I think I know where the overkill damage philosophy is coming from.
For about 6 years, I've played an independent MMORPG by a company called Grinding Gear Games.
In 2018, Tencent acquired Grinding Gear games into their gaming portfolio.
Since then, I've seen several cross-over art, and skill style effects between Path of Exile, and League of Legends.
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In the Temple of Atzoatl on Path of Exile, there is a monster to kill, which uses the same exact ability
uses as his E: It dashes the monster foward, and if you stay in its path you take damage and have a high chance of getting stunned. Even the graphics are similar. -
Path of Exile recently (2 Leagues ago) released a helmet called "Curtain Call," a Direct reference to Jhin. Guess what? it has Trap based mods on it, and the structure of the helmet looks a LOT like Jhin.
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Morgana/Kayle's base skin rework was done by the same artist who has been doing mosaic artwork for Grinding Gear Games. [img]https://i.imgur.com/18xwqn5.jpg[/img] Look familiar in art style? Look at this:
https://www.riftherald.com/lol-skins/2019/2/19/18232066/kayle-morgana-rework-skins-splash-art
The background around the circles is what I want you looking at. The same artist drew both.
What if the two games have also stopped having their own design philosophies on damage, and how a game should be played?
A little breakdown of how damage works in Path of Exile:
-Over time, early level farming damage has gradually increased with added support mods that increase aoe radius/skill feasibility, while monsters have gotten slightly weaker.
-Over time, builds have completely migrated to 1 million + damage builds late game with kill the most powerful bosses in the game in about 1 second, once you have the right items.
-Said bosses can also 1 hit you, for double your existing life, if you don't play the skill expression miniplays just right.
If you do NOT play the 1 million + damage builds, you get stalled in your progression, and often lose more XP than you gain.
In those terms, maybe it sounds like Riot is taking advice/direction from Path of Exile?
(In terms of content, the two games are incompable. However, both were outright successful games in their genres who put down games like Diablo III (Diablo III is more known, but because of its developer, not because of its play; most D III players generally don't stick around) in popularity, or other MOBAs in League's case.
