Evolving Champions: The Better "Infinite" Scaling? | League of Legends

scaling in league of legends is a very common term to describe the rate that a champion is able to get stronger as the match goes on i talked about it a few times in the past most notably in my infinite scaling video which by the way if you haven't watched yet i highly recommend you check that one out before you watch this one because in that video i touched on threshold scaling and we will be revisiting that in this one prevailing wisdom usually divides scaling into two categories early game and late game in layman's terms early game champions have bad scaling and late game champions have good scaling scaling is dependent on a multitude of factors such as items the champion's own abilities in numbers or even between different champions each aspect is factored into the theoretical power level at various increments of time and it could either look like a straight line or parabolic every champion is beholden to this engine in some way shape or form but there are a few in the game who come with their own thresholds power spikes if you will upon reaching those thresholds their strength can instantly increase by a large magnitude outside of the scope of items or runes today we're going to be talking about evolvers champions who have a second way of scaling as opposed to the usual increase of numbers and we'll also be touching on the various design challenges of this type of scaling evolution isn't an established term in the game rather it's a term used to describe champions that unlock bonus features to their abilities and kit after meeting a certain condition which permanently remains until the game is over it serves mainly as a way to expand on a champion's versatility and available play styles as for the most part the player is given a choice on how they want to evolve that champion and in my opinion evolution is a much better internal scaling mechanic than infinite scaling just to recap infinite scaling is not as desirable as it sounds because it doesn't do anything to change your current situation whatsoever nas is getting more damage on q doesn't fix the issue of him being easily kited or struggling to survive in team fights vagar getting more ability power doesn't fix his issue of being an extremely easy target to engage on if you make the first move sion can get all the help he wants from farming but that doesn't stop him from getting melted by a vein or other champions with massive amounts of percent health damage eventually of course if circumstances permit infinite scaling does get to a point where that champion can disregard their shortcomings because at that point they're just too hard to kill or they do too much damage but that's a one in a million chance as most games end long before they get to that point and because infinite scaling is predicated on performing a task repeatedly and consistently throughout the duration of a game such as farming minions it's not the most appealing experience for many players as you don't see the fruits of your labor for a very very long time conversely evolvers see a lot more play on a regular basis and that's because their internal scaling actually does play a huge part in their performance beyond just numbers in fact for many of them they don't necessarily get more damage or more stats rather the abilities themselves gain additional properties the value of which is not always quantifiable now there's actually a lot of overlap between evolvers and infinite scalers so to clarify the champions i'll be talking about for this video are kha'zix syndra bard kaiser victor kale gangplank and kane basically champions who have a power spike that doesn't entail only raw stats i know there are champions like sona who get more ability haste thanks to her rework but they don't change the properties of her abilities she just makes them more spammable also oren doesn't count as an evolver either since his forge items while very significant in power upgrade count towards raw stats at the end of the day they don't adjust the champion's playstyle at all those with temporary empowerments such as vex do not count either as her doom and gloom is not a permanent application to her abilities for the champions i just listed above each one of them have a passive or some ability in their kit that causes an upgrade of some sort the most prominent choice to demonstrate this would be kha'zix upon leveling up his ultimate he's given the choice to evolve one of his four abilities by evolving taste their fear he gains bonus attack range q range and striking an isolated target refunds almost half the cooldown it makes him exceptionally deadly to face if you're by yourself since that means he can do 336 plus 273 bonus safety physical damage literally every second evolving void spike causes him to fire three clusters of spikes in a wide cone that reveals and applies a massive slow to enemies hit evolving his leap greatly increases the dash range and allows it to reset upon champion takedown and finally evolving void assault extends the invisibility duration of each cast and allows him to cast it thrice instead of twice each of these evolutions greatly influences how kha'zix will be allowed to play as he gets new options with each one also barring rengar on the enemy team he'll only be allowed to evolve three out of his four abilities requiring the player to decide which evolutions will come in handy the most from game to game it has a greater level of build diversity for most evolvers their threshold comes in the form of levels citrus 4 abilities upgrade upon reaching max rank allowing her to deal more damage with dark sphere bonus true damage with force of will cover a wider area with scat of the weak or increase the cast range of unleashed power kale has the same evolution mechanic as kha'zix where she has to rank up her ultimate to evolve although rather than changing her abilities she gains new properties such as becoming a ranged champion and gaining splash damage with her attacks and starfire spellblade other champions can evolve upon accomplishing a certain task as well kane can transform into either roster shadow assassin after dealing sufficient damage to enemy champions he's the only one on this list with a singular evolution whereas everyone else has multiples though it still applies because all of its abilities change properties just like kha'zix does kaiser can evolve her basic abilities upon reaching a high enough stat line through levels and items getting enough bonus attack damage upgrades to cathy and reign to throw twice the number of missiles enough ability power upgrades void seeker to apply three stacks of plasma instead of two and refund seventy 70 of the cooldown if it hits an enemy champion making it very spammable finally getting enough attack speed upgrades supercharged to give her half a second of invisibility victor's upgrades used to require purchasing updated versions of his hex core but with the recent rework to his passive in season 11 he can now augment his abilities with hex fragments which are obtained through either farming or getting takedowns on enemy champions augmenting siphon power grants him a bigger shield and bonus movement speed augmenting gravity field causes his damaging abilities to passively apply a slow on target's hit augmenting death ray makes his attack explode twice with an aftershock and augmenting death storm makes him move faster being able to keep up with opponents who have slightly more mobility bard scales upon acquiring chimes which are scattered around the map periodically and aside from doing more damage per chime he gets more effects with his auto attacks at 5 times he applies his scaling slow on the target for 1 second at 15 times his attacks do aoe damage in a small radius and also in a cone behind the first target struck and at 35 times the cone radius increases bar's a special case because he's an infinite scaler and an evolver so he's the only one who has both and while it looks like those mini effects aren't as game changing as kha'zix or victor evolutions almost every bardman will tell you they do mean a lot especially in team fights holy crap that damage last but not least gangplank unlocking his canon barrage upgrades requires silver serpents which can be obtained through last hitting minions monsters or champions with this q parley he has three upgrades death's daughter causes the first cluster of cannon fire to deal true damage and apply a heavy slow to anyone in the center of the attack raise morale grants allies bonus movement speed while they're in the area as well as for 2 seconds after leaving it and fire at will increases the number of clusters from 4 to 6. evolving champions have some of the most interesting designs as they not only get stronger through items and levels but also have access to more options the later they go and every champion with an evolution mechanic scales moderately or incredibly well into the leki without having to go through the same lengths that infinite scalers have to like i said before some evolutions carry more value in impact than others i would argue any one of khazix's evolutions or kale reaching level 11 is a far bigger power spike than bard getting a wider cone on his splash damage or gangplank applying race morale so if we were to compare evolutions with infinite scaling there are two things in particular that make the former a better design structure than the latter in my opinion anyway first it actually freaking matters there's a sizable difference between a victor with a regular death ray and death ray with augment aftershock or kaiser with base versus evolving cathy and reign the ultimate goal of upgrades is obviously to give champions more kill power but kill power isn't just damage or stats it's the ability to do more things than you could before people are inherently aware of nasus's ability to stack up and do a lot of damage but no one really thinks about the difference between a 500 stacks nasus and 600 right it's not just the enemy team's perception of your threat level but your own ability to do things in the early game viktor has some of the worst wave clear ever high mana costs long cooldowns and not enough damage to do anything but as soon as he obtains augment aftershock he has some of the best waveclear in all of league of legends same goes for the likes of king he can either become a tank busting drain tanker or speedy wall hacking assassin with this transformation even for the more subtle ones i can mention with bard once he gets the aoe auto attacks he actually does a lot of damage like a lot of damage enough to where he can have held two squishy targets that are stunned by his q followed by two auto attacks second evolutions provide ways for champions to maintain a stable power level at the right times by adding incremental power spikes evolvers have appropriate strength in the early mid and late game one issue that affects linear scaling is that a standard league of legends game does not have a predictable slope upwards every external element causes a power spike objectives like baron or dragon soul going from components to completed items it's like going from level 1 2 3 then it skips to 6 when you complete your first item 6 7 and 8 then it skips to 12 when you complete your second if you get baron buff it skips to level 16 so on and so forth if that makes sense it's not a straight line up evolution scaling can lock away certain elements of a champion's kit that are necessary for their overall performance later on but might be considered too broken if they were given access to that in the early game i think the best example would be once again barred bard really needs the aoe splash damage and slow on his auto attacks to be a threat in the late game since his only damaging ability is cosmic binding without those memes he wouldn't be able to match the combat pressure of enchanters or tanks but at the same time giving him those properties early game would be so overpowered that he would be the most obnoxious support in the game so they seal it away for later infinite scalers like nasa's and vegar have atrocious early games because their scaling abilities all have their properties right from the start and since they both increase in damage they have to begin super weak to prevent from being able to steamroll the game now i understand this may or may not be consistent among every evolver considering one of the reasons in my why no one placed episode of victor was that his early game is too weak but we can't give him death ray with aftershock or siphon power with turbocharged without having to gut his numbers the only reason victor has so much power in the late game is because his upgrades are locked behind thresholds regardless victor's main problems have nothing to do with his evolutions in the first place to add on to that evolutions prevent satisfying incentives for players player satisfaction is a core part to game design because if the players don't enjoy it then they won't play it right by having visible milestones in a champion you have something to work towards something to achieve kassadin is not an evolver but his level 16 power spike is something players really love to reach darius level 16 very significant evolution champions have large stores of power locked behind their thresholds which means when you reach that point it feels fantastic you can ask any kaiser kane kha'zix kale me wow that's a lot of case but anyway ask them why they enjoy playing those champions it's because of their evolutions overall evolution is just a healthier way to design internal scaling due to power spikes being more balanced than linear increases but that doesn't mean it's a flawless system evolution presents a major design challenge how much power should be locked behind that upgrade and how much should be given up front by extension what upgrades would be the most beneficial for that champion while maintaining reasonable counter play without really understanding each evolver it can be difficult to decide the best course of action for them and it will take a while before they figure out the right things to have or the right amount of power spiking at the right thresholds for example kha'zix underwent a lot of different reworks with his evolutions over the years prior to the assassin update in season 7 his evolve q would increase the isolation damage even further if i remember correctly base q did something like 30 more damage to isolated targets while evolve q i think did like 60. but after the rework they shoved all the isolation damage to base cube and gave it the cooldown refund instead they did this to allow for more freedom of choice instead of forcing players to take evolve cues so their damage wouldn't fall behind there was also of course the overpowered perma-stealth kha'zix where evolving his ultimate would give him passive invisibility through brushes that one of course was a bit of a mess kale had a similar issue after she got reworked too at the start she didn't get her range form until level 11 so she had to go through the entire like first 15 to 20 minutes in melee but her level 16 was so overpowered it caused her to deal aoe true damage per hit in other words if by some god given stroke of luck you survive all the way to level 16 you literally 1v9 to every team fight but that happened so infrequently because you were too weak to do anything so you just get snowballed on every game in response they adjusted the curve a bit by giving her ranged form early but took away the super mega ultra laking oh don't get me wrong she's still obese level 16 she just doesn't one shot the enemy team as hard anymore viktor didn't struggle so much with power rather there was something missing in his kit as you all know his abilities do crazy damage but they're delayed or very slow to alleviate that people would usually rush rylice to slow enemies down to make it easier to hit him given how important that was for his gameplay riot changed gravity field's upgrade to give victor a built-in rylice when designing evolutions it poses the question what should the evolution give and more importantly how much should be locked behind it honestly though that's not a bad problem to have considering it's just a matter of creativity that's the beauty of the evolution mechanic it's easier to balance than the likes of infinite scaling or other forms of balanced nightmares because you only have to think about the immediate effects and not the long-term ramifications by having so much of a champion's pressure condensed into one point or one aspect of their kit if let's say kane's win rate magically shoots up from 46 to 60 around the time he switches to blue form then we can surmise that blue form might be a little overpowered i said this in the infinite scaling video and i'll say this again if there is internal scaling the best way to execute on that is through thresholds not linear number increases champions like nasa's veigar and scion might benefit from having evolutions to their attacks or abilities that's actually kind of what they started doing anyway with the newer infinite scalers bard kindred and senna all have more complex scaling mechanics than their older counterparts sure in the end it's mostly stats but they all affect things in different ways kindred gets more attack speed on q more current health damage on w and more missing health damage on e baradai already explained and senna gets a combination of attack damage crit strike and at max could strike she gets lifesteal both kindred and senna also gain bonus range still not quite evolution but given their designs they're a lot less polarizing so i think they're fine in a perfect world i'd like to rework every outdated infinite scaler to have evolutions instead but maybe i'm the only one who thinks this way so if you disagree with me and think evolution is a bad mechanic then let me know in the comments i think i'm gonna end it off here though so if you guys enjoyed i'd appreciate it if you left a like on the video really helps out the channel don't forget to subscribe for more content like this consider following me on twitter and joining my discord server if you haven't yet and lastly check out my other champion group discussions after this one especially the infinite scaling video if you still have yet to watch it but until then thank you all so much for watching and i'll see you again soon for the next episode take care [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Vars

Views: 227,018

Keywords: riot games, league of legends, riot, lol, lol evolution, lol evolving, lol evolvers, lol evolution champions, lol kha'zix, lol viktor, lol kai'sa, lol champions, vars league of legends, lol scaling, lol season 11 scaling, scaling league of legends, lol discussion, league of legends 2021, lol kayle, lol kayn, lol gangplank, enemy, msi, arcane, tyler1, kda

Id: Kvm1_O87YxI

Length: 15min 31sec (931 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 31 2021