I was running through the S3 Masteries, doing some value calculations (mostly either figuring out the usual shop-cost of the Mastery's effect or how much DPS it gives you), when I realized that the Ignite Mastery gives 5 AD and 5 AP whenever the spell's on cooldown.

I get that people tend to save Ignite for kills, but this is kind of crazy. AD costs about 40g per point, and AP costs about 22g per point. So that's 110g of AP and 200g of AD whenever Ignite's on cooldown.

I bring this up in part because Riot's nerfing Ignite (raising the cooldown) owing to how utterly ubiquitous it is.

Why not just change the Mastery boost? It might be less of an auto-pick if it didn't give you a free 200g.

I acknowledge that the spell Masteries tend to be very strong compared with ordinary Masteries; I think part of the point is letting new players get some really fun/impactful first Masteries. But in this case, maybe it wouldn't be bad to give Ignite a slightly sub-par Mastery.

woosh

Why? whats wrong with free stats? utility tree gives a free ward, free gold, free gold per 5 and a consumable all at level 1

Riot seems to think that Ignite needs nerfing, and I believe it's been nerfed for S3. Ignite IS a very, very common spell, which suggests it might be OP.

If you're going to nerf it, why not start with this massive stat bonus instead of Ignite's core effect?

Its always given the bonus AD and AP O-o

What would you recommend the mastery give instead then?

Yes, but if Riot's looking to nerf Ignite, this is as good a place as any. I'm not claiming that Ignite has suddenly become OP; it's been extremely popular (and posibly OP) for a while now.

It's true that a lot of the spell Masteries outshine the other Masteries: it's almost always a good idea to pick up the associated Masteries for your Summoners.

Still, the Ignite Mastery is very nice, even in comparison to some others.

Extreme example: what if it were something like 5s lower cooldown? You'd probably still see Ignite taken a lot, but it might make it less mandatory.

Because it isn't a massive stat bonus? Or because people generally don't want to have ignite on cooldown any more often than they have to as it's main purpose is ensuring a kill.

If they completely removed the stat bonus gained it wouldn't impact how often ignite is picked in the slightest. Yeah they stat bonus is an efficient use of a single mastery point, much like all of the SS masteries are, but it isn't at all the reason people pick ignite. Ignite is picked because it drastically increases your kill potential, especially early game.

Personally I'd like to see it lose the healing reduction. Having the most commonly picked summoner spell be a counter a particular mechanic and having that have nothing to do with why it's picked is just bad design. People should have to change team or item build composition to counter you, not just do so automatically from what would be their summoner spell selection regardless of whether or not your team is actually using that particular mechanic.

Exhaust mastery gives so much Armor and Mr reduction. It works only for 2.5 sec, but in a team fight, it increases the dmg of the whole team against a target. That is pretty awesome.

the main problem with ignite was the low CD. It always had one of the lowest SS CDs (Smite and CV have shorter ones).

The 5 ad and 5 ap may seem like a lot gold-wise, but are those tiny stat bonuses really going to affect the game after the first few levels?