Tuesday, June 03, 2014

League of Legends: One for All: Mirror Mode

Riot has their latest 'temporary wacky map' option up and running. It's the One for All mode back for another spin (One for All being the mode where all 5 members of your team played the same champion) with two twists this time around. The first is that the enemy team also plays the same champion as your team so you have 10 copies of a given champion running around. The second twist is the game takes place on the ARAM map instead of the normal 5v5 map.

I like the first twist. One of the problems with the original One for All mode was when one team picked something fun and one team picked something good. Most teams simply couldn't compete against a team of healers and the games ended up being complete stompings. You did get to ban some champions out and Riot also disabled champions that were particularly problematic and you did often get fun matches. Changing it so both teams play the same champion fixes that issue. Which isn't to say all matches are fun (Nidalee is pretty stupid) but you never have one team not have the tools to have a chance since both teams have identical toolsets. (As long as all 10 people play the whole game... I've had too many games with a leaver.)

I strongly dislike the second twist. One of the things I really liked about the original One for All mode was how different teams would handle jungling. Do you jungle at all? Do you throw someone into a 1v2 lane? How about supporting? On the ARAM map all those decisions are thrown right out the window. There are still ways to play better, of course. Knowing how to time your deaths so your team doesn't lose turret pressure and knowing to wait for respawns before charging in 3v5 over and over and over again are real things. They just aren't things I find terribly interesting. Mostly I find them frustrating.

There are certainly some neat interactions going on. Vayne silver bolts stack up with each other so people take a lot of damage in a real hurry if they get focused. Playing with 10 Zacs meant there were a silly number of blobs in play. It's definitely silly and fun but I'm pretty glad this mode will be rotating out soon.

One thing that really annoys me is the mode is buggy with regards to skins. If you end up playing a champion you own but didn't nominate (each player has a 10% chance of getting to pick the played champion) it defaults you back to no skin even if you own a skin for that champion. I don't change my champion skins ever, but I do own a few. It normally defaults to using your last used skin which is just fine by me. I've played all my champions with the skin on them and never need to look at the skin selection window again. Except for now, where two of my favourite skins (Mega Man Ezreal and DDR Sona) have been turned off by this bug. So now when I play those champions I won't have a skin until I remember to manually change it before a game with them. And I probably won't notice until the game has started at which point it will again be too late. So annoying!

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