"Hunt for the Bloodmoon" isn't much of a hunt.

ModCaptainMårvelous·Feb 11, 2017·39 votes·3,004 views

Posted about this before but trying again to crack the front page.

Assassinations are less about "Tracking down one target" and more about "group as five for a sloppy teamfight".
Objectives are waaaaaaaaaaay too valuable and don't promote fighting so much as camping outside the enemy base and farming their spirits
These two things combined mean that losing makes you feel shitty.
Nothing to deal with certain champs like Shaco who stealth, swipe camps and then vanish before you can deal with them.

So, all together, you should make some changes to more aptly benefit and encourage assassination. Nothing here is a concrete fix but some ideas:

Bump up count from 3 to 5. Make kills give 2 marks.
Have diminishing returns on ghosts/spirits (If you kill 10, they're worth 2. 20, they're worth 1)
Make the herald either spawn less or be worth less.
Add items to deal with people camping spirits.

46 Comments

Proxy345Feb 11, 20176 votes

This event should be called Call of Duty Blood Moon lol

RavenMagusFeb 12, 20172 votes

I think that's kind of the point. The objectives are there to draw people in to specific map areas, but the point of it is to play an assassin and just go kill people.

And it's wonderful.

JavelinJoeFeb 11, 20175 votes

Remove Shaco for excessive cheese and add Riven or some other assassin like champion besides Noc

Apple taterFeb 11, 201720 votes

i dont think they should add riven just because shes got much cc which basically counters every single assassin in that game mode.

JavelinJoeFeb 12, 20172 votes

good point

Shuyin178Feb 11, 20173 votes

Riven isn't an assassin or an excessive diver Riven is classified very simply : a "%%%%"

ShacoVSocietyFeb 12, 20171 votes

Dude shaco is so much fun in this. Full ap a box does 1k damage alone.

XonraFeb 12, 20171 votes

All I ever see anyone do with Shaco is cheese spirits and only fight if someone comes after him. People just cheese interactively and that is pretty obvious he would do that because I would do the same if I wanted to not actually enjoy the game mode.

ShacoVSocietyFeb 12, 20171 votes

Well than maybe the problem isn't shaco its just people are not playing this gamemode like it should be played. You cant blame a champion for that.

CatastropFeb 11, 20174 votes

{quoted}

Posted about this before but trying again to crack the front page.

Objectives are waaaaaaaaaaay too valuable and don't promote fighting so much as camping outside the enemy base and farming their spirits

Here's your problem, why does a mode that's all about assassins have objectives in it? I haven't played the patch yet, but this new game mode looks kind of sloppy so far from what I can see on the Boards.

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 11, 20171 votes

It's actually a lot of fun, but (much like URF) as the metagame evolves it's becoming less enjoyable.

Also you need objectives because the winning team could just turtle in their-side of the map, making it even easier to extend/keep a lead.

Sexy Jack RabbitFeb 12, 20171 votes

The Assassins will reliable CC feel far too strong.

RavenMagusFeb 11, 201710 votes

You need objectives because you need a place for people to go. The spirits draw people into the jungle for those skirmishing brawls. Otherwise there's either aimless wandering or base-turtling.

Personally, I think it's quite a lot of fun, though I feel it's heavily weighted towards the AD assassins, since they have so many items that specifically counter AP.

RocketRelmFeb 11, 20171 votes

Yeah, without the objectives there's no reason not to "literally" 5 man group all day erry day.

Velzard of KozFeb 11, 20171 votes

Also, Herald is IMHO there against binary games. Two good Herald steals and you jump in points, giving you chance even though you might've been losing hard.

Papa AndreiFeb 12, 20171 votes

I think more of a having to hunt or set a trap than random brawls and skirmishes. That fits bruisers and juggernauts more

Asayake 5150glowFeb 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

You need objectives because you need a place for people to go. The spirits draw people into the jungle for those skirmishing brawls. Otherwise there's either aimless wandering or base-turtling.

Personally, I think it's quite a lot of fun, though I feel it's heavily weighted towards the AD assassins, since they have so many items that specifically counter AP.

item 3157

LooknookFeb 12, 20171 votes

item 3139 item 3156 item 3814

Asayake 5150glowFeb 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

item 3157 is much better than Merc, and better than Maw against certain assassins (those whose damage you can actually juke, as opposed to Rengar/Kha whose main damage just comes off CD moment your invuln ends, EoN is good tho, but 35 MR isn't much. But then again AP usually goes Sorc Shoes while AD is free to get Tabi, Merc, or Lucidity)

RavenMagusFeb 12, 20171 votes

item 3157 has a very powerful active, but also a very niche active with lots of counterplay. It hoses Zed ulti, but as you say, it does basically nothing against someone like Rengar or Kha. Otherwise pressed at the wrong time it is a one way ticket back to the fountain.

Meanwhile, Maw's passive shield, for example, is literally never bad. Having anti-magic shield is absolutely always good. There is also never any drawback to using Edge of Night or Mercurial Scimitar, other than "well it's on cooldown now" (which Zhonya's also suffers from).

In the meantime Zhonya's actual stats are also really bad. Downright awful, in fact.

I can agree that the Mercurial's active isn't as relevant here (it's more of an ADC item, as they can use the lifesteal a lot better), but then there's two more items designed to give AD assassins a bunch of damage with MR and really good anti-AP abilities.

At the same time, AD assassins also have a whole suite of Lethality items designed specifically for them, whereas AP assassins are building items that are generally made with mages in mind. Magic pen isn't nearly as easy to purchase, which is rough compounded with the fact that MR is easier to build too.

Not to say that it's completely hopeless for APs. I've been playing pretty much only Ahri in Blood Moon, and I actually win games here and there (and usually doing the best on my team too, though I'm also usually the only rank 7 mastery person on it). I do feel it's an uphill battle, though.

Jeddy017Feb 11, 20173 votes

Yeah, it could be improved upon. But I'm at least having fun playing my favorite assassins, getting kills & occasionally outplaying someone. Losing doesn't feel too bad either because I can still get kills & the match is over pretty quickly.

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 12, 20172 votes

It's a lot of fun! I just think it could be better at enforcing the style of gameplay they're aiming for.

Jeddy017Feb 12, 20171 votes

Yeah, there's always that one player that's farming spirits in the jungle all match. Though, I personally don't mind the goon squad tactic.

FaustavianFeb 11, 20172 votes

Twitch Nocturne MasterYi Teemo are better options than Camille for bloodmoon, tbh I don't know why they didn't add everyone under the "assassin" category

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 11, 20174 votes

Part of the reason why is because of ultimate CDs. Because the ults go off CD at a much faster rate, Noc can blanket the map in darkness every few seconds, Teemo can control the entire jungle, Yi will almost always have highlander up, etc.

Spaceman5pffFeb 11, 20172 votes

IDEA:

Remove all objective - make it deathmatch.

A kills worth 5 points, minus one for every ally that assisted.

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 11, 20174 votes

The problem there is that the winning team can just turtle. You need -some- objectives to force fighting.

Spaceman5pffFeb 11, 20171 votes

I guess.

IDK Unless objectives become less important, deathballs will be opressive in this mode.

NymzoFeb 11, 20172 votes

It's a clown fiesta

CowseedFeb 11, 20172 votes

I call bullshit. The reason you are having sloppy teamfights is because your teamates don't know how to play assassins. The game is played by 1 - Warding 2 - Kill ghost without being spotted 3 - Get bloodmoon buff and scare the **** out of people as their life bars dissappear and have their screen turn grey.

The only place team fights are absolutely necessary is when trying to get the rift herald from enemy team.

VoraciousXFeb 12, 20175 votes

{quoted}

I call bullshit. The reason you are having sloppy teamfights is because your teamates don't know how to play assassins. The game is played by 1 - Warding 2 - Kill ghost without being spotted 3 - Get bloodmoon buff and scare the **** out of people as their life bars dissappear and have their screen turn grey.

The only place team fights are absolutely necessary is when trying to get the rift herald from enemy team.

Problem is everyone is grouping and using numbers plus the two actually good teamfighters at their disposal. Ahri shouldn't be in this game mode. One charm and everyone jumps on that person then clean up the rest of the group. Kennen for similar reasons.

CowseedFeb 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Problem is everyone is grouping and using numbers plus the two actually good teamfighters at their disposal. Ahri shouldn't be in this game mode. One charm and everyone jumps on that person then clean up the rest of the group. Kennen for similar reasons.

I agree with kennen because you can just flash, R, Zhonyas but Ahri doesn't pose that much of a threat. If she charms you you are dead yes, but to be fair if any assassin in the mode lands a key ability you are going to die.

Also. Is there a reason the boards look so.... odd? Why aren't replies cascading?

Asayake 5150glowFeb 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I agree with kennen because you can just flash, R, Zhonyas but Ahri doesn't pose that much of a threat. If she charms you you are dead yes, but to be fair if any assassin in the mode lands a key ability you are going to die.

Also. Is there a reason the boards look so.... odd? Why aren't replies cascading?

Chronological view?

CowseedFeb 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

Problem is everyone is grouping and using numbers plus the two actually good teamfighters at their disposal. Ahri shouldn't be in this game mode. One charm and everyone jumps on that person then clean up the rest of the group. Kennen for similar reasons.

Also about the team fighting. I don't get what you are saying about everyone using numbers. I've gone on killing spree quite often with only my second item. You can't use numbers on this. That notion is plainly wrong. Killing depends on who is better able to get the jump on their opponent when they have their guard down or get caught out.

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 12, 20172 votes

1.) Warding doesn't do enough unless you ward an entire jungle. Surprise: You leave the other jungle, their jungle and more unwarded. 2.) Because of the patrol-patterns of ghosts, you can occasionally get three in one spot for an insta-buff. Other times you play someone like Shaco who is neigh-impossible to pin down. 3.) Again, good luck doing that when you can maybe kill one person (MAYBE) before everyone jumps on you and murders you.

Group is too strong in this mode, along with the inclusion of decent teamfighters like Kennen, Diana (as a psuedo-tank), Ahri and Camille.

XeroKimoFeb 12, 20171 votes

Shaco impossible to pin down? Buy a control ward and place it in the quadrant shaco most frequently goes to, this limits him to 4 autos of knowing where he was last and you can catch him out, he turn invis? you can buy sweeper to know which direction he went, and at lvl 9, follow him with the upgraded sweeper, there's no running from me!

XonraFeb 12, 20172 votes

All you have to do as Shaco (which I see most people doing) is just cheese back and forth killing spirits while everyone else wants to actually play and fight. You go after Shaco, he just ignores you and leaves, or stealths and waits till you forget about him then kills you and goes back to playing PvE.

The stealth champions really should have been left out with a mode that includes objectives (mostly just Shaco and Eve should have been excluded, as Eve can almost do the same thing as Shaco as far as playing PvE)

XeroKimoFeb 12, 20171 votes

Which is why you run sweepers, early lvl against ap shaco, they probably don't max Q first so they're stuck with 1.5 secs of invisibility, so it's easy to track him down, sweepers will negate his boxes if you didn't need to use it to find him. AD shaco might max Q first which can be a pain early game, but once you hit 9, both playstyles become negated pretty hard as you can follow him and negate his traps that he places along the way

CowseedFeb 12, 20171 votes

{quoted}

1.) Warding doesn't do enough unless you ward an entire jungle. Surprise: You leave the other jungle, their jungle and more unwarded. 2.) Because of the patrol-patterns of ghosts, you can occasionally get three in one spot for an insta-buff. Other times you play someone like Shaco who is neigh-impossible to pin down. 3.) Again, good luck doing that when you can maybe kill one person (MAYBE) before everyone jumps on you and murders you.

Group is too strong in this mode, along with the inclusion of decent teamfighters like Kennen, Diana (as a psuedo-tank), Ahri and Camille.

If you ward enough you can safely get three ghost for a VERY powerful buff. When I say ward I don't just mean ward all over the map. This isn't ranked so you have to change how you play a bit. Ward when you are taking ghosts and whatnot. Also buy control wards and place them in areas where you NEED vision.
Shaco is a lil' bitch I'll admit. He's the only assassin I can 1v1. So I find hunting him down with someone else helps. I don't get the first sentence though. Are you speaking about you or the enemy.
When you get the buff you basically have a free rengar ult. So you basically have to do your job as an assassin and wait for the right moment to jump in. You don't have to jump in when all 5 of them have 100% health! If your team doesn't pussy out and burst them enough you can clean up easy peasy. That's basically how assassins are usually played.

The only thing that takes from the assassin feel is the damn 50pt rift monster.

RocketRelmFeb 12, 20171 votes

It depends on how hard you group, and what your enemies are. I've been playing a lot of Kassadin on this mode, and when done right, it's actually lovely when the enemy groups. Cause that means I can R-R-R-R-R my way into their jungle when I see 3-4 on our side of the map, really quickly grab 3 ghosts, then come back and blow people up.

I feel like the "meta" needs to develop more and other champions need to be learned how to play. Kass for example I think is really strong, given you know how toplay him, but everyone else I've seen play him "universally" sucks, and he's not that often a pick anyway.

Things to use him properly include: start tome, then rush a fcking tear and seraphs. Blood Moon Stealth breaks on damage. Your sub-1 second R will NOT break it unless you hit something. Use that to move around hideously fast and invisibly (or just to charge it up to max before nuking somebody with max damage R). W-R-R when leaving base is a good rollout to get seraph stacks.

Play him as a flanker and a "dive to X location at once", especially when your R is at 50 mana cost, he's essentially Quinn in terms of map mobility.

Your early game "sucks". Stick with the team on lvl 3 rollouts. You need to get your Seraphs and Lich Bane before you can really roll out.

DrCyanideFeb 11, 20171 votes

I think TP is a rather effective (and under used) denial tool. Someone trying to kill your ghosts? TP to the ghost to save it and scare them away. You can either kill the enemy or buy enough time for an ally to show up and finish them off.

ErockandrollFeb 11, 20171 votes

As someone who's primary strat is to alternate, between collecting spirits and using the Blood moon effect to secure a kill. I would advise against making kills add any more stacks, that simply would make the game even more snowbally.

The sloppy teamfight aspect I think is kinda unavoidable, given the comp. Since your putting a glass cannon comp of assassins against another glass cannon comp of Assassins. Your best teamfighting strat is often that of a Death Brush.

Personally, the Hunt part of the Hunt for the Blood Mood, comes when you have those 3 stacks. That's when I feel your are most able to actually hunt your enemies. Of coarse, that really only comes after you accomplish everything else.

The problem that gets me with trying to 'Hunt' is that you have so little ability to actually track the enemy. You could get ambushed if you go in without thinking, but you could also end up as ships passing in the night. With your entire team in the enemy Jungle, and vise versa.

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 11, 20171 votes

There are, however, ways to avoid that. Make teams deal less damage for every nearby allied champions so you're encouraged to be alone for maximum power, as an example. It's not a clean way to do things but it at least adds a bit more of the assassin-feel to the mode.

ErockandrollFeb 11, 20171 votes

{quoted}

There are, however, ways to avoid that. Make teams deal less damage for every nearby allied champions so you're encouraged to be alone for maximum power, as an example. It's not a clean way to do things but it at least adds a bit more of the assassin-feel to the mode.

maybe, but that wouldn't likely change the fact that turning the tides of a fight, will most likely happen because of a numbers difference. There's also a chance that such a mechanic would give reset Assassins a little too much power in teamfights.

The other problem I see with solo hunting, is that the map feels relatively small. Even though it's just regular SR, nothing spawns in lane, and the shortest path between objectives is through the Jungle. I think for the most part, you could pretend that the side lanes didn't exist. Combined with the enhanced MS, and it becomes hard to not find a nearby ally. (unless they grouped on the exact opposite side of the map. )

ModCaptainMårvelousFeb 11, 20171 votes

A small map is part of the importance however. The map isn't supposed to feel wide-open for you to roam and run about. The map is made to feel more compact because it's trying to force fights to occur. Also, in terms of resets, only a handful of assassins have them (Kha and Kat are the only ones I can think of. Did Akali keep her kick recharge?). And these assassins don't bring other things like CC (Rengar, LB, Kennen, etc) or utility (Rengar's vision, LeBlanc's second ult, Yasuo wind wall).