@Riot Focusing on an identity and not caliber of player: The Kalista & Azir Dillema

Be mad if you will hate if you want but honestly I kinda am fed up with this idea of "Easy to play" champs and "Skill based" champs when it's entirely predicated on a flawed ranking system and a narrow perception/small sample size of games played at the highest level. Literately two champs that have existed in this state of conditional strength since their release; in that being you need to play a certain number of games and master a certain number of basic elements respective to the lane they are played in/role to "master" and effectively play these champions. So in simple words: "Due to heavy nerfs you need to be challenger to play [Kalista/Azir] right now". Both champions kits were nerfed to the point they do not function well anymore because they are too weak to and are now stuck in a dilemma where Ritos decided on a whim to just change the entire philosophy on how champs should be balanced. They dont fit the philosophy, are deemed balanced yet are broken. WTF!?!

Recent Ask Riot response to question: Question: "Riot seems to like to balance and rework champs so that they fill a specific and unique niche, but what about champs that can do anything well? (Like Kayle, or pre-AD-nerf-Kennen, and Udyr's jungle shenanigans.) Is League moving away from all-rounder type champs or do they still have a place?"

Answer: We're definitely moving away from all-rounder type champions This isn't to say that champions need to do only one or two things,or be limited to only one role or position, but they do need strong strengths and weaknesses. One of the goals we strive for when designing or updating champions is to ensure they have 4 things:

• Unique Inputs (the Champion feels unique to play)
• Unique Outputs (the Champion feels unique to play with/or against for the other 9 people)
• Defined Strengths
• **Defined Weaknesses **

**"All-rounder" type champions don't pass the last two categories (and usually also don't do well on the first two either). We ultimately feel the game is better, has deeper gameplay, and is ultimately more enjoyable when champions have strong strengths and weaknesses people can play around." **

What the actual fuck, what defined strengths do these champions work around currently?! I was debating not portraying my anger here but honestly I dont care anymore and I hope a Rioter reads this and shares it with his/her buddies. I remember not so long ago when we were balancing older champions, such as Ryze so that they fit in with the newer "mobility creeping" champions that exist in this game. You wanna know something funny, most of these mobility creeping champions pale in comparison to the old immobile champions of years past. Ryze has been and probably will always be an OP piece of shit, Annie has been getting consistent tweaks so that she too can continue to blow people up, Ashe was reworked so that being immobile doesnt affect her ability to be an ADC, same with MF. Whats with this obsession and need to validate immobility with overtoned cc and raw power? All of these champions bring some from of significant CC and pack tons of damage at all stages in the game.

All for what, because they cannot dash to make highlight plays? Or is it to keep the game "noob friendly"? Azir and Kalista aren't noob firnedly and should only be played by pros, so by defenition everyone who isnt a pro is a noob? These are the only things one can deduce when the current roster of champions exhibit the strength they do in comparison to the others. All for the sake of competitive play, putting in work to master these champs is meaningless; and by contrast you as a player who is not challenger your effort is meaningless. How you perform on these champs is meaningless, because Riot isn't looking at your nor do they care, thats what I get when I read and see shit like this. What other way is there to interpret this. I dont want to play Ashe, or Ryze, or Annie, or MF, they are boring as fuck.

Even as a ADC main myself who ha splayed Ashe for years I cannot consider Ashe a utility AD anymore, she is LEGITIMATELY a carry that has a ton of CC. What is she lacking,a dash? Is that even relevant anymore? It's not, especially with all the changes to supports, and from what it looks like from riots tone and track record the assassin update will only solidify that further, giving immobile champions windows to "respond" to those that can move around the map and have superior outplay potential. My main gripe with this is, especially concerning Kalista and Azir is that theres a clear contradiction here. Riot's willing to overload a champion that cannot dash/hop quickly in a teamfight/skirmish to make up for that, but for that champion that needs items and relies on outplay they will gut you to the point that your entire team needs to set you up FOR the outplay.

I know right what am I saying it sounds silly but think about it. Right now what does it take to make a successful Kalista or Azir player? A proper jungle/support so you can survive laning phase because you have no early game presence whatsoever. For Kalista specifically throughout the game you need your support at all times to use half of her kit and be meaningful at all. You need enough CC to keep targets locked down/peel to keep the massive amounts of AoE and CC off of you thats present in these immobile carries/supports. Like how are you going to do damage on Kalista if they arent taking rend spears the entire fight? You can't, the sustained damage needed will not be effective without heavy amounts of CC on your side to work.

You dont excel at anything in particular that anyone of the before mentioned immobile champions do not. Teamfighting? Ashe and MF are Teamfighting queens. Fates call doesnt hold a candle, same with Azir's wall which only knocks back once now. Your damage is not that respectable at all until very late and alot of these immobile carries spike hard in the mid game, while also being very oppressive in the laning phase. Does Ashe even ever fall off? The answer to that is no btw. Even jhin follows this same nonsense philosophy. Why is it so difficult to decide on strengths and weaknesses immobile/mobile carries are ALLOWED to posses. Everything is given to the champion that cannot move right now, its really funny too because immboility is no longer a weakness, it's honestly become a strength because it translates into heavy consideration for overtuned buffs on game changing abilities.

It's very unfair because now whether it's been intentionally done or not, immobility is automatically associated with low skill cap that needs heavy handicap buffs to compensate, while mobility is viewed as something that should only be attempted and CAN only be executed at the highest levels of play. This makes the game very uninteresting and frustrating to play, because you're forced to adhere very harsh and unfortunate precenedts that restrict freedom and individual preference of a player. I honestly feel bad if I pick Azir or Kalista in any of my games because 80% of the time im useless, despite being level 7 mastery, having near 400k mastery points, having legitimately climbed to plat with this champ, all of that is just vanished, because im not challenger right?

Recently it has been stated that riot wants to go back to having champs having a clear strength with defined weaknesses, yet Kalista and Azir dont excel at anything right now. Also Meddler apparently thinks Kalista is balanced right now. So where does that leave these champions? In a limbo where only if I hit challenger I will see results because my team and I will be good enough then to play around a severely weak pick SOMETIMES? These champions are NOT in a good spot and for a moment I'd really like riot to stop trying to figure out when Ryze will actually not be a broken piece of crap due to using immobility WAAY to much as a crutch and decide on what the hell they want champion in LoL to embody. Are we having champions with many tools to work with, or are we playing League of counter picks? I will not pick up these easy as fuck boring champs, I will not submit to this fuckery! Fix this!