Hey T, this took me forever to type on my cheap as dirt smartphone so would you be so kind as to humor me with a reply? Thanks, fyi the first paragraph is kind of an opening for the second one, but here goes
Just curious, what was the reasoning behind the decision to have his shadows be stationary? It just strikes me as odd, for a guy who's unraveled the secrets to controlling shadows, he can't do something as simple as making them walk (especially on those cooldowns..). Granted the shadows aren't up for very long, which would make the traditional way of controlling clones/pets somewhat cumbersome. However I fear that using these clones for a quick escape will be impossible against a clever opponent simply because these won't measure up to the unpredictability of your standard blink-type moves, which are also usually on shorter cooldowns. Think Leblanc's return on her W, it's got a glowing sign telling EVERYONE where you may potentially appear, but even that is at least balanced out with the first part of her W, her silence, her stun & and her ult when it comes to handling clutch situations.
Now this is the part where you potentially roll your eyes at my suggestion but bare with me a minute. What if, the shadow clone COULD move, but only according to your movements? It would have to move towards zed when zed is moving towards it, and away when moving away, or rotate around the middlepoint between it's current location and Zed, consequently mimicking his pathing. I think this would open up a lot more interesting gameplay (for everyone involved!) and it works with his theme too!
Hey T, this took me forever to type on my cheap as dirt smartphone so would you be so kind as to humor me with a reply? Thanks, fyi the first paragraph is kind of an opening for the second one, but here goes
Just curious, what was the reasoning behind the decision to have his shadows be stationary? It just strikes me as odd, for a guy who's unraveled the secrets to controlling shadows, he can't do something as simple as making them walk (especially on those cooldowns..). Granted the shadows aren't up for very long, which would make the traditional way of controlling clones/pets somewhat cumbersome. However I fear that using these clones for a quick escape will be impossible against a clever opponent simply because these won't measure up to the unpredictability of your standard blink-type moves, which are also usually on shorter cooldowns. Think Leblanc's return on her W, it's got a glowing sign telling EVERYONE where you may potentially appear, but even that is at least balanced out with the first part of her W, her silence, her stun & and her ult when it comes to handling clutch situations.
Now this is the part where you potentially roll your eyes at my suggestion but bare with me a minute. What if, the shadow clone COULD move, but only according to your movements? It would have to move towards zed when zed is moving towards it, and away when moving away, or rotate around the middlepoint between it's current location and Zed, consequently mimicking his pathing. I think this would open up a lot more interesting gameplay (for everyone involved!) and it works with his theme too!
Food for thought?
Hey guys. T has been handling Zed while I've been away the last couple weeks, but I was his designer for most of development so I'm going to answer this one. There's a few reasons that Zed's shadow works the way it does.
Zed has a pretty high execution complexity, and giving his shadow the ability to move would increase this dramatically. You'd have to deal with Zed, his shadow, and his target all moving at once when firing his Q. Zed's opponent would have to be constantly tracking where the shadow is in order to dodge skillshots, and Zed would have to be tracking or managing where the clone is in order to place the skillshots.
I also want players to really think about when and where they're placing their shadow to give a really high moment when using it. Giving the shadow the ability to move would remove this important aspect of the spell and make the player's placement of it much less important.
Zed shadows - why stationary?
Just curious, what was the reasoning behind the decision to have his shadows be stationary? It just strikes me as odd, for a guy who's unraveled the secrets to controlling shadows, he can't do something as simple as making them walk (especially on those cooldowns..). Granted the shadows aren't up for very long, which would make the traditional way of controlling clones/pets somewhat cumbersome. However I fear that using these clones for a quick escape will be impossible against a clever opponent simply because these won't measure up to the unpredictability of your standard blink-type moves, which are also usually on shorter cooldowns. Think Leblanc's return on her W, it's got a glowing sign telling EVERYONE where you may potentially appear, but even that is at least balanced out with the first part of her W, her silence, her stun & and her ult when it comes to handling clutch situations.
Now this is the part where you potentially roll your eyes at my suggestion but bare with me a minute. What if, the shadow clone COULD move, but only according to your movements? It would have to move towards zed when zed is moving towards it, and away when moving away, or rotate around the middlepoint between it's current location and Zed, consequently mimicking his pathing. I think this would open up a lot more interesting gameplay (for everyone involved!) and it works with his theme too!
Food for thought?
Just curious, what was the reasoning behind the decision to have his shadows be stationary? It just strikes me as odd, for a guy who's unraveled the secrets to controlling shadows, he can't do something as simple as making them walk (especially on those cooldowns..). Granted the shadows aren't up for very long, which would make the traditional way of controlling clones/pets somewhat cumbersome. However I fear that using these clones for a quick escape will be impossible against a clever opponent simply because these won't measure up to the unpredictability of your standard blink-type moves, which are also usually on shorter cooldowns. Think Leblanc's return on her W, it's got a glowing sign telling EVERYONE where you may potentially appear, but even that is at least balanced out with the first part of her W, her silence, her stun & and her ult when it comes to handling clutch situations.
Now this is the part where you potentially roll your eyes at my suggestion but bare with me a minute. What if, the shadow clone COULD move, but only according to your movements? It would have to move towards zed when zed is moving towards it, and away when moving away, or rotate around the middlepoint between it's current location and Zed, consequently mimicking his pathing. I think this would open up a lot more interesting gameplay (for everyone involved!) and it works with his theme too!
Food for thought?
Zed has a pretty high execution complexity, and giving his shadow the ability to move would increase this dramatically. You'd have to deal with Zed, his shadow, and his target all moving at once when firing his Q. Zed's opponent would have to be constantly tracking where the shadow is in order to dodge skillshots, and Zed would have to be tracking or managing where the clone is in order to place the skillshots.
I also want players to really think about when and where they're placing their shadow to give a really high moment when using it. Giving the shadow the ability to move would remove this important aspect of the spell and make the player's placement of it much less important.