An explanation why balancing of the game is a pure art
- This post is not about Annie - she's here only for an example.
- This post is not "too OP" thread - this post is about how game changes can affect champions.
I started to play LoL in s2, and one of my first champions was Annie. I'm going to show you why it's so diffucult to balance game on example of Annie.
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S2: Tanks in jung, late game mages on mid. Annie is not popular, because she can't burst tanks and she can be easily zoned by other mages.
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S3: Tanks are gone, now assassins (came as answer to mages) and fighters dominate over the Rift. Annie is still not so popular, because mages still can zone her and push out from lane. Later Tabe from SHRC picked her on bot and dominated on Worlds - Annie brought his team to a second place.
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S4: Assassins totally dominate in game. Syndra and Yasuo aren't letting Annie to farm on mid, and Leona/Thresh on bot. Later hypercarries became surrounded such care, so Annie had no chance to burst any of them.
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**S5: **Assassins nerfed, hypercarries nerfed, mana regeneration nerfed, so now long range mages have to choose how to spend their resources: for farming or for poking Annie. All Annie's enemies are gone, and now she looks like incredible OP. Annie time!
Annie itself didn't get radical changes, but anyway she was on horse and she was forgotten.
I'm really curious how Riot will balance it - will they buff mana regen items, or they will make other mages less mana thirsty, or they will nerf Annie (right after her buffs), or make her Q skillshot?
