User blog:CasperNox/Changes for LoL: payment, items, gameplay.

Well, I've been playing this game for quite some time now (lvl 30 for ages, about 900 wins) and I guess it's time to bring some fresh stuff in it. Attention, this blog post is pretty long and you should only read on if you're interested in the semi-deep mechanics of LoL.

First of all, let's take a look at the payment section. I see Riot's wish to collect heaps of money from willing players for skins, champs, rune pages etc. However, in most, if not even all countries, you can't get a certain fixed amount like 5€ for, let's say, a Tier 3 champion that is not on sale. That way, you'll always keep some bits of RP, which in some way encourage you to buy more and more and more RP (I'm personally at nearly 200 € for this stuff right now). There's nothing too bad about this system in general IMHO, but I guess we should also be able to convert these left-over RP in plain IP. I don't know whether a 1:1 ratio would be enough or we should set it higher, but the best bet would be to set ratios like those: 0 RP - 200 RP: 5x IP 200 RP - 500 RP: 3x IP 500 RP - 1000 RP: 1x IP 1000 RP - 2000 RP: 0,5x IP 2000+ RP: 0,25x IP I would use these just to make sure that Riot's whole idea of having to actually play the game to get runes and not being able to buy them with real money easily keeps working. It would, however, also enable the usage of left-over RP and make e.g. the purchase of Tier 3 champions easier.

Another thing that Riot should IMHO do with the IP/RP system is offering all skins for IP. Veteran players usually own most of the champions either way and focus either on rune pages or runes in general once they have the champions they want to have. Some people just don't want to waste hundreds of euros/dollars/whatever even though they played the game for a while and became sort of good at it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here. In short, I would appreciate an introduction of IP prices on skins. I know it would sort of mess up Riot's business model in the veteran player sector, but this one is not the biggest either way and if they want to make it even smaller they could just make the IP prices for skins really high. What I would suggest in terms of prices would be: 1820 RP skin: 12000 IP 975 RP skin: 6300 IP 520 RP skin: 4200 IP 487 RP skin (sale): 3150 IP 390 RP skin: 2400 IP 260 IP skin (sale): 1350 IP That way, veteran players will be able to use their heaps of IP (just take a look at all of those streamers) efficiently and Riot will still make a lot of money with "younger" lvl 30 summoners or pre-lvl 30s. At least, they could test the system and then shut it down again if it doesn't work for them.

Now that we have taken on payments, let's shed some light on the item structure in LoL. As I see the situation, there are lots of items but only more or less limited fitting item paths for most characters (e.g. AD carries are nearly always built the same way as well as some full tanks (that role is kinda rare nowadays) and supports). Of course, there are some hybrid champions that can be built in many ways and still be efficient in all of them (Ezreal, Evelynn, Irelia, Kog'Maw and some others come to mind). However, Riot's suggested item builds are not always fitting, while some of them actually are but most really don't fit perfectly into the current meta and are e.g. designed for laning while the champion should clearly be jungling. They also miss out on 1-2 items for late game (take Ryze or Fiora and their suggested builds as an example), which might not be that bad for less experienced low lvl players who tend to not have an extensive mid-late game phase, but can somewhat confuse mid-lvl and even "younger" high-lvl players. I suggest to introduce two builds for every champion in the game, the first being a early-mid game build and the second the full late game build. It would be even better if Riot could actually bring some advices in to explain people why they need e.g. 2x Doran's Blade at start for certain AD carries in certain situations and other things. This would make it much easier for less experienced players to build their champion most efficiently and should be an option that more experiences player can just switch off. To take on that task, Riot would have to check some Mobafire/Solomid/etc. guides and the builds that players through all summoner levels are actually using and then convert them into the game over the next months. It is indeed a long-time thing and a lot of work for Riot, but it would also lead to a better understanding of the game overall and to a higher level of gameplay through all summoner levels.

Another change that is related to items and I would like to see in the near future is a 7th item slot (usable from the beginning of the game, just like the other 6). While it is somewhat hard to bring in the HUD graphics (are they called that way? I don't know, sry), it would finally give Victor his sixth item slot, allow supports to not have any more excuses for not buying wards in late-game and even encourage all other players to buy wards as their last item while gathering gold to finish their real last item. As an addition, the 7th item slot might work as a catalyst (I hope that word works in that context, I just wanted to use a noun that would describe the improving nature of this slot). This means that it should get something like extra 10% on all stats (or at least most of them). Thornmail would receive 10 extra armor, Rabadon's Deathcap would have 150 AP and a 35% boost, Aegis of the legion would gather +4 on all innate resistances and +2 on the aura resistances, and so on. This might be the point where most readers of this blog post would disagree with me and say, WTF, that 7th item slot is freaking OP. Yes, in some way you are right, people might actually build more expensive items like the D'Cap just to set them in the 7th item slot and have fun with the bonus stats, but firstly, those 10% are not too much and just add another sliver of tactics to the game and secondly, people might never get to finish their other items before getting the item for their 7th slot.

The last thing I wanted to read your opinion about where the current items and the lack of some new ones. I see that Riot tries to get new items in the game each few months or so, but I still have the feeling that LoL lacks real hybrid items that work in late-game (Guinsoo's Rageblade comes to mind) and is somewhat weak in the resistance section. Because of this, I would firstly suggest to introduce a better version of Guinsoo's Rageblade which needs said Rageblade as well as a 415G Long Sword, a 435G Amplyfying Tome and 800 Gold and builds into something like: [Ebonmaw's Wing (or any other good name)] + 60 AP + 60 AD Unique passive: +25% Armor penetration Unique passive: +25% Magic penetration Unique passive: On cast or hit, you gain 10 Ability Power and 6% Attack Speed for 5 seconds (maximum 6 stacks)

Furthermore, I'd like too see some new item that builds out of the popular Heart of Gold and brings fresh resistances (more options for the usage of the Negatron Cloak, that is) and a new passive into the game. It should look like this: Heart of Gold + 740G Negatron Cloak + 700G Chain Vest + 700 G: [Harness of the Vindicator (or any other good name)] + 300 health + 55 Magic Resistance + 50 Armor Unique passive: Gain 2,5% of your bonus resistances for every 5% of missing health.

While this one would be somewhat tough to code up in LoL (new resistances for every health percentage mean less damage on DoT spells, etc), I feel like the League really needs this item and champions like Wukong, Irelia and even Graves could profit a lot from it (while of course all the other can do likewise, without having the perfect synergy with their passives, though).

Lastly, I would love to see an AP match of the Bloodthirster. Mages are able to accumulate the same amounts of creep score an AD carry does (however, some mages [usually the ones with AoE spells) are suited better for it and some can’t handle the task quite that well [mostly those whose spells are focussed on single targets, Leblanc comes to mind]) and thus, should have be rewarded for farming efficiently. The item that I’d like to see in LoL in the near future for these aims would look pretty much like this: 860G Blasting Wand + 860G Blasting Wand + 1000G: [Vampiric Rod (or any other good name)] + 90 AP + 15% Spell Vamp Gain +1 ability power and 0.25% spell vamp per kill (maximum +40 ability power and +10% spell vamp). Half of the bonuses are lost upon death. This would be a great item for casters who need raw AP and can rack up high amounts of CS easily and would in general be a good addition to LoL IMHO.

Well, that’s about it, hope you had fun reading through it and didn’t suffer too much from my English level (it’s only my third language after Russian and German). Thanks a lot for reading! See you on the fields of justice. ;)