Greeting Summoners!
I am excited to introduce to you a really cool, new feature coming to the Contest. While it certainly most benefits our new Summoners, I know there are some useful applications for our experienced Summoners as well!
Traditionally, new players (and even some more experienced players) have had trouble understanding the exact application of our combo system; the Combo Tracker feature is here to help!
Before I get into it, it’s best to explain what I mean by the "combo system" as it often gets confused with "hit count." The combo system is what limits how many attacks a character can string together before leaving an opening that the opponent can punish. The most common one Summoners know is the 5-hit combo or MLLLM (M is Medium, and L is Light), but not everyone knows why that’s the limitation. To lay out the general rules,
a combo will end with either the 2nd medium or 4th light attack, this means that even as whacky as it would be, LLMLM is a totally valid combo.
One important thing to note is that some Champions have multi-hit attacks but they still only count as one attack with regards to the combo system. This is why Champs like Quicksilver will end up with a lot more than 5 hits from an MLLLM combo.
Now that we are hopefully all on the same page about what a combo is, let us introduce: the Combo Tracker. The Combo Tracker, in essence, is very simple: it will display the actions of the player and their opponent.
There are some important notes about what the Combo Tracker will display:
- The Combo Tracker will display all Light and Medium attacks
- The Combo Tracker will display enemy combos, but won’t include heavy or special attacks as AI doesn’t typically include them in combos
- The Combo Tracker only displays an icon by actions, not hit count, ie multi-hit Mediums still only show as one icon
- Specials or Strikers executed at the end of a combo will be displayed
- The Combo Tracker will display hits into a block or whiffed (hitting the air) as they have the same combo implications
- Icons will reset 1 second after the last action's animation has finished or if a new combo is started
- Dodging back will end the current combo and make any following attacks start a new combo
- Heavy attacks will be displayed if following basic attacks (this is mainly to support champs like Doom, Chavez, Wasp, etc.. that can chain heavy attacks following their basics)
- The heavy icon will only show up upon the release animation starting, not the charge
- Will not display heavies, Specials, or Striker attacks as combo starters, only finishers, the accumulated combo will reset if these are activated in a new combo
It is worth noting: Lights/Mediums/Heavies cannot come after Heavy Attacks/Specials/Strikers, doing so will start a new combo. While Strikers and some specials that stun will allow the player to chain another combo after it is activated, the goal of The Combo Tracker is to illustrate basic combo parameters, and using a striker or special will reset
that portion of the combo. For this reason, and also not wanting to balloon out how long the combos could visually be, The Combo Tracker will reset when the player starts the new combo after using the special or striker
As an additional note, while this feature will be
enabled by default, it is another piece of UI in the fight that not everyone will enjoy and
can be disabled in the settings menu.That’s all for now, I hope you enjoy the combo tracker when it releases with our 40.1 build on July 10th.
