Thoughts on Frustrating Abilities: Unbreakable & Windwall

So I think we can all agree that League of Legends can be a very frustrating game with a big point attributing to this being Frustrating Abilities, and so I'd like to make a series of posts looking at Frustrating Abilities within the game and possible solutions to make them appear more fun, fair and interactive. Please note that while I will be using statistics and information from multiple sources (which for this topic will be cited below), everything within this post will reflect how I personally feel about the state of these abilities and how I believe they could be fixed. I am in no way, shape or form a developer and thus don't want to discourage anyone from joining into the discussion to share how they feel about these abilities, the solutions I bring or how they'd personally handle change if they had the ability to. But with that said, lets get into today's Topic;

Unbreakable and Windwall I think it goes without saying that having an ability eaten up by your opponent is no fun, especially if this comes with vitally no risk or thought other then pressing a button but this is often how people feel when facing off against Bruam's E, Unbreakable, and Yasuo's W, Wind wall. two of League's most iconic defensive Defensive abilities both Unbreakable and Wind Wall have caused plenty of upset with players for their ability to completely negate the effect of projectiles though the latter of the two often causing more of an outcry from the community and this comes from a simple fact. While blocking an ability and especially and ultimate with these abilities feels great, it is incredibly frustrating for those who just wasted their ability only to have it disappear completely with the press of a button.

To combat this the goal for today will be the following

• Make Unbreakable and especially Wind Wall feel less frustrating to play against
• Raise the skill cap on both the abilities

It is important to note however that to both Braum and Yasuo, Unbreakable and Wind Wall are essential pieces of their kit and their main defense in fights, thus any changes can not be to the level of a full rework of the ability, and so at its core they'll stay the same. Anyways now that the rules are set, lets get into the abilities.

https://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/8.16.1/img/spell/BraumE.png Unbreakable

The lesser evil of the two, Unbreakable works as follows, When E is activated Braum raises a shield in a targeted direction that intercepts any incoming non-turret enemy projectiles and reduces the damage he takes through the shield with the first hit having its damage completely negated and the ability lasting between 3-4 seconds depending on level.

Personally I don't believe this ability needs any large changes as its main ability of blocking out a hit completely can be negated by simply hitting Braum with any ability before using a stronger ability though that doesn't mean I wouldn't change the ability. Personally as a Braum player I find using Unbreakable can be rather unsatisfying and It's duration feeling like a burden unless you're in a larger fight.

To combat this I propose changing this ability as followed.

[E] Unbreakable COOLDOWN: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 > 20/ 18 / 16 / 12 / 10 DURATION: 3 / 3.25 / 3.5 / 3.75 / 4 > 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 2.75 / 3 DAMAGE REDUCTION: 30 / 32.5 / 35 / 37.5 / 40% Active: When E is activated Braum raises a shield in a targeted direction, that intercepts any incoming none-turret enemy projectiles and reduces the damage he takes through the shield. any incoming none-turret enemy projectile damage for the first 0.5/0.6/0.7/0.8/0.9/1.0 second(s) of activating is negated. Re-casting Unbreakable cancels and starts the cooldown of Unbreakable.

My goal with these changes is to make Unbreakable a more skill reliant ability, rewarding players for timing the ability correctly to block out as much damage as possible while giving your opponent the chance to try and bait out Unbreakable to leave Braum more vulnerable for the following barrage of attacks when he's no longer protected by his immunity.

The toggle mechanic to cancel Unbreakable is to encourage supports to keep track of their opponents abilities and cooldowns, using them to their advantage so they can cancel out of Unbreakable early so it'll be up earlier in the following fight, compared to simply waiting for the ability to end on its own.

Now moving on to the second part of this post,

https://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/8.16.1/img/spell/YasuoWMovingWall.png Wind Wall

Easily the more controversial of the two, Wind Wall works as followed Yasuo creates a gust of wind that travels in the target direction over 0.25 seconds to form a wall in front of him. The wall slowly drifts forward 50 units over 3.75 seconds, blocking all enemy projectiles except turret attacks.

When W is cast, Yasuo creates a gust of wind that travels in the target direction over 0.25 seconds to form a wall in front of him. The wall slowly drifts forward 50 units over 3.75 seconds, completely negating any none-turret enemy projectiles. (Wind Wall starts blocking projectiles on-cast even when it hasn't been formed yet)

Easily one of the most frustrating abilities in league, combined with Yasuo's immense speed and mobility, Wind Wall can create a situation where for nearly 4 seconds it becomes nearly impossible to hit him unless you manage to out maneuver him in which case he can still be saved by his flow. and While I dont have a definite answer on how to change this ability for the better here as some ideas on how to potentially make the ability more fair to play against.

[W] Windwall Duration: 4 > 1 second per cost tick. Cost: None > 15 per seconds + 2.5 per second after the initial cast. Active: Yasuo creates a gust of wind that travels in the target direction over 0.25 seconds to form a wall in front of him. The wall slowly drifts forward 50 units over 3.75 seconds, blocking all enemy projectiles except turret attacks. After Windwall has been active for 1 second Yasuo can recast it to deactivate it, ability deactivates automatically if Yasuo runs out of flow.

The goal with this is making Windwall feel more fair and a more skill involved ability. and giving it a risk reward mechanic, Would you rather spend all your flow to block out enemy projectiles for 5 seconds or play it safe and only use half so you still have enough flow to build back to 100 flow for your shield. and though its a small nerf to the champion it shouldn't be to noticable for people who put in the time to master the champion as their mobility will already provide them with flow to sustain the ability and still build their shield in time, though it does prevent Yasuo's from having two layers of Defense up at the same time. meaning ADCs who manage to out maneuver Yasuo from his Windwall don't have to face with the additional shield which should take away from some of the frustration of Windwall.

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Anyways, those are just my thoughts on the matter. If you agree of disagree with what I said or if you have a better Idea to help with the frustration of both of these abilities, Make sure to leave it in the comments below.

This was King Braum, and thank you for reading.

Sources used throughout this post: Braum, The League of Legends Wiki Yasuo, The League of Legends Wiki