Why I am leaving League (at least for now)
I have played league since college, at the beginning of pre-season 2. I have loved the game for years, even through the hills and valleys of balance changes, (farewell old Miss Fortune), but the recent changes to the game are an obvious sign that the balance team has no long term plan. Changes made literally just recreating problems that we had thought we had moved past.
In 2017, ADC strength was at an all time low, so low in fact that is created the "lul adc 2k17" memes. The problem was, adc's took too long to scale or have an effect on the game due to large item costs and no single item power spikes. Fast forward to 2018 and we now have the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. In one patch, through either complacency or ignorance, ADCs went having many options in bot lane to having very few viable picks, other than learning an entirely new role. This type of complacency isn't just found in changes to the ADC however. At various times, riot has left other classes virtually dead for long periods of time, (nods to bruiser and assassins), without caring that entire classes were useless.
To those decrying the outcry as not being accepting of diversity, I argue that bot lane has ALWAYS had the most diversity. What other lane do you have to worry about TWO champions with unique synergies, with the support role being capable of housing the majority of champions? Before these recent changes, it was difficult to know how to play against all viable bot lane/support combos. Now, unless you are a professional, there is not enough time in a day to be able to learn how to be an effective ADC. What happens now is that every other lane has decided to invade ours, using their extreme comfortableness with their champion pool to effectively cheese a victory.
To those that say ADC are viable, look at the LCS, may I remind you that those games are played with a different mindset. They are composed of 5 players who are unified in their strategy and play. It is not representative of league as a whole.
In simplified, it seems that riot wants to make roles that fill all roles, which is the crux of the problem. The traditional ADC is a glass cannon, meant to be low mobility, low suitability, but large amounts of damage. If these get out of balance, (looking at you relic shield and ardent censor), the ADC role is unhealthy to other roles. On the other hand Bruisers and battle mages are supposed to be low mobility, relatively survivable and decent amounts of damage. Right now we have a bruiser that is hyper mobile, hard to kill due to healing and stats, and yet can burst a primary target and then STILL produce a decent amount of sustained damage (looking at you
). We have a Bruiser that is hyper mobile, is survivable through relic shield (again) and his passive and yet does massive damage as well with minimal items (
). We have a battle mage that can burst targets, naturally gets mobility through his items, and is almost impossible to punish because of his kit's healing and gank availability (
). To all of these champs, there is no viable counterplay from the ADC, only potential poor play from their opponent.
The sad part is we were at a mostly balanced point. Yes, there were some outliers that needed help (
) and the bruisers needed some more options, but most champions were viable in one role of another. With one poorly thought out patch, riot has destroy any semblance of balance. It not that we have a bad meta. We have no meta, which has turned a game that was mostly about strategy, into a clustered cage match. As such, I am going to take a break from League and pray that the riot balance team learns from this going forward.