Pinpointing reasons why damage feels high @Riot

I know Riot reads the posts, even if they don't reply. We see a lot of "damage is too high", but people rarely know why/have stupid solutions. Thing about complaints is, that they usually have a kernel of truth even if they don't know the solution (because they are not the balance team, it's not their job to be good at making solutions).

A) Runes

This is pretty simple. Runes add too much damage for no reason. There might be more defensive options, but people will go for the offensive options. So the offensive options need to be nerfed to be in line with defensive options. Buffing defensive options is just unnecessary power creep

Solution: Rebalance damage runes. Suggestion: Nerf Electrecute/PtA/Aery/Comet/Sudden Impact/Eyeball collection etc to match aftershock nerfs. You can compensate these in utility if needed. Also remove transcendence's free 10% cdr.

Stat runes. 9 times out of 10, you go for double offensive instead of double defensive. This artificially increases early game kill potential when both opponents are rocking extra damage and not defense.

Even back in the old rune system, even if it was "optimal" to run double damage on a champion, most people would run +9 arm and +12 mr because of costs/pages. This artificially increases damage even if the "optimal" runes for old champions match current stats.

Solution: Rebalance stat runes. Suggestion: Add 4 rune trees. 2 defensive, 1 offensive/defensive. 1 offensive.

B) Items/Build paths

Couple things: items being shifted to upfront burst and items synergizing too well together.

First let's talk about AD:

Assassins: Build went from more DPSed focused like the AS-speed yommus or , and cleaver or maw. Into full burst Duskblade > Ghostblade. Maybe cleaver. Not only does this make them do more burst damage at the expense of dps, it also makes them squishier. Double pronged attack making damage appear much higher.

Solution: Remove , compensate AD assassins with giving attack speed again.

Bruisers: Build went from > full tank, or > > full tank

into, pretty consistently, 4-5 quasi-damage items: .

Not only does it make them squishier than a true tank build. It also gives them the burst late game to 1-shot squishies (due to carries not getting much tankier as game progresses, I will cover it later).

Solution: Buff tank items. Having bruiser items is fine - but building straight up 4/5 of them should only be if you're snowballing. Tank items should still be good choices. Nerf individual tanks as needed

ADCs: Once again, comes down to items synergizing too well together. In S3 you'd see ADCs build what looked like a mix&match (like Triforce->GA->LW for Corki. Or Athenes into deathcap for mages). I digress, Riot tried to make it more upfront burst with changes. However, it was changed back to the IE build. Which is still better, not the best. I think IE (as well as deathcap), shouldn't be "staple" in most builds. They should be snowballing/situational items.

The > > with I.E. being situational always felt really good to play and play against. It really satisfied the kiting fantasy for ADCs. Which doesn't really exist anymore past the early game. Also after those 3 relatively cheap items, you'd be more free to build other things.

Now AP:

The most problematic item: . It suffers the same problem as duskblade. It shouldn't exist in it's current state. It was much better as a niche item. Also, it has the same problems as old Morello - with more burst. Again, with synergizing too well and nerfing defensive options. Mages used to rush abby sceptre, or , or sit on a casual even. Or a lot of them would build . Now? First item spikes are too good. Like Ludens and even the scaling Seraphs is too good as a first full buy.

Solution: Possible Suggestion: Remove ludens passive and compensate with stats like either more raw AP or MS. Remove 10% cdr from both Ludens and Seraphs. Can be compensated. These first items shouldn't be so good that you're practically forced to buy them first, champions can be rebalanced individually.

Items synergizing too well together really fits in here. Very stale builds for most classes and even though mages have some diversity. Deathcap/Void staff should not be staple items, but rather situational. They are too good for their price. Also, they are so reliably built because you're already at 20%/30% cdr casually from your build (most likely 40%) - with no real opportunity cost. As well as this, double pen has become too staple and isn't used for any "specific case" (such as high base damage, wanting to burst), but has become the overall "best damage option".

**Solution: ** Introduce new AP items that can fit into a 6 item build without being pigeonholed into deathcap/voidstaff, nerf (gold increase) and (pen %) into situational picks. And buff the stats on , , and into viability. Even the best users of Rylais don't use it anymore - just buff it's stats instead of its slow (which is toxic).

**C) CDR **

So much CDR + ultimate cdr (ultimate hunter, presence of mind) that ultimates no longer feel important and you can easily blow 2-3 ultimates for one kill without feeling to bad. This artificially increases burst because maybe before there would be "equal burst" if everyone's ultimate cooldowns were up, but since they weren't, the burst would feel less (less ultimates in a fight). Besides SPECIFIC ultimates nerfed due to pro play like Karthus/Taric/Shen. You literally will not feel your ultimate cooldown at all in this game.

CDR also makes tanks worse. Mages/other CD reliant champions can reliably spam their abilities on tanks. Like before, a mage might have 1000 AP but only 10% cdr. Their dps would still be less than the current 40% cdr 600 AP mages (due to base damages as well).

D) Gold increase - this one isn't as important if other things are rebalanced properly. This has to do more with game pacing

Too much gold influx into the game. Tower plates, scuttle crabs, support items, heavy skirmish meta bringing a lot more early game kills. We know offense outscales defense but when this much gold is being shoved down people's throats, then it outscales it faster. Not to mention the lack of tanks being played = it becomes a burst fest when everyone starts completing big items, but doesn't get much tankier.

What I mean is: in the early-mid game, Caitlyn might do 300 damage per auto attack avg. And Rengar can burst 1100 damage. She has 1400 health so she's fine (plus maybe heal summoner). However, in the mid-late game, he might be doing 2400 burst, and she only has 1900 health now. However, she can also land some 1.5k crits. So thats what makes it a "burst fest". Truth is, at 50 minutes, this has always been kind of true (IF BUILDING GLASS CANON, I will talk about casual tank items later - I've already mentioned that items synergize too well). However, that starts happening sooner in the game. If you play a squishy, you'll realize that the early game is probably the best time for stuff like kiting.

Also, there is very little "downtime" to farm, so teams snowball and trade gold a lot because there is always something to fight for. Tower plates, scuttle crab, drakes (now on 5 min), barons (now at 6mins). Constant skirmishes lead to a lot of kills which lead to item breakpoints quickly (due to being forced to fight over OVERBUFFED scuttles and OVERBUFFED drakes).

Solution: Reduce gold from scuttle - REMOVE scuttle meta entirely actually. This will reduce the absolute need to skirmish 24/7. Reduce bountry gold. To combat this, bring baron back to 7 minute cooldown so there is more downtime to get back into the game properly. Nerf drake power (especially Mountain and Infernal).

Towers giving too much gold, and too easy to take which once again puts a lot of gold in the pockets of people (on potentially both sides).

Solution: Make towers slightly tankier, especially the inner/inhib towers. Reduce mage damage to towers - they should be viable outside of being splitpush menaces because they melt towers like butter. Which the previous mage changes would help accomplish.

Supports get too much gold. Enchanter supports build way more AP than ever, when they used to go primary tank builds. Ambient damage from runes and Zekes/AP/Redemption really adds up when you only have 1800 health. That extra 100-200 damage from a support feels really awful. Not to mention supports are bankrolling harder than ever and forego SightStone.

Disclaimer: I am a support main. They make too much gold.

Solution: Make all viable options for supports to rush. Make them give tank stats primarily. Potentially mana. This will make supports feel tankier & do less damage so they don't contribute. is actually so bad that it pretty much never gets completed.

E) Tank items suck

DISCLAIMER: This does not mean tanks suck.

Riot nerfed tank items way too hard. In return, they tried to buff tank's innate tankiness and individual kits to compensate. Like Ornn's armour/mr increase passive. Sion's HP/shield buffs. %damage reduction inside of kits. Sejuani's frost armor, Cho's infinite stacking, Mundo's MR, Etc...

This is okay in the scope of tanks - but it increases burst in the game overall since less tank items are being bought.

This is a huge problem, because now, besides actual tanks, no one really buys tank items. Getting casual tank items is awful and completely not viable. This is due to two reasons:

A) Items synergize too well together. AP users are forced to build and because they are TOO GOOD to pass up. You sacrifice WAYYY too much damage if you forego them. They synergize wayyy too well with AP users in the mid/late game. You can no longer go a casual tank items on mages.

This is also true with ADCs. You can't go for a casual tank item because you sacrifice wayy too much damage.

**Solution: ** I pointed this out in previous sections. If AP builds looked something like: > > > > . Then you don't lose much by getting a over a lets say .

B) Tank items just suck

Yeah, they are bad. Make tank items actually good and rebalance tanks to suit.

Benefits/Consequences of lowering damage: Benefits

Can fulfill a lot of champion fantasies properly: getting multiple dashes off on Lucian. Stuffing 87 spears and kiting as Kalista. Getting off multiple heals as Maokai. Being able to sit in the middle of the team as Darius to get multiple heals/dunks off. Also brings back the need for wombo comboes. Addresses a lot of complaints. Makes the game "less stressful" as theres more downtime.

Cons

Mobility will be stronger. Won't be able to kill mobile targets in 1 cc duration so they'll be more forgiven for fucking up. Udyr will be an annoying shit Competitive might be slower