Let's talk: Balance Nightmares & Player Mentality - Boards vs Reality

Heeeeeeeeeeeeelow everybody.

Before we start I need to say three things:

1. Moderators, this thread is in Gameplay because balance and player mentality affect gameplay directly, and player mentality also affects the way Riot does balance, which again, impacts gameplay, so the thread is in the correct section.

2. If any person gets offended by anything in the thread, please follow the marked line going in the general direction of that way points in a random direction and inform the first person that cares and isn't me.

3. If your opinion contains the "forced 50%" mentality, there is a can in the corner of the room, please toss it there and the come back to continue reading.

Although this time I will try to be a bit more serious because this topic isn't as easy to make jokes around (but will try, don't worry) but I cannot guarantee that no-one will get offended.

Ready?

Now, what are Balance Nightmares? Well, in short, it's champions that are extremely hard to balance without being too strong in high elo when playable on the lower ends of the elo ladder.

Anyone noticing the problem up there? No? At all?

Let me highlight the problematic part:

when playable on the lower ends of the elo ladder.

Why is that a problem?

Simply, because skill, game knowledge and even willingness to co-operate are so much different from what is happening on the higher end, and that alone brings the biggest problem with "balance nightmares". When those champions are decently playable in the lower ends, meaning that any random Plastic 12 player can win/carry ok-ish on those champions without putting in 100+ games, then those champions are impossible to deal with when played by players who mastered them, because they not only have their innate power (will talk about this a bit later) but they also have bonus power to "help" the champion be playable in lower elos, but without that help, those champions are unplayable in lower elos except by the most dedicated mains.

The only way to balance such a champion is to balance them exclusively either for higher elos and keeping the current kit OR reworking them to be playable only in lower elos.

BUT

There is also another issue with "balance nightmares", and that is what the champion is offering. If everything Azir is not only done by Annie, but she does it better and/or more, no-one will play Azir except for low/mid elos or extremely dedicated mains. If those champions who take a lot of experience ans skill to play when mastered do nothing more than what a champion like Garen or Annie can do, then they won't see play in higher elos. Such an example being Yog...Volibear, in 2018 he saw pro play, because what he was able to do was something that most of the other junglers couldn't do.

A champion's execution differ on skill requirement, when Azir is executed to perfection, whatever he does should never be less than what Annie does. When Akali or Riven are executed to perfection, they should not have less power than Garen or Mundo.

That's the keyword here, execution. In both pro play and high elos, those players (excluding dedicated mains or pocket picks) would play low skill champions if what they do is more than what the higher skill cap champions do. They may hate it, but if Maokai is broken in high elo and pro play, everyone and their grandmother is a Maokai main out of the blue. For pro players even more so, for them the fact that a champion is hard to execute is not an excuse, if when played at perfection that champion is the best in the game, they have to do it, they have to be able to play that champion to perfection.

So how do you balance those champions properly? Let's use a random number as example, say 50, 50 is good. If all other mid laners that are low skill offer 50 points, Azir or Akali must offer above that, under no circumstances should they offer 50 or less when played to perfection. But what about 52? If there's only 4-5 pros and Challengers in the game who can get 52, all other pros and Challengers get at most 49-50, then that champion is balanced, because to get 50 with Azir or Akali takes too much effort and is not worth it for most people, they aren't weak, again, for those who can do it good, they get 52, while the cap of all others is 50, but if, say Jensen from Team Liquid can only get 50 on Akali, but he can get 50 on Diana as well, he will pick Diana because she's easier to execute.

But that brings another problem for the lower ends, if when played perfectly Akali gives 52, but in lower elos she can only offer 20 on average, while Zed offers 46 on average when compared to that elo, she's unplayable unless you main her and put down the effort to get that 52.

We've seen in the past multiple times, both in high elo and pro play, if the execution is too easy for how much the champion offers, no-one will play something that is harder to execute but offer less, there is no point in that. Look at Sejuani, she's not hard to execute, she's stupidly easy, ok, she's no Yi, but still, yet she is also one of those "balance nightmares" that's either too good or useless. Syndra is a common pro pick? Because her main source of damage is so easy to execute, press R. There's also Yi, we all remember the LCK where Yi was an actual menace, like a year ago, because Yi is easy to execute and the funnel removed his weakness, what Yi offered was more than any other jungler and there was no point in playing the other champions, even now in high elo there's the funnel strat with Yi and Taric, why? Ease of execution compared to power level offered by that ease of use. MF being a chore to deal with? Why isn't Kai'sa currently the top dog? Because MF offers more and is easier to execute.

Now, since hopefully we finally got the message across on why certain champions have it mandatory to offer slightly more, let's move down a little in the elos, and to player mentality.

There are two main mentalities down here, the Zed mains and Yasuo mains. (not throwing dirt on these two, but the mentalities those two groups have on the majority of their playerbase is the perfect description of the majority of the players in lower elos, so I'm using those as example for ease of typing, I have to go work soon so I'd rather make it easier to understand in fewer words).

Zed mains follow the mentality that everyone else's champion is broken except for their own, regardless of the power level Zed has. Here is an old example: https://youtu.be/GDToxz48jNc?t=899

Time stamped.

While the mentality of Yasuo players is the "I am able to play everything".

Now, with those two mentalities combined, we get the average majority of mentalities in lower elos: "This champion isn't broken but is too hard to play, I must be able to play it". Even yesterday (at the time of writing) there was a comment on an Akali thread stating that exact thing: "I'm not LCS or Challenger or Grandmaster player, Akali isn't broken in my elo so she should be playable there".

The mentality is "I must be able to play everything" is the exact reason why game balance is iffy right now. Many don't want a balanced game, they want to win and win a lot, while also stomping on hard to play champions to showcase their "zkillz".

The only way to keep certain champions playable in lower elos while maintaining a high skill requirement is damage. Give them damage to compensate and be able to keep up with bad player and problem solved until the become a pro play menace because their damage is too high when mastered, then remove parts of the kit unrelated to damage to reduce their impact, fail because they still deal too much damage, repeat a few times and you get Kalista.

It's a common mentality from players of all game types to want it easy, look at Sekiro, we all remember the controversy where people stated that it's not fair for the game to be so hard to play, as everyone should be able to enjoy it without spending time learning it.

In the end, that mentality is toxic. Everyone should have the potential to play and do good on any champion, but the keyword here is "potential", you can do it if you put in the time, same how in real life, everyone has the potential to become an astronaut or doctor or whatever they want if they put in the time, but they can also choose something simpler that offers less income, but again, is easier. That's how champions should be as well, get a better income if you study and put in the time, get a smaller one if you don't. No-one would want to be a doctor is the gardener gets double the money of a doctor with no study necessarily.

Now, how much income one gets compared to the other, or in LoL's case, how much power, can be balanced, as long as people stop having the mentality that the maid should get as much money, if not more, to what the guy who operates and removes brain tumors gets.

As always, I'd like to hear your comments down bellow, and until next time, Masquerena, out.