League-of-legends – How cost effective is Recall

league-of-legends

So this is a decision I often have to make, is it faster to run back to base or Recall?

For those unaware recall is a 8 second cast time before instantly being transported back to base; thus we can rephrase this question as: "When are you 8 seconds of running time away from the fountain?"

This rephrasing allows us to realize that there is a parameter here: Hero speed.

Thus for me to make this decision, ideally I'd like to know the 8 second distance for a couple common speeds to use as rules of thumb. Specifically:

  • 300
  • 350
  • 400
  • 450
  • 500

Preferably this would be a picture for easy reference.

Best Answer

So I did some informal testing, with probably a large margin of error, I have some pictographical results.

I picked Blitzcrank, because I own him(it?) and he has a base 300 ms. 8 Seconds of walking down the bottom lane put me a little ways behind of the inhibitor.

enter image description here

Purchasing boots of speed boosted him up to 350 ms, and 8 seconds brought him past the inhibitor, put not yet past the inhibitor turret.

enter image description here

I attempted to record results for 406 and 455 (like I said, it's hard to get the higher numbers precisely) but botched the results, and in each case I was only about the same spot as 350 ms.

Finally, I bought Phantom Dancer and Boots 5, hit ghost (un-talented, sadly) and activated rank-5 overdrive to see how far I could get when speed was pushed to egregious levels. Since Overdrive lasts for 8 seconds, it made for a far more accurate timestop. I made it here.

enter image description here

So we can safely conclude that, unless you're backed in to your own base, it is always faster to recall.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go avenge my horrendous 6 - 4 previous test game. I will get Ashe Bot this time. grumble grumble

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