The new Champs are going to be a balancing nightmare

Eedat·Apr 5, 2017·18 votes·1,055 views

Here is what's going to happen. The new Champs are obviously going to be much stronger if you can play them together. They're going to have to be balanced around this fact. They'll be garbage when apart because of this. If they aren't balanced around being played together, they'll be absurdly OP when they are.

They'll live in this awkward spot where if they're ever strong together, one of them will just get banned every game. There will be no point playing one without the other, so they'll never get picked. If they are strong apart, they'll be completely broken when together. The community will demand Riot nerfs them.

This kind of design seems pretty doomed from the start. Just my opinion though.

15 Comments

DarkRitualApr 6, 201713 votes

"much stronger" is a rediculous stretch. The recall interaction I expect to have a time limit on joining on before they get to Live. The other synergies, are one per kit. They are also not make-or-break.

Xayah will be 100% playable on her own. Rakan is the one who actually benefits from BOTH of their kits' skill synergies. He mirrors Xayah's one buff, and gains increased dash distance if dashing to her. Neither of those are likely to make their pairing overpowered or overbearing. You're crying over spilled milk that hasn't even left the cow yet.

Jeddy017Apr 6, 20175 votes

People seem to be ignoring that they only have one bonus each when playing with each other. Both of which only affect Rakan, the support, like you said. Why are people acting like they become super saiyans when played with each other?

If it become such a problem, Riot can simply remove those bonuses & go from there.

Sire HippingtonApr 6, 20172 votes

Well. the way they are currenty tuned it has some merrit, as Rakans dash is not just a bit higher range, but doubled. I agree with the OP that unless the boni they get are rather negligible it will cause issues.

DarkRitualApr 6, 20171 votes

+50/60/70/80/90% bonus dash range towards Xayah would probably be sufficient to nerf that. I'm not to terribly worried about the buff Xayah shares with Rakan.

If the bonuses are negligible or unnoticable, they might as well not exist, which completely defeats the purpose. Having them start negligible and progress as the game (and their love) goes on should be fine though, as long as they still don't get too out of hand at the upper end.

xWatersApr 6, 20174 votes

Let's just wait to see what happens :)

ArakadiaApr 6, 20174 votes

I think it'll be like Braum and Lucian where their both fine on their own but together have a much higher win rate. They'll be like any other adc and support who synergies.

MailrosApr 14, 20171 votes

That is just false. Lucian and Braum have a high win rate because their individual skill kits mesh well. They don't get improved versions of any of their abilities when they play together, they just work well together. This forced synergy between the new champs is completely different. Its exactly that; forced. They are always going to be stronger together no matter what and they are going to be weaker apart no matter what. It has nothing to do with using their skills together well. Whether you are the world's best duo with them or the worst they are going to be stronger together and weaker apart. Its going to be horribly difficult to balance.

And you know they are going to get balanced for LCS play with its extremely high levels of cooperation meaning they will most likely always be weak for a random solo queue bot lane.

ArakadiaApr 15, 20171 votes

they just work well together.

Just like Xayah and Rakan. Lucian can proc Braum's passive very fast and benefits from Braum's kit. Xayah can give her W to Rakan and benefits from Braums kit.

Yes. Their abilities literally get better together. But its going to be just like Braum and Lucian, they synergize well together. Why is it bad that champions who are meant to synergize have a higher winrate together?

resumedApr 6, 20173 votes

it would be easy to gut their interactions and balance them around playing with other compositions though

BlytedApr 5, 20172 votes

I don't know, there are other champs in the game that have high levels of synergy which leads to them being very potent when played together. I don't see the two new champs as being so broken when paired that they will be a huge issue.

Acheron16Apr 6, 20171 votes

{quoted}

I don't know, there are other champs in the game that have high levels of synergy which leads to them being very potent when played together. I don't see the two new champs as being so broken when paired that they will be a huge issue.

Its one thing to have synergistic kits, another is to literally have certain parts of their kit be stronger if the other champ is closer (Rakan shares his passive with Xayah, his heal range is increased if cast to Xayah, etc).

There are some champions that have TINY buffs with other champions (Tresh gets two souls for Nunu death, Maokai is faster near a Zyra, skins with sunglasses 1 damage less from Leona), but none of them gets this level of meaningful power.

SzGamer227Apr 6, 20172 votes

I'm reasonably sure they've going to be balanced to have a slight advantage when together and only a slight disadvantage when apart. Because you can do things like pick Rakan in Draft when you see an enemy picked Xayah, they would have a poor win-rate if they were balanced around being a fair matchup in duo lane only. On the other hand, if they were balanced around being a fair matchup as individuals, then the duo synergy would never occur outside of Normal Blinds, thus a major part of their character and mechanical interactions would go to waste.

Riot has to walk a tightrope with this one, but it's not impossible to achieve this middleground at all.