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"OP" Champions, Why Riot should adress this issue?

Khazaad·12/21/2014, 9:53:10 AM·2 votes·1,327 views

First a little bit of Context, I've been playing this game since the mid of 2013, i am not a pro and I've never been interested in the forum before, i am Gold V, i didn't play season 3 because i thought i wasn't good enough, and i try to have a good time while i win, i am not the most supportive player nor the most toxic, average all over the place.

Now "The Problem" itself, As long as i can remember there has always been this so called "OP Champions" I.E: RivenRiven , many would argue that this is a really noob-ish thing to say, but please humor me for the sake of the argument, Riven is overall a really strong champion especially in low tiers (the only one i know sadly), she doesn't have any stat particularly strong or weak but her skill set is just brutal, and everything scales extremely well with her AD, she has a dash, a shield, AoE and a Stun, all wrapped in a more than decent cool down and a fantastic AD bonus scaling bonus...

Now why do this matter? League is a game of skill, in theory, a pro player can defeat any other player with any champion configuration, but for the rest of the mortals, the difference between knowing a "champ" and playing it for the first time is BIG, this difference gets less noticeable in higher tiers because usually to reach a certain Rank you must know a thing or two about the game that applies, more or less, to everyone. The problem begins when two players with the same level of skill face each other. According to what Riot says there is a concept behind every champion, and a certain role they fill, such as Assasins, Marksmans, Tanks, Fighters, Mages and Supports, each and one of this roles has a certain pattern, I.E: assassins have high burst capability but are squishy, or tanks who cant deal huge amounts of damage but can endure a lot of punishment, this plus the different skill sets would mean that every champion has a distinctive way to achieve victory, every champions has their own mechanics and synergy. This leads to the "Riven" Problem, Riven is a champion who can deal huge amounts of damage, endure a lot of punishment or run if the situation requires it(this also means that she can shorten the gap between range and melee "champs") her skills just fulfill every role, and we players know this, Riven is just overall a great champion, sure you can find a more resilient or faster champion but all together at the same time just breaks the point of the game, i remember lee sin being unstoppable, a lee sin was able to win a game by himself, thankfully a few changes where made and that's not the case anymore. the point is that Riot should pay more attention to what champions are considered "Too Strong" and fix them as fast as they can instead of wait for the Championships and make changes according to what the "Pros" do... I have been in games where everyone picks a OP Champion because: they want to win... you are suppose to pick the champion that fits your way of play the best not just some "OP" champion because you want to win... this is about skill not "Winning by any means necessary" , Having a champion like Fiora who can just rush Hydra and win hurts the game, having a Riven who is all the roles in one without having a clear concept hurts the game, a Yorick with almost infinite sustain, a Warwick with unparalleled brawler potential, all of this champions lack a clear concept, they are just "strong", i have no idea what they where suppose to be except that if i want to win then i should pick them..

In My Opinion Riot should address this Issues, this unclear Champions, having an unstoppable killing machine in your game makes everything boring, every time i want to win i pick X because he will obliterate all the other champions? that's just wrong, what is the point of having so many different characters if you only see a bunch of them, if your heroes are not balanced rework them, stop creating new champs with "awesome new concepts" and try to find real concepts for the champions you already have, i don't care about graphics, sure i enjoy them but the game is still the same, and the game play doesn't get any better. Fix your Champions Stay true to your own words Good Luck and Have Fun

PS: On the riven Subject at least take the scaling AD for her dash and make it shorter than a flash, but i still want to know her concept. PSS: It's late so forgive any mistakes PSSS: Thanks for reading, have a good day/night

34 Comments

EffectFX12/21/2014, 10:00:20 AM8 votes

Or you could become a better player and learn how to deal with these champions. You don't need to be a pro to do that.

redniwediS12/21/2014, 10:08:36 AM5 votes

None of the champions you mentioned are "OP". You're looking at the classical downsides of each role instead of the practical downsides of each individual champion.

Riven is weaker to CC than many champions, requires a large amount of gold to stay useful, and falls off drastically come late game. Put someone who can absorb her early game damage and also deal damage in return against her and she will fall far behind.

Fiora only has raw offensive power, and if that power is denied (which is rather easy with good teamwork) she is utterly useless, even when fed. If you face her with someone who can offer map pressure through pushing power all you have to do is survive lane. If she has to constantly defend against you when she is unable to kill you her presence in the game will be rather low.

Yorick is a jack of all trades, with sustain, tank, damage, and range, but as with all who are good at everything he fails when faced with champions who do each area better. Pick a master in one of these areas and so long as you play to your strengths and not his you should do well.

Warwick, with the new jungle changes, became a rather big issue. His ability to apply on hit effects with his ult used to be one of his greatest benefits, but ended up being the final straw, causing a nerf that hurt any Warwick build that does not require these (arguably) still broken items. He is a one trick pony, which makes him weak against high utility junglers.

You can call for nerfs all you like, but people have figured out how to counter each of these champions already. You can stick with the idea that champions like these four are simply "OP" or you can join everyone who knows not only how to handle a difficult matchup, but how to learn from it to make similar matchups easier in the future.

Joecelin12/21/2014, 10:12:58 AM2 votes

People like riven and fiora need to get ahead to be useful careful play early on will screw them up pretty bad people like yorick are strong early but fall off pretty hard in comparison to the meta top laners then warwick from my understanding is largely useless after the nerf to both the jungle item and his ult

these statements are not opinions i came up with but consensus from various much higher tier players that are nice enough to dedicate their time to making videos and guides across multiple platforms id advise if you are having trouble fighting them watch how d1-challenger players deal with those champions and make steps in that direction

Talamare12/21/2014, 10:04:52 AM2 votes

Riven has a very specific rhythm that isn't too difficult to get used to

Plenty of champions are way more OP and more difficult to counter, like Lee Sin

Colgate Minuette12/21/2014, 11:56:53 PM1 votes

Simple fixes to all these champions:

Riven: Don't get near her early game. Her power comes from her auto attacks between her Q hits, just stay away from her. Go Gnar and hit her at max range with your Q, not that hard. Just stay away from her.

Fiora: Don't hit her when she activates her dodge abilities. It negates all your attacks, save them for when it's down. And again, stay away from her.

Yorick: No one plays Yorick, is this really an issue?

Warwick: Just STAY AWAY FROM HIM. IT's not that hard to keep at a distance dude. His ult has range, yes. But if you stay OUT of that range there is nothing he can do. What's hilarious is when the WW comes into lane, lead him toward river (If you're in mid) Then when he's just about to get in range for his ult, flash toward your turret. You're now out of range again and safe.

EndlessSorcerer12/22/2014, 12:20:22 AM1 votes

Best advice I can probably give you: if you are having difficulties playing against a champion, you should try and play that champion for a few games so you can learn their strengths, weaknesses, and playstyle.

The thing with league, and most MOBAs, is that there are rarely overpowered champions. Occasionally, some champions may be slightly overtuned for their role or the game, but that's a result of how difficult games with many variables are to balance and a constantly changing meta.

The champions which may be considered OP change with every patch (so Riot is dealing with them), however players have to do their part as well. As an example, Mundo and Shyvana were considered by many to be overpowered in the top lane at the beginning of Season 4 due to the mastery changes. While they had their time of dominance, Trundle began being picked because he could counter tanks very well with his ultimate (before Riot eventually nerfed the Perseverance mastery and them).

Honestly, at most levels of play how 'powerful' a champion is isn't that important unless the difference is severe. Most players can't really play a champion to their full abilities or make other mistakes in play (positioning, rotations, combos, CSing, communication, trading, etc) that will have more impact on the game than the champions selected.

Every champion in the game has weaknesses and strengths which should be understood to play as and against them. Nasus can survive most lanes and grow very powerful, but he doesn't provide much for his team early in the game so you can either deny Nasus or snowball your team to increase their strength. Riven is a good laner and duelist, but she's not as good in teamfights or sieges unless she's been fed. Leblanc is very powerful in early laning with high kill pressure, but she has difficulty in mid- to late-game teamfights due to low utility and AoE damage.

To deal with the champions you specifically mentioned: Fiora Fiora is a feast-or-famine champions who needs to snowball early to remain significant. She has minimal sustain before lifesteal (her passive isn't really that good) and remains squishy the entire game, so landing a since CC on her should result in her death. Her ultimate makes her untargetable, but it does not remove damage over time affects and cannot affect champions who are untargetable, so building Zhonya's Hourglass or picking a champion with untargetability (Fizz, Maokai, Vladimir, Master Yi, etc) or targetted CC (Ryze, Irelia, Maokai, etc) you can prevent her from taking action. Fiora is also very easy to bully out of lane early in the game, so she's easy to shut down to the point she can't really come back into the game without a major mistake on the part of her opposing team.

Riven Very snowball dependent to be useful later in the game, so if you play safe and miss CS which are too dangerous to take, you should be able to fight her or outperform her in teamfights if you don't feed. Well timed CC can wreck her since it denies her mobility and her shield, which are her main survival tools. With proper positioning in teamfights, Riven shouldn't be able to reach your backline easily without flash unless you misplay. Yorick Very high mana costs early game and he doesn't scale that well. Yorick's job is to shut down his opponent in lane and prevent them from scaling, so you have to try and get whatever gold and experience you can without letting him poke you out. Yorick has a lot of sustain and damage early if you straight up fight him, so just focus on farming and outscale him. Warwick Warwick was nerfed in the last patch due to his synergy with the new jungle. When dealing with Warwick, remember that his ultimate has a fairly short range and is single target, so squishy champions should stay near allies who can interrupt the ultimate. In addition, Warwick has no gap-closer without his ultimate (aside from a situational movespeed buff) so he is susceptible to flows and peel after his ultimate has been used. Grievous Wounds is valuable to prevent Warwick from sustaining through any damage dealt to him. He doesn't really have any early bully potential due to his mana costs and, while he's difficult to shove out of lane or the jungle, he can't really shove other champions out either.

Stephenizgod12/22/2014, 12:26:05 AM1 votes

Well if someone picks Riven i pick Garen. I see so many people and posts saying Riven is too OP or just too strong, but honestly ive never thought that. Obviously i have lost to Riven before, several times, but in ranked its pretty easy to counter pick her. Garen and Darius do really well against her normally and those two are my favorite Top picks. Malzahar top (i know its a weird pick) does really well against her, in Mid lane not so well since she can traverse the entire lane in one combo. I think Renekton is still a good pick against her, he is an even crazier lane bully...

Fiora... Fiora is strong sure, but easily outplayed by certain champions. She is weak to CC and as long as she never catches you she can't really do anything. Plus her ults cooldown is pretty huge. There are actually a lot of champions that are good at stopping her or shutting her down, im pretty sure Darius is really good against her since his bleed will still hurt her while she is ulting.

Yorick hmm, strong champion sure, annoying mostly, but still not much of a problem. I have beaten Yoricks with Garen multiple times, Darius, Fiora a few times (some times as a jungler holding lane), Jarvan, Malzahar every single time i fight him, and Karma in a 3v3 if i remember correctly. It could be I'm fighting bad Yoricks, I'm actually pretty sure that's it actually, but I've never had too much of a problem with him other then he annoyed the hell out of me in lane.

Warwick is really annoying, i don't like fighting against him all that much. The only good thing is he wont gank pre-6 or at least not too often, so you don't have to worry about over-extending too much. If your team has some good CC and is good at using it then his ult isn't too bad.

There are a few OP champions (Warwick before they just patched him), Fizz and Zed are two champions i see complained about a lot (and for good reason), but its not like they are unstoppable. My friend beat a Fizz with Talon even though their entire team thought Fizz was going to destroy (Fizz included of course), in fact i don't think my friend died that game. I have even beat Fizz with Gnar twice, i don't really get how. I main Malz so Zed isn't too much to fear for me.

BluePolarizer12/21/2014, 10:17:38 AM1 votes

are you an ADC main?

Devis Tator12/21/2014, 10:18:19 AM1 votes

If you can reply to me that'd be great.

What is your standings in Ranked. Solo Q or Ranked Q. What is your rank??

Khazaad12/21/2014, 5:04:53 PM1 votes

I am not whining about how bad i am or how i cant defeat this champions, i am concerned about the game itself, if riot says that there is a concept behind their champions and there is a reason for everything, i am just wondering what is the meaning of having this extremely strong champions, of course they can be defeated, been there, done it, but the problem is more deep than that, the game is going to start crackling if everything goes to the same champions over and over again