League of Legends: A game mechanic is gradually disappearing, we explain why

news League of Legends: A game mechanic is gradually disappearing, we explain why

League of Legends now has 159 champions and four times as many skills. There are two main types of mechanics among them: targeted spells and skillshots.. If these two categories have been around since the early days of MOBA, it still seems like there are fewer and fewer targeted spells and more and more skillshots. We can think of several reasons for this, but before we get to that, let’s take a moment to expand on each of the two mechanics.

Do you shoot or do you point?

Pointed spells, also called “Point’n’Click” by players, are spells that cannot be missed. To use them, all you have to do is be within range of your target, point your mouse at it, and click on it. If all conditions are met, the spell leaves your character and reaches its target without being able to avoid it.

Of course there are some exceptions to this. Some characters have abilities that allow you to become insensitive, such as: B. Fizz’s Leap, or to protect against any spell, such as e.g. B. Sivir’s shield. Used at the right time, these abilities can allow you to avoid a targeted spell. Some objects also allow you to absorb a spell and therefore not suffer it. This is the case with the Banshee’s Veil or the Cloak of the Night.

Skillshots, on the other hand, are much more difficult to use. Instead of going straight to the target character, a skillshot will work in a specific area or in a specific direction. So the player can miss their target if they don’t aim properly, and the opponent can dodge the spell if they move well. Therefore, depending on the size of the spell, its speed, and the size of the opponent, a skillshot can be more or less difficult to handle. However, More and more champions have skillshots and fewer and fewer targeted spells appear in Summoner’s Rift.

I like statistics

As we said in the introduction, League of Legends offers players a set of 159 champions (soon to be 160), all with four abilities, making 636 different abilities. Starting from this basis, we can create the following statistics:

• There are only 96 targeted spells, spread across 84 different champions
• Of those 96 targeted spells, more than half have the main effect of dealing damage (43)
• Only 20 targeted spells (excluding ultimates) can inflict a powerful control effect on the target.
• Of those 20 skills, 8 require an additional gameplay element to succeed (push their target against a wall, collect markers, etc.).

Obviously, targeted spells are already a minority in the game, and for good reason: most new champions don’t have them anymore, and even old champions are starting to lose them as their gameplay gets revamped.. This is the case, for example, with Sion, Taric or Warwick, the game’s historical champions, all three of whom lost an aimed spell in favor of a skillshot. But why such a fondness for skillshots from Riot Games?

Please nerf that

Obviously, it’s much easier for a new player to use a spell-controlled character than a skillshot character. Likewise, it’s easier for Riot Games developers to create targeted spells, as we imagine they’ll be less prone to bugs and easier to manage as new mechanics are added. However, aimed spells are generally very unsatisfactory to use and especially to suffer. Indeed, when casting a good spell at the right time is pleasant in itself, the knowledge that we may have missed it adds a little salt and further emphasizes the sense of accomplishment. Conversely, dodging a main ability allows for an instant counterattack, and casting a targeted spell makes you feel like there’s nothing you can do to avoid it..

Therefore, if they are more difficult to use, the skillshots remain much more exciting to play. In addition, they allow Riot Games more leverage to balance them. It’s a lot easier to accept that a skillshot will deal a lot of damage or a massive control effect, knowing it can be avoided provided you know how to play well and move well. So while they’re certainly never going to go away, it’s quite normal to see developers opting to give their champions fewer and fewer targeted spells and more and more skillshots.

League of Legends walkthrough summary