Items are TOO strong! so here's how to fix it

N00R·7/19/2019, 4:56:27 AM·2 votes·734 views

So after many games it seems items are a bit too strong. It doesn't make sense that a 1 star character with 3 items should be able to carry a team against an opponent with multiple 3 star and synergies ( yes this has happened to me ). I feel it's safe to say gaining 83% magic resist in the beginning of the game seems kinda over powered. That being said I have thought of a solution that i think could work and make the game more fun and balanced.

What if the items scaled with the level of the character you have them on? So a item would get stronger with the star level of your character. So for example, and to keep it simple, lets take the Dragons claw (Gain 83% resistance to magic damage ) instead would read Dragon's claw ( Gain 27/55/83% resistance to magic damage based on character level ). Now to keep it simple i just divided it's max stat by 3 but balance could be changed at any level if somethings work better than others.

I think this change would help with the overall fun of the game for these reasons:

  • require player to think before putting items on characters instead of just rushing 3 full items on 1 character
  • balance the item/character lvl/synergy meta. Right now items are more important than than both character level and synergy combined i.e lvl 1 three item dravens killing whole teams with multiple 3 stars
  • help quell the anger of getting gold instead of items in the early rounds (you know this is bad and we all hate it!)
  • make the game more team fight oriented instead of carry driven ( the game is called team fight tactics not protect the carry) *allow items that are not commonly used to become more relevant. With scaling you can make the weaker unused items to become stronger than their current set up. For example Zephyr (On start of combat, banish an enemy for 5 seconds) could read Zephyr On start of combat, banish an enemy for 3/5/8 seconds based on character level). Not saying this specific change needs to happen but it would give you the flexibility to make these kinds of changes without making broken items in the early rounds.

Now the game isn't "bad" right now but it's not good either. To me it lacks the skill element that your competitor auto chess provides. The game as it stands feels like it's too dependent on RNG items. If I've gotten 3 stars and the big max synergies I don't feel i should be losing to a 2 star 3 item garen and a 1 star varus with 2 deathcaps and a spear of shojin. Now if the game is playing as intended and you want it to be a item focused game then I guess you're doing it right, but if you are trying to make a competative game that is based on skill and not luck then some changes are in order cause right now it's bad... real bad. I hope this gives you some ideas to make the game better even if these changes don't go into effect.

Other players what do ya'll think? does the way i'm describing my play experience feel the same for all of you or am I off them mark? feedback is welcome!

5 Comments

Critmaster Garen7/19/2019, 11:52:38 PM2 votes

i think games are more interesting when you can build for any character.

a 3 star T1 unit with good synergies and 3 perfect items for the situation should be able to carry just like a stacked legendary 1 star unit, and outperformed by a legendary 2 star with items stacked.

i mean thats the whole point of upgrading your units, right? higher quality units have better stats and abilities but are way harder to get to 3 star, or impossible to get there.

lower quality units are weaker by base but can be stacked up if you really invest into them.

the main problem with the game isnt how strong items are, but how uneven the distribution between players is. having 1 or 2 less completed items than other people after the second draft is almost a death sentence.

hrooza dota 7/20/2019, 12:20:20 AM1 votes

this is unfair to higher tier units as they are harder to max, why should Yasuo get weaker effects from items when he is a late game legendary while tier 1 units who are not the hardest to max get way better effects?

stars is not everything as tiers and comps exist also putting items should not be as mindless as [oh i just throw all my items on my 3 star units because better effects lol] it should be based on the synergy between the item and the champion.

sure stacking items on draven is easy and demand no thinking but how would it be different if you can just stack items on who ever you have maxed?