Thoughts on season 14 so far
EDIT: Good point made is a controllable herald actually adds a frustration point to the game.
Ive seen many people complaining that things are way overtuned right now and i’d like to give my exact thoughts about preseason. Ive also played league since 2012. Ive played probably 20 hours of rift so far and 6 hours of aram… and ive had a blast in all of it (except the stupid presence of cdr ult bug).
- Damage is way, way higher and i think this is intentional.
----- The vocal community of league of legends has been complaining for 2 or 3 years about the direction that LoL has been going in terms of its gameplay. This includes things like durability, gold income, flow of gameplay, item satisfaction, and character fantasy issues. Riot is now bringing a ton of changes to fruition to rectify these and trying to make the game feel like older, more beloved seasons of league of legends. One shot meta (bursting at 1 item) was a version of league many players preferred, and provides a bigger skill gap between veteran players and less knowledgeable, less skilled ones. A player with greater micro gets rewarded in a huge way in this type of meta.
- Most people who think the damage is too high are referencing last seasons gameplay, which doesnt really work when the game is being taken in a different direction.
----- Like all changes in Leagues history it comes with major pushback. I think the main reason for it is people dont really like to read every change thats happening and instead try to learn from experience in the game, which can make every change feel jarring… especially when they just came from a (opinion) boring meta season 13 grind. While i think some numbers obviously need tuning, (think inconsistency between two items leaving one obvious choice over another), i dont think the damage is THAT absurd. At one item you have potential to burst someone instead of two items.
- Many QoL changes that elmininate what i will call “bloat frustration”.
-----Riot has obviously been listening to player feedback… i mean they are players too! So they fealt the woes of gameplay on the last couple seasons. Examples of big QoL changes that remove frequent spots of player frustration between teammates include; support item giving a set amount of gold per minion shared (no more “you shoulda let me hit the cannon” moments), rift herald being removed until minute 14 (no more “youre stealing my plates jungler!” Also leads to an easier understanding of local tower gold (most players dont know that if you kill a tower with herald and youre not locally present you miss out on money)). Global blue and red buffs late game. Late game scuttle helping with vision. There might be more. Let me know if you think of some.
- With damage being higher, its waay harder to blame your team for a loss when you are in a carry position.
-----Basically the more damage in a game, the higher the skill expression. The difference between a well oiled league player and a rusty one is very apparent and every mistake in a duel, teamfight, or trade is more impactful. This means a good player can reap more rewards and a bad player has more chances to come back if they play their cards right. Right now on pbe i have won games (gragas main) where i go 50k more dmg than anyone in the game, and i have lost games where i do the same. In both scenarios the outcome of the game felt fair. I should have played it better when im the carry.
- Right now, it feels more than ever that my decisions reflect the decisive game changing moments, whether good or bad, and thats good.
-----For the first time in a long time, giving yourself a lead is easier to keep it and makes more of an impact on the game. If i come out of support role or jungle role with 6 kills and 2 items, the impact i have on my teams success is more solo oriented than ever before. Its a lot harder to blame teammates when you have so much power in your own hands now.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and how i feel these changes have impacted the overall feel and ebs and flows of the game at the moment. I know players are ajarred to the pacing of the game right now; but for the most part i think riot knows what theyre doing and are intentionally trying to take the game in a different direction than we have seen the last 3 years.
Thank you.
From what I’ve seen it’s a stack of old league problems plus new league problems of long drawn out games and heavy damage snowball. Biggest issue is that Riot hasn’t fixed the xp issue with laners and have made Jungling more of a supportive role. I think Grubs break the game in some ways and the midgame sieging is annoying. Hwei is clearly overtuned on his damage for a champ with 10 abilities and people are too distracted by him clearing waves and one shotting to remember he has like 3 types of cc, mobility, aoe shielding. Assassin items are bonkers but tank stacking seems more viable. Right now the game needs to give a little more xp to farming/counter junglers and the support item needs to give passive xp so they can roam and go to any lane they want and remove the shared xp for both of these roles. More than half of the roles in this game fall behind xp of top and mid and that’s really inconsiderate for Riot to make these roles feel secondary.