League of Legends General Discussion Thread

[Gustaran]

What's so bad about Flash? Yes, it's mandatory on nearly every champion. Yes, all pro teams run 5 Flashes. And... so what?

From game design perspective, it is boring. Would you think it to be a good idea if in Civ4 a certain leader trait was so powerful (independent from playing style and role) that picking any other would put you at a significant disadvantage ?
LoL had the same problem with champion choices, where not so long ago a much smaller amount of champions was viable leading to pro matches which featured the same champions over and over again. I personally find tournament games much more interesting at the moment because the amount of variety has increased.
And right now I would disagree with Varis: Choosing Flash is not really a choice. If someone runs a game with teleport/ignite he would surely be worse off and criticized at a certain skill level, because the tradeoff survivability for damage is nowhere near balanced in this example.
That being said, I don't know if Sullla's suggestion of raising the cooldown on Flash is so far from what Riot is going to do. If the range is still high enough to flash over walls it may fill the same role it does today, but buffing spells like heal/revive/clarity may offer new interesting options.
And I find the thought of being able to run a buffed heal on a support character rather nice (especially on someone without other healing options like Janna).

[Deceptus]

And right now I would disagree with Varis: Choosing Flash is not really a choice.

There are a few characters that due to their design don't benefit greatly from Flash and can substitute it with little worry. Like jungle Shaco, jungle Olaf and Singed, to name a few. On Nasus it's a toss-up between Ghost and Flash, Ghost being more popular (secondary spot usually occupied by Teleport or Exhaust).

[Dantski]

I don't think I even need to explain why nerfing Clairvoyance is stupid and unnecessary. Screw you Riot, and your endless hatred of support players.

Sorry but this sounds awfully familiar, a few months back you said the nerfs to Soraka would ruin her and that has not been the case. You do not have inside information on this and cannot reliably predict how CV will change. Longer cooldown? That's fine, slightly lower sight radius? Still seems fine to me. CV will be used after any change takes place so just blindly getting annoyed about it doesn't make much sense. With Heal about to be buffed + possible benefits of Surge you can't just say Riot hates support champs.

[spellman]

One common criticism of LoL versus HoN/DotA is that there tends to be much more passivity in lanes because 1) towers are more powerful and 2) everyone has Flash. So, while constant aggression is rewarded (get down their Flash in one engage, clean up later) in the mid-tiers people just go "oh well, they escaped, what a waste." Contrast to DotA/HoN where tower diving, while still risky, is a much more common move to try and burst down your opponent.

Tower strength can't be changed drastically because without the Deny mechanic there is no other way to effectively counter the inevitable push of the minions. And, as Sullla points out in almost every video, pushing up to their tower denies them last-hit gold. In HoN/DotA, it does make life a little harder, but you can still effectively last-hit under your own tower.

So, perhaps increasing the Flash cooldown so repeated engagements aren't as hurried can help people try to make a much more conscious decision of how to use it. I'm not as sure about the range nerf though. Already flash barely gets you over the walls (and many heroes are built around this).

[Tyrmith]

New meta for soloqueue- AD/Tanky Roamer Janna:

[Deceptus]

HotshotGG allegedly claimed in his Ask Me Anything (haven't watched it yet) that support is his favourite role and he would play it all the time if Elementz wasn't CLG's support, so he plays solo top.

Also he plays Janna as a rather straight up support, I don't see a ton of roaming (he stays a lot in lane, he also sets up a lot of ganks and makes a ton of good decisions though) and AD (unless his Arpen heavy rune setup qualifies him for it, but it really is there just for extra oomph while harassing in lane)

It really is awesome to watch him play her though.

[Tyrmith]

He was doing some crazy level one stuff, just totally messing with the enemy jungler and putting him way behind while somehow still staying safe.

[ssmagus]

Yessss.... Ranked teams!

[Tyrmith]

I'll be interested to see if there is repercussions for leaving teams and joining again later- otherwise you could have "throw-away" team held by someones alternate account, and that you can temporarily join when you want to have fun, then leave and rejoin your "serious" team when you actually want to care about Elo. Of course there's also the question if that'd even be a problem...

On anycase, it'd be nice to see some good high level games that Sullla could cast.

[Sullla]

FYI, I'll be out tonight so we will be doing the YouTube thing tomorrow night on Wednesday, at the same usual time.