bard is literally the only balanced champion

To name a few recentish ones.

Especially Vel'Koz. Hit the nail on the head with this one.

(pre-buffs, after all the bugs got worked out) (pre-buffs) (pre-buffs) (pre-buffs). All fine (maybe not now, but on release)

I think I see a trend here. Most champs have been mostly balanced before being buffed while the player base is still figuring them out. If Riot ever reverted buffs we may have a much better game right now.

Riot was on a pretty good spree after they learned their lesson with Lucian and Thresh and overloaded kits. Recently it seems like they just have started to not care.

I don't see anything wrong with a lot of the recent champions. You get your headaches like Kalista and Yasuo but to me people like Vel'Koz, Braum and Azir have great design. Azir's only flaws are having a skillcap so high that he'll never be solo que viable without being overtuned in LCS and a laning pattern that can be a tiny bit oppressive.

I thought this was going to be a joke about "because his ult can win the teamfight for EITHER team".

I wouldn't seriously call him balanced though -- he has gone from horrendously weak and useless to... still well below other things you could pick.