What’s up guys it’s me Jeremy!
Individual mechanics are, to me, one of the most interesting aspects of gameplay in league
of legends.
A lot the time the specific nuances are underappreciated, and for me personally they show off some really
cool aspects of the game, as well as potentially giving you some advantages in game once you
fully understand it.
I plan to examine some of these mechanics in depth so you can make the most of them
in game, and our first mechanic to kick off this series today will be an in-depth look
at hitboxes.
Here are some of my favorite comments, where I asked
what champion you guys enjoyed playing the most.
Today’s question is gonna be a fun one, because I want to know what is your favorite
cereal?
Mine is frosted flakes.
And if you think the video is grrrrreat, then hit that like button and if you don’t, please
hit the dislike.
Anyways let’s get started.
First of all, what is a hitbox?
A hitbox is what is used to measure whether or not something hits a target.
They’re like invisible zones around your character model that trigger when hit by something.
In a game like league, everything that can hit or be hit by something has a hitbox.
So every character and every skillshot in the game has a hitbox, and these hitboxes
are used to decide whether or not any given ability or thing hits a target.
This mostly applies to skillshots, of course, since targeted abilities will hit regardless.
In league of legends, hitboxes are circular, and every unit is surrounded by a circular
hitbox that detects when it hits or gets hit by something.
For champions, there are three different sizes of hitboxes that exist, small, medium, and
large.
Someone like annie has a small hitbox, while someone like Ashe has a medium sized hitbox,
and a champion like cho’gath has a large hitbox.
Every champion falls into one of three categories of those hitboxes, while minions tend to have
their own hitboxes which are smaller than that of a champions.
However since hitboxes happen to be in the shape of a circle or oval, this can lead to
a lot of misleading visuals, since most champion aren’t shaped like a circle, meaning that
all hitboxes extend a little bit past the actual models, especially on the corners where
there is no model.
Depending on the geometry of a champion, there will always be visual peaks and valleys that
extend past or fall short of the hitbox.
In addition, visuals in league of legends are 3-dimensional, but the actual hitboxes
are functionally 2-dimensional.
Because of this, character models will tend to appear above or north of their hitbox,
meaning that abilities that appear to hit the very top of a model are actually going
"behind" them, in a way, since the hitbox ended.
This is a great way to can sneak in some skillshots behind someone, since the hitbox at that location
of the model is consistently misleading.
And as well, their feet or like the bottom area of a character are much more prone to
generous hitboxes, because of this, so when aiming your skillshots, it’s good to look
at a character’s feet instead of their actual body to get a better idea of where to aim,
since you will always hit a skillshot if you hit a character’s feet.
The same idea goes for abilities.
Skillshots have a circular kind of hitbox, and with skillshots, unit collision is measured
edge to edge, which means to land the skill shot, the edge of your ability has to touch
the edge of the enemy champion.
However, since most skillshots aren’t perfect circle or ovals either, the visuals may not
match the hitbox as closely as you’d expect.
Since the hitboxes are not identical to the visuals, you can use this to your advantage
quite a bit.
Since the hitboxes extend past the actual visuals and are measured edge to edge, you
can land them without really landing them.
Take a look at the following example: Blitzcrank’s hook.
Remember that his hook launches from his right hand, and so if you position it properly you
can land the hook while to your opponent, it looks like they dodged it.
As long as the edge of the hitbox on your hook contacts the enemy champion’s hitbox
without connecting with any minion hitboxes along the way, it will land, even if visually
the hook didn’t grab the champion.
And you can use this kind of aiming to land a lot of skillshots on people who aren’t
really paying attention or are expecting their character to dodge, which is great because
not only do you land the skillshot, it often upsets them even further since they are left
feeling like they got cheated, when in reality they didn’t understand hitboxes like you
do.
Different skillshots have different hitboxes, though, so you’ll have to get a bit of an
understanding for each individual character you’re playing, but it’s a great thing
to think about with your aim to land more skillshots.
This is one of the ways that pros fully master their champions to a level that casual players
don’t, and it’s part of why you see so many crazy plays from people in high elo.
You can also use this concept to shoot skillshots past or through minions unexpectedly.
Minions have a pretty small hitbox, and there’s a lot of situations in lane where you can
angle things to go around the minion by overcompensating a little bit on one side or shooting it just
past the edge, and this especially goes back to the 2d vs 3d thing that I mentioned previously
towards the beginning.
Now, finally, one of the more interesting things that I like to think about is how skins
can have an impact on this.
Skins obviously don’t change hitboxes in any way, but they do effect the size of visuals
or geometry of your champion model, and can make your skillshot or character appear like
it has a smaller or larger hitbox, depending on the skin.
Which can further add to or take away from that concept I just went over.
If a skin has an ability that has a much smaller visual, it’s going to surprise people a
lot when you land it edge to edge, since the visual is straight up misleading.
In addition, a character with a larger model or with protrusions might be able to dodge
some skillshots simply because the edge extended beyond their true hitbox.
Players who have been playing for hundreds or thousands of games can get pretty used
to certain ability effects, so changing up the visuals may allow you to take someone
by surprise.
And that’s just about it.
If you enjoyed the video subscribe if you want, thanks for watching, and I’ll see
you guys next time!