Checklist On What Needs To Be Fixed/Done In Pre-Season 9 Or Whenever.

So I took the time to list almost every problem League has right now. Keep in mind that is my own opinion and MY OWN opinion alone, maybe you see some stuff not as a problem, maybe you would have listed more problems than me. If that is the case then please make yourself vocal in the comments and we can have a discussion about it.

Before I start the list I would like to have a few words on why it is so hard to balance the game in it's current state (if you don't care just skip to the list). IMO every game has specific "Tiers" for balance. Some have more and some have less. League has 3 Tiers.

In Tier 1 you can change and fuck up the balance however you like, it is so easily fixed that (assumed you change it early enough) you can fix it back very fast. Here are stuff like "Wukong burst too high" or "Mundo too tanky" or "Ivern is weak". It is mostly champion specific stuff that can be fixed by simple number/mechanic changes.

In Tier 2 you have to be careful with changes. Fucking something up here will change a lot of stuff in Tier 1. Stuff like AP Item Rework / ADC Item rework / Jungle rework / Turret strength. You "can" change Tier 1 to fix something fucked up in Tier 2. Like nerfing skirmish junglers after the Scuddle rework. It does work but it is not very elegant. Personally I think you should stay away from Tier 2 unless there is a problem that needs fixing or you have enough manpower/time to watch over the changes in Tier 2

In Tier 3 you shouldn't even think about changing something. If there is NOTHING wrong in Tier 3 then run away from that place as soon as you can and as far as your legs carry you. Here lies stuff that will change EVERYTHING in the game, stuff like Core game mechanics (like adding a second nexus into the game or removing a turret from the map) / Stuff that affects every champion (hi runes reforged) / general gold income / How resistances work / How ratios work. Fucking up here will literally fuck up the whole game and I seriously mean THE WHOLE GAME. You cannot start fiddling around in Tier 2 if Tier 3 has a problem, you cannot start fiddling around in Tier 1 if Tier 3 has a problem. It will never work out since the core of the game itself needs fixing and not specific areas in the game.

Riot has changed something in Tier 3 and fucked it up and now they are trying everything they can to fix it via changes in Tier 1+2 related stuff. Which does not and will never work.

This is mainly the problem Season 8 has right now, Tier 3 is fucked and Riot is fiddling around in Tier 1+2.

Without further ado, here is the checklist.

#Priority 1

• ##Runes Im Sure this isn't a surprise to anyone. This is a Tier 3 problem that needs fixing ASAP. Riot also has acknowledged this and are making a rune overhaul pre-season 9. What is worth keeping in mind is that every change done SPECIFICALLY because of the rune change needs to be looked at again. I'm talking about stuff like the jungle rework. The jungle got reworked because it had too much of an effect to the game too early. Now why did it have that? Because their ganks were too powerful early and why was that? Because the runes made it that way. Fixing the runes will leave the jungle in a weak state when it comes to early game. This is just one example, another one would be ADC itemization rework or Lethality - MR Pen buffs to items with RR.

• ##Snowball This is also acknowledged by Riot but I think people don't quite know that the snowball problem isn't JUST because of the runes. Though the runes play a big part here, it is also worth noting that FB Tower gold / Harold / Dragons are direct factors to snowballing. They make it so if you are ahead you will stay ahead and maybe even make the gap bigger. I don't think changing death timers or shut down gold mechanics is the right way to address this problem but again, you can only start balancing snowball if the Tier 3 problem is gone. Otherwise you just do everything twice.

• ##Early-Mid-Late game This point somehow got under the radar at Riot. Agreed, snowballing has a lot to do with this but generally speaking the new champions don't seem to be designed with a powercurve in mind. You look at Irelia and tell me that she is weak early but fail to see that after 1 item she becomes a monster. That isn't weak early, or trashing Nasus philosophy of being a scaling nightmare when all he needs is a sheen to rape you. Lately it feels like Riot has abandoned the idea of having a powercurve relative to game time and they just make it so everything is strong at all times. This is a Tier 3 mechanic of the game, be weary on what you change here.

. #Priority 2

• ##Getting rid of unnecessary mechanics What I mean by that is stuff like "obscured vision" on Akali shroud. Listen if you want unique designs then please, make them but adding a new mechanic that is on a SINGLE champion out of what? 140 champions? Then I think this is flawed designed and just needs to be normalized. It does nothing but add another balancing issue into the game, the same problem is with Zoe's sleep cc. It isn't a stun but if you make it a stun it's busted but the sleep still lasts too long but if you reduce the time the ability becomes useless. This is what I mean with balancing issues. Just make it a stun relative to traveled distances capping at a certain point. It's easier to balance and also clearer to play against.

• ##DFG Dilemma Hey remember DFG? Remember why we removed it? So why is Dusblade and Stormrazor here? Either change these 2 items dramatically so it isn't buy or troll or straight up remove them and rebalance lethality items / AD assassins / ADCs. I know it sucks but you did this to yourselfes Riot have to fix it somehow.

• ##True damage Simply put, there is too much true damage coming from non-champions sources. Being able to do 30% true damage as Tryndamere shouldn't be a thing. Not to speak that tanks are either immortal or useless depending on how much true damage is thrown at them. Balancing tanks with these true damage sources is WAY too hard and it can be fixed easier.... just fix the true damage sources and with that I mean remove them.

• ##Knock ups There is too much knock up cc at this point. Either change knock ups to stuns or add a counter to knock up cc (which is not the elegant way of fixing the problem). Not to speak about some cc's making no sense that they knock up, why is a Ornn charging at a wall knocking you up? Why is Nunu snowball knocking you up? Why does Aatrox knock you up when he swings his sword DOWNWARDS? There is so much stuff that doesn't any sense as a knock up. Just change them to regular stuns.

• ##ADC Items Well they are a problem once again. Not only the true damage from IE but also the fact that ER is ONLY bought by Lucian makes it so the whole rework is kind of.... wonky. Personally I would revert IE / ER and remove Stormrazor. Then make it so IE scales with +25% crit damage for ranged and +50% for melee OR make it so the damage scales with levels. Keep the Zeal gold nerfs. Nerf the crit ADCs in the early game. Very simple way to approach this problem.

• ##Death Timers This change was done because of the rune changes but I listed it sperately to talk about the problem here. Getting an early kill right now is so clunky. The enemy that just died is back faster to the lane than the guy that backed, so you kind of lose a bit of value for a kill since the enemy will have minion control now. For a lack of a better explanation, It just feels bad.

• ##Turrets I don't exactly know what your philosophy around turrets is but... whatever it is it isn't good. They are too weak in regards of survival right now. A successful jungler gank bot level 4 shouldn't kill the tower. They deal enough damage, just the fact that champions deal SO MUCH MORE is the reason why it seems like they don't deal enough but they really need to be upped in HP/Resistances across the map. Inhib / Nexus turrets are a joke at this point. This also enforces a more snowbally meta where taking the outer turret is the hardest and then you start rolling over the rest.

• ##Toxicity is out of control Listen I played league for a long time and holy fucking christ it feels like I just want to fullmute all in every game and as soon as a guy gives up I actually lose any motivation I had winning that game. I haven't had a fun experience with a random other player for months. This might be tied to the point that a lot of people hate the current state of the game and thus rising the toxicity but still... the outomated system needs some tuning for sure, you can see this season as a stress test for the system and it failed the test by a large margin.

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#Priority 3

• ##Champion specific problems Yes of course I'm talking about Zoe but not ONLY Zoe. I'm also talking about Galio / Kalista / Azir / Ryze, basically champions that are seens so rare that you might as well remove them. I haven't seen a Galio for months now, I saw the old Galio more than the new one to be honest. These champions need fixing before other champions, we don't need to rework played champions if there are champs that are LITERALLY not being seen in the rift, doesn't matter if they are new or not. Also if a champion mechanic is so unhealthy that it even got completely removed in the past should propably be also removed today.

• ##Honoring Enemies You promised us to bring this back... where is it?

• ##Client is too buggy Not much to say here, the client needs some serious work regarding performance / bug fixing

• ##Be more careful reworking champions It must feel truly devestating to have your favorite champion completely removed from the game. To be honest if you removed GP I would propably not even play anymore. Aatrox / Galio are prime examples on how a rework should not be made. Those aren't the champions they used to be, only similarity is the names they have.

• ##Show more attention to off-meta builds I'm not talking about the guy playing AP Zed support, I'm talking about Stormrazor on Sion (yeah it's actually not bad on him, charging up Q gives you another stormrazor hit to keep up with enemies). AP Rek'Sai, AP Xin. You don't show any attention or just want to get rid of these playstyles ASAP for some reason. Stuff like this is what made league league. I get that you can't have off meta playstyles as a primary focus when balancing but at least try to keep them alive when changing stuff.

• ##More attention to Twisted Treeline I see you putting SO MUCH work out for Nexus Blitz while there is a mode completely left in the dust for what reason exactly? The map still has the old jungle monsters ffs. The boosting strat was used for god knows how long and was only fixed when the strat went to Summoners Rift.

#Ending Words

Well that is the list. I would also like to mention that this is no time to stop making big changes, the game NEEDS big changes right now, small changes wont fix anything in a meaningful way. Riot you need to first fix Tier 3 and then work your way up the ladder to Tier 1. Any balancing done before fixing Tier 3 will be for a rats ass.

You promised a lot in Pre-Season 9, you may have even promised too much for you to handle but if I can give you a tip, start thinking this way whenever you need to fix something, "can I just go back?" When you look at Electrolute and realize it is a problem then just think to yourself "can I go back?", Yes you can, just go back to the damage of TLD. Same with Conq and FoB Same with Grasp and Grasp Same with Afterschock and CoC Same with Taste of Blood and Feast

The community DOES NOT want anything new at this point, most of them want a balanced game and a fun experience again while playing the game. Once everything important is fixed you can go back to start fiddling around with new stuff but until then just take the easy route and go back wherever you can. I don't think a lot of people will be pleased if they see another fuck up by you in Pre-Season 9, just consider my advice and take the easy and safe route to fix the problems.

That's all I had to say, have a good day everyone... or night... or whatever you have right now.