Learning when to Slow down (rough draft)
Let me preface this by saying I am a low elo player and my solo q games do not reflect my intelligence or skew my opinion of the game. I'm also going to be all over the place in this post but I just need to get my thoughts down, I might actually make an essay or letter out of this haha.
I feel like Riot should just stop releasing new champions so they can catch up with balancing the game. In my opinion, when you claim to want to spend only one patch on a champion, then spend 4 patches of time balancing Zoe when we could've had a Mordekaiser VGU or rework, or you could fix Aatrox's abomination of a kit and VGU (Yes I know he has a 55% winrate with a 1% pick rate, but the champion just loses when it's not being one-tricked) in the same time frame, it can be quite frustrating for some players. It's not like these new champions are truly innovative outside of one little quirk in their kit, we got Nidalee Mid back in the form of Zoe and Vayne 2.0 in the form of Kai'sa. Yes your business suffers when you're not selling new skins but at the same time your player base is suffering because they feel stripped of their identity. What I mean by that is: the most unique thing we could come up with that isn't a meta pick but works is Smite Tryndamere Top with a proxy playstyle (Credit to Neace). Any other time you're just spamming meta picks or Singed until you're diamond and it's less fulfilling than playing a champion you love. For example, someone who wants to just have fun on Kindred, they really love her kit and just want that fantasy or aesthetic in their games. They can't really do that at a higher level because kindred just can't survive in the current meta. Her pathing is literally telegraphed and if she's shut down she just turns into a ward that can ult in team fights. It sucks that Riot claims that their aim when designing champions is to fulfill a certain fantasy aspect, but then they have champions like Aatrox or Garen where they have such a cool concept in terms of lore but their kit is so linear or their combos are so simple to read that they're easy to play around and have no viability in a competitive setting. There are 55 top laners in the game and 18 ADCs but ADC is the strongest role at the moment. Which could strengthen the argument that less champions is better. But also shows how incapable Riot can be in terms of balancing their game if they can't even manage the smallest portion of champions designated to a single role. ADCs are literally 13% of all the champions in the game and Riot can't keep them balanced. Now to give them a bit more credit supports are apart of their success but honestly if you include supports in that ratio it's 21% of the champions in the game that are considered playable in the bot lane which Riot still can't keep under control. Now, there are 55 top laners that are considered playable in the lane and that is a 39% ratio, which is why I can understand how it is hard for Riot to buff champions in that role without it getting out of control very quickly. But at the same time, how is it that 39% of champions in the game are less impactful than ADCs? I'm aware that literally everyone that plays this game is complaining about ADCs at the moment, but I just needed to put those numbers on paper just to make anyone who reads this realize the Scope of this whole idea. My point is, Riot obviously has their hands full and releasing new champions shouldn't be a priority when they have 140 champions that all need work.
Respectfully, SoloQ Bot #0001
P.S. Trundle is actually balanced very well, if you need a reference point I'd use him.