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Blitzcrank's Sugarrush

JRobin31·11/14/2015, 12:24:40 AM·1 votes·301 views

Reworking a cool ability because players don't like to play against it is a flawed approach to doing reworks. If the ability is balanced, then it gives a rewarding feeling when used and it's okay to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies.

An example of bad balancing is thinking that you need to create crippling weaknesses to balance an ability. For example, Blitzcrank had his W changed so that it debuffs him with a slow. This sort of mechanic gives a bad feeling whenever using the ability.

These are psychological interactions and shouldn't be overlooked. For example, I've recently been reviewing champions and trying to decide what I want to play in Season 6. I know Blitzcrank has a good win rate and his grab is cool. But I don't just want to win next Season... I want to have fun while doing so and the slow on Blitzcrank's W is actually a serious consideration in whether I will play Blitzcrank often in the next season - not because I think it affects his playability or winability but because it affects his funability. A more healthy balancing effect would be to reduce Blitzcrank's base movespeed or to couple the slow effect with increased range on his pull because it balances the psychological funability of using his W.

Naturally, this is my own personal take on funability, but maybe there are players out there who disagree...

1 Comments

LegendaryLemur11/14/2015, 12:30:12 AM1 votes

Personally i thought this was one of Riot's better changes. It heightens the excitement of the window of opportunity. Blitz hits W and comes storming out of the brush ready to hit his game-changing hook.

Previously if he throws the hook and misses he can just walk away, but now the slow really puts him in a bad spot (though not as bad a spot as the enemy would have been in, had the hook landed).

Blitz is the most binary of champions, instead of fighting that, Riot decided to highlight it. I think it was an excellent decision.

In terms of funability, think of Blitzcrank's enemies too. Sure it may not be fun to slow down after your W, but it is fun to get some revenge in for that last hook he landed ;)