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Crit Rework

Kadexe·9/22/2018, 7:29:09 PM·6 votes·24,166 views

#Goals

  • Eliminate RNG - This has been a pain point for a long time, particularly in previous metas where Infinity Edge was built as a first item and a random crit could decide who won a trade. League of Legends players do not like random chance to heavily interfere with their plays. Riot seems to feel the same way, they designed an item with no random crits for crit champions to buy as their first item.

  • Keep the system simple, easy to understand, and focused on empowering basic attacks.

  • Increase item diversity, and balance the items so that you have a choice between building 1, 2, or more crit items to maximize damage. I don't want a return to almost every ADC rushing 3 crit items.

  • Support existing champions designed with crit chance inside of their own kit.

#Introduction

In my new system, crit chance is simply a multiplier of the damage of your basic attacks.

  • 0% critical strike = 100% AD scaling on autos

  • 50% crit = 150% scaling

  • 100% crit = 200% scaling

  • 150% crit = 250% scaling

I'm keeping the critical strike capped at 150%, effectively the same damage as 100% crit chance with the old Infinity edge - 250% AD on every attack. Although it could be lowered to something like 120% or 100% if crit-stacking becomes too strong.

#Items

  • In general, crit values on items would be the same as before. Mathematically, the damage you get per 1% crit is unchanged.

  • Infinity Edge: The passive (that doubles your crit chance) is overpowered without the 100% crit limit. So I'm reverting it to simply having 20% crit chance instead. I don't want it to be "the Deathcap of Crit" like before, because crit itself is already a multiplier stat, and I don't want it to become an essential item for crit builds again. The passive that gives you true damage on critical strikes will instead do true damage on every attack. Also, I'm bringing back Agility Cloak and adding it to IE's recipe.

  • Statikk Shiv proc damage scales with your crit.

  • Essence Reaver reverts to its pre-8.11 version.

  • Stormrazor: Works more or less the same way as it does now.

  • New Item: Combine Long Sword and Brawler's Glove to make an item with AD and critical strike. We'll call it Hatchet for now.

  • New Item: Combine Sheen and Hatchet to create a sheen item that deals (100% + 1.5x your crit strike) of your AD on your next basic attack after casting a spell.

  • New Item: Combine Tiamat and Agility Cloak to create a hydra item that grants attack speed, crit chance, and the splash damage benefits from crit. (I've tested the Hydra items and their splash damage does not do this)

  • New Item: Combine Zeal and Pickaxe to make an item that deals double your crit strike on every 3rd attack. Caps at 150 or 200% crit strike, something above the normal cap.

  • New Item: Combine Hatchet and Cutlass to make an item that combines crit and lifesteal, with an active effect dealing damage equal to 25% of your AD and benefits with crit strike.

All the new items will be tuned to scale with crit strike, but still be good standalone items if you decide not to buy additional crit strike.

#Champions

  • Fiora's guaranteed crit right now does 160-200% damage on one attack, in this system it really wouldn't be any different.

  • Tryndamere and Yasuo's passives wouldn't need any changes.

  • Jhin's 4th shots, Pantheon's finishing attack, and Shaco's backstab are all coded as crits. In this system, the only difference would be how the tooltips are written - Jhin does 200% damage on his 4th shot, Pantheon does 200% damage on his execute, and Shaco's backstab does 130% damage to champions.

  • Any spell or ability that had a chance of critting, now simply has a static damage multiplier in its place. For example, Gangplank's Parrley (Q) would deal 130% of his AD every time if he had 30% critical strike. Gankgplank in the current system is the best example of a champion that can destroy teams or just chunk them depending on whether he gets a crit or not.

  • I would like crit to be used by a wider variety of champions, not just ADCs and a handful of melees. So I would put crit ratios (large or small) on Trundle's Q, Ezreal's Q, Irelia's Q, Vi's E, Jax's W, etc. Champions that rely a lot on their basic attacks.

Any thoughts you would like to add? Problems with this system? Other ideas for new items?

23 Comments

Dicerson9/27/2018, 9:26:25 AM9 votes

I am sorry, but I cannot agree with this system.

I agree that RNG is bad in this scenario, a roll of the dice should not determine the outcome of a game where skill and strategy are the core emphasis. But the system you propose here is little different than simply giving items more damage (The only real difference is that crit damage would apply to auto-attacks only, raw AD applies to every attack as well as to items that require it). And while that in and of itself may be a good reason to discern the two, it removes what crit chance was all about. The very reason the idea itself exists. To this end, I will examine what Crits really are, why they exist, etc.

The idea of a critical strike, more or less, originates in tabletop games, DnD to be specific. It was an RNG mechanic because that's what DnD (and nearly every other tabletop since) is all about, simulating the natural uncertainty of reality with dice rolls. A critical strike was when, by random chance, an attack happened to strike a particularly weak or vital spot. Every system has had a unique way of implementing them, some less random than others, but they are all built on one core idea:

Critical strikes are a moment of power, they give the player an instant where they are significantly stronger than they otherwise are; and not only does this in and of itself feel good and creates opportunity for the character to express themselves by "flavoring" the crit, but it also provides inconsistency, which makes the game more interesting in general and adds a unique dynamic for the players to play around and play with.

In a tabletop RPG setting, where most everything is RNG (and strategies revolving around it) and where the point of the game is not even the combat mechanics (They are role playing games, they are about collective storytelling, and are almost universally pure PvE), this is fine. They accomplish the above purpose well enough that there is no need to change them.

But in a highly competitive, PvP combat-only video game setting, where tournaments (and thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars) are won or lost on the game, an RNG mechanic like this is intolerable. Unacceptable.

So, then, what do we do? RNG crits don't work, but if we just replace them with, in effect, a raw damage scaling multiplier, the effect that crits have are lost. The moment where you are temporarily more powerful is gone, the game becomes less interesting. Is it even possible, however, to retain this effect without an RNG system?

Yes, it very much is. There are multiple ways, in fact, that I can think of, and I shall outline 2 of them here.

1. "Lul 3-hit passive": Though the name is satirical, the idea is anything but. It is a well-known idea for replacing crits, make them a "3 hit passive". An effect where every Xth attack does extra damage, a further exaggeration of the current system; which incorporates RNG, but makes every successive "miss" increase the chances of the next crit. This basically removes the RNG element of the current system, where the "X" is more or less randomly determined, with crit-chance making the number more likely to be smaller, and makes it consistent instead. 3 is a common number, but I think that is a bit too frequent to achieve the desire effect. If this system where to be put in place, I think every 5th attack would work (Champions with pre-existing multi-hit passives would need some serious tuning, unfortunately). Crit chance instead becomes a damage multiplier for this system, with the initial multiplier being 0 (No extra damage), and every successive item adding some amount of % bonus damage on a crit, up to a cap.

This mechanic accomplishes the original purpose of Critical strikes (or at least, my interpretation of their purpose as outlined above), while also removing the RNG element. While it does have issues with being unoriginal (Everyone becomes walmart brand jhin/vayne), it is my personal vote. It's an interesting dynamic that forces marksmen to think about their attacks. That is to say, it adds strategy to an otherwise mindless damage mechanic, where before all you had to do was select the right target and position (No small feat, ADCs are actually not easy to play, make no mistake with my words), now you have to think about where and when you place your crits. I personally like this outcome. It creates a tempo, where marksman have high and low points in their damage output they have to play around (an idea I've seen riot themselves emphasize as healthy for the game and a goal to shoot for)

2. "Stormrazor but everyone has it": This idea is very similar in execution to the original, it creates a consistent tempo. However, rather than making it fixed to every X attacks, it ties the crit to the passage of time. Every X seconds, your next auto is a crit. Simple. Similar to the above, it removes the RNG element of when a crit will happen, and instead turns crit items into ones that augment the effect. The primary difference between this one and the above is that it allows marksmen to "charge up" their crits without having to attack, that is to say, a marksman can disengage from a fight without compromising their ability to crit often. Like the above, crit chance becomes a damage multiplier, starting at 0% (No extra damage) and going up to a cap.

I do not know if this is a good or bad thing. On one hand, it allows more skirmish/kiting oriented marksman who do not throw out attacks as often as others (Jhin, cait, etc.) to crit as much as other marksmen, evening the playing field in that regard. However, on the other hand, it makes those same champions potentially far more effective as crit-oriented champions than their kits already make them, potentially even breaking them and requiring immense amounts of tuning (moreso even than the first idea). It also removes the inherent risk of crits. Crits have always been a gambit. With RNG it's literally a roll of the dice, with the 1st idea you have to actively put yourself in danger in order to get them. But this idea has no real inherent risk outside of needing to throw out an attack every now and then, not to mention it also creates a sense of urgency that you have to go and throw out the crit or you are being inefficient, creating more stress than anything else. This serves to hamper the original goal of just feeling good, of having a moment of power, and thus creating a tempo of high and low points that the player plays around. It still creates the tempo, but it becomes a fight against time rather than a strategic placing of autos. The question "Where/when do I place my attacks" is instead replaced with a need to time your autos perfectly, to always be in the right place at the right time.

Again, I am still unsure if that is good or bad as a mechanic, hence why I still offer the idea.

There are other ways of removing RNG while still staying in line with my stated interpretation of the inherent purpose of Crits, but I am presently unable to formulate them into a coherent form for the purposes of explanation. Please, comment and let me know what you think of my ideas, and especially if you have any of your own.

Hyperr9/24/2018, 4:18:24 PM5 votes

Oh, I see. I have one question though, are you high and if yes would you mind telling me who your dealer is cuz that sht outta be strong af....

Gildarzt9/27/2018, 6:13:21 AM1 votes

the idea is good, I thought the same very times, but the scales are just dumb. You cannot add 1/1 because it would be too strong. Scales should be 1/0,5 then with 50% crit damage you could do only 25% more damage.

Hilsun9/27/2018, 6:21:30 PM1 votes

I wrote a post about this a long time ago--before the Ashe rework, even. Ashe currently utilizes this system, more or less. Here are some of my thoughts on it:

  1. In general, I agree with this concept--I think eliminating crit in order to eliminate RNG is healthy for the game. It's why I originally proposed a very similar concept years and years ago.

  2. I don't think there is any need to go higher than 200%. I think being able to go higher than 200% is unnecessary, especially with damage-creep already being as severe as it is in the current version of the game. They got rid of old IE because it was doing too much burst damage--as you mention, changing crit chance to auto-attack damage multiplier literally just eliminates RNG, but retains literally the exact same mathematical damage average as already exists with current crit chance.

  3. I don't really have opinions on your item changes, besides that I don't think any of them are necessary. Literally just changing crit chance % to auto-attack damage % would accomplish the goal of eliminating RNG for reliable and predictable damage.

  4. I don't think the name "critical strike" would even need to change, besides adjusting "critical strike chance" to simply "critical strike damage". The game already employs inconsistent critical strike damage with certain abilities (Fiora comes to mind with her level 1 E only doing 160% damage) so it wouldn't need to make a special exception to the rule of "crits deal 200% damage", it could simply read "the second strike gains 60% critical strike damage".

Shabada649/28/2018, 2:56:14 AM1 votes

I really like this idea. However, I must bring up a few points that don't really go over smoothly. If crits are no longer a chance concept, then what is the point of Stormrazor? Does it just give movement speed on hit now? Wouldn't the movement speed need to be buffed to compensate for the lost damage passive? Wouldn't a crit-sheen item either so nerfed that it would be useless without crit or so buffed that it is broken with crit? There is no way to balance a crit-sheen to be viable both with other crit items and without. A lifesteal and crit item has been avoided by Riot for a long time because they don't want to give ADCs that early-game reliability (terrible reason, I know). Are you sure that an item like this wouldn't cause an imbalance in ADCs, or in fact, aren't you worries that other champions will be able to abuse a crit-lifesteal item? Speaking of other champions, a lot of the champions that you listed in the last bullet are early game lane bullies. They won't be seeking to scale late game using crit, they want to end the game through their early game cheese power. Either crit will be so broken that it works for them, and ADCs will be strong, or crit won't work for them, and ADCs will be balanced.

Rıots Bad Client9/30/2018, 2:51:27 AM1 votes

I say, give crit on everything, even tank items.

just rework how it multiplies. Say you'd deal 100Dmg but a crit It'd do 200 so instead of dealing 200 Dmg, It would deal 120Dmg

however, lets give it so you can 300% crit(breaking the crit) this will make deal 160Dmg from the original 100

And have crit, Crit everything. It'll crit your singed dots, It'll crit your Karma Shield bomb, It'll crit your you GP Orange eat heal. and even your Vel'Koz Q... Everything.

And you can rework crit items so that they so something extra. Like make Infin edge, Deal and extra 40% to your auto attack crit damage, while doubling your Crit. (Crit damage nothing else)

Jetboost10/7/2018, 7:45:56 PM1 votes

If the purpose is to remove the random chance for extra damage you could also have crit chance work like this:

At 30% crit chance every auto attack adds 30 charge for a crit when above 100 next auto attack consumes 100 charges to perform a crit. When the champion in question has 100 or more charges make him have a vissual indicator that he will crit next autoattack.

Like this you would be able to see the crit coming and it won't be random anymore. Won't this be way less work?

Velasan10/8/2018, 10:59:59 PM1 votes

Interesting. I suppose another way you could do it is have items that say after every x shots the next shot is a critical and then have an animation for it.

In other words like Caitlyns head shot, but given by items. So, for example, 20 critical could be once you hit 19 shots the next basic attack will critical and so on. Then reduce the total amount of critical strike you can get, probably with a hard cap of 5 or so.

This would also help differentiate crit items from each other by how much crit you can get and when it procs. Similar to the way Stormrazer procs the first shots while other items would proc later shots.

It's at least one simple way to eliminate the RNG yet maintain the mechanic.

ModKnightsKemplar9/27/2018, 12:54:06 AM1 votes

Approved!