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Blitzcrank Q Buff and Some Reflections on the Current State of League of Legends

Blue Heartbreak··6 votes·4,008 views
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Hey Riot!

I just got off a game against the new Blitzcrank. I have a sincere question. What exactly compelled you to give the fastest hook in the game which, by the way, also happens to not have a windup, a huge range? My last game was miserable, and I'm sure all games from now on will be miserable with Blitzcrank. Literally saw Blitz yoink my adc from under the tower and into the bush that is on the far right side of bot lane. That is broken and incredibly unbalanced, as the other long range hook champions have a wind up or a slower hook so you can actually do something against it. The only true counter against this buffoonery is to play Morgana or get a Banshees Veil. As an enchanter main, I'd rather not have to buy Banshees just because of a blitzcrank. Additionally, what can ADCs do about this? How will this affect the meta, since now you've guaranteed that Blitz will either be a super solid pick or permabanned in every single game. I mean no disrespect, I'm honestly just baffled and a little stunned after that experience. My friends and I were laughing on the outside, but I guarantee you that we were crying on the inside.

I have many more things I'd love to discuss with the balance team, especially revolving around the buffing of champs so skins will sell, but someone already made a really thorough post about that. I've been playing this game since middleschool, and I'm a Junior in college now. I'd hate to leave, but I'm finding myself playing less and less. I've spent money on this game, and I have tons of online friends, which is really the only thing that keeps me attached to this game anymore alongside the hope that it'll go back to the "golden days" of League of Legends. Ever since Riot sold to Tencent the game started going downhill fast. It doesn't feel like a game made by gamers for gamers anymore. We're constantly being bombarded by more and more products and merch to buy while the game just gets more and more unbearable. Oh, and don't even get me started on Ranked.

Initially this post started as a bit of a meme between me and my friends, but I'm kinda tired of seeing the community talk about this while Riot seems to turn a blind eye. A lot of people criticize the people who say that Riot doesn't care, but I honestly think that's because they haven't been around for 6+ years and seen this game grow into the massive global phenomenon it is now. I've literally been playing for over half of this game's lifespan.

As a response to GelsominoKiller's post, no. It is not acceptable that we, as a community, must endure an unbalanced gameplay experience for unspecified amounts of time, because of Riot sacrificing their integrity in balancing the game in order to advertise their products. For those who still doubt Riot's lack of integrity and corporate greed, all you have to do is look at the pay to meme Mastery System fiasco. Look at how many veteran/ ex-worlds LoL streamers literally hate the game now. This is a game that they helped build as the first "generation" of league gamers. I could type in this and reminisce forever, but most of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Riot, as a company you are getting farther and farther away from your player base.

I understand the need to make revenue as a corporation, but what will it cost?

If players are truly the foundation of our community and it’s for us that you continue to evolve the League experience you need to do better and focus on making league a great experience for the common gamer again.

Your players just want to have fun again.

Thank you infinitely for your time,

Blue Heartbreak

11 Comments

Support Evelynn3 votes

Riot only caters to the asian market and whales now. Will only get worse.

RekSai CoffeeCo1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Support Evelynn,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=3iEbk2XP,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2019-09-27T07:21:27.229+0000)

Riot only caters to the asian market and whales now. Will only get worse.

So true, they aren't even trying to make improvements in the game (RGM, nexus blitz in particular)

Also in before they decide to make blitz's hook have a range of tower to tower (Aram of course)

King Braum2 votes

I would normally disagree with this but given Riot's latest statement on TFT where China was their biggest audience by a long shot and earlier news about China being the first region to have over 100 million players in League of Legends. It's becoming harder and harder to deny that Riot may be catering to the asian market.

Blue Heartbreak1 votes

Not a big surprise tho that the Chinese Company who bought the rights to the game is catering to the Asian market primarily, especially if they're making mad bank off it.

preternatural2 votes

blitz change is fine lol, he's actually a free win against pending your champ pool right now.

Blue Heartbreak1 votes

That's valid. You have any insights regarding the other issues I brought up in my long winded reflection? I'd genuinely like to have a conversation with other players about it. Thank you for your comment <3

preternatural2 votes

[{quoted}](name=Blue Heartbreak,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=3iEbk2XP,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2019-09-28T03:36:01.389+0000)

That's valid. You have any insights regarding the other issues I brought up in my long winded reflection? I'd genuinely like to have a conversation with other players about it. Thank you for your comment <3

well riot seem to have opted back in to making counter picks matter, those were the utility buffs given to renek, poppy, kled and whoever else has been getting magic utility out the ether.

blitz' problem is that he would always get beaten by tank supports, not be all that threatening to the enchanters, and probably not be able to threaten the mages due to them just having superior range and more dmg (sometimes more utility too). so the way I see it rito have said "OK, let blitz be able to deal with these mages by yoinking them from wherever."

does it suck for adc's? a little, rules are otherwise the same. enchanters? negligible tanks? they don't care mages? advantage lost, they must cast in range of a blitz hook now, that's scary.

also there's enough justification with Pyke and thresh existing to let blitz have a superior hook due to it being all he does, he doesn't have assassin potential and dumb regen like Pyke, and he cannot keep up with the raw utility of a thresh.

now pending how this new Blitz hook interacts with enchanters and tank supports over time, it may or may not get nerfed to some middle ground in relation to its old range. if it shits on those classes of champions too then it'll be problematic, I otherwise think it's supposed to shit on the mage supports.

ofc now players will go beyond riots parameters and blitz hook things in ways that were unimagined but I doubt those are actual problem areas riot will be looking at unless it's blatantly gamebreaking and even that is often subjective if it isn't a line of broken code.

chipndip12 votes

Simple: Blitz is redundant trash.

Pyke has a hook and he can snowball his team

Thresh has a hook and a ton of defensive/utility tools

Naut has a hook and an amazing engage tool

You can go down the list, but the point is that all Blitz does is hook one person. In 2019, you either need to be more than just a hook or you need to be a really good hook. The latter is less work without needing to tackle a large project so they did that. You can't really justify using Blitz outside of "personal preference" without him having a real reason to do so, and now he has a reason, that being that he can nab people from nearly half a lane away and displace them into the mosh pit. He can now reach well beyond the types of plays that other hook-oriented engage options can achieve due to this extra range, and that's the point of the change.

Long story short: It sharpens his niche and differentiates him from other hooks in the game.

iMidg3t2 votes

People are overexaggerating. Sure, this was a rly good change to Blitz. But let's be real, the way you played against him didnt change. You still need to dodge his hooks or stay behind minions, except now you have to adjust to his new range.

Blitz doesnt have anything going on for him except his hook. Dodge that and hes useless.

Zigg Sauce1 votes

This was a very sincere post. As a Braum/enchanter support player, I can understand the frustration. The blizcrank buff is not an exaggeration. It is very obnoxious and shows that the balance team are quite out of touch. They can't help but to balance champs based on the perspective of high elo and esports. For god sake, he's just constantly pulling people OUT of lanes and INTO the jungle and out from under their turrets. Yes the Q is a straight line and it can be avoided, but that doesn't mean the range isn't obnoxious.

Reaper Soraka1 votes

if i remember, they said this blitz change was to keep some builds in check in worlds. They had also said they knew this was going to increase his win rate.

Edit: oh, Phreaks patch notes commentary.

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