Spazzdude
02-20-2012, 06:12 PM
To put it simply, I do not understand why there is a 90 second cooldown at the beginning of the game for the initial purchase of rev wards. This creates the inability to counter wards of sight as well as a hero or two early in the lane phase. One could say this is the precise reason for the wait time but I fail to see just how this is the case.
Way back in patch 2.1.4 teams were introduced to the free courier. I bring this up because many individuals tell me this is the reason rev wards are locked out for the first 90 seconds. Claiming that this added 200 free gold to a team's starting amount, which is true. The supports no longer had to split the cost of 400 for a courier & wings. Back then the supports usually coughed up 600 gold between themselves for their team; 200 for courier, 200 for wings, & 200 for a stack of 2 wards seeing as you could not buy them individually at the time.
So now with a spare 200 gold a decision had to be made. Either buy another stack of wards of sight [again, this was before a team was limited to 2 at match start] or buy a set of rev wards to counter your opponents sight. The latter option often secured your teams mid would win the rune battle as well as keeping enemy sight to a minimum so your mid can roam freely upon grabbing said runes. Which teams did to great effect. Countering your opponents wards that early in the game really hurt their team because it asked the supports, who because of buying courier, wings, wards, had almost no stat items and generic regen to live off of in their lanes. It asked them possibly take creep kills out of their lanemate's mouth to scrap up 200 gold to get sight back up.
Now later in patch 2.2.4, we were introduced to both the the ward cooldown and maximum in stock in the shop. This made it so a team is allowed 2 wards of sight for the first 2 minutes & 30 seconds of the match and no rev wards for the first 90 seconds of the match. This succeeded in making wards of sight which were [and still are] the single most powerful item in the game even better. You could no longer counter any wards placed in your team's jungle to prevent pulling until after 90 seconds, which is 2 neutral spawns. It also allowed the enemy team to block 2 neutral spawns if they feel hindering a jungle hero is more potent than early rune sight.
While one can argue the this only block 2 possible creep spawns for 90 seconds, I still do not see an effective reason for that 90 second void. If a team decides to buy early rev wards they are effectively making that sacrifice. They are paying the gold for the wards of revelation to remove an an enemy teams sight. They are paying to keep their jungle spawning to allow their jungle hero to keep up or get an early essential item.
This also went a long way to helping mid heroes who didn't necessarily need help. A couple of examples: You now have to wait 90 seconds to counter a ward of sight that Devourer has placed on your hill mid to land hooks. It allows Tremble a certain level of dominance in mid while on his mound. Not every hero can stand on his mound and go toe to toe with him inside it to maintain sight. If that's the case, he gets to have his way with the first 4 creep waves.
You could say the enemy team is sacrificing a wards by placing it mid instead of at rune, creep block, etc, but the battle mid often determines the direction of a game. Even so, why am I not given the option to sacrifice 100 gold to remove that advantage? The 90 second timer seems unnecessary and I do not see a reason why wards of revelation cannot have the same conditions as wards of sight do, starting off with 2 of 4 and having a cooldown of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Way back in patch 2.1.4 teams were introduced to the free courier. I bring this up because many individuals tell me this is the reason rev wards are locked out for the first 90 seconds. Claiming that this added 200 free gold to a team's starting amount, which is true. The supports no longer had to split the cost of 400 for a courier & wings. Back then the supports usually coughed up 600 gold between themselves for their team; 200 for courier, 200 for wings, & 200 for a stack of 2 wards seeing as you could not buy them individually at the time.
So now with a spare 200 gold a decision had to be made. Either buy another stack of wards of sight [again, this was before a team was limited to 2 at match start] or buy a set of rev wards to counter your opponents sight. The latter option often secured your teams mid would win the rune battle as well as keeping enemy sight to a minimum so your mid can roam freely upon grabbing said runes. Which teams did to great effect. Countering your opponents wards that early in the game really hurt their team because it asked the supports, who because of buying courier, wings, wards, had almost no stat items and generic regen to live off of in their lanes. It asked them possibly take creep kills out of their lanemate's mouth to scrap up 200 gold to get sight back up.
Now later in patch 2.2.4, we were introduced to both the the ward cooldown and maximum in stock in the shop. This made it so a team is allowed 2 wards of sight for the first 2 minutes & 30 seconds of the match and no rev wards for the first 90 seconds of the match. This succeeded in making wards of sight which were [and still are] the single most powerful item in the game even better. You could no longer counter any wards placed in your team's jungle to prevent pulling until after 90 seconds, which is 2 neutral spawns. It also allowed the enemy team to block 2 neutral spawns if they feel hindering a jungle hero is more potent than early rune sight.
While one can argue the this only block 2 possible creep spawns for 90 seconds, I still do not see an effective reason for that 90 second void. If a team decides to buy early rev wards they are effectively making that sacrifice. They are paying the gold for the wards of revelation to remove an an enemy teams sight. They are paying to keep their jungle spawning to allow their jungle hero to keep up or get an early essential item.
This also went a long way to helping mid heroes who didn't necessarily need help. A couple of examples: You now have to wait 90 seconds to counter a ward of sight that Devourer has placed on your hill mid to land hooks. It allows Tremble a certain level of dominance in mid while on his mound. Not every hero can stand on his mound and go toe to toe with him inside it to maintain sight. If that's the case, he gets to have his way with the first 4 creep waves.
You could say the enemy team is sacrificing a wards by placing it mid instead of at rune, creep block, etc, but the battle mid often determines the direction of a game. Even so, why am I not given the option to sacrifice 100 gold to remove that advantage? The 90 second timer seems unnecessary and I do not see a reason why wards of revelation cannot have the same conditions as wards of sight do, starting off with 2 of 4 and having a cooldown of 2 minutes and 30 seconds.