One of the players showed how important are the differences in the height of the terrain in specific places on the map.
In League of Legends, the effectiveness of heroes and their skills is influenced by many factors, and it is not just about countering their skills or items. Not everyone is aware of this, but Summoner’s Rift’s map is not completely flat, and where a character is in, for example, which part of the river a character is located, can affect how well they get hit with a skill shot.
Probably many of the players have had situations when they thought that a given skill should hit the opponent, but it did not happen. This is not a bug in the game, but it can be caused by differences in height from one place to another on the map.
Why can these minor differences have such a huge impact on the match result? One of the players presented a video where, in an accessible way, he shows what the mysterious-sounding “height differences” on Summoner’s Rift is all about.
Height differences on Summoner’s Rift
A player with the nickname bobbybobsen has published a video in which he shows step by step what the height differences are on the most famous League of Legends map.
The author chose Gangplank for testing because of his E. When the placed barrels are close enough to each other, they connect and allow you to trigger a chain reaction – after blowing the first one, the next ones will also explode.
This skill shows very well what the height differences are. Even though the barrels are visually standing next to each other, they don’t really have to connect at all.
The above video clearly shows that in certain places on the map Gangplank’s barrels must stand much closer to each other in order for them to merge. What’s more interesting are the Summoner’s Rift parts where the connection appears even though the distance is visually too big.
Height differences on the map are a highly controversial topic and many players feel that something like this should be removed from the game. Fans say that such inaccuracies clash with statements by Rioters, who constantly emphasize that the developers are working on improving the transparency of the game.
It is not known if Riot will ever fix it, so for now it’s worth keeping this aspect of the game in mind, as it can make a difference in some situations.