What’s the point?

Why are their linked nodes that cannot be removed before fighting the nodes they affect? Seems silly and out of place. Just add it to the nodes.

Comments

Thicco_Mode

Probably so it's more clear that it's the path identity and that the whole path has the same nodes.

DNA3000

Why are their linked nodes that cannot be removed before fighting the nodes they affect? Seems silly and out of place. Just add it to the nodes.

I believe this is just a technical issue. They can put a global node on the map that affects everyone, and they can put a link that goes from one champ to another champ. There's no such thing as a "path node" so the way they make path nodes is to put a link from the last node in the path to every other node in the path. They don't care about you removing the links, they just need the links to be anchored somewhere.

They could also just add the nodes to the local buffs on each fight, but then it would be less obvious which nodes were on which paths: you'd have to drill down into each node separately. The links have a visible cue on screen you can see, which makes it easier for players to see what nodes are just everywhere, and which nodes are part of a path identity, as @Thicco_Mode states above.