Changes to Help New Players

These are some suggestions I’ve drawn up for improvements to new players’ League of Legends experience. Please tear them apart. (Also feedback on my post itself is appreciated, i.e. formatting/wordiness)

1. Aggressive Champion Price Restructuring
2. Last-Hitting
3. Masteries
4. Playing with High-Level Friends
5. Suggested Ability Rank Paths

1. Aggressive Champion Price Restructuring

Magic: The Gathering separates it’s card rarities from common to Mythic rare. Mythic rare cards aren’t just the most powerful, but the most complex, while common cards rarely have multiple mechanics tied to them. They know that new players will have access to primarily common cards, and therefore simple ones. This not only creates a progression in power for players as they acquire new and better cards, but a progression in complexity as they acquire a basic understanding of the game before they have access to more complex mechanics.

League can follow a similar method with it’s champion pricing. Garen’s price reduction to 450ip was a godsend for new players: I almost always tell my friends to pick him up. His theme is obvious, his skills straightforward, and executing his skills is easy. However, this trend does not extend past him.

Many of the 450ip champions are relics from the beginnings of League and priced accordingly rather than by their complexity or design cohesion. Specific problem champions include Ryze, with his unintuitive scaling; Kayle, with her hybrid nature; and Poppy, who is a mess.

I would suggest not only the reduction in price of champions that are particularly healthy for new players, but also the increase in the price of problem champions. This way players would be able to easily afford a well-rounded play experience while saving up for that super-cool eye-catching champion, while staying away from “trap” champions like Poppy who can potentially ruin someone’s early impressions of League.

I would suggest at least one champion for each traditional role reduced to 450ip save Garen, who is already a great introduction to both the tank and bruiser playstyles. My main criteria are:

Simplicity of design and theme - If the champion’s abilities and playstyle take more than a breath to explain in total, they are too complex.

Simplicity of Mechanics > Execution: While priority is often placed on simplicity of execution (i.e., targeted abilities > skillshots), I find that simplicity of mechanics is more important. For example, new players tend to prefer Lux over Ryze (in my experience). Champions like Ryze may have targeted abilities that are easier to perform, but the reduced range that accompanies these abilities requires far more tactical knowledge and knowledge of your opponent to execute properly.

Fits the play patterns of new players - I find that tanks and long-range mages are the best at this because new players tend to fit two major categories: too aggressive and too cautious. Both make mistakes. Aggressive players will enjoy the mistake mitigation of a tank like Garen or Singed, while cautious players will enjoy the mistake prevention buffer that the range and CC of mages like Lux provide.

Champions I would put forth for aggressive price reduction: Graves Caitlyn Singed Zac Lux Sona Ziggs

2. Last-Hitting

To a new player, Last-Hitting is almost always an unwanted burden. More experienced players recognize the strategic positioning and trading involved in gaining more CS than your opponent, but to a new player, all they see is an arbitrary restriction on when they should and shouldn’t attack a minion. To exacerbate the problem, new players don’t have access to runes and masteries, so it’s actually mechanically harder for them to last-hit than it is for level 30s.

To aid not only in new players’ last-hitting capabilities but also to help them practice last-hitting “correctly” (as in, not with bonus damage to minions, which would misrepresent “real” last-hitting), I suggest that for new players, minions with low enough health to be last-hit should be highlighted in some way. This will teach players to gauge what minions can be last-hit without giving them any statistical power, and free up their mental space to focus on learning the more exciting parts of League of Legends.

3. Masteries

Learning about masteries and building pages is a daunting task, and when you have less than 10 points to spend, it’s hard to notice the impact that your masteries have. I suggest a special set of masteries intended to let players cover their weaknesses as players as they learn. For example, a special mastery set (that potentially locks players out of the “normal” masteries, is restricted to players below a certain level, etc.) can allow for mechanics such as the above-mentioned last-hit marker to be available to new players but only if those players feel they need the training wheels. This would also allow other new-player aids, such as turret range indicators, to be more flexible in how a player utilizes them, and available outside of bot games.

4. Playing with High-Level Friends

One of the responses I often get when I ask my low-level friends to play League is “but I don’t want to play with level 30s.” They want to play on an even playing field and hate bringing the team down. Plus, they are at a mechanical disadvantage, as runes and masteries mean they have lower stats than their opponents, so the pessimistic observation “they magically do more damage than me” is actually true. The solution would be for me to play on a smurf, but then I wouldn’t gain IP or Honor and wouldn’t be able to use my champions, runes, and masteries.

For me and many other players, champions and IP gains are the most important reasons to not smurf. The MMO Rift employs what they call a “Mentor” system, where a player can de-level themselves to help their friends quest, in exchange for increased rewards. League can employ a similar system: give players the option to de-level themselves, barring their access to high-level runes and masteries while still allowing their access to champions, and increase their IP gains slightly. Players can be displayed as “Mentors,” which will give other low-level players in the game someone for team guidance and any questions they might have about League.

This also allows for matchmaking to take into account the player’s true matchmade rating instead of their smurf’s, which should allow for more evenly matched low-level games instead of “who has more smurfs” (whether or not that happens often, it should happen less). You could even allow players to request games that don’t have mentors in them, if they truly want to just play with unskilled players.

5. Suggested Ability Rank Paths

In DoTA2, suggested hero builds don’t just include items, but also skill rank paths. So, every time a player levels up, the game tells them “you should probably put a point into Q” etc. This is hugely beneficial, especially if the new player doesn’t have a friend with them who has played their champion before. Many new players fall into the trap of split-leveling their abilities as well, which is natural when you aren’t sure where your champion’s power lies, but is almost always the “wrong” thing to do in League.

If you've read this far, I appreciate your time and any feedback you choose to give. Thank you.