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Why do I feel like champions popularity affects balance ?

Kurt Hyzan·6/29/2018, 12:03:31 PM·30 votes·10,875 views

I really feel like Rito-gem, instead of trying to have less broken things, is just leaving "popular champions" on top of everything. Take a look :

has been the most picked jungler for years (I barely play anymore aside of URF / ARAM, can't tell if people still play him), but look, the ward-thingy jungle item got removed (in my sole opinion, wards should be used to get vision on enemies, and not to have a free dash if you "fucked up", so yes I still believe this mechanic is a mistake and Lee should only be able to dash on allies / minions, hell even increases his range if it makes you happy), and he instantly got a "compensation buff" making his Q range almost the same as

aka Cancerosaurus Rex, always had 2 passives. got reworked (and tbh it didn't affect him much, with he still had 100% crit chance, but baby Yasuo mains threw a tantrum) INSTANTLY got a "compensation buff" too, and now he's just simply and purely broken with Conqueror, while changes (according to his mains) was supposed to be a nerf to him.

Same case with or any "one shot mad playz" assassins. Remember when got slightly nerfed ? They all immediatly got compensation buffs. Before , assassins always managed to assassinate their targets, so I don't get why this item has to affect balance this much, especially buffing champions according to it

On the other hand, some champions are simply forgotten, won't remind you once again all of them, but :

has been bugged for months now, his kit is item reliant because he's a melee and doesn't have any form of mobility / cc and his mains keep begging Riot for a rework still has no passive 's passive doesn't even feel like it exists since his rework is simply forgotten who ? who ?

55 Comments

Proxy3456/29/2018, 1:37:44 PM10 votes

Rumble actually got a buff though lol they buffed his ult in one of the recent patches,I think it was 8.11.

Modl Ryden l6/29/2018, 5:04:12 PM7 votes

Probably because least popular champs don't gather enough data in a large scope to quantify proper nerfs/buffs.

Hayaishi6/29/2018, 12:04:49 PM6 votes

Wukong is retarded broken atm. Gets 1 item and your backline has too pretty much stay at fountain to avoid getting deleted.

Yasuo and Lee have been outside the meta for longer than i can remember, Yasuo specially.

So much for favoritism.

Kanzaki Ranko6/30/2018, 4:07:51 AM5 votes

Thing with lee when he's meta he's never OP, he's just meta. There's always options to play with/vs him. Unlike when Sej was popular, she was just overpowered

Kaioko6/29/2018, 5:49:53 PM5 votes

Regarding your champions that are "forgotten:

Mordekaiser Got a lot of changes to try to be made viable -- he's actually in a very good spot right now because ultimately it's the meta that needs to shift not the champion kit itself

Lissandra Point and click ranged hard CC needs a rework -- that being said she has several compensation buffs lately

MonkeyKing It's actually a very good passive for the champ and he's one of the best OTP champs. He also immediately received buffs when duskblade was nerfed.

Urgot I guess you can argue with him that his compensation buff was too small after mallet nerf for ranged champions but even with all that he's performing just fine

Rumble The hell are you smoking?! He's been getting continuous buffs this whole season with patch 8.12s buffs being HUGE

Skarner Was way overbuffed with the stun duration in 8.1 which got nerfed later because he was too strong. He's in pretty good line though he is a niche pick though and with the current jungle and ADCs (caster types) he doesn't really fit in

HP Crookshanks6/29/2018, 12:23:47 PM4 votes

Don't forget about Karma . She got nerfed even when she's weak and not as popular as other shield champions and still no buffs for her.

At least Lissandra and MonkeyKing have better passives than Ahri .

TyroneWatermelon6/30/2018, 6:17:43 AM3 votes

Gangplank Fiora are still really toxic reworks and keep being a balance nightmare for toplane MasterYi literally the most uninteractive, biggest stat check champion, takes a single brain cell to play and has no counterplay beyond instakilling and cc chaining, and STILL doesn't get a rework after YEARS. Darius totally fun to play against champion, that his only weakness is being kited(and he's a top laner fighting melee champions) Graves Abomination. Warwick Tumor in lower elos since his release Ivern they knew he was gonna get really affected because of the jungle changes, but still wasn't given a fuck about Azir Kalista Why do they think keeping them OP in organized play and Trash tier in Solo and casual FOR YEARS is a good idea?

RxO Carmada6/29/2018, 5:36:57 PM3 votes

in my sole opinion, wards should be used to get vision on enemies, and not to have a free dash if you "fucked up"

Okay I stopped reading after this (I just glaced over everything), I feel like your opinion doesn't mean much if this is your view of Lee Sin. His kit would literally be the worst in the game if he wasn't able to ward jump, can you imagine him trying to gank people? His ult would be practically useless unless he had flash up and his q would be the only ability he had that could gap close in his kit, other than that he would have 0 mobility. Jumping to allied minions wouldn't help him chase his opponent when he's ganking a lane. I'm not trying to be disingenuous but you're opinions are so out of place that it is concerning. and

Rumble Skarner are fine? Rumble gets played quite a bit and while Skarner doesn't, he still is a very strong pick in the current meta. You're talking about an ult that completely negates a champion in a teamfight, even with qss the cd is low enough that you can just force another fight afterwards and take advantage of the fact that their qss is down. While he lacks gap close, that's intentional, since he has a stun and a movement speed buff in his kit. About Rumble, I'm not even sure what to say, sure you can't blind pick Rumble into anyone, but neither can almost any champ, and Rumble is very strong right now, you just need to know how to play him. Try watching twitch.tv/looter the challenger Rumble OTP. That's not to say since he's a challenger OTP that the champ is extremely strong, but if you watch how he plays you can tell that if the champ is played right he is extremely powerful. People just don't like putting in the mechanical effort required for Rumble. Although I think Skarner could use a little attention, I don't thiink he is nearly as bad as you're implying.

aka Cancerosaurus Rex

Really, for who? Yasuo is a very predictable champion, his e usage is blatant and pronounced, and outside of minions, he has nearly 0 mobility. Also after busting his shield, he is extremely squishy. Sure his late game may be overtuned, but you can easily take advantage of his weak early game, to the point where his mid to late game is non-existent.

Same case with or any "one shot mad playz" assassins

Okay REALLY? All of these champs are terrible at the moment, why? Because tank items are so strong and lethality got nerfed hard. Sure they have alot of mobility, but playing these champs places you AND your team at a disadvantage since they; 1. Don't offer any form of cc 2. Don't do nearly enough damage to compensate for their terrible late game (excluding zed.) 3. Khazix and Zed lose early game hard, but are put at an extreme disadvantage in the late game sense with items and abilities, assassinating is extremely hard.

I agree that it seems like only popular champs get to see specific changes, particularly in instances where challenger players pointed out specific bugs or flaws that had existed for very long periods of time and then suddenly the next patch they are fixed. But most of what you said here is so out of touch with the game that it actually hurts me to read what you're typing. Note that I don't even play any of these champs (except for lee sin) so it's not even a perspective bias. Level 27 is a little too early to start trying to analyze what is strong and what is not, you won't be able to tell how strong or weak something is until you've seen someone play that champ at a high level of play.

abdollah562736/29/2018, 4:07:49 PM3 votes

Skarner item 3070

leakinb6/30/2018, 7:05:45 AM2 votes

Reported Mordekaiser bug for few times to Riot and they don't even care Those bugs are 100% reproducable and have been existed for patches (one even exists since the Runes Reforge)

As for Yasuo Zed etc, bugfix in terms of hotfix or immediately get compensation buff while they are not even weak

Leto GT6/29/2018, 3:05:00 PM2 votes

item 3147 should be builded with a jungle item so that it gets specific to jungler at least. I don't see why laners should be able to get it first hand.

Invisible for 1 seconds? You can proc it with zed, talon and khazix R. It should be an item reward undetected roaming, not something you can abuse just by pressing R in a lane. The invisibility requirement should be around 4 to 5 seconds, not 1.

": Nightstalker: After being unseen for at least 1 second, your next basic attack will deal 30-200 (at levels 1-18) bonus physical damage. Melee champions will also slow the target by 99% for 0.25 seconds." The enhanced attack** lasts 5 seconds after being seen** by an enemy champion."

It doesn't even have a cooldown.

Besides, we don't have anything to actually counter assassin except Lissandra . Malzahar is garbage when he used to be notorious for that. Seriously, his damage is even lower than an adc in early game. item 3191 is garbage and causes huge mana issues. Electrocute is broken beyond imagination. Then we've to pull out "high-level 300 iq tactis" agains't that honestly have their dominance granted.

RekSai CoffeeCo6/29/2018, 1:09:05 PM2 votes

RekSai 0.7 playrate Rumble Kennen

One of these is really hurting because Riot refuses to change their mistakes in jungle/scuttle changes.

The other 2 need a lot of help.

Elkington VI6/30/2018, 5:25:38 AM2 votes

Riot has explicitly stated that popularity effects balance in the past (particularly concerning Lee Sin). Don't see why that would change now.

drimor6/29/2018, 5:02:27 PM2 votes

Because it obviously does.

Attticus Finch6/30/2018, 7:49:44 AM2 votes

Because you're under the effect of something called "confirmation bias".

There are a ton of champions who are hugely popular that have also been junk for long periods of time. Zed who is the most popular mid-laner was in the 46-48%wr bracket for almost a year. Lucian who was the #1 most played ADC has deliberately been kept in the dumpster since Worlds last year. Thresh who was the most picked support in the game has been underperforming for pretty much this entire year.

The problem is that you're drawing your conclusions from your emotions and anecdotes like a fool instead of from data and trends like an intelligent person.

Morticianjohn6/30/2018, 3:04:43 PM1 votes

They will even tell you when a champion is more popular they need to take greater care because balance issues affect a greater percent of the player base

Pika Fox6/29/2018, 3:57:02 PM1 votes

Yas is currently in the trashcan, riven is balanced around her hardcore mains because thats all who play her, lee sin hasnt been dominant for a while thankfully, etc.

Riot doesnt balance around popularity, and popularity has nothing to do with balance. If people like a champion they will play them regardless of how strong or weak they are.

Ahris6/29/2018, 4:56:08 PM1 votes

Rumble had constant buffs for multiple patches...

HavinABadTiem6/29/2018, 8:07:42 PM1 votes

"RIGHT THROUGH THE COUNTERSTRIKE"

Glory976/29/2018, 11:40:35 PM1 votes

We have to take into account that the popularity of a champion perceives how op we think it is. The ammount of times you face a lee sin main how knows his kit in and out and utilises the maximum potential of his kit is way more often than facing a rumble main.

And rumble mains can also be really scary. If they completly take you out before you hit lvl 2 and hard punish you for every cs. And put out devastating ultimates every fight...

Malak6/30/2018, 1:33:16 AM1 votes

Mana nerfs came in, Anivia instantly compensated but Karthus completely runs out of mana even faster goddam

Violet Fields6/30/2018, 9:18:12 AM1 votes

Honestly for Urgot they should have just kept his E Q combo, changed his ultimate, and changed how he looked, he didn't need this complete rehall of everything, he isn't a very good "tank" at all, at least in this meta, maybe in season 4 he would be but not right now he's not. I miss the old AD caster Urgod, https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/702233970780594176/D59uLZxj_400x400.png

dapositiveviking6/30/2018, 11:31:53 AM1 votes

that’s very interesting you feel that way. cannot be proven without admittance or explanation by riot games, but thank you for sharing your feelings

LeBlanc Rose6/30/2018, 11:41:17 AM1 votes

You do realize.

At the time of the duskblade nerfs,

Talon and Zed had quite low winrates. Sub 47%. They both relied heavily on duskblade. They would be useless without it

Kha I have no idea why he was buffed, but eh.