Riot, I really used to like your IP cost reduction on champion prices

DeusVult·2/22/2015, 11:07:16 PM·324 votes·15,813 views

How the cost for older champions would go down every time a new champ was released

But this was only introduced when you made the move from a new champ every 2 weeks to a new champ every 3 months.

REALLY OLD champs like Rammus, Anivia, Kassadin and even Olaf are still 3150 IP. Galio is 4800. GALIO

Every champ after Ziggs, who was released over 3 years ago (Feb 1st 2012), costs 6300 IP.

IMO, your price reduction should go from every champ release to once every Month. Instead of when a new champ is released, the oldest 6300 IP champ goes to 4800 IP, and every 3rd release a 4800 IP champ goes to a random lower bracket, it should look like this;

Every month, the oldest 6300 champ is dropped to 4800 IP, the oldest 4800 champ is dropped to 3150 IP, the oldest 3150 champ is dropped to 1350 IP. Every 3 months, the oldest 1350 champ is dropped to 450 IP.

This way, people who are new to the game or who don't play 24/7 can still build a champion pool without farming forever. Between this and trying to get runes and rune pages, its ridiculous.

TL;DR Champion IP prices should be dropping more frequently

152 Comments

OhOkYeah2/22/2015, 11:11:46 PM106 votes

With the current rate, I can hope to have 10 champions and 2 full rune pages sometime before 2017.

Jubbinaut2/23/2015, 12:19:04 AM25 votes

I think my issue is that your rule isn't sustainable. It's actually too fast, and will quickly lead to a pile of 450 champs, along with one of each higher bracket.

Also, keep in mind that many prices remain high because of the expected difficulty/complexity of the champion. They're high specifically to discourage newer players from trying them before they've got a solid grasp of the basics, and I find it hard to argue with that concept.

That said, I don't generally disagree with you. I'd certainly like to see more prices come down more often. But I don't know how to manage it at a sustainable rate beyond using champ releases as a base measurement.

Pucking Purrfect2/22/2015, 11:09:53 PM25 votes

I can't upvote this enough...

Hopeslayer2/22/2015, 11:15:03 PM10 votes

there needs to be more 450 champs worth buying for new players

the rune system is bad enough

ShadowNinetails2/23/2015, 12:37:19 AM10 votes

While I do somewhat agree that the price reductions were a good idea, I also understand why some of the prices are high to begin with. If you had Annie and Zed both at 450 IP, you'd have a lot more new players (genuine new players, not the smurfs) who run into an extremely complex champion when they barely have the most basic grasp of the game and its mechanics. Then when you do consider the smurfs that actually do know how to take advantage of the champ, they have an even easier way to roflstomp genuinely new players and make them feel bad for ever trying the game.

Additionally, with the cadence of champ releases slowing significantly, having price reductions at the proposed rate makes it incredibly easy to collect all the champs with little effort which decreases the incentive to buy them with RP (it's still a business). It's already been over 2 years since a champ was released with me not having enough IP to instabuy them and for a solid few of them that was at a 7800 price point. I recently got tired of having so much IP so I bought up every rune I could ever conceivably use (meaning everything except things like AP/lvl Marks or Energy Regen Quints). I'm still currently sitting on over 8k and I have no idea what I can do with it because it will likely be over 15k by the time the next champ releases and that's the biggest factor. With fewer champs coming out in longer periods of time, there's more time to farm IP and catch up.

Besides, if you're still lacking in runes, that's what you should be focusing on, not champ collection. That and getting better with the champs you have.

Rhax2/23/2015, 4:47:40 AM8 votes

The average 30m game gives you 55 IP if you factor in win vs lose, so to unlock a 6300 champion, it would take you 57 hours of in-game time. This doesn't include time wasted in queue, in lobby, or when games get reset due to AFKs or denials. This also doesn't include Win of the Day bonus, which is roughly 150 IP every 24 hours. To ball park it, most people are capable of unlocking 1x 6300 champion a month with fairly dedicated gameplay.

The problem is, we haven't accounted for runes, rune pages, or an opening champion pool (aside from luxury picks). How much of Riot's player base plays LoL more than 20 hours a week? That's the only way new players would have a remote chance to unlock their needed content to play ranked effectively in a single season. Most people don't want a hopeless grind, nor have the time to do so. I suppose that's the entire point, to force people into buying RP for things other games give for free (i.e. DOTA2).

In fact, I had 3 friends that I convinced to start up LoL in the last year that all got to around level 15 before they gave up on the pointless grind that is IP and XP gains. Speaking as a player who started LoL in Season 1, back in 2010, I hit level 30 in a single month, and earned enough IP to buy everything in the game in 6 months. Players starting now would be lucky to hit level 30 in 6 months, and have absolutely no hopes of unlocking just half the game's champions in 2 full years. That is simply absurd.

Best Pix NA2/22/2015, 11:44:00 PM6 votes

But then they'll lose money.

They already hate the rule as it is.

Uiru2/23/2015, 2:47:29 AM6 votes

Rune gouging is far more egregious than champs.

It's too bad that double IP weekend and the occasional 30% off rune sale simply make things feel like the way they're supposed to be for a few short days. ~Uiru

Legostrike2/22/2015, 11:34:12 PM5 votes

AGREED

miku sama TuT2/23/2015, 7:33:22 AM5 votes

tbh I actually don't mind it (probably since I haven't played much) but it gives me something to work towards

Duavey2/22/2015, 11:54:37 PM4 votes

Yes please. All the champs I want are 4800 or 6300... And I still need to finish my first basic rune page, let alone the other three.

PickleBabah2/22/2015, 11:59:42 PM4 votes

This. Especially because the frequency of new champions being released has slowed down greatly as of late.

InivtesPreeze2/23/2015, 11:17:04 PM3 votes

When Riot was bought by Tencent Holdings Limited (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent)

They got greedy AF.

Champion prices on release went UP. Old champion prices didn't go down anymore.

Remember back when they said, "not all champions will cost 6300"? I do.

Money rules these people now, it's sad.

I Main Swain2/23/2015, 3:23:02 AM3 votes

tbh, I don't think they need to speed it up quite THAT much. I do think, however, that you should get all 10 450 champs for free upon reaching lvl 5 or something, and I also think they need to start reducing 6300 and 4800 champs faster like you said. I don't think we need more 450's, ESPECIALLY not every month. keep in mind, people buying champs with rp is a large portion of their income.

lilnutduck2/24/2015, 12:21:54 AM3 votes

I completely disagree with this idea. I personally just feel that lowering IP cost due to the age of a champion is a bad idea. At some point, the current champion rotation we know and love today will only be 450 IP if we use this method, and while, yes, the new champions could and most likely will be better, many people could pick a champion they know was OP from our age, and then own everyone with an "old champion". I think Riot should look at the K/D/A for every single champion out of every single League of Legends player. The ones with the most kills would be at the MOST 6300 RP, while the champions with a high death ratio are at the least 450 IP.

Killer X 122/23/2015, 4:07:15 AM2 votes

The IP system doesn't make much sense lol, but we are kinda used to it being dumb... I'd own a lot more championsif they were cheaper, but most of them i don't really like playing. I think there is only 3 champions i've never played in a real game, and actually that was until like 1 week ago. When i got my PBE account i tried them lol

Malicious Fury2/23/2015, 5:26:24 AM2 votes

Over 135,000 IP here. Prices aren't bad at all unless you want every champion there is.

Franco Sanchez2/23/2015, 8:39:06 AM2 votes

I'm about 8k IP off of having all champs. That is, assuming that I get that before they release Bard. And the champs I'm missing are Aatrox and Quinn... So.. I couldn't really care less about champ price reductions at the moment. Though, I do agree. Champ prices need more frequent tuning.

mufasas1lion2/23/2015, 9:26:11 PM2 votes

yes, if its going to be free you might as well just play the game and actually earn your champions. it will give you experience either way. or you can just buy your next: PULSEFIRE Ezreal and SPIRIT GUARDUdyr and suck at them badly and then never play them... unless you like getting reported for keeping the goodhearted ranked try hards in bronze and get reported for feeding so hard Jesus asked YOU to host the last supper..... HEY! its your choice...

Jaronimo5/6/2015, 3:45:48 AM1 votes

I think this is because the cost of champs should be relative to their existing time compared to other champs, and not existing time total.

r0yal0077/7/2015, 3:00:05 AM1 votes

Can someone plz send me IP. Im poor and just want to buy lee sin but dont have the ip :(

Roach4207/10/2015, 1:30:32 PM1 votes

yea this game is announced as "F2P" but in reality once you hit lvl 30 and want to play for real you HAVE to invest money cuz runes and champs cost to much. or grind your daily for a year or 3.

This game is worse then EA games when it comes to extra cash they trying to bleed you.

Project Xero8/20/2015, 9:34:18 PM1 votes

Let me say this, first the cost of champions are way to fucking high. why is a 3 year old champion still over 6000 ip, the logic is mind blowing behind all of this. but i think i can sum it up rather easily, this is riot logic in a hand basket.

" fuck ip, buy rp."

this i am convinced is the riot logic, lets take a look at how much ip you win in a game on a normal day shall we? first off we have the first win of the day bonus, you want this in your pocket as this is the largest amount of ip you will get in one match. depending on how much time you spend, you could get almost 200 ip with the fwotd bonus. after that the ip gain drops off staggeringly, 200 ip drops down to 80 which is a 120 ip loss or 50 which is a ip loss. all of which could have been invested into new champions and runes.

Now lets take a closer look at some of those ip prices shall we, and on closer inspection they are priced that way for a reason. it is so players will get frustrated with the grind of trying to gain ip, and give in and shovel money into riots pocket. lets be real if you win one game once a day every day for 10 days you will have 1,000 ip, and what does 1,000 ip get you? absolutely nothing! some players have to play 1 game a day for 2 months or more to get enough, for even one of the higher up champions. so what does riot do, they add rp prices to champions. players will often spend money to purchase champions, for less rp then the ip it costs to purchase them. Then they tell other players to do it, but what people don't realize is that if a person didn't do it already they probably don't have the extra cash to throw around.

if riot where to reduce champion prices even a little, it would be a god damn godsend to players who can't afford rp. not that it will ever happen but there's some food for thought. and before you say anything like "its a bad idea, they'll lose money" let me just say this. lol esports <-- they are making thousands if not millions off this.