Riot has said time and time again that they don't support smurfs but they won't take any action against them. Veteran(mobas or league) players make the complaint that the leveling process for new accounts is an irksome experience. At first glance this works out for Riot because new players usually don't detest leveling unless they have friends who tell them its something they should hate for so and so reason. In fact I don't even remember leveling my first account much less hating the process. Though as everyone knows very well in the online gaming industry, if you don't want to do something someone'll do it for you, if you have the money. There is currently a large number of bots leveling up accounts so they can be sold to players who can't be arsed to. In theory, bots really shouldn't have a reason to exist in a moba game. If they're made to play the game for you, and the fun comes from playing the game it really defeats the purpose of having a bot. They do all the mundane things for you (proving you don't get caught) so you don't have to; if you find the game mundane you should just stop playing. Even though I agree that the leveling system should be removed, doing so will create a few problems that'll need to be fixed.
Removing leveling system(allow new players to start with all mastery and rune slots, all summoner spells) and replace it with a title system. Title changes as you get more wins, at 50 wins you get access to ranked play. Riot can sell experienced title for 20$. No more bots, no more leveling system, no more grinding.
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State of AD Carries and PBE Bloodthirster
The popularity of the BT has dipped across all regions and elos since the changes made to it. With 30 stacks the old BT had 20 AD + 3% more lifesteal than the current one. While it may not seem like a lot on first glance, the BT lost 20% of its AD and 16% of its lifesteal. BT did get a new passive but that didn't stop it from being a low-tier item for ad carries. Aside from just the raw numbers there are also a plethora of other factors which made the BT lose the title of highest priority AD item.
BT had a HUGE powerspike when paired with TF and was a large part of the reason why it was so popularly built. Other than BT + TF, ad carries aren't all that useful during the mid game. Normally they would have to hit the big three item threshold before becoming of any real use, outside from a few outliers. The BT + TF powerspike developed a new playstyle for ad carries in competitive play, where they took a much more active role in the mid-game. When BT was nerfed, instead of returning back to the old style of play and build people searched for a different way to reach the powerspike so that they could still impact the mid game heavily. This is where the popularity of GB + BotRK skyrocketed.
When BT was nerfed and people felt like the powerspike that was brought from BT/TF wasn't worth the gold it cost anymore, BT fell to the bottom of the list of items you'd want to build first on an AD. Before 4.10 there were two mid-game powerspike builds for ADCs and so when one got nerfed, everyone obviously defaulted to the other. It worked very well for Lucian and the ones it couldn't work for defaulted back to the 3 item threshold playstyle. Not to say that AD carries got weaker, infact I would say that they got stronger late game. If they ever reached it, that is. With so much of the map outcome being decided in the mid-game, having an AD who is strong in the mid-game is very important. The team that doesn't have an AD with a mid game power spike will try not to make any map movements and will just wait until the enemy makes a mistake or starts getting outscaled before starting to take action. With BT gone, TF followed after since it was part of the BT/TF powerspike and the item diversity for AD carries stayed relatively the same early game, lower in the mid and the same during the end.
BT+LW has always been a 2 item powerspike for Graves and Draven for a while but its even weaker now statwise than it was before even with the passive. You have 157 AD instead of the 163 AD you used to have, so about 6 ad short of the original. The only difference is now you still have the shield. Albeit weaker since it it got nerfed, it lasts longer so you're able to go into fights with it on much more easily. The question is, is it good enough to compare to the power spike of GB/BotRK? Well, its different. GB/BotRK is a powerspike, but as soon as those actives are used the power spike is greatly diminished until their back up again. You might think this doesn't matter because they'll just wait until the opportune time to use it but it isn't that simple. They have to wait until the opportune time to use them or else they'll be useless. The champs who build BT+LW are already lane bullies, but with their two item spike they don't have any downtime on it. They can throw their weight around in lane as much as they want and if the enemy tries to engage with their actives they can just back off and force objectives while its down. Not to mention that bullying the lane becomes even easier with a shield, BT+LW vs BotRK+GB may just become a case of apples vs oranges.
BotRK = Blade of the Ruined King
ADC = AD carry
AD = Attack Damage
BT = Bloodthirster
LW = Last Whisper
GB = Youmuu's Ghostblade
TF = Trinity Force
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Power Spikes
As the game evolves and players understand to play the map better we learn to use the tools we have to garner advantages more efficiently. Power spikes were always identified through thresholds such as champion level and item progression. AD carries were identified strong once they hit their third big item, mages once they hit levels 6, 11 and 16. While you can still identify a powerspike through those means, players have started to manufacture pseudo power spikes. By doing this you're able to put more pressure on the map because your champion is much stronger than it regularly is at a specific time. Think of a Twitch with GB and BotRK versus a Twitch with BotRK and PD. The former is much, much more stronger than the latter if they only have those items with a zerkers and a dblade. GB's mid game power is very strong because it can be utilized much more efficiently mid game than in the late game. For most (if not all) ad carries their optimal build doesn't have GB in it. Since most players follow builds somewhat religiously, psuedo power spikes created by building off the beaten path have gone unnoticed for quite a while. Not to say it hasn't been done, just that it wasn't done enough for the builds to become staple for a role or champion.BT had a HUGE powerspike when paired with TF and was a large part of the reason why it was so popularly built. Other than BT + TF, ad carries aren't all that useful during the mid game. Normally they would have to hit the big three item threshold before becoming of any real use, outside from a few outliers. The BT + TF powerspike developed a new playstyle for ad carries in competitive play, where they took a much more active role in the mid-game. When BT was nerfed, instead of returning back to the old style of play and build people searched for a different way to reach the powerspike so that they could still impact the mid game heavily. This is where the popularity of GB + BotRK skyrocketed.
Buildpath
Its also worth noting that you're able to get more stats momentarily when buying a BotRK than a BT. BotRK has a bunch of small pieces to buy so you can back and come back into lane with more items than the person trying to save up 1550 gold for a BF sword.Youmuu's Uprising + Twitch
Before patch 4.10 GB already had a surge in popularity. AD carries who favored (mainly Vayne and Twitch) BotRK had tenancies to build GB right after to hit their powerspike. This was especially so with Twitch, infact we may have not seen this build at all if it weren't for him. During 2014 Allstars Twitch saw a rise in play due to the fact that not many people had experience playing against him. His mid game powerspike came from the fact that he could roam and pick off kills very easily but teams learned how to play against him very quickly and he fell off the map just as fast as he appeared. Teams learning to play against him lowered his mid game prowess a lot until BotRK/GB build took rise. Twitch was much more powerful mid game with this build but not just because he was able to gank other lanes, but the actives and ultimate allowed him to throw his weight around in teamfights mid game very effectively. Vayne players who were already building BotRK and maxing W (as opposed to maxing Q and building BT) started to build GB as well, as it synchronized with their ultimate.When BT was nerfed and people felt like the powerspike that was brought from BT/TF wasn't worth the gold it cost anymore, BT fell to the bottom of the list of items you'd want to build first on an AD. Before 4.10 there were two mid-game powerspike builds for ADCs and so when one got nerfed, everyone obviously defaulted to the other. It worked very well for Lucian and the ones it couldn't work for defaulted back to the 3 item threshold playstyle. Not to say that AD carries got weaker, infact I would say that they got stronger late game. If they ever reached it, that is. With so much of the map outcome being decided in the mid-game, having an AD who is strong in the mid-game is very important. The team that doesn't have an AD with a mid game power spike will try not to make any map movements and will just wait until the enemy makes a mistake or starts getting outscaled before starting to take action. With BT gone, TF followed after since it was part of the BT/TF powerspike and the item diversity for AD carries stayed relatively the same early game, lower in the mid and the same during the end.
PBE Bloodthirster
The BT on the live patch has been changed in the PBE. The shield amount has been lowered but it stays up for longer. The really important change is the new passive that gives 10% bonus attack damage. We've already established that the item efficiency isn't the only reason for an item being in flavor or not, we have to think about whether it can be used to create a power spike or if it'll just be an item to add to your build later on. If its the latter, the buff isn't really that game changing and just buffs AD carries who build it in the lategame. So the question is, can the new BT be used in conjunction with another item to create a 2 item powerspike? The passive gives 10% BONUS attack damage, so its not going to be as strong as it was before stat wise until you get a dblade and 200 bonus attack damage. First we should find out who it'll most likely benifit the most. Probably Draven, Graves and Sivir since they can dominate their lane and the game with enough AD. These champions have their own AS boosts as well, so they can do with just zerkers for a while. The champs do better with flat AD quints than with flat AS quints as well. With a dblade, flat ad quint + ad marks and a BT you have about 112 bonus AD with the new passive, 102 bonus AD without. Those three champions won't do well with TF and they don't need the AS early so more flat AD would be the optimal route. The only thing I can think of is LW.BT+LW has always been a 2 item powerspike for Graves and Draven for a while but its even weaker now statwise than it was before even with the passive. You have 157 AD instead of the 163 AD you used to have, so about 6 ad short of the original. The only difference is now you still have the shield. Albeit weaker since it it got nerfed, it lasts longer so you're able to go into fights with it on much more easily. The question is, is it good enough to compare to the power spike of GB/BotRK? Well, its different. GB/BotRK is a powerspike, but as soon as those actives are used the power spike is greatly diminished until their back up again. You might think this doesn't matter because they'll just wait until the opportune time to use it but it isn't that simple. They have to wait until the opportune time to use them or else they'll be useless. The champs who build BT+LW are already lane bullies, but with their two item spike they don't have any downtime on it. They can throw their weight around in lane as much as they want and if the enemy tries to engage with their actives they can just back off and force objectives while its down. Not to mention that bullying the lane becomes even easier with a shield, BT+LW vs BotRK+GB may just become a case of apples vs oranges.
Conclusion (TL;DR)
The new BT may be able to create a new powerspike with LW, enabling them to bully around enemy laners who have to save their actives or end up losing their powerspike.BotRK = Blade of the Ruined King
ADC = AD carry
AD = Attack Damage
BT = Bloodthirster
LW = Last Whisper
GB = Youmuu's Ghostblade
TF = Trinity Force
League of Casuals
League of Legends has been accused of sacrificing game depth by the various DOTA communities and even the game's own players. The accusation is that League of Legends panders to new players so that it can be more popular, that the game is made for the lowest common denominator. Whether that is true or not doesn't really matter; does making the game more simple actually lower the competitiveness of the game? This accusation rings true even more so now because Riot has recently revealed that jungle timers will be timed for the player, as long as they saw the death of the buff/monster. What change will this bring to solo-q if any and will it lower the competitiveness of the game?
In short, yes, yes it does. Competitiveness is usually measured by the amount of platforms one can use to overcome the enemy. In soccer speed, stamina, ability to dribble/pass the ball, etc are all platforms one can use to overcome the enemy. Take away any of these and the game becomes less competitive. For league, just simply knowing timers was a platform in itself. Forgoing using that information simply knowing the timers relieves pressure on the map because you know its time that you don't have to worry about that objective being taken. Using this information creates so many opportunities for the team such as being able to sneak things right under the nose of the enemy because they weren't prepared. Players who used this information to squeeze wins out of their usual solo-q grind will soon find that anyone can now do this. The platform that they used was ameliorated for other players, closing the gap of skill of players. Make no mistake, if Riot continues to make these kind of changes(imagine if ultimate/summoner cds were shown, turret ranges, minions lit up when they can be lasthit, etc) the gap of skill between players would continue to shrink.
Normality breeds progression. Turn the clock back a few years and jump into solo queue. You're gold right now, but what rank would you be now? You would probably rank number one on the solo-q ladder, no joke. The things you're exposed to now were underdeveloped or not even known. I remember that during a pro game HotshotGG was praised for getting 100 cs at the 12 minute mark. Thats standard now, most people in gold get 100 cs by 13 minutes now. The playerbase's ability to farm has exponentially grown since the old times. People didn't know about lane control, people didn't even know dragon existed and bush control from supports wasn't maintained. Now all those things are standard, expected of the average league player. This application of information brings about change in players, they learn to slowly adapt and counter it. Whether subconsciously or by learning it from some sort of source, the loss of one platform creates another. When applying this to the new jungle timers, does this mean that players will eventually become better due to this change?
I did say that the competitiveness of the game will decrease and thats because Riot is removing one platform from the game and a new one won't be introduced because it already exists. The use of the knowledge would be the platform born from the normality of knowing timers, but since players already use this knowledge its not really adding anything. The level of overall play will certainly see a rise because the platform of using jungle timer knowledge will vastly increase in say, a years time. Most players will have new information to work around. I believe that you won't be able to see the timer of a jungle mob unless you see it die, and not just the spawn itself. This encourages people to clear out wards of spawns not just to make sure the enemy doesn't have vision of it, but they can't get the timer information to create advantages with. Things like this will overlap the current level of play so whether or not the competitiveness of the game will decrease shouldn't even be an issue. In the long term it should increase and surpass what was there before.
A more important question is what jungle timers did for the average player and what the change means going forward. It should go without saying that this change won't affect professional player since these things and more are already timed by the players. However having a timer may slightly change how players react as opposed to just having a time. Knowing the jungle timers is like a gate to using that information for the average player. Remember that the true power of knowing jungle timers come from the knowledge on how to use the information, not the timers themselves. Its simply a gate, but that could be said for all things that could be timed (player cooldowns) in the game. The thing that makes jungle times different is that their always stagnant. They never change on a game to game basis, they don't change according to how the player acts. If the player could do something to elongate or shorten the jungle times then it would be a different story, but they can't. The jungle time information is simply a gate, its a very, very, verrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy small platform gating a much more large, and important platform which is using the information.
We can also look at it from a game design perspective. Imagine a door and a dimension behind it. The size of the door represents the information required to open it, the size of the dimension behind it represents the amount of information it holds. When it comes to jungle timers the door is relatively small, probably no bigger than 7 feet because all it holds is static timers. Behind it however is a rather large dimension, its size completely dwarfing the size of the door holding it by far. When it comes to things like player cooldowns, you meet a different story. The dimension is enormous, probably biggest there is in the game. The door however is nothing to scoff at either because this door holds information such as every single cooldown in the game, how they are affected by level and cooldown reduction. The door is very much proportional to the size of its dimension, if both the door and the dimension are platforms it doesn't make much sense to remove either one if they match. If the door is minuscule compared to the size of the dimension, removing the door may not be that bad of an idea. If the door is huge and the field is minuscule in comparison, you may not need the door or the field.
All in all I think it'll be a healthy change for the game. I can't wait to see how the level of play will increase due to how players use the information and how they counteract it.
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| Screenshot of the new timers on the HUD at the top center of the screen. A timer for each team's buff, dragon and baron show on the HUD. |
In short, yes, yes it does. Competitiveness is usually measured by the amount of platforms one can use to overcome the enemy. In soccer speed, stamina, ability to dribble/pass the ball, etc are all platforms one can use to overcome the enemy. Take away any of these and the game becomes less competitive. For league, just simply knowing timers was a platform in itself. Forgoing using that information simply knowing the timers relieves pressure on the map because you know its time that you don't have to worry about that objective being taken. Using this information creates so many opportunities for the team such as being able to sneak things right under the nose of the enemy because they weren't prepared. Players who used this information to squeeze wins out of their usual solo-q grind will soon find that anyone can now do this. The platform that they used was ameliorated for other players, closing the gap of skill of players. Make no mistake, if Riot continues to make these kind of changes(imagine if ultimate/summoner cds were shown, turret ranges, minions lit up when they can be lasthit, etc) the gap of skill between players would continue to shrink.
Normality breeds progression. Turn the clock back a few years and jump into solo queue. You're gold right now, but what rank would you be now? You would probably rank number one on the solo-q ladder, no joke. The things you're exposed to now were underdeveloped or not even known. I remember that during a pro game HotshotGG was praised for getting 100 cs at the 12 minute mark. Thats standard now, most people in gold get 100 cs by 13 minutes now. The playerbase's ability to farm has exponentially grown since the old times. People didn't know about lane control, people didn't even know dragon existed and bush control from supports wasn't maintained. Now all those things are standard, expected of the average league player. This application of information brings about change in players, they learn to slowly adapt and counter it. Whether subconsciously or by learning it from some sort of source, the loss of one platform creates another. When applying this to the new jungle timers, does this mean that players will eventually become better due to this change?
I did say that the competitiveness of the game will decrease and thats because Riot is removing one platform from the game and a new one won't be introduced because it already exists. The use of the knowledge would be the platform born from the normality of knowing timers, but since players already use this knowledge its not really adding anything. The level of overall play will certainly see a rise because the platform of using jungle timer knowledge will vastly increase in say, a years time. Most players will have new information to work around. I believe that you won't be able to see the timer of a jungle mob unless you see it die, and not just the spawn itself. This encourages people to clear out wards of spawns not just to make sure the enemy doesn't have vision of it, but they can't get the timer information to create advantages with. Things like this will overlap the current level of play so whether or not the competitiveness of the game will decrease shouldn't even be an issue. In the long term it should increase and surpass what was there before.
A more important question is what jungle timers did for the average player and what the change means going forward. It should go without saying that this change won't affect professional player since these things and more are already timed by the players. However having a timer may slightly change how players react as opposed to just having a time. Knowing the jungle timers is like a gate to using that information for the average player. Remember that the true power of knowing jungle timers come from the knowledge on how to use the information, not the timers themselves. Its simply a gate, but that could be said for all things that could be timed (player cooldowns) in the game. The thing that makes jungle times different is that their always stagnant. They never change on a game to game basis, they don't change according to how the player acts. If the player could do something to elongate or shorten the jungle times then it would be a different story, but they can't. The jungle time information is simply a gate, its a very, very, verrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyy small platform gating a much more large, and important platform which is using the information.
We can also look at it from a game design perspective. Imagine a door and a dimension behind it. The size of the door represents the information required to open it, the size of the dimension behind it represents the amount of information it holds. When it comes to jungle timers the door is relatively small, probably no bigger than 7 feet because all it holds is static timers. Behind it however is a rather large dimension, its size completely dwarfing the size of the door holding it by far. When it comes to things like player cooldowns, you meet a different story. The dimension is enormous, probably biggest there is in the game. The door however is nothing to scoff at either because this door holds information such as every single cooldown in the game, how they are affected by level and cooldown reduction. The door is very much proportional to the size of its dimension, if both the door and the dimension are platforms it doesn't make much sense to remove either one if they match. If the door is minuscule compared to the size of the dimension, removing the door may not be that bad of an idea. If the door is huge and the field is minuscule in comparison, you may not need the door or the field.
All in all I think it'll be a healthy change for the game. I can't wait to see how the level of play will increase due to how players use the information and how they counteract it.
Guide to Challenger
Being a challenger tier player is more about discipline and repetition than it is raw skill. Just like playing instruments, playing sports or doing almost anything worthwhile takes discipline. Reading guides don't make you a better player, believe it or not. Just like how reading a book on how to dribble a basketball doesn't make you better at dribbling, or how reading a book on better hand positioning for the piano doesn't make you play any better. You could theoretically read every league guide out there and you wouldn't be a better player. Not to say they don't help you become a better player but they don't make you a better player. The only thing that makes you a better player is practice. If you were to ask any professional player how to get better, they'd probably say just play the game a lot. No, you don't play the game a lot. You're not comparing how much you play League to other games. You're comparing how much you play to other players and chances are there are literally hundred of thousands of players who've played just as much as you or more. If you want to get better you're going to have to play more.
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Now even if you play more your rate of improvement isn't going to raise that much. Skill level is not stagnant across seasons, this year's gold players are probably just as good as season 1's platinum. So churning out a ton of games everyday alone isn't enough to reach your goal in a timely manner. What you have to do is be above the curve, if everyone is improving at a rate of x, you want to be increasing at a rate of 10x. This isn't where you run to guides to help you improve, you can probably forgo reading any type of guide and reach challenger. Guides tell you what to do and why you do it and you, which you don't need to know. Knowing why you do what you do doesn't make you a better player, you just know why you do what you do. Knowing what to do is what you want to know and normally guides are the best source material for finding out this information but we have plenty of vods of professional players playing a large range of champions. So this is what I invite you to do; choose one lane and champion, watch a bunch of vods of challenger players playing it and write a game plan(revise the game plan every 20 games or so). The game plan will be comprised of thing common things done in each game. For example the first three minutes would go something like;
Renekton - Top lane VS melee
Buy Dorans Blade + Health Pot + Ward Trinket, Q first
[0:00 - 1:55]
- Guard blue by standing at baron pit ramp; Gaurd red by standing in top tribrush, help jungler until 2:00
[2:00 - 3:00]
- Hit each melee minion once, last hit as necessary, stand close to enemy melee minion and Q enemy as they approach to last hit, if agro taken run back or to brush if close
- Reach level 2 before enemy, Q minions to push harder if needed, clear 1 wave and melee to hit 2
- Push minions into tower by 2:45, ward river brush after
- Should have 18 CS at this point
- Watch for ganks
You're going to take too much damage from helping your jungler. You're going to take too much minion agro/damage from the enemy during trades. You're not going to get 18 cs and you're going to get killed by a gank. Thats only the mistakes you will make in the first three minutes but its to be expected though, but you'll get better with practice. You're going to have to churn out those games until you get 15/16/17/18 cs consistently, until you know when the jungler is going to gank and how to manipulate the lane properly. Knowing/Creating the game plan doesn't make you a better player, playing the game makes you a better player. Playing better than you currently are instead of playing at your level is how you raise your skill level efficiently.
If you're playing at your level and you're not raising in rank and want to, you're not doing something right. If you go 15/5 and still lose every other game your not doing something right. While it may be your team's fault you lost, you're always to blame for not winning. Playing the game is the only thing that will make you better at the game, so if you want to reach challenger you'd better start playing. A lot.
Misconceptions in Solo-Q: You're not carrying shit
I have to admit my pet peeve when it comes to League of Legends is when someone on my team says they couldn't carry in a demeaning manner. As if they were going above and beyond trying to carry us but we were trying to lose on purpose. Not to be the bearer of bad news but your score isn't the deciding factor of whether you're carrying or not, if anything it displays your potential to carry. And we all know that having potential doesn't factor into winning league games.
"Baaaah I dominated my lane but other lanes lost, I can't carry these scrubs"
"q___q team doesn't know how to focus, I can't carry these scrubs"
"this support/adc is sooo bad I can't carry this trashbag"
I'm not going to say you're lying, but I'd cut your sentence a little short to make it more truthful. "I can't carry." would be much more accurate. Thats nice that you went 4/0 by 20 minutes in top lane, but theres a game going on on the other 3/4 of the map. You could have went 0/4 and it would make no difference, you literally did nothing to carry the game. Oh, you killed the enemy botlane over and over but couldn't win teamfights? You'll get them next time. Your opponent mid was your bitch and under turret the whole laning phase barely getting any farm? I'm glad you had fun playing dominatrix. But please don't tell me you were carrying because you weren't. Let me make this clear however; I'm not saying you can't win lane or that you're not better than the people in your elo like you claim to be. I'm just saying that carrying implies that you're carrying the team on your back, which you most likely aren't doing.
Carrying is a playstyle. I've said it in multiple blogs before but winning your lane doesn't mean you win the game. Evidently so because of the popular phrase "win lane lose game". To carry you have to take the pressure off the other players. Give them breathers, make the game easier for them. Carrying the team on your back, breaking your back from carrying, being most impactful player, etc. When you're dominating your lane you aren't doing any of that unless the enemy has global pressure. If you win your lane and stay in it you probably carrying just as much as if you were going even or losing. Thinking "I'll win lane then carry the game" isn't going to do you justice. Just put pressure all over the map while keeping your tower safe. Get the minions (which also keeps your tower safe) and put pressure elsewhere on the map. Force fights that are unfavorable for the enemy, get objectives when you can.. what I'm basically saying is make plays. I know you've seen this advice on AMAs tons of times, but its the truth.
Now I'm not saying that stomping your lane doesn't open avenues for you to carry. Just that the act of just stomping the lane isn't carrying, its what you do after. You must push for objectives, get the jungler to pay attention to you, do things that affect the other players in the game. You have to dictate how the game is going, make the enemy team very aware of your presence by shoving it in their face. Gank other lanes and get their towers, and not JUST their first tier towers. Do it at second tier towers, inhib towers if you can. Your item advantage means nothing if you're not doing anything with it, and if you think you are doing enough but you're still losing games then you need to do more. Complaining about teammates is like complaining about the weather. You can do it all you want but it isn't going to change anything. If you don't like getting wet when it rains use an umbrella.
Just please don't surrender at 20 and complain about not being able to carry scrubs because you won your lane and did nothing else. You gain elo by carrying games, not winning lane. Don't let your item advantage carry you through games, use your item advantage to carry games.
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"Baaaah I dominated my lane but other lanes lost, I can't carry these scrubs"
"q___q team doesn't know how to focus, I can't carry these scrubs"
"this support/adc is sooo bad I can't carry this trashbag"
I'm not going to say you're lying, but I'd cut your sentence a little short to make it more truthful. "I can't carry." would be much more accurate. Thats nice that you went 4/0 by 20 minutes in top lane, but theres a game going on on the other 3/4 of the map. You could have went 0/4 and it would make no difference, you literally did nothing to carry the game. Oh, you killed the enemy botlane over and over but couldn't win teamfights? You'll get them next time. Your opponent mid was your bitch and under turret the whole laning phase barely getting any farm? I'm glad you had fun playing dominatrix. But please don't tell me you were carrying because you weren't. Let me make this clear however; I'm not saying you can't win lane or that you're not better than the people in your elo like you claim to be. I'm just saying that carrying implies that you're carrying the team on your back, which you most likely aren't doing.
Carrying is a playstyle. I've said it in multiple blogs before but winning your lane doesn't mean you win the game. Evidently so because of the popular phrase "win lane lose game". To carry you have to take the pressure off the other players. Give them breathers, make the game easier for them. Carrying the team on your back, breaking your back from carrying, being most impactful player, etc. When you're dominating your lane you aren't doing any of that unless the enemy has global pressure. If you win your lane and stay in it you probably carrying just as much as if you were going even or losing. Thinking "I'll win lane then carry the game" isn't going to do you justice. Just put pressure all over the map while keeping your tower safe. Get the minions (which also keeps your tower safe) and put pressure elsewhere on the map. Force fights that are unfavorable for the enemy, get objectives when you can.. what I'm basically saying is make plays. I know you've seen this advice on AMAs tons of times, but its the truth.
Now I'm not saying that stomping your lane doesn't open avenues for you to carry. Just that the act of just stomping the lane isn't carrying, its what you do after. You must push for objectives, get the jungler to pay attention to you, do things that affect the other players in the game. You have to dictate how the game is going, make the enemy team very aware of your presence by shoving it in their face. Gank other lanes and get their towers, and not JUST their first tier towers. Do it at second tier towers, inhib towers if you can. Your item advantage means nothing if you're not doing anything with it, and if you think you are doing enough but you're still losing games then you need to do more. Complaining about teammates is like complaining about the weather. You can do it all you want but it isn't going to change anything. If you don't like getting wet when it rains use an umbrella.
Just please don't surrender at 20 and complain about not being able to carry scrubs because you won your lane and did nothing else. You gain elo by carrying games, not winning lane. Don't let your item advantage carry you through games, use your item advantage to carry games.
Mute/Ignore Button; Useful but Unused Feature & Curbing Toxic Behavior
In my opinion the ignore button is the single most powerful tool for keeping a game cleansed of toxicity. Generally to succeed in a game you have to be playing a mental game with your enemy. Thinking about what they're going to do, where you have to go or which objectives you should go for next. When someone spouts toxic nonsense at you(and if you argue back, you're definitely not thinking about the game anymore), you automatically lose this train of thought. You DO need concentration to play your best so anything that removes you from a comfortable environment should be dealt with. Whenever someone says something toxic, you have the ability to simply ignore them. Out of sight, out of mind. That being said the ignore function is barely ever used despite its power.
I don't believe the ignore button is accessible enough. Yes, the ignore being two clicks away isn't accessible enough. The mute button should be somewhere that as soon as someone says toxic, you're automatically reminded that you can mute them. In chat, right at the end of every sentence the mute option in the scoreboard should appear for a few seconds before fading away. Now, some issues may come into play if this is carried out. While it makes the game enjoyable again for the person muting, it does not curb the behavior of the verbal assailant. It doesn't tell them they've been muted and no doubt they'll go on putting up a show for the other players by slandering the player. Riot is adamant about correcting the player behavior (as they rightly should), so something should be done about this.
Now I know a lot of people give Riot flak for not implementing things like prisoner island because of how toxic the community is. I'd argue that what they're doing is a good thing because they're actually trying to clean up the MOBA community in their own way. Some people may say its not their job to do so but then whose job is it? The players are not just going to fix it themselves and if you ever want a decent community some actions must be taken. Things like prisoner island doesn't help fix the problem. Its like a band-aid fix, a very very explosive band-aid fix. Just imagine a prisoner island game and how volatile the situation is. Everyone is a rager/afker and as we all know, even ragers can make people who are usually not toxic, toxic through arguments. In a game full of ragers its like throwing a lighted match in a box of explosives, just one sets off and everything explodes. There are arguments that if people don't like it they can remove themselves by bettering their behavior but in my opinion it would make 'light' ragers much more toxic than they normally are on a regular basis while only reforming a small amount of players. Much like prisons where people who are in jail for light crimes come out harder criminals.
Some things Riot could do to use the mute button to reform behavior;
Now I see some problems that may arise and I'd like to address them.
People might abuse the mute button:
Much like false reporting, it won't affect anyone who is not being toxic habitually.
People might rage and afk/feed after getting notified that a lot of people have muted them.
All the power to them, while it will ruin a few games it'll only hasten them being banned.
Something else that would be good is to remove the ignore list. It doesn't do anything but keep people muted if you play with them again, the mute button would work like that in this case. They would be unmuted if you played with them again, but if they're toxic you just mute them once more. The ignore list can't really do much anyways, if it could prevent you from playing with other players I feel like it would be abused a lot. Especially in high elo where there isn't a large pool of players, someone could easily ignore the people they don't want to face against regardless of whether they're toxic or not.
These are not changes that would help to better the community in the short run. It may prove to make the environment more volatile for a while but in the long run it would make the community much less toxic.
TL;DR Making the mute button more accessible while adding a few features onto the mute button can prove to curb toxic behavior.
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I don't believe the ignore button is accessible enough. Yes, the ignore being two clicks away isn't accessible enough. The mute button should be somewhere that as soon as someone says toxic, you're automatically reminded that you can mute them. In chat, right at the end of every sentence the mute option in the scoreboard should appear for a few seconds before fading away. Now, some issues may come into play if this is carried out. While it makes the game enjoyable again for the person muting, it does not curb the behavior of the verbal assailant. It doesn't tell them they've been muted and no doubt they'll go on putting up a show for the other players by slandering the player. Riot is adamant about correcting the player behavior (as they rightly should), so something should be done about this.
Now I know a lot of people give Riot flak for not implementing things like prisoner island because of how toxic the community is. I'd argue that what they're doing is a good thing because they're actually trying to clean up the MOBA community in their own way. Some people may say its not their job to do so but then whose job is it? The players are not just going to fix it themselves and if you ever want a decent community some actions must be taken. Things like prisoner island doesn't help fix the problem. Its like a band-aid fix, a very very explosive band-aid fix. Just imagine a prisoner island game and how volatile the situation is. Everyone is a rager/afker and as we all know, even ragers can make people who are usually not toxic, toxic through arguments. In a game full of ragers its like throwing a lighted match in a box of explosives, just one sets off and everything explodes. There are arguments that if people don't like it they can remove themselves by bettering their behavior but in my opinion it would make 'light' ragers much more toxic than they normally are on a regular basis while only reforming a small amount of players. Much like prisons where people who are in jail for light crimes come out harder criminals.
Some things Riot could do to use the mute button to reform behavior;
- Suggested before but telling the player that they've been muted. "A player has muted you." No doubt it'll send the message that they're being toxic while taking the pack mentality away from them. Knowing that they have no audience will most likely stop them from raging.
- At the end of the game, a little message could pop up saying "You muted X person this game, would you like to report them?" would appear. I often forget to report someone after a game because I just want to move on and only after closing the end game stats I realize I should have reported them.
- Track mute percentage. Riot can use this information to understand what mute rate (eg. muted once ever 3 games) is toxic and administer a restricted chat punishment accordingly. People who go over the threshold they decide get a restricted chat.
Now I see some problems that may arise and I'd like to address them.
People might abuse the mute button:
Much like false reporting, it won't affect anyone who is not being toxic habitually.
People might rage and afk/feed after getting notified that a lot of people have muted them.
All the power to them, while it will ruin a few games it'll only hasten them being banned.
Something else that would be good is to remove the ignore list. It doesn't do anything but keep people muted if you play with them again, the mute button would work like that in this case. They would be unmuted if you played with them again, but if they're toxic you just mute them once more. The ignore list can't really do much anyways, if it could prevent you from playing with other players I feel like it would be abused a lot. Especially in high elo where there isn't a large pool of players, someone could easily ignore the people they don't want to face against regardless of whether they're toxic or not.
These are not changes that would help to better the community in the short run. It may prove to make the environment more volatile for a while but in the long run it would make the community much less toxic.
TL;DR Making the mute button more accessible while adding a few features onto the mute button can prove to curb toxic behavior.
Itemization
Lately there has been a lot of discussion about itemization in league of legends. People complain that there isn't enough choice in items, that there is always an 80%+ optimal build path to choose. Then people ask for items with a different arrangement of stats, as if that will help anything. When people talk about the optimal build, you have to realize how much optimization and numbers relate to one another. The gold value/efficiency of 90% of items can be completely calculated. It only makes sense that people would be able to use this information to calculate an efficient build. There is a way to throw a cog in the calculation however, but I'll get to that later. First we've got to look at why people want "better" itemization, or what even makes itemization good or bad.
I'm going to go against the current consensus and say that itemization in league of legends is good. When I say itemization I don't mean variety, in my opinion thats isn't required for a game to be good. In most games with weapons/equipments there is usually always a "best" item to use and only in competitive games do you see a broad scope of items being used. Its the same in league of legends, at the end of a game look at the items people have built and you'll see a variety of items. Not only that but there are almost items for every situation you might find yourself in. Riot has done a great job of creating a staple choice of items for every class thats made. I'd even argue the idea that the variety in item choice is poor and I will argue that itemization in general is very well done. You have to remember that there was times where there was no AP item for vsing AD in lane. Or poor itemization choices for AD casters. Or even just recently how supports were pigeonholed into building "support" items and buying wards. Itemization is at a good place right now, there are items for every class to build even though there is no choice. Creating more items won't add any variety to builds, it'll just add to the pile of items people don't and shouldn't even use because there are better choices for getting what they want done.
The kind of items that create variety are niche items. Items that fill a niche roll in game, have some sort of unique ability that can't be calculated and are rarely picked. When I say niche I mean niche. Just because an item is rarely picked doesn't mean that its bad. People are always saying, "buff runnans so it'll be built more" or something along the lines of that. You can only build 6 items at a time. If runnans is buffed to the point where it starts to be more appealing than other items, another item is just going to fall out of flavor since runnans does its job better and it has a truly unique passive. Its fine just where it is, it performs a niche roll and should stay rarely picked. What you really want is not more items that will be popularly picked, that does not create variation. To create variation you need truly unique items that are rarely picked individually, but all together maintain a good pick rate versus staple items.
Also its not even like there are no niche items to pick from, there are quite a bit of them. Runaan's Hurricane, Morellonomicon, QSS/upgrade, Guardians Angel, Gauntlet, Twin Shadows, Ohmrecker, Mikael's Crucible, Hexdrinker/Upgrade, Wit's End, DFG and some more popular ones such as Athene's. The stats on them may not be as good as the staple items for certain builds but have passives/uniques that make it hard for people, or impossible in some cases to calculate their item efficiency/value in raw gold. If you want more itemization, are you asking for an item that is a better/worse choice than the items already out there? That won't help the variety issue. More niche items? We have plenty, but more wouldn't hurt.
Maybe there aren't enough niche items to create the illusion of build diversity but I honestly think the diversity is there. Why is it such a bad thing to have an optimal build route and why is diversity so sought after? The current item system works very well, there is no reason to break it.
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I'm going to go against the current consensus and say that itemization in league of legends is good. When I say itemization I don't mean variety, in my opinion thats isn't required for a game to be good. In most games with weapons/equipments there is usually always a "best" item to use and only in competitive games do you see a broad scope of items being used. Its the same in league of legends, at the end of a game look at the items people have built and you'll see a variety of items. Not only that but there are almost items for every situation you might find yourself in. Riot has done a great job of creating a staple choice of items for every class thats made. I'd even argue the idea that the variety in item choice is poor and I will argue that itemization in general is very well done. You have to remember that there was times where there was no AP item for vsing AD in lane. Or poor itemization choices for AD casters. Or even just recently how supports were pigeonholed into building "support" items and buying wards. Itemization is at a good place right now, there are items for every class to build even though there is no choice. Creating more items won't add any variety to builds, it'll just add to the pile of items people don't and shouldn't even use because there are better choices for getting what they want done.
The kind of items that create variety are niche items. Items that fill a niche roll in game, have some sort of unique ability that can't be calculated and are rarely picked. When I say niche I mean niche. Just because an item is rarely picked doesn't mean that its bad. People are always saying, "buff runnans so it'll be built more" or something along the lines of that. You can only build 6 items at a time. If runnans is buffed to the point where it starts to be more appealing than other items, another item is just going to fall out of flavor since runnans does its job better and it has a truly unique passive. Its fine just where it is, it performs a niche roll and should stay rarely picked. What you really want is not more items that will be popularly picked, that does not create variation. To create variation you need truly unique items that are rarely picked individually, but all together maintain a good pick rate versus staple items.
Also its not even like there are no niche items to pick from, there are quite a bit of them. Runaan's Hurricane, Morellonomicon, QSS/upgrade, Guardians Angel, Gauntlet, Twin Shadows, Ohmrecker, Mikael's Crucible, Hexdrinker/Upgrade, Wit's End, DFG and some more popular ones such as Athene's. The stats on them may not be as good as the staple items for certain builds but have passives/uniques that make it hard for people, or impossible in some cases to calculate their item efficiency/value in raw gold. If you want more itemization, are you asking for an item that is a better/worse choice than the items already out there? That won't help the variety issue. More niche items? We have plenty, but more wouldn't hurt.
Maybe there aren't enough niche items to create the illusion of build diversity but I honestly think the diversity is there. Why is it such a bad thing to have an optimal build route and why is diversity so sought after? The current item system works very well, there is no reason to break it.
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