Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

@Riot What is your policy on Champions who Combo together?

LaFreeze·11/19/2013, 5:48:38 PM·3 votes·422 views

Riot,

I'm just wondering, what is your stances on champions who can combo together; Like Cass and anyone with poison or Leona with DoT effects to get maximum procs.

It seems to me like, by and large, you avoided all but the most basic team work and are trying to avoid lane combos and the few who do combo are rare exceptions. So rare that I almost never see these combinations actually at work in a game. I was just wondering is this a design choice to avoid combos or just something the design team simply hasn't explored much.

I ask as a big fan of playing Leona and her team mate oriented game play to let you know where I'm coming from a bit with this question.

Edit - For the sake of clarity in conversation let me boil the question down to this:

"Riot, what is your design philosophy on this subject? Do you look for ways to may cass/x style synergy/combinations with other champions when building kits, are you indifferent to them or do you avoid it?"

13 Comments

djump11/19/2013, 7:05:48 PM3 votes

I don't think your example of leona and dot's works. Leona's passive gets consumed when it is proc'ed. A poison would not repetitively proc it. You only get one proc per spell that you hit an enemy with.

More to the point of your post though, I don't think riot does focus on specific synergy between two champions. If they did, they would have to balance that synergy down so it's not too strong. And if they did that, then the champions would be too weak on their own. It would force you to only play the two champions together or not at all basically, which I don't think is a good design choice.

JackAqua11/19/2013, 8:30:27 PM2 votes

Riot should make partner champions at some point, that are specifically made to synergize with each other. They wouldn't even have to reveal :D
Btw I think Ez and Nami are already a perfect team, because Ez' Q procs Nami's E, but doesn't consume it :D

AdaptiveCoffee11/19/2013, 11:14:47 PM2 votes

I think you are misunderstanding what a combo is. Combination is not synergy and it is not utilizing mechanics properly.

Leona is a good example, any champion in the entire game can utilize her passive as much as they want. It is often up to the Leona to make sure that her passive is used, that means NOT spamming your abilities quickly when you can stagger them out.

A combo would be like amumu ult + Gallio ult + Zyra ult or any combination of aoe or even single target ults that can be chained together for added effect (often with some form of CC attached to them).

Combos exist in the game, there are tons of them. Champion specific combinations that only trigger for very few champions are far an inbetween. While Teemo AND Singed can trigger Cassiopeia's poison it isn't a combo as much as it is synergy.

If you're looking for synergy there is tons of it in the game, ults and abilities can be chained, ward coverage can be abused by some champs more then others. Traps, snares, silences, grabs, stuns, and charms can all be combo'd together and many champions will work well with many champions, synergy exists in the game and it is in the hands of the player.

In conclusion Im kind of confused what your question is. If you're looking for Champion A to only be played with Champion B because they give each other an incredible buff and their abilities trigger each others abilities perfectly and you want a champion that is MADE to be a pair with another... don't hold your breath. Why would they release paired champions. It defeated the entire purpose of having 100s of champions to choose from each with their own unique set that can be used uniquely depending on your team composition.