Halfway through game - slogging....does it improve?

[AtLastBossCarryMe]

Slightly negative title , but true nonetheless.

Really want to embrace and enjoy this game due to some positives of it - the graphics are great, the overall mechanics feel solid, loot/abilities are neat - but on Veteran (not saying I've mastered the game) , but I'm simply finding spamming the "E" button for instant attacks with the one tank lady doing taunting is the formula for winning every single encounter. No need for lane attacks, just spam instants until you get ult. After about 5 fights, replenish tank mana, rinse, repeat. It really also doesn't seem to matter which heroes (just tank lady and 2 dps - not the other shield guy).

I've only encountered one boss fight that was neat so far that was a fun challenge, but so far at the halfway point (I'm at Coastal Academy at Shadow Isles) and around 13hrs in (with about 3 of those doing side quests/fishing) , it feels super grindy and just a slog after what was a fun first 5-7 hrs, now it feels super repetitive.

Does it pick up in variety, challenge, interesting things or is it just another 10ish hrs of grind?

[Kandidaten]

Illaoi is a bit busted I think.
I have this stupid notion I have to play every game on hardest difficulty possible, always.

On Heroic her ability to tank and heal is completely overpowered, however - spamming E wont win fights (unless over levelled). I too am in the Coastal Academy, and the fights you are instructed to avoid have been a blast to do, but I doubt I'd be able to without Illaoi.

EDIT: Going further on Heroic, Pyke and Illaoi appears to be the strongest combo. You can do 12 taunts easily, or go for will stuff on Illaoi and do 18 in a row, then execute anything with Pyke, who has access to insane damage output with ultimates. 5-6k damage by level 16-17 easily, single target, or 3.5-4.2k split damage on the opposing team.

Best combo if you could change heroes at all times and ignore story-necessary heroes would be Illaoi, Braum and Pyke, because taunts are broken.

I doubt the game is much harder from this point on honestly. If it's "Samey" on Normal, it is too on Heroic, with slight alteration.

[Dallar]

You certainly can add some variety to what heroes you use (played most of the late game with Braum-MF-Pyke, feels equally broken), but in my experience - no, it will not improve. You will get a new hero and some fun ultimates, but the formula will stay the same. There will be some challenging parts, but plenty of boring slog too.

Sorta worth it to see the end of the story, but maaaybe with brakes on some other games.

[AtLastBossCarryMe]

Update:
So I finished the game. Yes, as mentioned above it's mostly the same , however, one thing it did do was ramp up in difficulty and it kept me interested enough to drop 40+hrs.

Still on Veteran, I went about getting everyone's Legendary (except MF) and also killed every Bounty. I found the Bounty fights fun but like all boss fights with the exception of maybe the last 2 (the Avatar and Ruined King) - most all boss fights really lacked any mechanical variety at all despite them having various abilities - most came down to just beating down their health pool or hitting a required lane to remove their buff. Sadly that was kinda weak.

I did have to start using other keys besides quick attack E, and that was refreshing. However, you quickly find a new goto pattern and rinse/repeat that until you get to last 2-3 bosses in which you have to think a little but I one shot all except RK which I got on 2nd try, not that I'm great, just that the fight was still not ragingly different once you see the lane you have to hit to progress.

I put all rune points on the right panel for all 3 my heroes and went with max HP/tank/heal style Illaoi (OP) - who just tanked and occasionally healed/hit, max AP with a bit of crit Ahri who basically used E/orb most of the time as getting free turns and hitting w/crit for huge damage chunks for a quick attack was sweet (I could see putting your choice of other DPS here though), and Yasuo crit monster at 55% crit doing Rising Wind, followed by the free mana Raging Wind did as much as the ultimate - and when ult was maxed, Yasuo again for the mega damage. Just silly character.

In summary , I really wanted to use Braum, he seemed so neat as did the other dps , but Illaoi's diversity/debuff removals and crazy HP/heals was too OP - Yasuo is a must have - he's the most broke char of them all, crazy DPS on lane abilities, self heals with flow and crazy ults. Other dps is choice and I played a bit with Pyke and thought he was great until I realized Yasuo's potential and I never even gave MF a chance as wasn't thrilled with her ults or play style but maybe she is great - don't know.

Game is repetitive, but fun, but repetitive - you need to want to grind it out. I'm glad I did, was fun, solid game with neat characters and loot that hopefully the sequel will improve on the fights, clunky menu/interface and improve the grind.

[remorhaz]

im 3/4 of the way done on heroic and mechanically the game is sufficient. for me most of the entertainment value has been seeing the lore riot has built on in legends of runeterra expanded in this game. for example there is a card in legends of runeterra called the jagged butcher who's intro line is " the bounty board knows my name" and when i was wandering through bilgewater and saw the bounty board i knew what the card was referring to. there's ton of callouts and easter eggs like that for lore LoL junkies scattered in the game.

if i had no point of reference though i think i might have called it quits when the combat started to drag.

[Kandidaten]

Originally posted by remorhaz:

if i had no point of reference though i think i might have called it quits when the combat started to drag.

This is basically what kept me going as well, having played Riots games.