Why LoL Will Never Be Balanced
So I've been watching Log Horizon, and between that and Anklespankin's video about the new Grasp of the Undying (12k AD from building full HP) I realized the problem with League, and really all MOBAs: everyone HAS to do damage.
In a game where you're only fighting against monsters, it's completely fine for a tank to take 5 minutes to defeat an enemy another class could have beaten in 1 minute, with the tradeoff being something like a squishier class would be almost dead after that so they'd either have to leave or spend resources. And there are other classes, such as utility supports, who couldn't defeat that enemy at all. Each class has its role, its strengths, its weaknesses, and then you party up and you get a group that can take on any challenge in the game with enough coordination and skill; RPGs can be balanced.
And then there's League.
In a fast-paced PvP game mode like this where every player needs to have their high points and satisfactory plays, you can't have full-tank Maokai taking 5 minutes to kill a dragon or champion. Everything has to be fast and rewarding. And so you give Maokai a bunch of damage. But he's still a tank, so in order to feel rewarding he has to be nigh invincible. So you make it so. And now you're left with someone who can 2v1 both your carries and end up with only half HP. But if he couldn't, no one would play him. It's impossible to balance League because the player base doesn't want balance, they want their champion to feel good. If a champion consistently feels bad, Riot has to make them stronger even if it makes the game as a whole feel bad. That's why there's almost never a point where the community agrees the game is balanced, we just agree that 'this class is too strong' and then 'this class is too strong' and then 'this class is too strong' and then 'omg back to the tank meta'. They have to continually buff and nerf stuff to make it feel good to play the game, instead of just saying "Alright, ADCs have sustained damage, they're supposed to be able to kill tanks, so we're not gonna make Malphite able to 1v1 almost any ADC, and we will never allow him one shot them. For similar reasons, assassins should be able to kill ADCs with little counterplay, but only if they go in at the right moment; they will be, without exception, the squishies champions in the game so when Katarina Shunpos in 1v5 because Ashe was near a dagger even the most incompetent of teams should be able to pop her like a balloon. Supports should be useless alone but hella strong with teammates. Mages should be able to kill squishies pretty easily with their extra utility and burst (IMO mages actually function exactly right ATM). That is the way the game is supposed to work, and that's how it will work." I'm sure Riot knows that's how the game is supposed to work and could implement it. But no one, myself included, wants to see that, so instead they give less meaningful trade-offs, like 'Darius is only powerful if you let him attack the same person 5 times... which he almost always will' or 'Nasus is only strong if he farms well... and btw he has ludicrous levels of sustain'.
