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Everyone suddenly "loves" the old Kayle, meanwhile she is one of the top 4 least played champions.

Dragon Zyra·2/19/2019, 4:02:04 PM·88 votes·16,091 views

And no, it's not just gameplay. Design affects too.

Edit for people ignoring this first sentence: If you don't think both things are important and affect the play rate you're very biased. The whole reason why monsters are barely played it's because of looks, regardless of how good the gameplay is.

Sure, in an ideal world, people would play monster champions just as much as attractive humanoids, but that is not the case.

I am fine with having a champion with less armor or no helm, a very minor thing to affect the game or universe, if that means that Riot will see good results and will be able to keep paying their employees to create more awesome content and keep the game alive.

If you want to show support to a champion, play it. It's very easy to talk but basically no one plays Kayle, and many things cause that. It is selfish to demand a champion staying the same when it isn't working for the company.

These outrages are often exaggerated, filled with hypocrisy and lack of understanding.

143 Comments

DemoGuide2/19/2019, 4:36:36 PM77 votes

People didn't like kayle for gameplay reasons, not because she was an armored angel.

ModCaptainMårvelous2/19/2019, 6:04:50 PM33 votes

To be fair, most of Kayle's problems were gameplay related, not design related.

  • Her skill ceiling was low, most of her abilities being point-and-click and with little expression besides "knowing when to use abilities"
  • Her kit had a simple play-pattern: Farm up until you can put E on, auto-attack to death.
  • Extremely powerful kit when numbers allow it because of an instant, point-and-click invincibility for several seconds.
  • Hasn't been competitively relevant in ages due to balance keeping her down.

Nobody really had any complaints about her design though and people did like this super armor angel knight aesthetic. Hell, her base model isn't even THAT bad, although that's due to a glow-up she got early on.

R107 Games2/19/2019, 5:32:17 PM14 votes

You don't have to play a champion to care about their design

General Matty2/19/2019, 4:19:28 PM14 votes

Just like the Sylas ordeal, people are going to forget about this in one, maybe two weeks at most.

Karfuss2/19/2019, 5:58:04 PM9 votes

Since when did you have to play ANY champion, to oppose the removal of their core identity?

Players didn't play Kayle because her gameplay is dated, and all around bad. Her theme, identity and aesthetic has nothing to do with that. Akali being green has no bearing on whether you enjoy her kit.

Rustypug2/19/2019, 4:16:40 PM8 votes

besides kayle doesnt even build armor so why should her in game model have armor shes always been a weird utility carry edit: https://imageproxy.ifcdn.com/crop:x-20,resize:320x,crop:x800,quality:90x75/images/4bca35e7d67d30a9ccb7cbbcb69467bf2cf1588a84244fec25ea68d1ea70cbb7_1.jpg

The entire team2/19/2019, 4:17:43 PM8 votes

They can talk the talk, they won’t walk the walk.

The Highest Noon2/19/2019, 4:30:56 PM8 votes

It's hilarious how when Riot decides to change something that nobody liked, suddenly that thing was the greatest idea since sliced bread meta.

Sobx2/19/2019, 9:03:50 PM6 votes

Well said. Would you even believe that author of this big thread complaining about "identity of the champion" has literally 0 Kayle games played (AT LEAST since the champion mastery level was introduced)? One would think that's some kind of Kayle one-trick or at the very least high mastery player, but nope: literally 0 Kayle games played. People just want to be in the center of anything even if it doesn't REALLY concerns them.

HàrrowR2/20/2019, 9:43:57 AM4 votes

Its the classic boards circlejerk, someone made it to the hot page whining about her armor like its the end of the fkin earth and 10 more copycats had to make the same post just to feel good about the up votes.

In reality literally no one ever played the champ nor did it have anyone talking about it, she was completely forgotten and wouldve remained so if not for this rework that I personally think is awesome gameplay wise and fine aesthetically.

DuskDaUmbreon2/20/2019, 1:04:11 PM4 votes

What a surprise - A rework happens and people that have mastery 2 on the champion at most crawl out of the woodwork to claim Riot is "Ruining their OTP!!!!!!111".

Not like we haven't seen this before.

TimeToDieSuckers2/19/2019, 11:37:14 PM3 votes

No one plays kayle because of her gameplay. Design matters, but gameplay matters a lot more. Thresh might as well be a monster, and he has the highest pick rate in the game. Kha'zix has a very high pickrate hes a monster.

Design matters, but gameplay matters more.

Old kayle looked more intimidating and fearsome then new kayle, so if design matters so much this new design will negatively impact her, based on the feedback so far.

But you are right, playing a tank is SOOOO fun, it must just be the looks that cause them to have low playrates right?

Edit: for an example yorick's pick rate is 5 times what it was 2 patches ago, did his looks change? Or is it because he's really good right now?

Neko Siren2/19/2019, 9:13:32 PM3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Dragon Zyra,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=2qK5dG0s,comment-id=,timestamp=2019-02-19T16:02:04.365+0000)

And no, it's not just gameplay. Design affects too.

Sure, in an ideal world, people would play monster champions just as much as attractive humanoids, but that is not the case.

I am fine with having a champion with less armor or no helm, a very minor thing to affect the game or universe, if that means that Riot will see good results and will be able to keep paying their employees to create more awesome content and keep the game alive.

If you want to show support to a champion, play it. It's very easy to talk but basically no one plays Kayle, and many things cause that.

These outrages are often exaggerated, filled with hypocrisy and lack of understanding.

I mained Kayle on and off for years since season 2. This rework looks amazing and I cannot wait to play it.

Mordepool2/19/2019, 7:38:08 PM3 votes

Play rate doesn't accurately reflect how a champion is enjoyed by the community.

For example Morde had a less than 1% playrate for 2 years but as soon as the marksmen class got nerfed to a reasonable state his playrate shot up too 5%.

I dont play Morgana often but she is in my top 5 favorite champions. Id be pissed if i didn't see a respectful rework.

ForeverLaxx2/20/2019, 8:30:47 PM2 votes

You know what was neat about Kayle? She evoked that same response you get the first time you're playing Metroid and you realize that badass character you've been busting alien jellyfish with all game was actually a woman.

New Kayle is Zero Suit, old Kayle is Varia Suit. Most people seemed to have preferred Varia Suit, myself included. I kinda like her ability change direction (though not sure why her ult has to deal damage now...) but visually it's a downgrade.