Mastery System 2.0 - Discussions and Considerations

BE READY FOR A WALL OF TEXT, SORRY!

I'll be very honest with you all, i think that both the mastery system and the rune system in the game right now are incredibly bad. But from what i understand the rune system is getting revamped in the pre-season (i really hope that), so i will focus only on the mastery system.

Let's get to the point

Why it's bad: • It's a bad copy of the old World of Warcraft talent trees (i cannot blame riot too much for this, but it's really just a copy of that with no innovations at all)

• It's pointless, becouse it has 0 interaction in it. Yes, you can swap points here and there, but we all know that there is 1 path for ADC, 1 path for tanks, 1 path for AP etc... it really offers nothing in that regard (exactly like it was for WoW after all... guess what, they changed it)

• It has no tangible impact on the game. I explain better: All of the masteries and i mean ALL of them are just passive bonuses or slight % changes to some stats. We all know that's boring, instead, if masteries had actives effect, you could see them impact the game slightly more, in more various ways, giving more options overall. (Again, it was exactly like this for WoW and they changed it for these reasons)

So these were the things that are bad about it, but there is something good about the current system? Very little in my opinion, but maybe we can save something: • The fact that you "choose a patch" is kinda cool, but it's not very relevant actually and... nothing more, i can't thing of other positive aspects of it. ** SO HOW DO WE REWORK IT?? I'll write down here what i think should be the direction for the new mastery system**

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GENERAL GOALS AND DIRECTION: Listen this part very closely: THE NEW MASTERY SYSTEM SHOULD BE UNIQUE TO EACH CHAMPION IN THE GAME

Digest it for a second... Okay, so what i mean by that is that each champion should have different possible things to choose that would be unique to it, i'll explain better in a second

The new mastery system should also have fewer but more meaningful choices, giving overall more impact on what you do, with more active effects instead of passive bonuses (those are what the runes are here for). And overall they should give more diversity on how you play your champions, and choosing them based on what you think fits you better.

LET'S DIVE DEEPER INTO THE SYSTEM So as i said, it should be a CHAMPION BASED system, not a general one. Why? because if you have overall 3 path (damage, defense, utility currently) for 130+ champions, well, you know that you are not going to have much diversity there. Instead, what create a variety, is the fact that you could have masteries unique to each champion, creating a whole new world of stuff to play with.

But it would be different from now, what i suggest is: • Each champion has 7 Mastery points • Each champion has various Mastery pages • When you are in champ select and you lock in a champion you also select what mastery page OF THAT CHAMPION you want to use • Each champion would have 12 different Masteries to choose from, You have to spend 1 point to select one. • Some Masteries could have 2 ranks, meaning you have to spend 2 points if you want a more powerful version of that mastery, but at the same time you lose 1 point to put somewhere else

You get the drill? It's a fluid system that give you MEANINGFUL CHOICES

To get a better understanding i'll write an example right below here

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EXAMPLE - THE MASTERIES OF AATROX

I will use Aatrox as an example so you can all understand better: I will now list just as an example the 12 masteries of Aatrox, you can spend points on them without having to follow an order, you just pick what you want, using your 7 points.

1. Thirst for Blood: The duration of your ultimate is extended by 1 second for each champion you kill. The stacks are halved on death

2. Improved Dark flight: The range on your Q ability is increased by X, but the cooldown is also increased by X sconds

3. Avatar of War: When you are surrounded by 4 or more enemy champions your attack speed is greatly increased 2 ranks

4. Giant killer: Slaying Baron 2 times in the same game will give you a permanent +X% health and +X% dmg increase. 2 ranks

5. No Mercy: Your damage towards target below 50% health is increased, but your damage to targets above 50% health is reduced

6. Blood for Blood: Every third hit with Blood Price active will cost you more health, but you will do more damage as well 2 ranks

7. Lifedrain: Every third hit with Bloodthirst active will give you more health, but the heal is no longer increased when below 50% health 2 ranks

8. Unstoppable: While using Massacre you are now briefly immune to crowd control effects, but the cooldown on it is greatly increased

9. The Hand of death: At level 6 one of the enemy champions will be marked with the hand of death. your movement speed when moving towards the marked champion will be slighlty increased at all stages of the game.

10. Blood expulsion: You are no longer immune to damage when your Blood Well activates, but you recover faster and if you complete the channel you'll so X amount of damage in an area around you 2 ranks

11. Dark descent: Your Dark flight no longer knockup champions cought in the center, but you get a shield absorbing X damage for 2 seconds instead 2 ranks

12. To the battle: If you score a kill with 4 assists of your teamates on it, you will get a team buff increasing the movement speed of all it's members briefly.

As you can see this choice are meaningful, not only on how the impact the gameplay but also because they have drawbacks, so you have to be smart about it.

Tell me if you have questions