New SR is so snowbally

The Grunzarvian·12/27/2014, 2:40:05 AM·7 votes·1,542 views

You've all seen the updated SR. Looks nice and everything. Drag looks like a dragon, Baron's fearsome looking, even with earmuffs. However, the mechanics are so snowball-centric. No really, if you lose two drags, the enemy team power spike is so oppressive and permanent, that you lose hard because of the snowball effect that the drag buffs creates. And then there is the d/c. No passive exp. gain like there is in Dom and ARAM where you can come back kinda strong even after you d/c'd because of the passive exp gain and massive gold generation even while d/c'd. You stay close to the gold amount you were at the moment of d/c and don't gain exp, so it's basically lvl 1s or 2s going against lvl 5s or 6s by the time they get back in. And then there is Baron. Damn, such snowball. When champs with Baron buff are near minions, the minions get buffs too! Increased range, power, everything that snowball is about. But at least you can wait it out, even though you will likely lose towers and inhibs while doing so and ultimately the game. And there is ADC. ADCs either crash or snowball, period. Behind two kills as ADC? The gap in power, gold, and exp will be so freaking immense by then, that you ultimately lose lane, no comeback. Farm all you want, they'll still farm up, and if they're good, they will try to match your farming efforts, so you can't catch back up solely by farming. 20 mins. seems like an eternity now. Games are ultimately decided in the first 5-10 minutes in SR, whereas in ARAM, games can very much take different turns, and same goes for Dom.

TL;DR, SR mechanics need tweaking to not be so snowbally, because losing two dragons means losing the game, losing baron means losing game, and being down 3 kills in lane could also mean losing the game. Just a thought.

EDIT: I wasn't complaining about the concept of snowballing with baron, I was just saying that the new baron buff is even more snowbally than before, giving AD and AP, and on top of that, giving nearby minions massive buffs to siege your base, whereas the old baron buff just granted a flat AD and AP buff to champs only, still op, still likely to win game with it, but at least you can patiently wait it out with sufficient teamwork. I am glad that they reduced new baron buff timer though...

And about drag, I was just saying it's like having a permanent mini-baron buff to the team that gets it first. Aaaaand then you have to stock up on elixirs to be able to bridge the power gap until the next drag spawns.

4 Comments

Stacona12/27/2014, 5:51:43 AM4 votes

only the first and 5th dragons are actually good - turrets needs to get buffed defensively,, they die waaaay too fast and they need small camps at be 2 05 spawn times (other solution is adding a passive to Smite to grant 100% gold and exp against monsters and monsters grant 60% of their value of what they give now)- the increased turret gold and FB not 50% in the first 4 minutes also make the same snowbally

ImHerVoice12/27/2014, 4:26:23 AM2 votes

thats funny I just shit on a team that took 3 dragons in a row and ended the game at 32 minutes before I went to work today.

kills > dragon you can have dragon, I'll ace your team get 1.5k gold for free and then proceed to take your nexus.

I literally was the jungler too. Just split pushed as shy, took an inhib at 20m while my team made them take 3 minutes just to take a dragon because they were scared of my team engaging.

Narasimha12/27/2014, 5:45:26 AM2 votes

The dragon 'snowballing' is virtually unchanged. Before, if the enemy team got two dragons on you, they could snowball through global gold. Baron has ALWAYS been a major point, nothing changed there. Its meant to be either a finishing blow or a comeback shot. And two kills behind doesn't mean much unless you fed a Draven. It just means you need to farm harder to catch up. 15 cs roughly equals 1 kill.

SecretAgentHulk12/27/2014, 5:53:16 PM1 votes
  1. They are still tuning dragon; that's why it's preseason. They definitely nerfed it this patch, and if it is still too strong, they'll nerf again.
  2. Pretty sure you get increased experience laning against higher-level opponents (including jungle monsters). It doesn't take long to get back up to the team's average level.
  3. If they get Baron, you lost the game long before that. If you were stuck defending base, you were probably going to lose. If your team was too stupid to figure out where they were while you pushed a lane, you deserve to lose. If you initiated Baron and then they swooped in, cleaned house, and took Baron, you threw the game. Baron is not snowbally. Baron is what you get when you're not snowballing.