Why does Riot literally buff recent Champions the moment they come out?

BranchofSin5580·Mar 27, 2015·1 votes·430 views

Bard

Attack range increased to 550 from 500 Base damage increased to 52 from 46 Damager per level growth increased to 3.5 from 3 Base armor increased to 25 from 21 Traveler's Call (Passive) [Looks like a few changes here. Mana restored to 12% max mana from (8% missing mana + 15). Will need to confirm in-game when servers are up] Cosmic Binding (Q) damage increased to 80/125/170/215/260 from 80/120/160/200/240 Cosmic Binding (Q) AP ratio increased to .65 from .5 Magical Journey (E) mana cost reduced to 0 at all ranks from 30

Look at the ammount of buffs Bard recieved!

Now notice how much time it took for them to buff Urgot to a decent level.

Why Riot? You really want to milk him that hard?

12 Comments

DroogzyMar 27, 20156 votes

Because in Bard's current state, Bard is going to end up like the bards of medieval times: history.

PeriditionMar 27, 20153 votes

Idk, might be that sub 40% winrate or something.

FHMarshyMar 27, 20152 votes

Cuz Bard was really under powered. Reksai was nerfed, Kalista was nerfed, Azir was nerfed.

Your point??

BranchofSin5580Mar 27, 20151 votes

Urgot was underpowered for ages, it took them 3 years to buff him.

Bard will be exactly like Yasuo and Lucian, trash until people figure out how to play him.

Then broken as fuck.

CindikleMar 27, 20151 votes

Yasou has a loaded it and it took some time for people to master him. As he introduced a lot of new mechanics. (Semi-infinite dashes with no resource or trigger requirement, Windwall, massive crit chance, %bonus armor penetration.)

Lucian got buffs that made him OP(and others got nerfed). Then they changed him a little and made him even more OP. He wasn't played for a long time before he got popular.

Urgot is still somewhat underpowered. You need a team built around him. It's just easier for him to function in that team now.

Bard has a weak early game. When you want your support strong. This makes it hard for him to gather Chimes as his lane is already in a bad spot. His main CC requires a strong setup, his heal requires time to be effective, his mobility works with everyone. His ult can easily hurt you just as much as it benefits you. If there are no walls around his mobility is useless. His CC has a ton of counterplay.

Neither Lucian or Yasou had as low of a win rate as Bard has when they came out.

BranchofSin5580Mar 27, 20151 votes

oh yes they fucking did.

Yasuo sat on 36% - 41% win rate for the very first 2-3 weeks he was released.

Lucian wasn't as bad, he hit 38% once, but that was the worst win rate he ever had.

Also, Kalista sat on some good 33% - 38% win rate before people started maxing E with a Hurricane.

Bard is no exception, he is going to get buffed and then people will learn how to play him and he will become broken and then get nerfed back again.

There are very few champion who manage to get a good win rate the moment after their release. Vi had 48% win rate on her release, which is already pretty good. Aatrox had 52%, which is even more amazing considering new champions usually dont get a lot of win rate. Reworked Sivir had 56% when her Ult was retarded. Graves sat on 58% on his very first day, I think.

Truly PridefulMar 27, 20151 votes

This is my fear for him. I already do really well with him. The last thing I want is for them to go ham with buffs and have him get nerfed to crap a couple weeks later because people started figuring out how to use him.

SiachiMar 27, 20151 votes

I'm not sure if he needs ALL of these buffs, and if anything I'd like to see some focus on adding to his clarity to allies ("Hey genius, you can interact with these health packs and this tunnel, TRY DOING SO!") But we'll just have to wait and see.

Either way, they feel they've given him enough time on the live servers to gauge his power level, and although he is definitely a communication-dependent champion, he might just need some more number buffs. And honestly, his Q is his ONLY damage source outside of his passive, which others have felt takes too long to get to 'decent' levels of damage, and is decently hard to hit, so if it gets a little bit of an extra punch to it, I wouldn't complain

WarlockLawMar 27, 20151 votes

I think Lissandra was the last champ released to get a buff before a nerf

BranchofSin5580Mar 27, 20151 votes

Azir got a buffed before he got nerfed. (Check patch 4.18 and patch 4.20)

Lucian got buffed before he got nerfed. (Mana issues, Piercing Light response, patch 3.12)

Yasuo got buffed before he got nerfed. (Shield refresh, patch 4.1)

Gnar got buffed before he got nerfed (patch 4.15, buff to everything all across his kit)

WarlockLawMar 27, 20151 votes

Well then o.0 I don't really remember any of those. That said I'm pretty sure they intend to rework urgot so they haven't really been trying to make him good