A question about new champion releases (or lack there of).

I think it is a safe bet to say that the pace has and will continue to slow. The roster is so heavy, and I believe Riot is taking the correct approach of quality over quantity. Learn from past roster heavy games (Marvel v Capcom).. What good is it to have such a robust roster, when only a handful of characters are viable?

People claim they want new champs.. The way I see it.. If each exsisting champion gets the TLC they need to make them formidable, then you will see a slew of self only used characters in game, making it more enjoyable for everyone.

Answer I wouldn't be surprised if we got only 2 or 3 new champions next year. In fact, I think we'll be lucky if there is 1. Some relaunches might be so expansive that they'll practically be a new release anyway. Even so, it wouldn't bother me one bit. It's better for the game anyway if Riot is serious about wanting League to stick around for a while.

Reasoning <MAJOR BIAS ALERT> The roster is pretty bloated as is. Anyone that says we need a new champion every 2 or even 3 months to stay interested is sorry to say, clueless. Look at the roster in it's current state and I dare you to say that champions are on average of about equal power but in their own unique ways. You can't and hope to be taken seriously. Balance (in-game and otherwise) has improved leaps and bounds since Season 1 but there are still major offenders.

I believe Riot's recent approach to balancing is good. I do not believe the pace at which they do so is. *note 1 I believe there are important people at Riot with the right vision in mind. *note 2 I do not believe Riot is doing all they can as far as support for other regions goes (event handling, competitive scene issues, allowing organizations like Garena to distribute their IP). I do not believe Riot creating the League of Legends experience as well as they could be. *note 3

Note 1 - Riot right now are like a bunch of apprehensive puppies. They want to be happy and have you be happy with them but given the community behaviour/reaction in the past, they are afraid to trust or do what needs to be done. Lee Sin is a recent example I'll use. Should've and could've made changes awhile back, got scared off by the community despite:

1. Vocal community knowing diddly squat about balancing with a track record of proving it over numerous years
2. Knowing Lee is problematic as is
3. Having big changes for fighters as a class that would've required Lee to be changed anyway

Riot should've bit the bullet back then. All this paranoia/fear of backlash is saddening. Some discussions will be heated and will take multiple tries but do what is right for the game even if it makes some people unhappy. Last I checked, Lee changes pissed off Lee players and Lee players aren't the whole community. The changes were good for the game and didn't take away the fun bits of playing Lee.

Note 2 - Ghostcrawler being against the idea of 'beginner' champs. Riot realizing the importance of fixing old code and champions.

Note 3 - Releasing a cinematic like a Twist of Fate and A New Dawn is cool and all but why not do that as part of reviving lore? We hear them talk about wanting players to know champions/world better but the cinematic goodness we get always depict battles on the Rift. Why wasn't a mini-cinematic done for the beginning/end of the Freljord event? We got good build-up with the Quinn journals, Lissandra login, Sejuani relaunch and the whole choose your faction thing. Then what? It just kind of stopped, disappeared. Spirit-guard Udyr comic introduced a skin, some Udyr/Ionia lore and acted as a promo for Ao Shin. And then... nuffin.

The cinematics we got were awesome but really, they were just fancy trailers for the game. We learn more about what champions are like from the Stick Figure spotlights. Look at how Waystone Games handles lore/events and take a page from their book. Surely Riot can match if not surpass it. What happened during the Rune Wars? Are Braum and Olaf descendants of the IceBorne? Hows that whole war in the North going? Who the fuck is the Ruined King and why is he spreading undeath? See all this stuff you have at your disposal for creating a League of Legends experience? Use it better.

RIot is kinda going for quality over quantity at the moment. They also have their champion designers working on stuff like champion visual upgrades and the Sion re-release.

also I think there are 120 champions in the game right now counting braum

Wow, we're really slowed down to the point of only four characters expected this year?

I knew it had slowed down, but damn, it never hit me until just now how much it had

First off - a disclaimer.

This is NOT a complaint about a lack of champion releases. CLEARLY riot has been putting a LOT of time into other aspects of the game, such as various gameplay and visual reworks, as well as the summoners rift update (which I imagine took far more effort than SEVERAL new champions would have).

My question is this. League of Legends has been out for a few years now, and there is a pretty substantial roster of champions to choose from. As time goes on, can we expect fewer and fewer champion releases, since with a larger roster, balance becomes more difficult with every champion release? We are track to have about 4 new champions in 2014, whereas there were 8 in 2013, 19 in 2012, and 24 in 2011. It seems understandable that since there is now a roster of 119 champions, that riot will start to dedicate more resources to other aspects of improving the game.

Thoughts?

For some reason I doubt that considering all of the reworks in the pipeline. I know I know, separate teams blah blah blah. But I still feel like they'll give us reworks instead of champions this year

Ok I hate to be the bitch here but you say "This is not a complaint, Riot is clearly putting time into other things" blah blah blah. Can I just say that Smite, a moba developed by Hi-Rez Studio, has already done more re-works/ VUs than Riot has and their game just got released in March? Either Riot is lazy (employees sit on asses and play all day) or Riot is cheap (not enough employees to meet demand of this huge player base).

While I respect how you phrase your post in order to be considerate of Riot and what they do, I feel like witht he income LoL brings in and the demand from players that Riot should have made much more progress than it has.

To answer the actual question: New champions give us as players a lot to look forward to and it would be the end of LoL if champ production stopped all together. Four per year should be the minimum. Riot can keep us interested with other things like a smoother client, re-works, changes to Runes, etc. Riot also needs to find some other way for us to spend IP as the champ releases slow down because once you have like 15,000 you just get sick of looking at it.