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The most criticized champions in the game, and why.

Buildermann 13·12/7/2018, 12:42:00 PM·24 votes·11,624 views

So recently I've been thinking: What are the current most complained about champions in the game, and why? What do they have in common?

#What champions do people complain about the most? The ones that immediately come to mind here are (these are not organized):

  • ##Zoe Zoe -Can CC you for longer than some ultimate abilities, even without landing her initial skillshot. -Can get and use random items and summoner spells from minions, as well as her enemy laner's.

-One thing I learned very early on in the game is to dodge skillshots. Against Zoe, that is not enough anymore. On paper it doesn't sound bad, but the fact that it has NO decrease in potency, and an AoE larger than most jungle paths for a missed shot is disheartening. -Zoe is as well the only champion I know of that can have a fully built item's active without actually spending the gold to build the item. Not only that, but she can have the effect before she would have earned enough gold to purchase said item anyway. -And the last point: She can use your own summoner spells, which have until now been only for you and your team, to kill you. Again, with no decrease in potency. She also gets bonus movement speed for doing so, which makes her enemy unable to get away if they have no built-in escape and must resort to a spell that in any other case they would normally have just for themselves.

  • ##Akali Akali -Can avoid turret shots while still dealing damage to you. -Can damage you and go invisible before you can target her. -Can not be targeted even when True Sight is applied.

-Historically, if you stayed under tower, you would be safe. At the very least you could see everything bad coming at you. Well, that's changed now. What is the purpose of true sight if it doesn't let you target the enemy? This makes every champion without an AoE ability weak to her. Her shroud stays active for a seemingly long time, and she can stay in it, damage you, and then retreat back faster than most players can react. And even if you damage her while stealthed, she does not become targetable (such as with Teemo).

  • ##Yasuo Yasuo -Can use your own minions against you. -Can completely cancel any enemy projectile instantly.

-I'm pretty sure if you played an intro bots game today, it would still tell you to stay behind your minions if you stepped out too far. Staying behind your minions against a Yasuo is not a viable strategy. He can dash through anything you try to hide behind, with a 0.5 second cooldown or a 10 second cooldown if he wants to do it again, all with no mana or energy costs. -It doesn't matter how many projectiles you throw, until the windwall ends you can not shoot him until you reposition. It also is not placed, it comes from within him, so even if he casts it the milisecond before a shot would hit him, it doesn't land.

  • ##Neeko Neeko -Can use your own minions to CC you.

-Staying behind your minions is not only a nonviable strategy this time, but a bad one. Her E goes through minions and roots you for longer the more minions you're behind. It has a fairly large range, too, so she's not even putting herself at risk to land this ability.

All the champions I've listed break some of the rules you learn very early, when you start playing the game. There are many more champions than what I have listed here, and I would love any additions from anyone who has taken the time to read this. All I ask is that you don't make your post into a rant. Thank you for reading this far, and I hope to see you in the comments!

74 Comments

Dynikus12/7/2018, 12:45:09 PM47 votes

-Staying behind your minions is not only a nonviable strategy this time, but a bad one.

MissFortune

Febos12/7/2018, 1:03:48 PM23 votes

Mordekaiser - Your minions are supposed to help you, right? Wrong. If you fight Mordekaiser when he has your minions nearby, you lose. Azir - You want to stay behind your minions? Sure, go right ahead. Swain - E goes through minions and he can actually use them to trap you. Ziggs - He'll Q if you get close to your minions. Zilean - Same thing as above. He can stun you without actually hitting you directly.

DuskDaUmbreon12/7/2018, 2:16:41 PM9 votes

Yasuo -Can use your own minions against you.

Bard Brand Fiora Fizz Fiddlesticks Kalista Jhin Jax Irelia Katarina LeeSin Mordekaiser MissFortune Malzahar Sivir Ryze Zilean and item 3072 all prove that this is not unique to Yasuo. Or Neeko.

nelogis12/7/2018, 1:33:12 PM6 votes

Zoe

You made some good points but I think you missed out on the most important one.

One of the biggest problems of hers is the R2. The R2 alone makes her so much more frustrating to play against and which turns her into the old Nidalee.

Problems of the old Nidalee was that she sat back and spammed her spears with literally 0 risk of ever getting engaged on.

Zoe jumps in for 0.5 seconds to hit her wannabe Nidalee Q and goes back no matter what happens, she could get ulted by Malphite, feared by WW, silenced and knocked up by Blitz, Surpressed by Malzahar and ulted by Lee and she STILL goes back.

THAT is the problem, there is no risk to go for a combo when playing her, you just spam your shit until eventually something lands and kills a guy.

Make it so when she gets cc'd that she DOESN'T go back with R2 and then we are talking about real counterplay.

"you thought jumping into 3 ppl was a good idea? A-NOUPE!"

Then she would even get a few hard-counters like Thresh or Fiddle, anything with an instant stun.

Akali

Remove obscure, literally almost everyone wants this removed even Akali players, just go to the Akali mains reddit and even there people want it removed. How hard can it be to just remove this shit.

Old Akali was able to stay safe in her shroud too and that was just normal stealth, why new Akali shouldn't be able to do it is beyond me. Normal stealth is good enough ffs.

Also her healing is a problem but not as much as the obscure bullshit.

Also her R1 stun which I still don't understand why it's even there. It literally is just there for the sake of being there.

Neeko

I mean.. ehhh.. I don't know, it's kind of similar to Swain but not really because Swain snare needs to travel to max distance first.

I don't see it as much of a problem to be honest since it enhances her counterplay, which is diving her ass.

The bigger problem I see with her is that her R is just too strong.

This snare is laughable when cast point blank onto an opponent, just like Xerath stun and I think that is a good way to increase a champions weakness.

Basically what Zoe also should have, that her cc lasts less when cast point blank.

So you are actually rewarded for getting to her.

Also surprising that you left out these guys

Irelia Camille

SSW Talon12/7/2018, 5:15:47 PM4 votes

I dunno, Neeko especially seems fine to me. She's surprisingly fun to play against.

Around999People12/7/2018, 4:27:00 PM3 votes

Great post, and I agree with some of it, but not all of it.

Take miss fortune, in the tutorial you get to play as her and see how minions can fuck you over with her Q bouncing off of then and melting the enemy hp. This cancels out neeko, and maybe even yas.

I feel like a lot of hate is because people don't like change. Look at Pyke. He is hated, why? Because he changes the dynamic of the team. Instead of funneling all your gold into the adc, the adc now has to play like a team member and if they take all the kills then their trolling. Its change. The same with Zoe. It's not like we havent seen insanely long range abilities (xerath, rakan engage, kog, etc). But she brings change in how shes able to use your kit against you, at least with items and sums.

I can make an argument like that for everyone. I used to hate yas, then I got better and understood the game more and the champion. His q is easy to dodge, his ww is easy to wait out, none of his kit is impossible to deal with even in a 1v1.

My issues with champions come from scaling and the damage creep. A 2 item yas isnt broken because of a knock up or a dash or even his 20 sec CD w. Hes broken because at 2 items he can 1v5 dive to under tower and win you a team fight, and god forbid a 1v1.

The only champion I really hate is akali. The issue I have with her is her ultra safe kit that is made to let her shine in any situation. Like yas, shes a ticking time bomb ready to go off, with a kit that makes her neigh on impossible to stop unless everyone throws everything at her. If she dies, we lost the team fight because we blew everything on her. If we don't kill her, she mops us up.

Sorry for how hard this is to read. Phone loves to auto correct shit

L9 Princess Paru12/7/2018, 3:51:12 PM3 votes

Can we FINALLY stop act like towers mean anything to ANY assassin? Fizz > E, Zed R, Kat > E on targets, LB > W. Why is it SOOOO bad that Akali can ignore towers with the right setup as well?! Kinda hypocritical.

PowerSlave99312/7/2018, 11:17:38 PM2 votes

Jax ??????????????????????????????

Larriet12/8/2018, 2:38:47 AM2 votes

Akali -Can avoid turret shots while still dealing damage to you.

Is she not visible long enough for turrets to let off a shot? I thought she was.

Malix Farwin12/8/2018, 10:22:55 PM1 votes

Interesting, haven't heard anyone complain about Zoe in quite a while(even has 3% ban rate with 50% WR in comparison to Yasuo who has a 52% ban rate with 47% WR). I hardly even see a Zoe complaining thread anymore(this is the first one i seen in a long time lol) and not even well known players/streamers are even complaining about her anymore. Sounds like you are late to a party that no longer exists.

Akali is well the current problem that Riot is actively discussing about so at the very least they have come out and acknowledge that she's a problem.

Yasuo is the only real legitimate argument you have, he has had a high ban rate since his introduction because people simply do not want him in his game. He fits your example of most criticized champions while the most did not receive anymore criticism then any other champion that released OP (i have not forgetting Ekko release to this day for example and it took them almost a year to balance him).

Neeko is new and most of the complains ive seen about her is numbers only, her kit itself is more or less fine.

Aside from Yasuo, if you think those other three were criticized more then even LeeSin and Fizz were in the past then you are crazy i'm sorry.

UlyssesISR12/8/2018, 11:24:40 PM1 votes

I don't have an issue with any champion in particular. I have a problem with things like Flash/Ignite/Barrier being staples in nearly every champion build regardless of roles. There is literally no point in roles at all if champions can dip or double dip into aspects another champion is supposed to excel at. That's my problem with the game.