The latest LoL patch included both a range and cooldown nerf to Flash, the game’s most popular Summoner Spell. As a result, I’ve been trying to rely on the skill less, choosing skills like Cleanse and Ghost to pair with my combat spell. It hasn’t been great. In fact, most of the time I’ve just wished that I was using Flash.
It seems most of the pros agree. I watched a little bit of the MLG tournament today and saw 10 Flashes in several of their games. That’s right. Every player in the game took Flash. I can’t imagine Riot is too happy about the change, but it’s also difficult to imagine a Flash nerf that doesn’t completely remove the skill from viability. The big problem, at least as I see it, is that the strength of Flash is binary. It’s either a big enough jump to be useful or it isn’t. There is no middle ground.
So much of LoL is about seizing the moment that Flash will always be strong or completely useless. Even if Flash had a cooldown of eight minutes, the threat of a Flash-stun would probably be enough to keep the skill in play. Positioning is just too important to the game.
I will say this – making the other spells more appealing might be a decent way to compete with Flash. I’ve been using Cleanse a lot but I’ve been disappointed by the cooldown. I’m not saying Cleanse is the spell to fix Flash – I remember the days when every single carry took Cleanse and I don’t want it back – but reducing the cooldowns on and improving the effectiveness of the rest of the Summoner Spells could do a lot for Summoner Spell diversity.
What have you seen? Has the nerf had any effect on how often you see Flash? Are players using any other skills in its place?
Posted in: league of legends, Patches
Tags: flash, flash nerf, mlg, summoner flash, summoner skills, summoner spells, tournaments
i lol’d at the image.
on topic, i must say that the first games i played after patch went i rarely saw flash. (i even only saw 1 flash in one of the games) hey, even myself picked ghost, and im a flash-fan.
but now, ive tried flash again and to be honest i dont really “feel” the difference, yeah it is shorter but as u’ve said it’s still a really good scape mechanic.
so yeah, basically im picking flash again like nothing happened.
I personally hate the flash range change walls I used to flash for escape leaving me stupidly in initial flash position. These sorts of satisfying escapes are the only thing that was really nerfed by the change. The stupid flash out of range after overextending in lane escapes remain the same. A substantial cooldown nerf would’ve been a much better deterrent to taking the skill.
A good nerf would be to make it unusable after a champion has hit you,that way it retains much of its functionality.
I would love it if they shaved 2 seconds off the duration of ghost and in exchange doubled its effect for the first 2 seconds.
I wish they would add more throw away summoner spell options as it stand most summoner spell have powerful effects and long cooldowns. I feel that less power more often would make things more interesting.
Flash is irreplaceable on my junglers being able to instantly gap close my targets is too important. And NOTHING will be able to replace the security of being able to flash over a wall if my jungle is invaded.
I’m having the same issue as Kad. I’m flashing where it’s supposed to work (ie. that fat wall next to tri-bush on bot) and slamming into the side of the wall. Look like a moron running into a door, I just stop in stunned shock right after.
I think Kad and Gamerguy have great suggestions; either buff ghost by giving it a similated distance creator, or give flash same distance but same restrictions as Blink Dagger in dota (can’t blink if hit)