Forum:Snare vs Root: Final

Let's settle this, once and for all: What is the difference between a snare and a root, and which one(s) do we use? I believe this is important, because there is a good deal of ambiguity on League forums (when I looked it up) and with players (the friend I tested things with told me to just look at the wiki). Some users believe that we should only use root, but I believe this is incorrect, based on my interpretation of root being very limited in actual use.

The question is: what keywords do we use to describe non-stun immobilization crowd control?

The main two seem to be "snare" and "root", with flavor words used in ability descriptions like "bind", "immobilize", and "entangle" (maybe more). The definitions I propose are:

Snare: Crowd control that fixes a champion in place, while still allowing autoattacks and ability casting.

Root: Crowd control that fixes a champion in place, interrupting channels, preventing autoattacks, but abilities can still be cast.

Additionally, in ability descriptions, do we use/eliminate verbatim copy-paste of ability descriptions? Should we replace ambiguous terminology like immobilize with the actual term, or should this technical detail only be located in additional info?

Data

• Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy Root
• Caitlyn's Yordle Snap Trap Snare
• Jinx's Flame Chompers! Snare
• Karma's Focused Resolve Snare
• Leona's Zenith Blade Snare/Root ? short duration, unclear
• Lissandra's Ring of Frost Snare
• Lux's Light Binding Snare
• Maokai's Twisted Advance Snare/Root ? untested, forgot
• Morgana's Dark Binding Snare
• Nautilus' Staggering Blow Snare/Root ? .5s duration, unclear
• Rengar's Empowered Bola Strike Empowered Bola Strike Snare/Root ? untested
• Ryze's Rune Prison Snare
• Swain's Nevermove Root
• Zyra's Grasping Roots Snare

— TehAnonymous <3 17:11, October 18, 2013 (UTC)

EDIT: It would seem that people don't think that there is a difference, and therefore a distinction of language is unneeded. It would seem that I would have to prove in some way that distinct types of non-stun immobilization effects exist. So I say: test Nevermove compared to one of the listed snares. The ability to autoattack is fairly significant for accuracy, and therefore the two effects should not share the same terminology. If you believe that there is no difference, then my entire argument is not relevant to you, since you do not agree with the basic premise. — TehAnonymous <3 15:36, October 19, 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

• To be honest, I don't like the idea of a "root champion." Root and snare are essentially the same thing and I think words such as "entangle" is another way to say "snare." Also, for Rengar's Bola Strike, the ability description, it says snare.  Technology Wizard  Talk  Contribs  21:49, October 18, 2013 (UTC)
  • But then how does one differentiate between "snares" that allow attacking and "snares" that prevent it? I think both should be used, and clearly defined. — TehAnonymous <3 15:32, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
• Official website is consistent in using "Root" and "Immobilize" over "Snare". I have no data on hand about ingame descriptions, but going off NA, I would go with Root. LionsLight_(talk) 01:36, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
  • But they're not 100% the same. — TehAnonymous <3 15:32, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
    • In the context of League, there is only one exception where Immobilize/Snare/Root does not mean "disables movement and movement spells": Amumu's ult. Feel free to correct me on this with examples. The argument of which term to use is merely semantics and depends on the most consistently used term by Riot Games. LionsLight_(talk) 08:58, October 20, 2013 (UTC)
• To my mind, root and snare are the same thing. I think it would only end up being more confusing if they are used separately with such a minute distinction. Especially since, as far as I can tell, Riot doesn't use that distinction. Personally, I would vote to standardize the pages to use either snare or root, but not both. Which one is used, to me, doesn't matter. I believe EmptyLord's ability details template says "root" is the correct term. But most pages now use "snare". So I don't think it matters which gets selected. --DocTanner (talk) 04:32, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
  • But they're not the same thing. — TehAnonymous <3 15:32, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
• From an in-universe perspective: Does having your mobility taken result in the prevention of basic combat and using abilities? What do snares and roots actually do to the champion? From a linguistic view: root (v) "To be firmly fixed; to be established." and snare (v) "to catch or hold, especially with a loop."
  Anyway, here are my results: User:BryghtShadow/snare vs root(permalink). After looking through the .sqlite and .txt files, there are far more instances of "root". I'm too lazy to look through the actual game files, but knowing Riot's history on consistency for out-game vs in-game I wouldn't be surprised if they have something different. As for verbatim descriptions, I'm fine with because it isn't affected by any misinterpretations. However, I'd love to see a concise accurate flavourless text along with it (like GW1 level of concise). --BryghtShadow 11:10, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
  • I note that Ionian Fervor and Tenacity descriptions distinguishes between the terms. The usage of root in Grasping Roots' description seems to be used as flavor. As shown by this, snare/root/immobilize are used interchangeably but they are not the same effect, as the effect of Amumu ult/Swain Nevermove is distinctively different. — TehAnonymous <3 15:32, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
• As a former WoW player I prefer root, snares were slows in that game. Root was the term used to describe what we're talking about here.  NeonSpotlight  Talk  Contribs  12:39, October 19, 2013 (UTC)
  • How about this: snare is defined as a 100% slow that still allows all actions, but root is a term to describe snares that inhibit attacking? — TehAnonymous <3 15:32, October 19, 2013 (UTC)