[Feature Request] Ally Ult Timers
From the 4.12 Patch Notes on Jungle Timers: "We want League to be all about the smart decisions you make in the moment and how you make plays around those moments, rather than how well you can track certain timers. There's definitely skill in memorizing information, but our philosophy on gameplay clarity is making sure that skillful decisions can be made with the right information and that players are fighting each other, not the system." ... "It's also worth mentioning that jungle timers aren't adding new information that hasn't been there before, as they follow the same rules as minimap icons."
The Reasoning: Timers are important to clarity and strategic choice making. Clarity: Players are not expected to memorize or be able to calculate timers on the fly. That includes death timers of the enemy and jungle timers. Riot wants that we do not have to fight the system to get the information that is available to us in the first place. Because we have the ability to know when an ally uses an Ult and when it does come up, having a timer for our ally's Ult is not adding any new information but rather clarifying it. Strategic Choices: Timers help players make strategic choices in advance. This can be seen with jungle timers as teams can be more aware of when key objectives will spawn and can plan accordingly. Or with death timers of the enemy, your team must can make choices based of just how much time they have a clear numbers advantage. A team that is low on health won't continue to hammer away at an Inhib if the enemy is about to spawn in a time that will ace them. Having Ult timers would provide a similar level of strategic choice. For example, a team might be more prepared at positioning themselves when they see that their initiator has only 10 seconds left on their Ult cd. Or a team might might be able to turn around a retreat into a counter attack when the knew seconds ahead of time that key Ults were about to come up. And what better time to try and implement a new feature like this than Pre Season?
My Propsals:
- Use the current green indicator as a make shift timer. When an Ult goes right to cooldown it will turn black. But as time passes, it will slowly fill up until it is full, indicating the Ult is no longer on cd. Although this does not give an exact number, it allows teams to be aware of how much on cd an ally's ult is and can plan based of that information.
- Use the Tab Screen as the go to screen for timers and information. Currently, the Tab screen provides jungle timers and death timers. It would not be out of place to also use this screen for Ult timers. Having the timer appear over (or beside) the ally champion portraits on the left of the screen would be the most intuitive location for Ult timer's.
tl;dr: Ally Ult Timers would provide more clarity and strategic choice. These timers could be on the current Ult indicator for allys' or the Tab screen.
What do you all think? Feel free to leave comments or questions below.
