[Analysis/Discussion] The Lee Sin Dilemma
Hello folks,
I'm here today to evaluate Lee Sin as a Champion, discern what his problems really are, and bring potential solutions to the potential problems.
CONTENTS
- Who's Lee Sin; a broader look.
- A regard on the upcoming nerfs (PBE)
- Sighting the real issues
- Envisioning solutions
So who's Lee Sin ?
Lee Sin's a nimble early game powerhouse. Light Fighter, AD Caster, or Bruiser, he offers alot of interesting gameplay options which put his skill ceiling amongst the highest in the game. He translates into an Utility heavy character, mainly used for flashy engages and for his good zoning/dueling potential. Mainly seen as a Jungler or Top Laner.
Strengths :
- Extremely good early game power curve.
- Quick clearing speed (Jungle)
- Great duelist
- High skill ceiling (which means that better players can get more of him)
- High mobility
- Good initiator
- Can ward jump
- Sight / True Sight
- Has defensive / healing options
- Convenient resource management
Weaknesses :
- Poor scaling, turning mainly into a utility based Character.
- Can be interrupted/outplayed in his courses of action quite well (assuming you have a coordinated team/reflexes)
- Is overall a risky pick / a gamble in many situations.
- Somewhat high skill floor
But this is all things everyone know, so let's get to the very heart of this discussion :
What makes Lee Sin Lee sin ? Is it his dueling potential ? His mobility ? His Utility ? Find more down below.
The upcoming PBE changes and why they aren't solving much
- Safeguard ( W 1 ) shield duration lowered to 2 seconds from 4 seconds
- Cripple ( E 2 ) no longer lists that it reduces attack speed ( which was 20/30/40/50/60% )
These are two ODD changes and here's why :
First of all, the shield duration nerf is mostly utterly useless. In jungle, it will never last over 2 seconds anyway, in teamfights, it won't last long either. The only real nerf here is towards DoTs.
Which brings me to the real issue with these changes : these are HUGE nerfs to Top Lane Lee Sin which hasn't seen a lot of plays lately (too much of a gamble), while NOT doing anything to go against the early game powerhouse that is Jungle Lee Sin. The first being a nerf mainly vs DoT Champions, like, say, Teemo. And the second is a nerf against Attack Speed reliant Champions which usually beat him anyway at a given point (e.g. Jax, Trynd, etc). As for Jungle, the only possible downside is making Lee even less healthy in his first few routes.
Now you have to question yourself : what makes Lee Sin such a good Jungler early ? He has great damage, a great Movement Speed slow, a lot of mobility, and at level 6 one of the best ganking tool possible. A total removal of his Attack Speed slow doesn't do anything to his ganking power. He might get counterganked a tad better, he might not be able to 1v1 the other Jungler as well as before, but isn't it a strength that makes him what he is ? He's a great duelist. He's agile. If you remove one of his main dueling tools, you push him even more towards the AD Caster side which wouldn't fit as well with the rest of his kit. Let alone that you also nerf his late game even more, now your job is to initiate and/or zoning a carry which you won't be able to do as well either.
So in summary, nothing done for Jungle Lee, you're hurting Top Lane randomly, you're baffling his duelist identity, and you make him even more irrelevant later in the game.
Onto the real problems :
I'll quote what I said in a reddit thread because it resumes it well :
" Lee has very little weaknesses" (given statement) True and false. It is only true because the game's fundamentals concerning early game strength is still heavily flawed. Whenever there was a Champion that could dominate early, it had been gutted down. This was the case with notably Renekton earlier this year, or Graves in Season 2, or Jax, or Elise, or Aatrox, etc. The only role that handle power spikes well in the game right now is ADC (1-2 exceptions). So based on that, does Lee needs a nerf ? Yes, and this is why your statement is true, but Lee isn't THE problem in itself. Furthermore, taking Lee, even in competitive where they reach his HIGH skill ceiling, is a gamble of a pick, because it forces you to have a fast paced game. But is it wrong ? In itself no it isn't; it's logic. It did become wrong though, because Riot doesn't like fast tempo, and the game can't handle it as well as in Season 3 - early S4, which is part of the reasons why Lee made a big comeback in mid S3. The game isn't prepared for early game powerhouses. So Lee in itself has enormous (should have said distinct) weaknesses. He just has no competition at all, except the game itself.
So, does Lee Sin need a nerf right now ? Maybe. However, it would be a short-term fix to a much broader problem within the game itself. Currently, the game is overloaded by mid range and late game power curves. Champions like are currently reigning over the game in competitive, and the only thing to combat that is early game powerhouses. If you nerf Champions like etc. Then the Champions above have an even better time. The games will always be lengthy, with mostly boring early games, long-winded mid game, and finally turtling with some back and forth fighting. So basically, we're going back in Season 2.
Is that what we want though ? Do we want 40+ minutes games almost everytime ? We NEED early game powerhouses to counteract late game powerhouses. Most season 4 patches were working towards reducing snowballing effects more and more and more and more. Less FB gold, lesser killing streaks rewards, less accessibility to jungle camps if you're not a jungler, tower gold changes, turrets are tankier and some are regenerating. This is all working towards slowing down the game pace, but is it really the way to go ?
The Solutions
Nerf Late Game powerhouses :
That way, you enact the ability to nerf early game powerhouse as well, if you don't do both, one or the other will be prominant and dictate the pace of the games (right now late game powerhouses are stronger, and we already see games being significantly longer). Also adding more choices in the early game powerhouses would be interesting.
Potential Lee Sin nerfs :
(MANDATORY) Remove True Sight on Tempest (E1) :
This is one of the few abilities in the game that negate some Champions. Akali, Twitch, Wukong, Shaco, etc. All these Champions rely on Stealth to work (especially Akali), and the simple fact that Lee is on the other team make their life impossible. The only thing that holds True Sight in his kit is Lore. Do we really want Lore to enact or not which Champion can be played or not vs Lee Sin ? It doesn't even need to give normal Sight. It's just so free, whereas Q is a single target skillshot.
You have already went in saying Galio shouldn't have his passive because of how he negates Mages. It's the same thing with Lee towards Stealthy Champions.
Reduce his Base Movement Speed to 345 from 350 :
Would make him more reliant on landing his Q's early, not being able as much to walk on someone, E1, E2, then landing a certain Q, and/or maybe ward + R.
Reduce Resonating Strike (Q2)'s range to 1100 from 1300 :
It would be the same maximum range as Q1, which means max range Q's aren't as easy followed up upon, basically nerfing his engage potential, and allowing people to escape him easier.
Reduce Dragon's Rage knockback range to 1100 from 1200 :
Would fit the max range of Sonic Wave (Q1), nerf his ganking and late game pick-up power.
Thanks for reading this through, please leave feedback and comments !
This is as part of my work for my balance thread which you can find HERE
