Adding Counter Play to older champions to make them healthier

Lets face it some of LoL's older champs just don't match up to current LoL's standards when it comes to having the proper counter play. Sure they may have some weaknesses and counters and can be exploited but in some cases they can find ways to compensate for them.

We'll be kicking off the conversation with a supprt

Lulu At 1st glance may not seem like a problem child but her W: Whimsy is. The allied cast portion grants allies AS and MS. Now MS on its own isn't bad but giving most allies free AS is kind of unhealthy as both the Lulu and the ally don't have to work hard to get it. To make matter worse, as a support with the stigma that they MUST stay by a marksman's side this ability is usually used to increase a stat that marksmen can abuse VERY well, it makes this ability a very stat-checky one, plus the fact that it makes the already strong even stronger, and on the flip side of the coin doesn't do very much if the marksmen/ally DOESN'T need AS or is behind which ALSO makes the ability kind of feast or famine for marksmen, and kind of makes you wonder if this ability wasn't SPECIFICALLY made for Lulu to play support for marksmen.

On the other hand the enemy cast is a whole other BEAST. It has the strategic strength that can rival Tahm's Devour (taking into account their differences they are comparable) while lacking a respectable amount of set up or counterplay: Whimsy has no cast time, it has good range and it unit cast. It can be cast while moving and will not interrupt previous commands, and the MS reduction is not considered a Slow and is not affected by Slow Resist. This is an issue because it is a STRONG ability and there is almost never NOT a gud time to use it, and baiting it out will NOT work in the enemy teams favor. Good Lulu players however will hold on to this ability until their carry (usually a marksman) gets dove on by an enemy diver/assassin, and then it will most likely be over for that enemy.

Solutions? The AS buff portion of the ability should be either removed or replaced with a more interactive buff, preferably one that allies have to WORK to get the full benefits out of. There shouldn't be an issue with Lulu maintaining the AS buff if self cast for any of those off meta Lulu players (I Support u guys), but the synergy with marksmen is too good. Perhaps it can be changed to a Cleanse or Tenacity. The enemy cast needs some sort of trade off for Lulu. Numerous ideas come to mind: Shorter range, changing it from a Unit cast to a ground targetted cast, or to a self centered AoE that affects the nearest enemy champ, requiring a channel before casting, or a channel before gaining increased range, requiring Lulu to hit the enemy with a basic attack or ability 1st.

Ryze The older yet newly reworked champ may also not seem like big issue. But don't let his unpopular status fool you. In the right hands Ryze's W shows its true ugly face. W by itself isn't an issue but paired with the rest of his kit it is. ON top of the rest of his high damage machine gun styled kit the instant unit targetted root and dmg is a bit much. Additionally the CD starts right on cast NOT after the duration, and if Ryze gets the empowered W from E, and has built CDR like gud lil Ryze, then the enemy will likely soon be snared again within the next 3 sec. On the bright side this ability DOES have low range which is good, it still lacks too counter play.

Solutions? The dmg could be removed. Or the ability can become ground targetted. Or it can have a delay before rooting if the target is still within range. This delay could be reduced by landing abilities on the enemy 1st, such that if 2 abilities are landed the delay goes back to being zero.

Riven On top of all her dashes W - Ki Burst, is a strong addition and with its instant cast it doesn't leave a lot of room for players to react. Her mobility pretty much negates the weakness of W being short ranged.

Solutions? Place a short delay/cast time on the ability that will not effect movement or other abilities, that way smart Rivens can que up W while they get into position, but it will no longer be a free instant stun.

Yasuo Ah the prodigy problem child, the master of the flame post, breaker of the game. The guy every body loves to hate, and its probably due to that one darned accursed ability. Yes you all know it well the legendary W - Wind Wall. Now many can argue that there are a lot of problem surrounding Yas, the bonus free crit, the spammed tornadoes, the limitless dashes but W may be the worst offender. The issue is that when combined with his passive Resolve, it makes Yasuo extremely safe, hard to punish, and easy for him to not make a mistake. Many argue that its not fun to play against a Yasuo because it less about you out playing the Yasuo and more about Yasuo out playing himself. Where IS the counter play you might ask, and well thats a question we all might be asking for a while; I don't know, but what I do know is where we can PUT some. As it stand there's never really a bad time for a Yas to use W against his intended opponents, baiting it out isn't such a bad thing for the Yas player and a good Yas player won't get baited easily. It has no cast time, starts blocking projectiles on-cast (despite not being fully formed), has a decent duration and Yas can move freely while its out, it has big zoning potential in that it creates a nice safe zone for him for the duration. It is INDEED a STRONG ability, so where's the draw backs wheres the counter play? The stronger the ability the MORE it should take out of the champ right?

Solutions? Subsequent attacks could reduce the duration. W could completely block the 1st ability intercepted and MASSIVELY reduce the dmg of subsequent attacks, with W negating an increasing number of attacks for the amount of Flow currently collected. Add a short delay to it. Or modify it so that if it DOESN'T block an ability within the 1st sec it will quickly fade away, but if it does it will stay. Or Modify it so that Yasuo has to stay within a certain radius behind it to maintain it.

Or

Remove the shield part of his passive, and change wind wall into Wind Arc; A cone version of Fiora's parry, if a projectile is blocked the CD is greatly reduced. Riot stated they didnt have the tech back when they made Yas to do it maybe now they do.

Honesty he should only get stacks of Q when he hits an enemy champ. Thats counter play.

... I am not sure I even want to get into this. I'm sure she'll get reworked eventually.

Annie Another that can tend to fly under the radar from time to time. This is a issue combining her passive and her Q (finally got away from those W abilities). Both her passive and Q by themselves are not too much of an issue but together they are. The main issue is that Q is a single target ability, and that her passive stuns and the combo gives an instant guaranteed stun. They did give her some nice counter play with the stack counter under her HP bar, but actual counter play manifests as trade until the stun is up then back up and wait for her to waste it. While it does create a nice window of power its kinda artificial.

Solutions? Make Q a skillshot. Or give the passive a duration at max stacks before they start dropping off.

Janna She's actually pretty decent except for 1 part of her E - Eye of the Storm: the bonus AD. The reasoning this is unhealthy and lacking in counter has the same reasons as Lulu's AS buff on her W - It has decent range allowing her to give the bonus AD from afar. Additionally Eye of the Storm has no cast time and does not interrupt Janna's previous orders. Allies should have to work to be granted such beneficial buffs, the shield is enough

Solutions? Remove the AD buff for allies, it can be kept on self and tower casts.

Sona All her skills are AoE and the basic ones are self cast...she's getting a rework eventually

Tristana This champ is more of a kit issue than an ability issue. Tristana is an extremely safe champion, having long range AA, Rocket Jump's mobility (plus its resets), and Buster Shot's knock back. And for all that safety she also deals a lot of damage. Something has got to give, they has to be a some counter play to her, because with her safety its not easy to make use of the counter plays weakness that most marksmen are supposed to have; being squishy.

Solutions? Reduce her range. Get rid of the range increase on the passive. Reduce the number of ways that she has to reset Rocket Jump. Reduce her damage.

Trynd ...the rework will come eventually

Karthus So why in does this champ still exist in this state. Why does a global auto target ult exist, if u break it down its one of the most broken abilities to ever exist.

Solutions? Change ult so that it no longer automatically targets every champ on the map unless certain conditions are met: When an enemy is hit by an ability they are marked. Or Ult cast, karthus channels increasing the dmg of 2nd cast and creating a Dot AoE that follows all targets that slowly update on the position. Karthus can select one AoE at a time 2 follow the mouse at full speed

Final Notes A side effect of increasing/giving champs counter play is that on the other hand Riot can actually strengthen the champs in other areas now that they are more balanced/healthy