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Mobility creep and agency

Juggernacht··2 votes·6,038 views

With the release of Sylas I've switched from playing almost exclusively juggernauts to Sylas. My first impressions after having played only a handfull of other champions since his release is that Sylas is incredibly fun to play. As a player I used to tilt extremely easily, I would feel that there was nothing I could have done to play a certain situation better, but with Sylas that feeling has almost completely disappeared. One could argue that the reason I'm tilting less easily is because I enjoy playing him more, which is certainly a part of it, but to my mind that increase in enjoyment comes not from having a new toy to play with, but from an increase in agency. When I lose a fight, I can always think of a couple ways that I could have either slipped away or outplayed it. But where does this agency come from?

If you're not familiar with the concept of a juggernaut, they tend to be extremely tough, deal lots of damage, and be extremely slow/predictable, and therefore vulnerable to kiting, and often the only window they have to make plays is if your team has lots of CC or if you have flash available. Contrast this to Sylas, with a low cooldown dash, plus an amumu Q, plus a short dash. The increased mobility is a large part of the feeling on increased agency, to reference a recent game that I played, I dodged the enemy malphite ult twice that game, avoiding near certain death to a gank. If I were playing a juggernaut, that would almost certainly be two deaths.

Unfortunately Riot's in a very awkward situation right now because on one hand they have complaints about too much damage flying around, and reducing it would make the game much more strategy oriented. On the other hand a feeling of a lack of agency was a serious issue in season 7, with a common complaint being that one good player couldn't carry the game, but one bad player could throw it. These complaints are somewhat at odds with each other, and because of it Riot seems like they're trying to pull the game in too many directions at once. Increasing mobility will increase agency and satisfaction for the people that like that playstyle and those kinds of champions, but it can also lead to extreme frustration playing against the very same champions, as giving agency to one player in the form of mobility often means nullifying the agency of others, and when a champ with a lot of mobility gets ahead it can be extremely oppressive.

What does Riot do about this though? It's not an easy question and I don't envy their situation, but they need to have a long hard think about the direction they want the game to go in. As far as I can tell they have 3 main paths they could take. They could increase mobility, leading to lots of crazy high skill outplays, something like the assassin meta we have right now, with a single mistake often leading to death, but probably even more severe. They could decrease mobility which would ideally lead to more strategic play and requiring careful positioning and long drawn out fights. They could also try and make everyone happy, finding a balance between the two, but more than likely this would lead to nobody being happy. Obviously I'm slightly simplifying things here and the meta clearly depends on more than just mobility cough damage cough, but i do think that the extreme mobility creep has gone a long way towards shaping the current meta.

Let me know your thoughts, does League have mobility creep? If so, is it a bad thing? Is a higher outplay potential good? What's the consequence of having a higher outplay potential? Is there a better way to include counterplay than making every champion have a dash? Is the meta even affected by mobility creep, or does damage creep play a bigger role? I don't claim to have all the answers and I want to hear your opinions too.

TL;DR: Mobility increases agency for champs that have it, is League better off with more mobility, or less? Why?

11 Comments

ModKnightsKemplar3 votes

I think the question "should there be more mobility in the game" oversimplifies the issue, generally. I think it's good to have both kinds. Playing slower, more deliberate champions puts the emphasis on positioning and strategic decision-making, while flashy champs put more emphasis on mechanical play and reflexes. I think both have their place.

What it sounds like to me is that you should have been playing more assassins all along; you seem to enjoy that playstyle a lot more. But I still think there's a place in the game for Nasus and Yorick. When everyone can dash around, dodging skillshots and gap closing with impunity, it actually lowers the value of those skills for the champions that have them. I personally like the diversity, even if it's more challenging to balance for it.

Galiö4 votes

Not only do more and more dashes exist, there are more and more skillshots and less point and clicks. Which snowballs the issue of mobility creep imo.

I'm not fan, I know this isnt contributing much. But I dont like it.

Axzarious5 votes

Well, there's also the other issue in that those mobile champions don't really seem to pay for their mobility when you stack them up against the immobile ones. They don't sacrifice damage, CC, or bulk.

Oksanaandjoy2 votes

Yes, but what happens when some champions cough Singed cough get left behind in the mobility game? Adding lots of mobility to the new champions without giving reasonable strengths to old champions feels unfair.

Umbral Regent1 votes

Yes, but what happens when some champions cough Singed cough get left behind in the mobility game?

I mean, his Insanity Potion gives him movement speed, he gains bursts of movement speed by passing by Champions thanks to his Noxious Slipstream, I'm halfway certain that Ghost is a common Summoner Spell pick on him, and there's a fair few items that offer movespeed benefits, like Righteous Glory.

There's more mobility than just dashes.

Adding lots of mobility to the new champions without giving reasonable strengths to old champions feels unfair.

Some time ago (I think around 2017), they buffed Singed's Mega Adhesive to Ground enemies affected by it, disabling them from using mobility abilities (dashes, blinks, leaps, etc.) while affected, and somewhere afterwards they changed his Passive to Noxious Slipstream, giving him movespeed bursts when he passes by enemy Champions, making it easier to pick up speed, stick to targets, and sprint by them to start a poison cloud chase.

What more strengths could they reasonably give Singed?

And, on top of that, what other Champions lack sufficient strengths to counterbalance their lack of mobility?

Oksanaandjoy2 votes

Yes, he does get a MS bonus from his ultimate and yes he is commonly played with ghost. Both of these things mean exactly nothing when faced with one hard CC or decent slow; he is very easy to catch these days. This is coupled with his limited access to good movement speed items. Good AP items with MS: Lichbane and Spellbinder, both of which don't interact with his Q, and of course, without significant amounts of AP his Q can just be ignore by all but the squishiest of toplaners (and lets not talk about Adaptive Helm). Go back and look at how many of the latest champions have hard CC and mobility.

Agreed, they did add grounding to his W. However, it is reliably broken against several champions (Yi, Camille, Zac) and the cast time is so long that Camille to reliable hookshot out his W before his animation is completed.

Umbral Regent1 votes

Both of these things mean exactly nothing when faced with one hard CC or decent slow; he is very easy to catch these days.

But your initial argument was that Singed was left behind in the mobility game, and it had nothing to do with a vulnerability to CC.

Besides, the same can be said for many mobile Champions - their mobility, their dashes, leaps, blinks, vaults, teleports, wall-walking, etc. - none of that means anything if they're hit with hard CC.

...and of course, without significant amounts of AP his Q can just be ignore by all but the squishiest of toplaners (and lets not talk about Adaptive Helm).

I mean, if he did a ton of damage with his Q without investing into AP, he'd be pretty broken. He moves quickly, he can deal consistent DoT damage, he can slow and Ground people, throw them, root them with good positioning, and he can become tankier, more mobile, and regen health and mana quickly with the press of a button.

Which is why I asked; what more strengths could they reasonably give Singed? He's a tank with uncharacteristically high mobility and versatile crowd control, as well as consistent damage. There has to be a tradeoff somewhere.

Go back and look at how many of the latest champions have hard CC and mobility.

Out of the past five Champion releases, only four have had a combination of both mobility and hard CC - but not all of them were necessarily mobile.

Sylas and Pyke are the only two that can rightly be considered especially mobile, since Sylas can lower his cooldowns to Taric-level absurdity, and Pyke has ample abilities to move and reposition (Ghostwater Dive gives movespeed, Phantom Undertow is a dash, and Death From Below has a blink component if you connect with a Champion.)

Neeko has a movespeed boost on her Shapesplitter, but she's more along the lines of a controlling Burst Mage, and the movespeed boost from Shapesplitter is pretty small.

Kai'Sa has ample mobility (between her Supercharger and Killer Instinct), but she lacks hard CC, and both of her mobility abilities have drawbacks - Supercharger prevents her from auto-attacking for a moment, and Killer Instinct requires a target that she's hit or that her team's hard CC'ed - and the target has to be within range for her to blink to them.

And then Zoe has both CC and mobility - but she has only one hard CC spell, and two movement abilities - one being a movespeed boost tied to casting Spell Thief, and the other being a brief teleport between two locations, that results in her being put right back where she started it. So she's neither particularly super-mobile (though like Singed, she can be aggravatingly sticky), and she doesn't have a lot of crowd control.

Now, let me go back and re-ask my question from earlier;

...what other Champions lack sufficient strengths to counterbalance their lack of mobility?

Josh Sand3 votes

I personally think the amount of mobility in the game isn't terrible. It's not ideal, but I'm willing to accept it, just for the sake of argument right now

What I don't think is OK, is when mobile champions are allowed to deal more damage than less mobile champions. Any well balanced game is going to associate a cost with things like speed, mobility, risk factors etc.

The problem right now is less about mobility, and more about the power budget costs that are associated with it. Most champions in this game pay a price for having damage. Juggernauts are slow and easily kited - they are reliant on other players to help them engage or stay in a fight. While Marksmen need a lot of babysitting and protection in order to fully reach their damage output potential.

Neither of these champions are on the far end of the mobility spectrum because they are given so much damage potential.

When other champions with better utility or more mobility start dealing more damage than Juggernauts and Marksmen, something is going to feel really off. With all of the mobility that a champion like Kayn or Yasuo carries, should they really be doing more damage than their less-mobile counterparts? If not, then what is the price they pay in order to gain the benefit of that kind of mobility?

ModKnightsKemplar1 votes

Approved!

Draconian5651 votes

I'm all for flashier games, IF every champion gets it.

Playing an immobile champion in this day and age is painful, as even the tiniest slow cripples you. It's unfair to watch other immobile classes like ADC and Mages get MS on new items but Tanks and Juggernauts only getting mobility with items like Righteous Glory is minimal. DMP's move speed is nice, but we need those instantaneous bursts so it's less kite-able and better for throwing people off track.

Skullthorn1 votes

I'd say the issue is less of mobility, but more slipperiness and positioning tools, if that makes any sense. When you consider Neeko's W, Pyke's camouflage, Akali's stealth, Kai's Invisibility and ult, Zoe's ult, Rakan's (previously) lightning quick engage, Xayah's ultimate, Galio's ult and Kayn literally walking through walls, there's been a huge influx of abilities that allow champions to make plays much easier, reposition, etc. Combine this with an increase in damage with lots of it being mixed type, it creates a very volatile game state where slower, less mobile champions like tanks really struggle to find their place.

Honestly, I think we need Riot to start pulling the reins more on their champion designers, give tanks items a bit of their hp back, as well as give supports and tanks some more peel options.

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