Riot's updates and changes, and my growing sadness

I'm sure what follows is likely to be an unpopular opinion and likely no Rioter will give it a second glance, considering how much of the userbase of these boards (including myself sometimes, unfortunately) seems to enjoy hatemongering over every little thing, but with the mage update growing closer, I thought it might be worth putting my thoughts to paper.

 This story starts with the Sion rework, way back when. I don't remember when it was exactly, and that's not important. I played Sion, not as the counterplayless AP version, but as the manly AD version. The version that was unkillable as long as he could hit something with his ult up. I played my AD Sion build in ranked Solo/Duo, SR normals, and ranked 3v3s. I'd like to think I was pretty good at him, despite the fact that I was probably Bronze or Silver at the time. The update came along and destroyed my Sion. I wasn't overly upset about it. I had considered my AD Sion build broken, and knew the AP Sion build was broken. I considered the change for the best.

 The next chapter involves the unfortunate Juggernaut fiasco. Everyone was overtuned. Everyone was broken. Mordekaiser was among the most broken. I was absolutely outraged when I heard of the Mordekaiser changes. As an ADC main, I was absolutely livid hearing how Riot wanted to bastardize (in my view) the bot lane. I love bot lane because of the synergy required between ADC and Support to defeat the enemy laners. You can tell I equally wasn't a fan of laneswaps for a similar reason. I loved the 2v2 in bot lane. The two lategame-scaling ranged carries and their supports. Something about that spoke to me. In fact, the first skin I bought way back when was a Graves skin. He was all I played for a long time, but more on that later. I heard of the Mordekaiser changes, instantly recognized Riot's attempt to FORCE him into bot lane, and how broken he would be with the extra XP. Lo and behold, the update passed on to live and Morde was indeed broken. Eventually he was nerfed into oblivion, and I was happy that he was. The damn menace. He still needs more looking into. Precious few people are happy in the state he is in.

 This third part is perhaps the most heartbreaking for me. I loved Graves very much. He was my favourite character in League of Legends. I loved his story. I loved his style. I loved his give-no-shits-nor-quarter gameplay. I liked Twisted Fate very much as well, but I was horrible at him back then, and still am a little bit, but I digress. As I mentioned, Graves was the first skin I ever bought. I had my eye on Mafia Graves for a long time, and finally spent the money, cheapskate though I am. I fell off playing him a little bit because I felt like other champions were better for carrying Solo/Duo Queue, but I never stopped loving Graves as a character. The newest cinematic simply reinforced my feelings. Graves was an absolute badass in that cinematic. Everything I imagined him to be. The new splash art was wonderful too, and Graves had received his first buffs in a very long time. Riot of course took away Graves' cigar, which I thought ruined his character slightly, knowing what it was before, but it was forgivable. Riot needs to keep their younger audience in mind, after all. I heard of the Season 6 Marksman (they're ADCs, fuck you) rework, and I was incredibly excited. ADC was still my favourite role, and I looked forward to what Riot was going to do. Then I saw the Graves rework. I hated the ammo mechanic. I hated that his autos were blocked by minions. I hated how they tied his passive (which previously took more skill than I had to keep stacked while not pushing harder than Draven) to his Quickdraw. I hated it all. But I waited. I had faith that Riot knew what the playerbase wanted. Then the Marksman Update was pushed to live. I played Graves once. I haven't played him since, to this day. Riot took my favourite champion in the game, and bastardized him. I felt I now knew how the Mordekaiser players felt, though I still feel that Mordekaiser was much more of an abomination. I'm not going to demand Riot refund my skin or change him back (Although I would love it beyond words if they did), but the fact remains that Riot butchered part of what tied me to the game.

 We soon approach the end of this story, but there is still one chapter left. The Shen rework. Shen was the only tank I liked playing. He fulfilled what I like to call my "hero fantasy." He charged in, forcing the enemy to attack him, did adequate damage, and saved the shit out of his allies. He was the only tank I liked playing (besides Nautilus. I love Nautilus almost as much as I loved Graves, but he's not as good of a laner as I would like and I fucking hate playing Jungle over all other roles), and let me vicariously carry through my teammates by helping them in lane with my ultimate, or protecting them in teamfights, or, my favourite part, zoning part of the enemy team just with my body, tanking a ton of damage while doing it, but allowing my team to win the teamfight. I heard the Shen rework was coming, and I was excited again. I had said to my friends over and over that all I thought Shen needed was a visual update, but nonetheless I was excited. And then the update was leaked. He can no longer heal his team. His 1v1 potential was butchered. His ability to CS under tower neutered. I knew I would not play him after that, but there was one more sucker punch coming. I had bought Yellow Jacket Shen early on because I'm a huge fan of Mortal Kombat, and I was a fan of Shen. Riot turned my favourite reference in League of Legends to a disgusting yellow-green mess of a splash art, and made him look even worse in game. Frozen Shen was allowed to still be reminiscent of Sub Zero, why couldn't Yellow Jacket Shen be allowed to be reminiscent of Scorpion?

 Now we look to the future, and see the Mage rework coming. Riot has said they will address Brand and Vel'koz specifically. Riot, I implore you to listen to what much of the fanbase is saying. These champions do not need change. There is no need to make people need to pick them. It's okay for Vel'koz to fill the same niche as Xerath because they play so differently. Two different playstyles for the same goal. That's good game design. It attracts many different kinds of people. I loved Brand before he was FotM because of the way his passive changed what his spells did. I liked that I could Q>E>W for higher AoE damage instead of the standard E>Q>W for the stun. I liked that I could ult>Q to stun people who didn't see it coming (it's a fucking good opener for a fight people, use it). I wish I could tell you what I liked about Vel'koz. Was it the true damage passive that helped him against tanks? Was it the geometry Q? Was it his range? I don't know, but Vel'koz is, by far, one of my favourite mages, especially considering I cannot play Varus or Xerath (I have had a bug for over a year wherein any charged ability (Varus Q, Xerath Q, Vi Q, Poppy Ult) causes me to spike to over 900 ping. People have told me to hardwire into my router, but unfortunately that's not possible for me. Suggestions?).

 I want to make something clear. I like Riot as a company. I like their game. Most of all, I still have faith they they can make good changes. I absolutely adore the Poppy rework. I don't know who was behind it, but whoever did it has my utmost respect, and in my opinion deserves a raise. He (or she, I don't judge (much)) turned a balance mess into something fun and powerful, but not unfun to play against (like Kalista, Yasuo, Fizz, etc.), at least in my opinion. I still think Riot can do a good job with the mage reworks. I am, however, concerned, having seen some of my favourite champions get stripped down to husks of their former selves, at least in my eyes.

 I want to thank whoever stuck through my rambling to read this far. There will be no TL;DR. I can't TL;DR my emotions. I hope for a response from a Rioter, though I doubt I will get one. They have jobs and lives too. I don't even know what response I want. I guess sympathy. I don't know. Regardless, thank you for your time, I'm simply a fan of League of Legends, and I don't want to suffer for being that fan.

Pope Charles IV