Can you all start buying boots again, please?

Hi everyone,

I am making this thread because I have seen a growing trend in all of my games; A trend that tends to lead to a downward spiral in terms of farming efficiency versus players who know how to harass effectively and trade in lane.

The trend I am speaking of, is not buying boots.

As I read these threads, I notice more and more people beginning to complain about assassins and the like because of their abilities related to out trading opponents with very little margin for counterplay and retaliation for the receiving party. Skillshots that are spammable, targeted abilities, and ultimates are all issues here that anyone can see occur in any given game. When you do not buy boots, you are limiting not only your ability to play effectively, but also your time to retaliate to moves that you know are going to come for you.

There are events where a trade is inevitable when facing assassins, as everyone is bound to make a movement error now and then, but boots allow you to correct those errors more times than none without worry of taking too much damage. One of the most specific and best examples of this, is everyone's current complaint target: Zed.

Zed has a kit that allows him to deal damage infinitely in lane, escape, yada yada, but people who main mages and hard carry ap's are limiting their abilities to react by not buying boots as a priority item. Speed is a major factor in being able to maneuver around his Q, dodge the oncoming nuke assault from R in combination of his other abilities, and evading damage during laning phase. Missle speed and counting cooldowns are ESSENTIAL to know when fighting any assassin, as it can mean death and feeding if you are not able to react properly, but those of you who do NOT buy boots, are shooting yourselves in the knee moreso than if you had purchased boots early.

I am not saying that buying boots is a complete solution to the assassination issues that plague every lane, but ANYONE can benefit from more movespeed in a meta that is heavily favoring mobility and burst. Can you all do yourselves a favor and try to get boots earlier than you normally would? Delaying that game changing item is worth the increased survivability that enhanced movespeed brings from the earlygame onward. People are looking to try to farm harder in order to outscale their assassin counterparts, but being a carry is all about being able to dodge anything. Not buying boots is only going to delay that big item further when you can't dodge anything from Ahri charm to Urgot E.

Patches O'Hoolahan once said: If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. In this same spirit, I would like to say to everyone reading: If you can dodge a skillshot, you can show that you're not a scrub. Buy boots.

My TL:DR for this post is simple: Try buying boots early and see what it can do for you in lane.

I wish you all the best in your battles on the Rift.

And those other places.