Why would they not guard the siege-range catapult as if it were a siege merc and watch it destroy your Keep towers(which will still grant a hefty chunk of XP as they are worth more than Fort towers)?
It forces you, the defending player, outside of your gates to go destroy that catapult – because it is siege range so towers will not assist you – and the offensive player has every chance to get you out of position or otherwise force an engage. At the very least they will be able to make damage progress on your Keep towers that will continue to arrive in that lane until you destroy the opposing Fort in that lane. Catapults give a fraction of the XP a normal minion does, so farming them is not going to accrue any advantage.
Which gives you a reason to defend your Forts, something we have been lacking for years.
But another point to be made was the fact that they left me pretty much uncontested all over the place once they lost in bottom lane. I had some obscene amount of siege damage and XP taken at the end. That is the kind of mistake they will not be punished for after the change, as I won’t be getting XP for breaking all their stuff, so won’t have the power level to just laugh at their Illidan who has the audacity to try and gank a Cassia with a 3 level advantage. I would have to back, and would not be giving my team as much of an advantage as I did that match.
Edit: But as a counterpoint, taking merc camps will be far more valuable after this change, so there is that.
The level difference comes from better strategic play and those whp are better should be rewarded for it.
If you cant play the game on macro level at all and suck at playing the map should you have an even chance to win the game at the end because you won 1 teamfight either by luck or better 5v5 brawling skills?
Question is then is this game about teamfights or strategic play?
How can you talk about playing the map and then pretend the map has no bearing on your ability to win in the late-game? Securing a favorable map advantage means you can 5v5 on more dominant terms, or even force them to give up the objectives entirely because their lanes are bearing down on the core.
Because they are 5 screens away from safety and get killed if 1 of my teammates ganks him or if i am the better 1v1 hero, they cannot soak or protect that catapult and be safe.
Pushing on enemy keep solo 5 screens away from safety is how my Nova has a 66% wr in ranked, people in gold did this so much and it was ridiculous.
I posted elsewhere that in the case of people playing on late game heroes this change gets a small plus but you know and i know this change isn’t for late game mains, there are a good chunk of maps that last until level 20 easy.
This change is for the group my team was against…guys they chased us, from their keep all the way back to our towers and fort they went past the halfway point on to our side of the map and thought something good would come out of it? So now that group of players get to complain about snowballs and getting stomp when nothing worth it came out of that chase…other then them falling behind more in levels.
Most snowballs consist of continuous failure of play like going 5v5 the same way all game and losing every time, not changing things or 1 player failing the whole game so their team cant contest anything.
Its less of a 1 teamfight and suddenly they have a 3 level lead and suddenly they are indestructible, that doesnt really happen.
Even if the enemy is 3 levels and lvl 16 talent tier ahead they lose if they make a mistake, just as they are ahead because your team has made multiple mistakes.
I appreciate what you’re both saying in regards to solo laners and late game scalers, but lets give it some context.
If we accept that the ‘losing’ team is not going to drop away in terms of XP, but will lose a significant amount of their structures and objectives to get to late game, does that not balance out somewhat? Does a team auto win with a strong late game Nazeebo, if they had to give up 3 forts and possibly a keep in order to get there?
Is the only viable counter strategy to a late game scaling hero winning before 20?
Regarding the solo laner, doesn’t this just mean the role of the solo laner just somewhat different? Lets say a fort is destroyed and the defending team freezes out the lane infront of their gate, just in 1 lane. Well yes, now the solo laner can’t safely soak xp on that lane. Wouldn’t they just move to another one? Wouldn’t the 4 man just double soak the fort-less lane and the other one while also being in position to take the enemy camps.
If it turns into a 4v5 against the aggressive team, doesn’t the solo laner have free reign over the now undefended lane?
It seems to me that you can’t afk soak a lane if you have destroyed the fort and the defenders freeze the wave at their keep wall, I don’t think that’s bad in principle, though.
This can cause you to be at an XP disadvantage when killing a fort and if it means that the sololaners join the 4 man so they can gain more map control it turns to deathballing which now the losing team cant stop because they attend to the catapults and soak.
Snowballing will be out. Sololaners that kill the fort get the XP from camps and join the 4 man after that so they have a 5 man deathball vs the enemy who might even send their teammates to clear the camps and its 3v5 then.
Is it better to fight at a talent disadvantage or a 3v5?
Were at best moving the problem and creating another.
The 4 man usually soaks 2 lanes, rotating between them unless a double laner has been drafted and then the 4 man pushes 1 lane while 1 player soaks 2 lanes like on Dragon shire.
Solo lane isnt something you can just move really unless its on Cursed hollow or GoT where you basically have 2 sololaners.
On Volskaya, BHB and Tomb of the spider Queen and other maps where 2 lanes are close together and 1 apart its sub optimal to sololane on another lanr and useless even.
The 4 man swaps happen even now on the 2 lane maps but its usually the other way where the sololane takes the fortless lane so the enemy sololaner cant push out really because he is without a retreat point.
And even the 4 man cant push really to the keep wall that safely if the enemy sololane flanks them there is a high risk that the 4 man loses all the members, right now you push keeps as a 4 man if the enemy has an talent disadvantage or has lost a member or 2 so its safer to do so.