A Review of League of Legends as of late, with bots

Yes, I may be a stupid, Coop-VS-AI-only retard when it comes to League of Legends, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have opinions on the game. Coop VS AI is still an integral part of League of Legends, a game mode that is always available and is just as valid as Twisted Treeline and Howling Abyss. It’s also more valid than Dominion, which got removed. There are plenty of opinions to be had.

The biggest opinion here is balance, but balance in Coop VS AI is a bit hard to come by, since the bots are all still really fucking stupid. Even the intermediate bots. The only difference between beginner and intermediate bots is a small amount of aggression, half a page of masteries (which I don’t think even work any more) and the ability to use summoner spells. They are otherwise pretty much identical, but are more likely to flash under your turret in an attempt to kill you than just walk under it. The bots used to be pretty good but throughout the last two seasons, bots have gotten worse and don’t know how to build many of the new fancy items we have.

And we have a few. Including the Rocketbelt, which gives anyone who buys it a short-ranged flash. Every forty seconds. Okay, if you have two ‘Hextech’ items (which the Rocketbelt is one of), they all go on cooldown if you use one, but not many people will buy more than one. Thing is, although this is an attempt to make immobile mages easier to play as they are more mobile, it’s the already mobile mages that make the most out of it. LeBlanc has a double dash ability, even more with her ultimate, the Rocketbelt gives her yet another one. It’s designed to be a mages only item, but that won’t stop other people buying it, same with every item that has a utility.

But anyway, back to those bots. Because since Dominion disappeared, something happened that I totally said would happen. Non-official bots are appearing in Coop VS AI matches. These bots are just accounts power-leveling to level 30, so they can be sold off for real world money to people too impatient to level up themselves. Which wouldn’t be too bad if these bots weren’t absolutely fucking awful. All they do is pick a random champion and run down the middle lane, randomly using spells and often running straight into the enemy AI. Having three or four bots feeding the enemy intermediate team is pretty hard to deal with as a random level 30 player, imagine having to do that as a low level noob. Even Gold and Platinum players have had trouble dealing with five fed intermediate bots, because you need to be all over the map – protecting your turrets, which AI bots push really hard, while also being able to split push, since you can’t always 1v4 them.

I totally said this would happen.

Thing is, the problem is really easy to solve. All you have to do is bring back Dominion Coop VS AI. The bots will flock to there (because it’s 5v5 with shorter games), and you can have Dominion as a custom game mode for the few remaining people who will use it. Bots will leave normal Summoners Rift Coop VS AI because the games are longer.

Alternatively, you could just, I dunno, ban the bots or something. It’s not like they’re really fucking obvious or anything…