User blog:Care Level/Once again, on Attacks v. Spells.

I wrote a post a while back about the long-term game health implications of drawing a hard line between what is an "attack" and what is a "spell"; this'll continue in that vein.

The basic premise is that, for the purposes of clarity and consistency, creating an intuitive, easily-identifiable distinction between attack and spell is almost imperative.

Before I get started, *yes*, there are some edge cases where the line is unclear, and *yes*, it would take a shitload of work to rebalance everything. At the same time, *no*, it's not impossible.

Some anticipated objections:


 * "This champion will do too much damage if they can build crit!" So basically... ADCs?  Also, there's an opportunity cost: CDR and Armor Pen are great stats to miss out on, and it's tough getting those with lifesteal, crit, and attack speed.  If it proves to be too much of an issue, *adjust their numbers* to shave off some lategame damage (to preserve their current non-crit damage, nerf bases and buff ratios: Phantom Dancer contributes nothing to an AD ratio).


 * "This champion won't do enough damage early if they need to build crit!" So basically... ADCs?  If it proves to be too much of an issue, *adjust their numbers* to give them more early damage.


 * "This champion doesn't build AD, anyway!" So give them base AD, chop some damage off of their associated AP ratios to compensate (e.g. if Nidalee has 80 base AD at 18, knock off ~.15 from Javelin Toss's AP ratio), and call it a day.


 * "Lifesteal will be too strong!" Imagine a champion that dealt more or less all of their damage through effects that apply lifesteal.  Let's call that champion, say, "Trandle", or "Rongar", or "Trandamore", or "Susan" or "Fiss Mortune" or "Twatch" or "Flora".  For champions that now deal more or less all of their damage through effects that now apply lifesteal, lifesteal is now as strong on them as it is on this hypothetical "Trandle" champ, currently.


 * "The game already does't make sense! I turned two books into a gun, stop trying to make sense of things!" or, alternatively, "People die in car accidents all the time; what's the point of seatbelts?  They won't save 100% of lives, so why bother saving anyone at all?"  What a silly argument.

So, now that that's out of the way, let's dive in.

So What is an Attack, Anyway?
An attack should be anything that involves your champion smacking, slicing, stabbing, or otherwise seeking to injure things with a *physical object*, especially their primary weapon but notably including their own body. Attacks should increase in power with Attack Damage, activate faster with Attack Speed, apply on-hit effects, and have the ability to critically strike. This should be almost-universal; the exception should be a subclass of attacks (I'll call them "blunt" impacts) that can't critically strike and/or scale with a lower AD ratio.

Some examples of implementation:

Broken Wings is an attack (Q1), attack (Q2), and attack plus blunt impact (Q3). Ki Burst is not an attack at all. *Wind Slash is iffy.*
 * One of the worst offenders in Broken Wings. As a new player, it's absurd that (1) half of Riven's sword slashes aren't attacks and (2) that most of the damage doesn't come from the big slashes.  Hi.  What?
 * What *is* "Wind Slash", even? Yasuo's Steel Tempest is a "wind technique" projected from his sword (and is an attack); is Wind Slash supposed to be similar?  Is it a Ki attack?  When we're clear on what the hell it's supposed to be, we can determine whether it should crit or not.  Right now, it's 3 Piltover Peacemakers that shoot out of a sword.

Steel Tempest is an attack. Last Breath is *three attacks and a blunt impact*. Sweeping Blade is not an attack.
 * Critlord Yasuo's ult is 3 slashes that cannot crit (or do any damage at all; the fuck?), even when *literally all of his other sword things do*? Hi.  What?

Javelin Toss *is an attack that gets most of its damage from an on-hit AP ratio*. Takedown is an attack. Swipe is an attack. *Pounce might be blunt*.
 * Nidalee throws spears that're attacks. Sometimes she throws a big spear.  This one's not an attack.  Hi.  What?
 * In her other form, she slashes things with her claws. Sometimes, that's an attack; sometimes, nah.  Hiwhat?
 * Where is the damage coming from in "Pounce"? Is it like Body Slam (not an attack), where the damage is caused by Nidalee running into things?  It doesn't collide, so it's unclear.  Is the implication that she jumps on something and claws it?

Taste Their Fear is an attack. *Void Spikes is iffy*. Leap is blunt.
 * Kha'Zix slashes stuff with his claws to attack. Every 3 seconds, he slashes stuff with his claws.  That's not an attack, though.  Fucking what?
 * Void Spikes might be blunt; is the damage from the spike, or the explosion? Maybe direct hits aren't blunt, but the AoE damage is?

Shock Blast is iffy. To The Skies! is an attack *and* a blunt impact. Thundering Blow is an attack.
 * Jayce's attacks are blots of energy from his cannon. A big bolt of energy should probably also be an attack, but the AoE should probably be blunt.
 * To The Skies! is similar; the direct hit is an attack, but the AoE isn't.

Noxian Diplomacy: attack. Rake: *attack*. Shadow Assault: *fucking attack*.
 * Talon needs a rework, first of all. Let's get past that.
 * It's honesty difficult to argue that the thrown blades are not Talon's primary weapon and, past that, they're fucking blades. Talon's W is Sivir's primary weapon; they should act like it.

Buckshot: Attack. Smokescreen: Blunt impact on direct hit. Collateral Damage: Attack with a blunt explosion.

Piercing Arrow: Attack. Hail of Arrows: iffy. Chain of Corruption: iffy.

Wild Cards: Attack.

Double Up: Attack. Make it Rain: iffy. Bullet Time: iffy.
 * Honestly, I think MF could use a clarity pass as a whole. I guess I'll add a MF rework to my rework page.

Bouncing Blade: Attack. Sinister Steel: Attack. Death Lotus: Attack.

Piltover Peacemaker: Attack. Ace in the Hole: Attack.

Lunge: ATTACK.

Dark Flight: blunt. Blades of Torment: Not an attack.

Blinding Dart: Attack.

Spinning Slash: Attack.

Queen's Rage: Attack. Furious Bite: Attack. Unburrow: Blunt.

Sonic Wave: Not an attack. Resonating Strike: Come on. Tempest: Blunt. Dragon's Rage: Attack.

Barrel Roll: Blunt. Body Slam: Blunt. Explosive Cask: BLUNT.

Cull the Meek is an attack. Slice and Dice is blunt.

Thundering Shuriken is an attack, but nothing else Kennen does is.

You get the idea.

Mages: Where Shit Gets Weird.
Okay, so what about mage basic attacks? Ahri shoots out a little puff of fire; should that be able to crit? Hell, is it an "attack" at all?

I'd argue that no, it shouldn't be, for all of the same reasons that Taste Their Fear should be. Ahri shoots flame at everything, doing magic damage -- but occasionally she throws one out and it's physical? That's interesting.

To this end, I suggest the following:

1) Gut most mages' base AD. Hell, maybe make it 0.  Exceptions should be champions whos' basic attacks fall into the "attack" category, above.  Akali hits things with scythes.  Diana and Kayle sword things to death.  Evelynn scratches stuff.

2) Give mages base AP and AP per level. Not much.

3) Give mages on-hit effects and/or other means to effectively farm.

If Karthus or Malzahar had 0 AD, would anyone give a shit? What if Karthus had 40 base AP and his attacks dealt 40 (+3 x level) (+ 15% AP) magic damage? I'm not saying those numbers are perfect, but there *is* a set of numbers that *is* perfect: it would create a sensible interaction between "throwing magic at things" and AP.

If you want something more interesting, try something like "Anivia's basic attacks apply Frost after 2 seconds; hitting an that enemy with a spell refunds part of its mana cost and cooldown".

Annie's already got this shit down. She farms by *being a mage*, not so much with her shitty AA.

In Conclusion:
The end.