of the opinion that Resolve should be split into two trees.

ModKnightsKemplarNov 22, 20171 votes

I think that's a decent idea.

I'm not sure how much differentiation we'll need after the nerfs and buffs on PBE currently, but I think it's a good idea.

RebonackNov 22, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I think that's a decent idea.

I'm not sure how much differentiation we'll need after the nerfs and buffs on PBE currently, but I think it's a good idea.

I'm less concerned about their raw mechanical power and more concerned with the fact that the keystones are simply too similar.

Riot could, for example, balance the two of them simply by tweaking the number values. But as it stands right now the distinction is pretty bland. Giving them both very clear cases where they're better (I want to team fight harder vs I want to secure objectives faster) makes for more interesting keystones.

The Domination keystones are probably the best example of this right now. They all do more or less the same thing (more burst damage) but the way they accomplish this is VERY different. Electrocute is very reliable burst. Dark Harvest is snowbally burst. Predator is long cooldown burst tied to massive mobility.