League of Legends Gameplay and Balance Glossary

There are a lot of terms which are used on the Gameplay and Balance boards, often inconsistently. The following is a glossary of these terms, both to define the terms for those who are unfamiliar with them, and possibly to help make their usage more consistent.

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Broken A champion or ability that lacks sufficient counterplay, or a champion that doesn't have enough weaknesses given their strengths. Related to: Overloaded Not to be mistaken with: Overpowered Being broken is a design issue, and cannot be easily fixed by merely adjusting numbers (e.g. the champion needs a rework to resolve their problems.)

Buff To increase the power of a champion, usually by adjusting numbers such as base damage, scaling, cooldowns, or range.

Counterbuild The ability for an item to render an enemy less effective against the purchaser, or the act of buying item(s) for this purpose. Examples of counterbuild: Buying Zhonya's Hourglass to avoid damage from the ultimates of champions like Zed/Karthus/Vladimir, or building a Quicksilver Sash against champions with suppression. Not to be mistaken with: Counterpick, Counterplay

Counterpick The ability to pick a champion which renders an opposing champion much less effective, either against that player or against their team. Also refers to the act of picking a champion for this purpose. Examples of counterpick: Picking Soraka when the enemy team has Karthus, to use your ultimate to prevent his from killing your allies. Not to be mistaken with: Counterbuild, Counterplay

Counterplay The ability for a champion to be outplayed by their opponent, generally by predicting, acting around or reacting to their skill set. The term can also be applied to a specific ability rather than an entire champion, in which case it means that the opponent can do something to counter or avoid that skill. To qualify as counterplay, the action must be generic and appply to all champions, or to a large subset of champions. Examples of counterplay: You can dodge Lux's Final Spark, or turn your back on Cassiopaea's Petrifying Gaze. Not to be mistaken with: Counterbuild, Counterpick. Counterplay is one of Riot's core design values.

Hard-counter An extremely effective Counterpick. The existence of a hard-counter is generally a sign of bad champion design in the case of either the champion countering, or the one being countered, because it contradicts Riot's core design value of Counterplay. The harder the counter, the worse the design problem.

Nerf To reduce the power of a champion, usually by adjusting numbers such as base damage, scaling, cooldowns, or range.

Overloaded A champion that has too many things in their kit. They often have a tool for every situation, making them have many strengths and not enough weaknesses compared to other champions who specialise in only a few areas. Being overloaded is a design issue, and cannot be easily fixed by merely adjusting numbers (e.g. the champion needs a rework to resolve their problems.)

Overpowered A champion is stronger than other champions; they have an overall power level which is higher than others. This generally means that their numbers are too high, for example they deal too much damage for how mobile they are or how much utility they posses. Being overpowered is a balance issue, and can be fixed by adjusting numbers (e.g. nerfing the champion.)

Rework To change some portion of a champion's kit more significant than number-tuning. This is usually done to give a champion more clearly defined strengths and weaknesses, more counterplay, or more opportunities to show player skill. Reworks can range from minor (just changing one or two abilities) to total (e.g. Sion.)

Strengths and weaknesses The area(s) that a champion excels in, and the area(s) where the champion is weak. A properly balanced champion must have both strengths that they can use to beat opponents, and weaknesses that their opponents can exploit to defeat them. An example would be a champion with high burst damage output, at the cost of their abilities being skillshots and the champion being immobile.

Underpowered A champion is weaker than other champions; they have an overall power level which is lower than others. This generally means that their numbers are too low, for example they don't deal enough damage for how hard their damage is to land, or their healing spell doesn't heal for enough considering its cost. Being underpowered is a balance issue, and can be fixed by adjusting numbers (e.g. buffing the champion.)

Windows of opportunity Windows of time during which a champion has either moments of strengths, or moments of weakness. Having both types of windows gives opponents a chance to counterplay this champion. Example: Draven has two spinning axes in his hands, whch greatly increases his damage output, giving him a moment of strength. Once he drops his axes (or they time out), his damage output is greatly reduced, giving him a moment of weakness. Related to: strengths and weaknesses