[Patch 1.0.0.126: Xerath] General Discussion - Page 69

On October 11 2011 05:25 fantasticoranges wrote:
I feel like for the spell vamp issue they should just change it so energy / cooldown only (maybe hp too) / all non mana spells should give less hp back than ones that use mana give.

On October 11 2011 05:28 Sabin010 wrote:
Wouldn't a banshee's veil or even just a negatron cloak slow down an akali to the point she can't just instagib you?

On October 11 2011 05:09 Ocedic wrote:


And on the topic of spectator point of view, I really hope the future of the genre doesn't try to artificially create action by making a shallow game with mechanics such as constant XP. That's basically the danger of Esports in general: Making the game for the spectator instead of the player.

On October 11 2011 05:28 Sabin010 wrote:
Wouldn't a banshee's veil or even just a negatron cloak slow down an akali to the point she can't just instagib you?

On October 11 2011 05:33 Seuss wrote:


No matter how fun a game is to play it can't succeed as an esport if it isn't also interesting to watch.

That said, people watch golf, baseball and soccer. If those count as interesting enough to be popular I don't see why the SR laning phase is such a huge deal.

On October 11 2011 04:50 Flakes wrote:
I've always figured the simplest solution would be to make all sources of spellvamp stacking multiplicative instead of additive, or at least with some sort of diminishing returns. When you already have a gunblade on jax or akali and a teammate gets WotA, seeing your spellvamp double without spending any gold is pretty crazy.

Akali will of course will have her passive giving her a silly amount of % spellvamp, they'd need to tweak how all these stack together, like for % mpen (the reason Xerath doesn't have 85% mpen with voidstaff, it ends up around 64%).

On October 11 2011 04:25 zer0das wrote:
As far as gunblade goes, I've realized it is a very powerful item for quite a while- although its kind of meh until you upgrade it, but the upgrade cost is ridiculously low and you get so much extra from it.

In a similar vein, I have a bit of a question: why do all these Ezreal's go Trinity Force first or extremely early? It's an expensive as hell item even with the 150% extra damage on cast. Sheen's proc gives almost as much and it costs 1/3 as much, and you can get a Gunblade for cheaper than a Trinity Force and it gives more attack damage, ability power, and life steal/spell vamp. Am I crazy? I feel like Trinity Force should be close to the last item you get as Ezreal, the extras it gives over Sheen are not that impressive for the cost.

I got called a troll for arguing Trinity Force is not that impressive on Ezreal early game in a real game, and watching IPL I see all these super early Triforces and Ezreal doesn't seem to be doing an awful lot.

On October 11 2011 05:38 Requizen wrote:

All eSports are dull to watch for people who have no understanding of the game, dumbing it down isn't going to change that. Are the GSL finals exciting when Nestea dominates Inca without a thought? No, but that doesn't mean Blizzard should give free minerals and supply at regular intervals to keep the game interesting.

On the same idea, I've turned off baseball and football games that were completely one-sided as well. It's not fun in any game, LoL included. The onus is on the players to provide an entertaining game, not the people who make it.

On October 11 2011 05:55 Sabin010 wrote:
If you want an OP dominion champ get Karthus. If you want an assassin for sr get Akali. If you want a fat alcoholic champ get Gragas. If you want an Ice pheonix get Anivia. If you like sticking clock bombs on peoples heads and bringing your ranged dps back to life for a round two get Zilean. If you like lighting champs on fire get Brand. If you want to troll play ap garen but make sure you build dfg and lichbanes before you get the deathcap or the deathcap won't do much for you. But Veigar is pretty good at bursting other magic dps. Le Blanc can be fun to play too.

On October 11 2011 05:59 Seuss wrote:


There's plenty of onus on the developers. They have to make a game which is simultaneously deep enough for players to express creativity and skill, balanced enough that there isn't a single boring strategy that wins everything, and visually/mechanically accessible enough so that the spectators can understand what is going on. These aren't mutually exclusive attributes, but they're definitely hard to bring in line.

For another opinion, Extra Credits has a good take on Pro Gaming: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/pro-gaming

On October 11 2011 04:35 Cixah wrote:
So I've done some QA for random companies and was just generally looking at the riot jobs site and they are hiring for said positions. Something caught my eye in the Resume questions however.

What would you think of adding global experience gain every second to Summoner’s Rift for all champions that are currently alive? Do you think it’s a good idea? Please explain your answer.

What are TL's thoughts?

Personally, as someone who wants to see esports grow, I would kind of dig this change. I feel as though that lull in the farming Phase would disappear and might even lead to more kills in this phase. However, I can see how there would be lots of downsides to it too. A much more aggressive meta would be born and bursty bruisers and AP carries would become very VERY strong early assuming things stay as is.

On October 11 2011 06:10 MoonBear wrote:
MoonBear throws down $0.02... (Well, we don't use dollars on the moon. But w/e.)
Assuming this is a question for QA Applicants, I can't answer this question for you. But here's some insight into Design Philosophy on responsiveness and adaptivity in gameplay.

The problem with things like this is that by having some passive that grants your an advantage but only when you are alive, it further increases the disparity between being alive and being dead. What do I mean by this? Well, when you're alive you have access to exp and farm in the form of minions. Your presence is also a possible threat. These are all removed once you die.

Ganks and kills in lane are for the purpose of winning your lane and coming out ahead. The incentive to do so is to be able to create the disparity I mentioned above. The reward of winning your lane is what motivates you to take risks in order to reap a reward.

The problem is that this must also be balanced with the ability to recover. If you fall too far behind in lanes, then you lose the game for your team. Deaths must be meaningful for the other team, but not so meaningful so that your team loses instantly. In a co-ordinated environment, a team should not have to feel 10 min into the game they have lost due to a small mistake in a single lane. This is especially important in snowball lanes. Even if a snowball starts, there must be a method of recovery open to the person being snowballed on.

The question should not be an issue of whether rewards should be present for the risk of ganks. This is obvious. The question should really be about how we strike a balance between snowballs in lanes and the ability to recover. In its most optimum form, this means that the person taking the risk is able to benefit, and the person who loses out still has recovery paths open to them. In many ways, you can think of it in the sense of counterjungling where one person takes a risk for a reward, and the other person must then explore recovery options. In this instance then, how do changes to the laning phase allow for the balance in the dichotomy of reward and recovery? This is why often a monetary incentive is preferred because it puts someone ahead, but not always to the extent the other person in lane has their recovery options closed to them. This is also why there was that change several patches ago where exp from kills was more homogenised to prevent the most egregious forms of snowball that heavily skewed the recovery side of the reward-recover see-saw.

LoL is distinct in that it should never feel that the game is truly closed off to you. This is evident from the idea of the "No-Hard-Carries-Instawin-Button" rule, although there are several champions that scale very well. The philosophy Design tends to take is that while it is inevitable that options become closed to you as you fall behind, you should never have all options closed. There must always be a mitigating recovery option that allows for continued play is most circumstances. Of course, at the more individual level the various members of QA, Design and Live Balance have separate views on how this is to be achieved. It's quite striking how some of them approach the same issue... but this is a discussion for another time.

On the same note, Design and the Live Balance Team are looking at minion power in lane. They don't want it to feel like minions are the bigger threat in lane for the early levels, but they can't be ignorable. I cannot comment further on this at this stage however...

On October 11 2011 06:20 Cixah wrote:


You helped me reinforce what I was thinking. I am applying for the QA Game Associate Position, but I was having a hard time trying to condense down what was stated above into something someone would actually have time to read during an interview/preinterview process.

I'll be using this to help me draw my answer

On October 11 2011 04:35 Cixah wrote:
So I've done some QA for random companies and was just generally looking at the riot jobs site and they are hiring for said positions. Something caught my eye in the Resume questions however.

What would you think of adding global experience gain every second to Summoner’s Rift for all champions that are currently alive? Do you think it’s a good idea? Please explain your answer.

What are TL's thoughts?

Personally, as someone who wants to see esports grow, I would kind of dig this change. I feel as though that lull in the farming Phase would disappear and might even lead to more kills in this phase. However, I can see how there would be lots of downsides to it too. A much more aggressive meta would be born and bursty bruisers and AP carries would become very VERY strong early assuming things stay as is.