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Power Level of champion

Duroxxigar··3 votes·837 views

I would really like to know what decides the power level of a champion.

For example. I just played a game as Aatrox top lane. I laned against a Rek'sai. Things were going well 'till about level 4. When at full HP, we had a duel with eachother. I ended up only doing like 20% of her health, while I took nearly 70%. We started when she didn't have any rage built up. However, she got her 3 q's off. Then used her E then burrowed and unburrowed right underneath me. Or something in that manner. I had dorans blade and long sword. She had dorans blade. My AD was 107. Hers, 100. I was like, no big deal. I'm Aatrox, i'll sustain this back up, it's kinda what I do. Then a bit later, she tunnels towards me and kills me after using her combo. So then I got to thinking, why is Reksai so much stronger? Her sustain is very good. She has no payment for her abilities, especially for her true damage. Strong wave clear. High mobility. And pretty good damage.

Then I looked at what I had to offer against her. AS and great sustain below 50% HP. 2 skill shots that are arguably hard to hit as well. I'm fairly squishy for my sustain as well. Also, I have to kill myself to use my abilites. I have a bunch of attack speed, however, she gets passive attack speed, better than my passive too. It's the passive on her ult. She also gets true damage for free.

I'm sure there are some things that I'm missing, but why is it that she is a better top laner than Aatrox? They were released about a year and a half apart. Aatrox was designed for top lane, yet falls so hard on it. Rek'sai designed for jungle, yet is better than top laners at top lane.

I don't want this to turn into a QQ thread. I am asking a legitimate question. How does Riot determine the power budget?

12 Comments

Laughing Fish3 votes

RekSai is arguably the best at early game top. Why? Since her ult is non-offensive, she has all of her main combat abilities by level 3. She will experience a major power drop at level 6, as you just got a combat ult and she did not. Engaging her at level 4 is suicide. Next time, hang back, and engage at level 6.

Rek'Sai is not a more powerful top laner than Aatrox, you just have to know when to hit her and when to fall back. Unless Rek'Sai can get a few kills early, Aatrox should be stronger than her by mid game.

Duroxxigar2 votes

Thank you for that tid bit of information. I am not experienced in the matchup and I'll think about that next time I have to fight her. But her sustain is still really good and the damage that she was able to put out was ridiculous in my opinion. Just my opinion though.

Still doesn't answer the question though. How does Riot determine the power budget of a champion?

Laughing Fish3 votes

Rito wants the overall effect of a game to be basically equal for all champs. Effect can be raw damage (such as Draven), Utility (such as Zillian), etc. Pretty much, even though all champs will play a different role, they want all champs to be equally important in the road to victory. Even though Draven might get a lot more kills than Zillian, and even though Draven would slaughter him in a 1 vs 1 fight, that doesn't mean he was more important. Both played an equally important role. Thus, it remains in balance.

Rek'Sai is all about positioning and dueling potential. As such she will plenty of sustain and damage. But this is countered by her lack of CC (her knockup is clumsy and short), her inability to heal quickly (her heal is good for staying in lane, bad for surviving an attack), etc. The biggest thing Aatrox will have over Rek'Sai is teamfights. Rek'Sai is far better at 1 vs 1 than Aatrox sure, but Aatrox puts her to shame in 5 vs 5 fights. Even though they may be different, their overall effect on the game is equal, and thus they are balanced.

Duroxxigar1 votes

Rek'sai's knockup is very easy to hit and it lasts as long as pretty much every other knockup. Her heal is fine to survive an attack as well considering you can charge your fury stupid fast and burrow every 4 seconds. Then you knock your opponent up, use your Q again to charge your Fury stupid fast again, use your E for the really high damage for free, burrow and tunnel away. Rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile, Aatrox has to kill himself to get his attack speed. And to do bonus damage, I have to kill myself even more. Rek'sai gets true damage for free. Aatrox is designed to be a great duelist, but he is pretty sub-par in my opinion. You saying that Rek'sai is a FAR better duelist than Aatrox reveal a very solid problem with Aatrox.

Rek'sai has higher base HP, Attack speed, Armor, HP regen, range, lower cd's for free use of spells as well, true damage, a REMARKABLE vision sense while burrowed (I think its pretty cool to be honest) and better mobility.

Aatrox has 1 attack speed steriod over Rek'sai, higher CD on his knockup/mobility skill and a slow. His sustain is only good when below half hp.

Aatrox has the same/worse teamfight than Rek'sai. Rek'sai has multple AOE abilites that do respectable damage for most of the game.

I don't see where you say Aatrox has better teamfight than her.

But once again, I don't want this to be a QQ thread. I want to know how Riot determines the power budget of a champion.

Laughing Fish2 votes

A single knockup is pretty bad CC for a Jungler/top laner. The reason you are losing to Rek'Sai is because you don't know how to fight her. That is okay, as she is a very tricky champion. It takes time to build up knowledge on how to counter new champs. But until you recognize that the problem is not the champion, but your knowledge, than you will always lose to her. Always

Salzigorimando1 votes

Actually, I think he just presented a fairly obvious understanding of her abilities and his own, and after a direct comparison of the two, determined the odds were heavily in her favor.

Sure, fighting something new is going to be a factor, but implying that the only problem is his lack of skill, though you worded it quite politely, isn't addressing what is a legitimate concern here.

Narasimha1 votes

Considering the comparison was against Aatrox, thats not saying much. Seriously, he's known for two things: Being incredibly generic, and being incredibly weak. Its like comparing an AK-47 to a BB gun and wondering why the former seems so strong.

The Whamboozler2 votes

This just in... a lot of champs are stronger than Aatrox. Aatrox is kinda a poorly designed mess sprinkled in a fine layer of bland.

But mostly it's because new champ = OP for a few weeks until the inevitable nerf train comes. Rito leans towards overpowered champs on release so people will buy them.

Buttigieg 20201 votes

What does the LoL player say about his power level, ITS OVER 9000!!!!!!!

Brotha1 votes

Her damage is ridiculous. I went top Lee Sin (rage pls) a couple games ago against a Malphite. I was stomping him super hard and pushed him up to tower, as expected Reksai comes burrowing at me so I ward drop start running back while spamming laugh since I'm Lee Sin and have stupid mobility with high base movement speed. Next thing I know I'm in the air and the Reksai who has half health and double buffs is just smacking the shit out of me. There was no running away so I had to turn and fight her. Luckily for me this game I had taken ignite instead of teleport because if I hadn't had that extra bit of damage + her ganking me at half health I would have surely died.

I don't see why she gets to be so stupidly strong (at all stages of the game) while remaining so damn tanky with a ton of mobility to boot.

Duroxxigar1 votes

Can we stop looking at the fight between them? That is not what this thread is about. Yes, my battle with Rek'sai was indeed what caused me to ask this question, but once again, how is the power budget decided by Riot? What decides the value of an ability according to the power budget of a champion?

Regardless if it's my lack of knowledge or not, you cannot deny that Rek'sai has more in her kit than Aatrox. When they were both released only a year and a half apart.

Matthias91191 votes

Rek has a LOT more mobility, and arguably a better early game. OTOH her ult is solely a movement tool other than the passive AS. That "free" true damage means giving up a lot of self healing, and early on it takes a while to get full fury.

Aatrox should scale way better to late game and at level 6 he'd wreck her 1v1 with his ult in play.

You have to consider a champion's whole kit and how they work in many different situations when talking about power budgets.

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