Known Value V.S. Potential Value

Hello everybody! Now if you have gone around the boards you have probably seen me posting here and there. One topic I am really interested in and drawn towards talking about is Tanks and the items they have. I love tanks and just being that wall that takes loads of damage. As such, when I feel tanks are in a bad spot, I personally really care. When determining how effective the tanks are or their itemization, I look at two major factors;

Known Value

Potential Value

So, what are these two factors?

Known Value Known value is all the stuff that the player can determine easily. They are static factors that are mostly linked to raw numbers. An example of an item with known value is . We know the item costs us 1100 Gold and gives us 30 Armor and MR. We known this is what we are getting when we buy this item.

Potential Value Potential value is a little harder to determine. Unlike Known value, this can be simply a factor that will vary in it's power. for example has a great deal of potential value. We cannot really determine it's strengths on it's own easily due to all the moving parts within a game.

Now what is important to remember is these two factors exist within everything. Nothing in the game has no known or potential value. Even though that may not seem to have any potential value, it does exist. However it is small. For example, has both presented within. We as players know the stats Redemption gives us. We also are aware of it's increased power to heals and shielding. We also are aware of the AoE heal on the item. These are all factors we can determine but we also are unable to truly judge it's potential value. Maybe your redemptions boosts to heals let you keep your ally alive for the one last auto? Maybe you managed to use the Active to steal baron? Maybe it was your redemption that caused the fight to swing in your favour. Logically speaking, the item carries both known and potential value. However, the known value is lower for the added potential value.

So when you are looking at items or champions, typically when they exist, have stats, actives, use their abilities, whatever; they trade one for the other. ADCs typically trade their potential value for known value (we know that as the game goes on they will be dishing out loads of damage.) An play maker may trade some of their known value, their stats, damage, etc. to gain more potential value. The problem arises when 3 things happen.

1. The known value is too high
2. The potential value is too high
3. Both values are relatively high and equal

Lee Sin for example has a lot of known value from his kit. We can easily determine the amount of damage he does and we can tell his kit provides a lot of power. His build path allows him to keep his damage while going more tanky when compared to others. However, he also carries his trademark Insec. This singular move has MASSIVE potential value that can completely change a game. Because he has both with relatively equal value, Lee can be considered a very strong pick.

Last month I made a post titled "Tanks need some help [Thoughts]" and in it I briefly talked about this way of thinking.

Link: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/HYdMR3Gs-tanks-need-some-help-thoughts

The idea is although Tank items have slightly more known value, the support build had massively higher potential value. This meant in the majority of cases, a player would benefit greater from the support build because the known values in the stats were only slightly less (but the prices and better spread made up for it) while the potential value greatly improved upon that. It is why we are seeing more and more of + . They house a lot of the known value along with massive potential value for tanks to take advantage off. So as a player on a tank, I know that although the known value of a standard tank two item start like + (just an example) is higher stat-wise, the potential value of them is much lower.

Why does this matter? This mostly matters because when something is too high in one of these groups or both of them we see a lot of the problems of league show up.

Draven plus , Cho'Gath plus , Kalista in general, Zac in general, Lee Sin in general, Old Duskblade (The mini Zed ult) plus Zed, etc etc.

All of these and many more would be considered OP or still are in many ways. This is often to do with the high potential value they bring; Kalista becomes a kiting God, Zac has super forgiving ganks+team movement, Ryze Ult moving everyone and minions; along with all their own known values like Ryze's 2 second root and massive burst, kalista's rend, Zac's general tankiness, etc. These cause problems that ripple throughout league and can often be the root of why certain things become OP or fall out.

Now how do we fix this? We have to do some proper give and tank. If Lee Sin is going to have his Insec, he should have something to trade for it. If Azir wants his range or his shuffle, he needs to give up something. If Thornmail wants to be the anti-healing tank item then it needs to give up something to make it right. This is why we see more and more items and champions become pushed into niches or specialties. Kayn is my favourite example of this recent philosophy. If Kayn becomes Shadow Assassin, he becomes faster and has a great range of burst, however, he dies very easily and if he gets caught he'll become paper. He can get to the backline easier and is better at taking down higher priority targets. When Kayn goes Darkin, he loses a lot of his damage for Max. HP damage and sustain. He isn't as good against damage dealers and is instead going to want to fight our tanks and fighters. When you are strong in one thing, you need to have clear weaknesses in other sections. Periods of tankiness, a basic idea that tanks are getting **moments **where they are tanky rather then being just tanky in general, is another example of this idea moving forward.

However, Riot still makes mistakes sometimes, we all do. Stoneplate+Locket is an example of this mistake and in the future, will be changed/nerfed to fix the problem. When something has all the potential and known value, it will rightly be adjusted.

So whenever you see me talking about stuff on the boards surrendering balance, mostly in regards to items, this is sort of how I am looking at it. What does everyone else think about these factors? Do you think there is other factors that help determine something's strength? I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on the matter and I hope this was an interesting little read about Item and champion strength.

Thanks for reading!

[slayer-jinx-catface]