My Opinions on and Ideas for Champion Balance and Vibrancy Changes

What if Champion Balance is not just a question of nerfing the strong? What if it can also be achieved by bringing the stragglers up to meet in battle with the mighty?

NOTICE: This post is primarily concerned with Champion balance and vibrancy, and is therefore primarily targeted for Riot employees and game mechanics enthusiasts. I am not necessarily trying to get feedback for myself from either Riot or fellow League players, as I am primarily posting this because I am interested in the game mechanics and I am driven by curiosity and adventurism, not from some annoyance with the game or arrogant supposition of my superior opinion on these matters. (Although I have been accused of such arrogance in the past...)

FURTHER DISCLAIMER: I do not presume to know everything about these characters, I do not play in a very high ELO, nor do I have a lot of experience with all of these champions.

Now to the actual post:

I have been playing League for over a year now, (I can't count it properly), and I have a lot of friends who have played it for even longer. I joined League soon after the Sion rework, and since then I have noticed many champions get changed. However, I believe that there are a lot of champions who have been left stagnant for too long, and are suffering now as a consequence. Some prime examples are Nunu, Poppy, Taric, Anivia, Heimerdinger, Fizz, Blitzcrank, Malphite, and others. Notably, these characters are not all suffering in terms of power (Fizz, Blitz, Heimerdinger, and Malphite...) rather in gameplay. For instance I have just one suggestion for changing Fizz's kit: increase the cooldown on his E. The only reason I've been able to identify that Fizz feels unmanageable is that with enough CDR he can be invulnerable multiple times in every team fight. (Master Yi has a similar issue, brought about by Attack Speed instead of CDR. In Master Yi's case his balance is wrecked almost entirely by 1 item: Sated Devourer.)

For other champions I have more inquisitive changes such as: what if Tristana's ultimate was a super-high damage skill-shot AoE explosion that looked like the explosion in her splash? I feel that it would add to the atmosphere of playing as Tristana to be able to whip out more magnificent explosions.

Although I have an extensive list of changes I would love to see, I will only list the champions I feel need to be reworked, and give the reasons why. And of course, since I am addressing what I consider to be problems, I will try to provide suggested solutions.

Prioritized List of Champions that need changes:

Nunu: Excepting his ultimate and his Q, his abilities feel a bit awkward. Is he a tank? A jungler? A support? He works magnificently with Vayne, but rather poorly with Graves. He also has zero skill-shots. I personally love skill-shots because they are so much fun to land--so to me he lost his allure very quickly due to simplicity and a general lack of team-compatibility. (Only team-compatible when played as a support for attack speed based ADCs.) Suggestions: 1) E = Skill-shot. 2) E and W have mechanics that require more planning but pay off if executed properly.

Poppy: She is extraordinarily mana heavy and short ranged, but with a lot of power to compensate. She feels strange however, because of how she moves around the map. Her E feels awkward, and her W's movement buff feels unnecessary. I also feel that building her tankier should be more rewarding, but right now, due to her ultimate, building her tanky is a waste. Suggestions: 1) Q returns % mana on kill. 2) E is more dynamic, perhaps a skill-shot of some sort. 3) reconsider her ultimate. (Perhaps inverse it.)

Taric: Again no skill-shots, and his movement options feel awkward. Most champions have some sort of movement ability, while his only movement modifier comes with a target stun... it's strange. Suggestions: 1) Change Taric's Dazzle to a skill-shot, and increase the pay-off. 2) Change Imbue. [I suggest making it stronger on allies. He's usually played as a support.] 3) Mobility? [I don't know. I just love mobility.]

Anivia: In Anivia's case, I would say she just feels too passive. I would love it if Anivia's abilities interacted with Crystallize's wall. Say, if her Q detonated upon contact with Crystallize's wall for a longer stun, or Frostbite 'reflected' off of the wall to deal more damage.

Heimerdinger: I don't know what to say. Not really, I do: His turrets hurt. His rockets hurt. His E is amazing. With all that zone control, just how much CC does he need? does his H-28Q Apex Turret really need a slow? With all that Turret damage, do his rockets really need to hurt that much? (Or, alternatively, strike that fast?) I feel that he has just a little too much of everything else in addition to his rather unique level of zone control.

Fizz: Simple: as I said before, longer cooldowns on his E. (Or at least less CD reduction per point in his E.)

Blitzcrank: I'll be frank; I play Blitzcrank a lot, and he is OP. He has too much CC and deals too much damage. While numbers could be changed to alter that, or the range on his Q reduced, I suggest that his Q be made easier to see, and his ultimate's damage reduced in favor of a slightly longer silence. For fun, I think it would be cool if his Overdrive (W) scaled up to 100% movement speed increased, and slowed more drastically at the end for a shorter period of time. (As if he were braking.)

Malphite: Again, Malphite Has no skill-shots. I personally think his Q and E look and behave strangely; actually, I even feel that his ultimate looks and feels strange--for a mountainous rock monster anyway--I imagine it should look more like Sion's ultimate. Suggestions: 1) Q = skill-shot. (Movement speed theft...? Perhaps instead he dashes in a target direction spewing rock shards and shredding his passive armor. Or maybe that could be his ultimate? Anyway, Riot, if you decide to rework him, that's my two cents.)

Yasuo: There's too much going on with Yasuo's kit in my opinion, and I think much of it is entirely unnecessary. To illustrate my point, I'll ask one question: Why does he get double Critical Strike Chance from items?

Amumu: Amumu's not necessarily unbalanced, I just think he can be stronger. Suggestions: 1) add some sort of damage (health scaling damage for instance) to the auto-attack after casting his Q.
2) Extra damage from his E on units currently being damaged by his W.

Xin Zhao: Because of Xin Zhao's amazing power when he gets close, his E feels a tad too strong. (It's just a target teleportation. No work required.) Suggestion: Make Xin Zhao's E a skill-shot of sorts. (Increase range to compensate.)

Veigar and Nasus: These two stack-based champions feel as if most of their power comes from their stacks, but their methods for acquiring/using stacks are limited. I think it would be awesome if their stacking become a more integral part of their kit. > Suggestions [Veigar]: Perhaps a system like Ahri in which every third ability stacked unit kills. And for Veigar specifically, maybe instead of/in addition to stacking AP, he stacks enemy scaling. (That is, for every 10 stacks, his abilities gain 1% of his opponent's AP scaling.) > Suggestions [Nasus]: Less scaling on his Q from stacks, and scaling on all other abilities from stacks. Stacking method on all other abilities. (Or maybe like Thresh it makes him tankier?)

Ekko: When Ekko takes a risk, he takes it safely. It makes sense as he's a time traveler, but I think it should feel more invigorating to be making those plays. Suggestions: Generally reduce the chance of success when making plays with Parallel Convergence and Chronobreak, but increase the pay-off.

Kayle: No skill-shots! Suggestions: more power, less free damage. [Her Q could even be Melee--perhaps unless E is active?]

Master Yi: As mentioned above, Master Yi can be invulnerable multiple times in every team fight, all scaling with Attack speed, which synergizes far too well with Wuju Style. Suggestions: 1) Change the reduction of Alpha Strike's CD to 1 second per every critical strike. 2) decrease Highlander's Attack Speed buff, give it more dynamic motion mechanics.

Dr. Mundo: Burning Agony: I would love Burning Agony to look cooler (Like Dr. Mundo set himself on fire) and deal more damage. To enemies and himself.

Twisted Fate: Twisted Fate's E is terrible. It scales worse than Teemo's poison and Fizz's W passive, and doesn't even occur on every auto like Cho'gath's Vorpal Spikes. My suggestion is to give Twisted Fate Magical Critical Strikes, (scale from Critical Strike Chance, just as with normal autos), and deal a variable scaling percentage of his AP as magical damage on-hit. (My instinct is that the unknown element of crit chance also benefits Twisted Fate's Character design and kit.)

Annie: Annie has one skill-shot and one pseudo-combo. (Tibbers in both cases.) All-in-all, she feels too simple, lacking in counter-play and options to avail upon against varying opponents. Suggestions: Damage-over-time and combos. (Damage-over-time = set on fire.)

Alright. Again, [message to Leaguers] if I come across as presumptuous, arrogant, or (horrors!) asking for your main to be nerfed, I would vastly appreciate your forgiveness prior to your spew of criticism. However, please feel free to criticize the actual champion changes I suggested--that I would find interesting.

NOTE: I mostly play Solo-Queue or Draft with friends, and mess around in Custom Games. One thing I have noticed about many of the stronger champions (Yasuo, Fizz, Azir, Vayne, Mordekaiser, etc.) is that they are usually stronger due to their mechanics, which also makes them harder to play; and it could always be a possibility that some champions need to remain easy for new players as well.

~Crimson Cobra [3]