Design And Balancing Theory - Honest Questions
I have a few questions, and while many players on the boards (and occasionally one of the mods) see this sort of thing as attacking RIOT, I don't mean them that way. These are simply issues that -I- see, and then when I watch them fixed... I am at a complete loss as to the reasoning behind it. I am the first to admit that I might not fully understand, so I will just ask the questions.
ADC Itemization
I've personally noted a problem with the itemization for ADCs. Mostly Statikk Shiv and Rapid Firecannon. My issue is not the fact that they exist, nor their stats, but what confounds me is the addition of magic damage that can CRIT. This means that armor is no longer a solution to ADCs, at least not fully, because we are quite literally talking 490 magic damage in an AOE, that can also hit towers. That is with three items, then their physical damage is calculated in as well. Considering keystones, we are now talking well over 600 damage in magic damage, plus their physical crit. Why give them even more ability to punish through armor, which is what has historically been the counter to their damage potential?
Vision Changes
While I understand a couple of champions had issues due to stealth being shut down, and a few truly needed help because of it... why the removal of many options to counter this instead of merely fixing the stealth mechanic? A bad mechanic, to me, is just a bad mechanic that can be fixed... however removing vision capacity, and THEN fixing stealth - without adding vision capabilities back - seems to not only help the few champions who were struggling, but has made all champions who even hint at this mechanic oppressive. The way historically to even have a hope of hunting down a fleeing Akali was throwing a pink ward in her shroud... meaning you had to buy one and carry it around for the hope of one kill on one champion - this being the trade off for temporarily shutting her down. Why not simply fix stealth? Other reworks have waited years, why a tear through established methods that honestly were the only true counters to some champions? Seems like breaking more than fixing.
Re-Re-Revamping The Jungle
But... Why? We reworked the jungle YEARS ago. We then improved vision for people to balance it out via itemization. Then... Then the jungle actually seemed rather balanced. There were some champions who were under performing, but as a whole the Jungle was able to be left alone for a few seasons. Instead of fixing these champions, the jungle was tinkered around with, as was previously mentioned vision solutions... and THEN these champions were fixed.
All in all it appears, from the outside, many changes take place as a stopgap measure to allow flashy, popular champions to perform until they are fixed, but like all stopgap measures it is utterly forgotten about after the original problem is solved... leading to entirely new, and larger, problems. I just honestly don't understand, and would love some explanation. Most of the complaints I've seen could easily be solved by giving the actual thought process behind these changes, but all we ever seem to get is the conceptualized view of the NEXT changes in a prototype fashion that both leaves the playerbase under informed and frustrated.
