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Here is why the Hextech origin is so unhealthy to the game and a really bad designed trait!

Cräfty·8/17/2019, 12:59:18 PM·9 votes·4,278 views

Disclaimer: I'm talking about the hextech origin here, not the individual hextech units.

The Hextech origin reads:

Throw a bomb at an enemy unit with an item, and disables all items in a hex radius for 8 seconds.

  • (2) 1 hex radius
  • (4) 2 hex radius

There are 4 major problems with this trait:

  • Stats negation. Hextech debuff doesn't only negate the effect of the items, but also all the base stats that the items give you (AS, AD, AP, HP, etc.). No need to explain why this is bad design. Even a 5 year old kid can tell you why this is bad.

  • Randomness. The trait targets random units with, at least, an item. Unlike Blitzcrank, who always targets a specific unit on the board (the furthest one from him), Hextech debuff targets randomly and you can't counter play it. You can't spread out your units in some specific ways in order to allow for one of your units, with items, to never get hit by the debuff. You can only spread out your units that holds items and pray to RNGesus that your carry doesn't get hit by it... which brings me to my 2nd point.

  • Spacing. With the random nature of Hextech debuff, you're forced to space out your units in weird ways that greatly decreases the effectiveness of your comp. And since most hextech comps run Brawlers, expect to have to face a blitz as well, which makes positioning even harder and frustrating to plan around. Add to that some Assassins players, here and there, and positioning becomes a nightmare. It's not strategy anymore, it's just unfun and boring to play against. I am denied from playing the game in a very boring and unsatisfying way, and it's not even my fault.

Sometimes I run Guardians, for example, but can't position my units properly because everyone is running Hextech, so I'm forced to leave out some units out of my guardians range, which really sucks... I even got knocked out of a game once by a 4 hextech user, who had a really bad team comp, because he disabled all my items on everyone since the 4 hex debuff basically covers half the board. So I was fighting him with no items while he had all his items active on his units and won just because of item advantage, nothing more. If only I got my items back to work sooner, maybe I would've had a chance of winning... which brings me to my 3rd point.

  • Debuff duration. 8 seconds... where the average fight lasts for around 12 to 15 sec. It doesn't take a genius to realize that 8 sec is too much time and it's too long of a duration to give to any debuff, let alone a debuff that literally breaks the game. They did the same mistake with Red Buff and Morello. They increased the duration of the burn to 10 sec, thus lowering the damage-per-tick of the debuff, but in the process they increased the amount of time units couldn't heal back up by twice as much as well. It's as if the balance team is full of toddlers who don't know WTF they're doing or something, idk...

Riot seems happy to use and implement mechanics in the game that deny players so many options from playing said game. TFT has the potential to be a great game that offers a variety of playstyles and options in its core gameplay, but Riot is ruining every bit of it by forcing a lot of " denial of options " mechanics that literally break the game and make it so unfun and boring to play.

Look no further than the newly added URF Overtime Mode, in TFT. Riot is so lazy to actually balance the game and the damage output of a lot of units/traits/items, that they just slapped in an URF buff to speed things up, ignoring all of the core problems in the game. Same thing with items: instead of limiting item stacking by reducing the item slots per unit to 2, and making every item unique, for example, they just add in a new trait that disables all items with little to no counter play whatsoever.

They never face the problem head on, they just go around it and avoid it completely and try to limit the damage caused to the playerbase, and the game itself, by adding in new stuff that ends up breaking the game even more, each time. This is also happening to regular League, as well. Such a lazy way to solve problems... It's so lame and pathetic, tbh.

16 Comments

Aaaandy8/17/2019, 5:47:16 PM3 votes

I agree with you. I just feel like although every update they are trying to add more things, it actually reduces the number of strategies we have. For example, I really like to run guardians in 9.14 and 9.15, but now it's really frustrating because I can't put any items on my guardians due to the Hextechs bomb. So now when I get defensive items the only two ways to use them are either give it to my less effective front-liner or wait for some other items drop and combine them to a more offensive item and give it to my DPS. Either way it's less effective.

KarmaDyl8/17/2019, 8:15:50 PM3 votes

Game is still in beta, the game will receive balance patches...

xMxIxKxExYx8/17/2019, 10:56:27 PM2 votes

Great post Crafty!

We all understand how important it is to have a solid item start, and that a solid unit start will never beat a solid item start. Having both allows for a snowballing effect that creates this dire need by everyone else to “gamble” and hope to spike units against near impossible odds. This need to constantly play catchup in the midgame tends to eliminate skill and creates a slot machine mentality.

Here is how that plays out in real time: In a 30 second per round window, a player is asked to choose between trying to spike ~12% on a contested unit, or alternatively to consider taking 20 damage from one of the snowballing comps. Since you cannot adjust your items, must adjust your unit arrangement, and should adjust your expected outcome in that 30 second window, these choices become a lesser of two evils scenario that must be made instantly. So, in the time it has taken to read this paragraph for most people the window has closed. Everyone gets the same amount of time, and apparently that is enough for Riot to claim the game is balanced.

Juxtapose that idea with what the hex player is thinking at that same moment. While their opponents are scrambling to figure out how to position their carry so that it does not negate their support, they lose the match to a player who builds a brawler wall with a single carry (usually draven, jinx, or asol) and lets statistics do the work for them.

So, while one player is scrambling with unit selection, positioning and itemization, the player who is snowballing has time to look at other players’ boards and use that information to inform their game going forward. Obviously any player may choose to look around if they so choose, but for most it is at the cost of vital seconds, and massive chunks of health.

What really makes this issue impossible to remedy by other players is the fact that, for whatever reason, players matchup against the same opponents every other round. Were each player offered the same unit selection each round than maybe each player could have a competitive comp, but unit selection is not random. Therefor, the player with the better start will usually begin snowballing.

One might say that if you cannot beat the comp, build the comp, but in tft that just isn’t a viable strategy. While you may wish to begin transitioning into a late game comp, it is luck not skill that will allow you to make that transition if it requires that you finish leveling units to make them viable. In the end the best that you can hope for is that so many players are going for hex comps that you can slimeball them with assassins, a strat that sometimes works, but often only results in a top four finishes that rarely result in wins.

An itemized hex player, regardless of synergy, beats a high synergy non-hex comp not close. The reason is simple, they are 3 items worth of stats and abilities ahead, maybe more, and you have huge gaps in your support which cause important units to be focused down.

(Note: Players in this scenario will meet up again within the next few rounds, though there are 7 other opponents each match it is currently the case that you will meet a single player about half the time in the first dozen or so rounds. In the interim they must face assassins, slingers, mages, and any number of comps that abuse a player for not protecting and layering their composition of itemized units.)

So, while a healthy meta would look something like a game of Rochambeau, the current meta in tft resembles a game of bingo. As squares are eliminated from the board (units removed from the pool) player hope that they are lucky enough to have their number called before their opponent hits bingo. A player cannot change the configuration of their composition midgame on a whim, so once they are locked in, and their items are made, they have no choice but to run with what they have compiled and cross their fingers.

So, is there a remedy? Maybe, but likely one that people do not want to accept.

Having an amount of rng in any game is important to allow creative adaptability. When the rng that is introduced in a single patch sees several of the top 20 players relegated, it may be time to admit that skill is less important than luck. So, as the carousel seems rather important to the developers, why not give people priority to the synergies of the units they selected until the next carousel? This doesnt mean they must only choose from that line of synergies, but that each round they will have an option that potentially improves their team. The longer you hold a unit, the more likely it is to completely evolve. This serves to both limit item carries and bolster the importance of a feature in the game that Riot thinks is necessary, the carousel. Give everyone the ability to somewhat know where their comp will be heading. This also means that if a player chooses an item on the 3rd carousel that is on a unit that does not fit their comp, because they will see more of that units supporting cast the margins for the units they need will be reduced by at least 1 slot per round. This has the added effect of implementing a catch-up mechanic for players at the bottom of the hp charts since they choose a unit to help them recover that they know will be supported by unit selection each round.

Obviously change Hextech to be only a single unit, make the duration longer the more Hextech units that a player has, and have Hextech remove abilities and not base stats from the item components, otherwise why would everyone not just force Hextech as they are currently? (You can often gain an entire units value just by Hextech on a single enemy carry) And if you want, make it targeted like zephyr or Blitz so that it can become a tool and not a paradigm.

Most importantly, let players know what opponent is next up, so that even if a person is forced to repeatedly face the same two opponents, at least their positioning skill actually matters.

I obviously really like this game, this has become entirely too long for a reply. I would simply ask that skill be reintroduced into the game, and as a player it would be nice to have some control over my composition and the creativity therein.

ModCaptainMårvelous8/17/2019, 11:32:31 PM2 votes

Spacing. With the random nature of Hextech debuff, you're forced to space out your units in weird ways that greatly decreases the effectiveness of your comp. And since most hextech comps run Brawlers, expect to have to face a blitz as well, which makes positioning even harder and frustrating to plan around. Add to that some Assassins players, here and there, and positioning becomes a nightmare. It's not strategy anymore, it's just unfun and boring to play against. I am denied from playing the game in a very boring and unsatisfying way, and it's not even my fault.

That's literally the point of it.

You should not ideally be able to get your comp as perfect as you want it in a nice little bubble. Assassins and hextech should accomplish this. The strongest part about hextech isn't the item disable (which I've found to be mediocre) but rather that you force enemies to edit their comp and remove simplistic death balls. This is good for the game: It forces strategy and forces players to consider what their best comp could be rather than just facerolling a corner comp for the umptenth time. You're actually in favor of removing strategy and tactical knowhow.

Debuff duration. 8 seconds... where the average fight lasts for around 12 to 15 sec. It doesn't take a genius to realize that 8 sec is too much time and it's too long of a duration to give to any debuff, let alone a debuff that literally breaks the game. They did the same mistake with Red Buff and Morello. They increased the duration of the burn to 10 sec, thus lowering the damage-per-tick of the debuff, but in the process they increased the amount of time units couldn't heal back up by twice as much as well. It's as if the balance team is full of toddlers who don't know WTF they're doing or something, idk...

Fights last way longer than this unless you're running a comp made out of paper. In my games fights usually last 30+ seconds. That 8 seconds at the start of a fight rarely makes a difference, especially with items like FoN, class items or GA. If your fights last 12-15 seconds, it sounds like you're running bad comps oir comps without a dedicated frontline. In which case that's your own fault and you need to reexamine how to fix your positioning or composition. Also you don't get Morello for the damage, you get it for the anti-healing. The damage is just a moderate bonus.

xMxIxKxExYx8/18/2019, 3:30:45 AM2 votes

Fights last an average of 13.7 seconds up from 11.3 before Hextech was introduced, numbers obviously changing due to the introduction of Hextech itself. That statistic has the implication of longer rounds, still Hextech lasts 65% of a fight on average. This is based on my own games, which, with a sample size of over a thousands rounds of competition, should be relatively accurate.

To be fair, rounds between 2-4 and 5-1 last an average of 9.6 seconds and that means items are disabled for 80% of the entire fight, at least in platinum 1 and higher elo. Not changing Hextech means this game should be renamed “Hextech and other origins.” There is no “tactical” reason for this origin to not be hotfixed in ranked other than Riot wanting to test the elasticity of the player base. If that is their goal than I understand this move. The alternative would seem to be a lack of empathy for sed player base that has manifested through pure RNG.

Ratpie8/17/2019, 4:58:40 PM2 votes

Honestly I don't think most of that is a problem. I think the duration is the only problem. Cut it in half and I think it would be perfect. 2 seconds would give a decent early buff, but not overpowering for 2 units. 4 seconds late game is pretty strong for a 4 unit comp, but is not unbeatable, as items shouldn't be the sole reason for you to win.

The units themselves are not overpowered EXCEPT Jinx. Vi is solid pick, but is a one target melee champ with limitations. Jayce can have some nice itemization, but once he bursts his load he is pretty useless. Camille just feels like another Fiora. Jinx can level a whole team before the debuff is over. I was doing around 8k damage a round with her in a game this morning as only a 2 star.

So I think the 2 fixes would be just to half the debuff duration, and then nerf the hell out of Jinx damage.

FakeGravity8/17/2019, 9:05:33 PM2 votes

if it is suppose to be a counter to item stacking then make it target the unit on the enemy team with the most items, single target, 5 seconds maybe? or disable only one item from each unit?

Glasletter8/19/2019, 3:11:44 PM1 votes

6 brawlers(including Vi)+3 Hextech is 9 champions, which is certainly manageable. It's not hard to run void early and you can build into blademaster. You've got to be stupid in this meta if you can't complete the hextech bonus in addition to something else.

initialbc8/20/2019, 4:23:20 AM1 votes

Just make it 6 seconds and stop updating the game so damn fast with huge changes. let people learn how to fight against the new Meta and Champions and Traits

Barkley8/20/2019, 4:36:57 AM1 votes

I really loved this game mode for a while. I even defended it and was one of those people that was like "RNG isn't that bad, you're bad."

I smashed all the way through gold and into plat. Never even barely got challenged. 1st - 3rd place almost every game. I was like "these kids just suck ass."

But then I got into plat and things actually started being competitive. People actually started playing like maybe they weren't monkeys. People started running actual viable team comps and playing to the meta. People started putting their items on the right champions in the right ways.

And then I started actually losing to things like "That dude got 6 items and I got 1" and "That dude got a 3-star lucian by raptors" and things of that nature. There was no actual skill difference between me and the people I was facing. Everyone's basically running/fighting for the same comp because everyone knows what's OP and what to spam.

It just became a matter of who got it and who didn't. It just became a matter of how many items I got vs how many items they got.

Wasn't even about "Who made the better comp" or "who countered who" or "who positioned their units right" anymore -- cuz everyone at that level knows what they're doing. They're all doing the same shit.

But that guy got 4 3-star champs and 6 items and the rest of us got ONE 3-star, maybe two, and no items. So he gets first, and we get what's left. You can tell the standings before the game is even over once 3-4 people get eliminated. Its not even a surprise most of the time.

So yeah... idk I guess I had my fun -- but I'm pretty over it.

Hate to agree with people I used to shame - but there really is too much RNG, and once you get to a certain level of play, the amount of games it decides is pretty frustrating. I don't doubt that if I played consistently I'd climb, or at least stay where I'm at now (High gold). Its just not worth it to me to sit through the frustration of games I can't win simply because I got out-RNG'd.