Baron/Dragon Health Displayed on the New SR

ShadowGlaive213·Jul 4, 2014·8 votes·1,355 views

TL;DR Displaying the numerals of and subdividing Baron/Dragon health sets a bad precedence for various aspects of this game, gives smite guessers an advantage, and should not be included in the new Summoner's Rift. Allowing players to lock onto a unit they want displayed information on is a better alternative.

As many of you may know, on the new Summoner's Rift Baron and Dragon have the numeral of their health displayed as well as a divided health bar. I know it makes it less annoying for players that actually do look at the value for smite securing, but I feel it has a similar effect of what adding spawn timers does, which evidently was a very sensitive issue discussed during the Curse Voice debate.

Just as there are players who time buffs/dragon/baron and players that don't, there are players that look at the health for a smite and players that just look at the bar and guess. Giving spawn timers reminds players of objectives and reminds them to use it. Similarly, adding the subdivisions in the health bar helps the players that just want to guess, and also encourages them to not guess, and use the value instead. This takes away from players that actually consciously choose to look. Now there is a number screaming "look at me, I'm here" much like spawn timers.

If the numerals remain then I feel it would only be fair to display the numerals of champs, minions, and buffs as well. Buffs are just under dragon and baron for most contested neutral creeps, and champion health is also very important and can be used to estimate damage (most appropriately ignite) required for a risky kill to determine whether it would be worth going for or not. Most players when cs-ing just guess since it's annoying to keep clicking minions to see if the health is lower than the damage of your basic attack or ability and often miss because their estimate was wrong, and it cannot be denied that cs is also important.

All of this information is already available, just like baron/dragon health, and displaying these numbers would make it more visible just like baron/dragon. But it takes away from players that actually choose to look, players that choose to access this information. It is frequently stated that this game is as much mental as it is skill. Players should not be rewarded for allowing things they deem annoying to affect their gameplay. If players find clicking to look at the numeral annoying and you display the numeral what is next? Players that find keeping track of jungle spawn times annoying get timers? Players that find pressing tab to view the scoreboard, inventories, and champion respawn timers annoying get all of this permanently displayed? What precedence are you setting with this?

My Suggested Alternative: If you insist on making information already available more easily accessible, wouldn't allowing players to lock onto a unit in which they want displayed information on a better alternative as long as they maintain vision?

This is all my opinion and I know many agree as well as disagree. I disapprove of the changes to health bars.

Thoughts?

17 Comments

Earl EulrichJul 5, 20145 votes

it´s nothing that requires any sort of skill and smite-battles ar 60-40at best, even if one has the information and 1 uses wild guesses. So it won´t affect the skill-aspect of denying the smite-opportunity from the opponent/combining the smite with some execute dmg to outspike the opponent.

It´ll just make the information more accessible and the fighting a tad bit smoother for junglers - nothing wrong with that from my perspective.

MackleDogeJul 5, 20142 votes

Except it's ridiculous to keep saying stuff like this when there is a perfectly functional method of doing this in the game already, which evidently is "easy". And yet Riot seems to think that it needs to be made even easier? At some point we really need to stop with all this absurd hand holding that is going on, there is absolutely nothing wrong with requiring people to actually pay attention to the game and put forth the tiniest bit of effort to play.

Earl EulrichJul 5, 20143 votes

filtering information of a not-optimal UI =/= skill

The thing that makes LoL a really hard game to master is it´s makro-play, and even most professional teams in the world struggle heavily with it, despite spending a major part of their week with the game.

It makes the game more accessible, that´s all. People complaining about Games getting "too easy" are incredible far from understanding the game at all, same for WoW back in the days...the skillceilling just increased every addon by quite a lot - only people didn´t want to play a hard game and used tons of guides to bypass the actual hard part of the game (analysing an encounter and developing a strategy to beat it/theorycrafting...so only 0,001%of the WoW players really played on a lvl where they had to beat encounters without guides to get world firsts, which had been far from easy at any time).

MackleDogeJul 5, 20141 votes

The game doesn't need to be more accessible, it's already incredibly easy to play. There is nothing wrong with having a game easy to get into to and hard to master. That's how a game should be. It's a competitive 5v5 game, making it too easy opposes the importance of skill in a game where skill is the most important thing. You are the one incredibly far off the mark of understanding here.

MackleDogeJul 4, 20141 votes

I'm also opposed to displaying the health above both baron and dragon, and definitely think it's a bit ridiculous to also include it over red and blue buff. I don't see anything wrong with the segmented health bars, that indicates they are significant and have more health than a standard minion or camp, but displaying the health is an unnecessary simplification and punishes those that bother to actually keep an eye on the health while rewarding those that just arbitrarily smite by just staring at the buff and guessing. The functionality to click on baron, dragon, or the buff to view the health already exists and displaying the health is such an insubstantial and trivial thing to alter with no legitimate reasoning behind it.

The ScyphozoaJul 5, 20146 votes

How on Earth is it rewarding "guessing"? By "guessing" you mean NOT looking at the number? How does making the number EASIER to see, reward people who DON'T look at the number?

Besides, this really has nothing to do with "checking the health" vs "guessing". It's about being ABLE to see the health while ALSO being able to see where your champion is standing. If the only place to see the health is in the top left, you have to make the choice between 1) smiting correctly 2) positioning well or 3) doing daily eye muscle exercises.

MackleDogeJul 5, 20141 votes

Because people who before didn't look at the number know have it displayed right in front of their face, they literally can't miss it as long as they are actually looking at the screen.

Being able to do those three things at once is skill, if you can't do all three, you're bad. Pretty simple. That's why there are people renowned for smiting (Shook, Cyanide) and people renowned for mis-smiting (Saint Vicious). You're wasting your time, there isn't anything to argue.

BlackquillJul 5, 20144 votes

if you can't do all three, you're bad.

I don't even want to explain how wrong this is. Switching between Barons healthbar, the window with Barons stats in the top left corner, the map (because there could be your opponents) and the minimap is not something you can do effectively. If you can do, than this is a case for an oculist, because then something is definately wrong with your vision.

You're wasting your time, there isn't anything to argue.

The joke is on you...

MackleDogeJul 5, 20141 votes

I don't find that difficult to do at all, I guess to be fair it could be just me, but I don't see how it takes any more observance than appropriately focusing in a teamfight and working that mechanically.

BlackquillJul 5, 20141 votes

Ok, to be honest i don't jungle that much as i am mostly support. I guess this is one of the features where we have to say "let's see how it turns out"

MackleDogeJul 5, 20142 votes

I can work with you on that. Honestly, despite me not liking the change I recognize it is just a small change and not that big of a deal. I'll even acknowledge that it is a good thing for some people. I just don't like it when a game is changed to benefit one group at the direct negative of another group. I believe that there is a middle ground that would be beneficial to both groups without having to negatively impact one of them.

ShadowGlaive213Jul 5, 20143 votes

This is what players are and have been doing already, which mean it's perfectly doable.

The ScyphozoaJul 5, 20142 votes

You're right. There isn't anything to argue. Because Riot is going to do this no matter what you say.

MackleDogeJul 5, 20142 votes

I agree, I know that. Same with jungle timers. But just because Riot decides to do it doesn't mean it was the right decision or a good one.

ShadowGlaive213Jul 5, 20142 votes

It rewards people do don't look at the number by being displayed and telling them to look at it, as explained in the post, it's much like reminding people that Dragon is spawning in x amount of time and you should probably go there, or that the enemy team is probably going to be there soon so you can maneuver somewhere else on the map. Displaying the numeral as well as adding subdivision in baron health tell people if it's above smite range or not without them actually making the decision to see if it's above smite range.

Looking at multiple places at the same time is no different than maintaining map awareness throughout the entire game. In lane you have to cs, position well, poke, and maintain map awareness at the same time. In the jungle you need to maintain map awareness, keep track of timers, as well as how well each lane is doing to plan your ganks and move around the map fluidly.

Allowing players to lock onto a unit they want information displayed on would make the information more easily accessible while maintaining the decision and tact still involved.

MjkXeroJul 7, 20141 votes

Its for clarity. There are many reasons why the health is displayed. Two reasons that i have found on my own game play is that 1. a person can position themselves on top of baron/dragon and there is no way to select the monster unless the person moves or you spam click everywhere for a couple of seconds and in that time frame anything can happen and 2. people with very large monitors such as myself have to look practically a foot away from my champion/dragon to the information located at the top left. I also have my HUD scaled down pretty low so my screen has more game play rather than how much mana and health i have in exact numbers so the health at the top left is pretty small for me to the point of confusing numbers with other numbers which could be the difference between a secure smite or an early one.

ShadowGlaive213Jul 7, 20141 votes

The new baron is already going to be significantly larger than the current baron making it easier to click. Many people have large monitors and still have been smiting effectively, it merely takes practice.