Is Riot Getting Better At Balancing?

Chromatic Eagle·Nov 17, 2014·1 votes·726 views

When I read their blogs on the direction they want to take the game, I get a little hopeful. Then I see all of the anger by the rework and bugs and I wonder how can they let things unfold like that.

9 Comments

LongHair FoxNov 17, 20142 votes

There is a diference in balancing and not getting something technically or thematically correct. The bugs are a shame and no matter what cass's rework would get hated since people like her for different reasons. That said riot is getting really good at the balance department. We are seeing more champions in professional play and win rates are getting closer to 50%. There are still a lot of things that can be improved such as giving trash tier champions a rework (looking at urgot) and curbing the power levels of new champions which seem to have more and more overloaded kits (looking at gnar and most recent champions by certainlyT) but overall they are doing great.

PS: no hate against certainlyT but i remember him being the biggest offender here.

7thHeavenNov 17, 20141 votes

There is a diference in balancing and not getting something technically or thematically correct. The bugs are a shame and no matter what cass's rework would get hated since people like her for different reasons. That said riot is getting really good at the balance department. We are seeing more champions in professional play and win rates are getting closer to 50%. There are still a lot of things that can be improved such as giving trash tier champions a rework (looking at urgot) and curbing the power levels of new champions which seem to have more and more overloaded kits (looking at gnar and most recent champions by certainlyT) but overall they are doing great.

PS: no hate against certainlyT but i remember him being the biggest offender here.

LOL, look on LB plz. She is missing in competitive play now :P

LongHair FoxNov 19, 20141 votes

There is a diference in balancing and not getting something technically or thematically correct. The bugs are a shame and no matter what cass's rework would get hated since people like her for different reasons. That said riot is getting really good at the balance department. We are seeing more champions in professional play and win rates are getting closer to 50%. There are still a lot of things that can be improved such as giving trash tier champions a rework (looking at urgot) and curbing the power levels of new champions which seem to have more and more overloaded kits (looking at gnar and most recent champions by certainlyT) but overall they are doing great.

PS: no hate against certainlyT but i remember him being the biggest offender here.

LOL, look on LB plz. She is missing in competitive play now :P

I would hardly classify LB as a rework and i honestly think it was for the better that she got some counterplay. The fact that this means she cannot be top tier at the same time just proves that her kit is at least a little toxic and might end up getting a rework. Also loosing a champion (LB) in competetive scene to make room for 2 or more extra champions is always a good trade i would say.

SkiasNov 17, 20142 votes

Considering Ryze is losing some of his auto click spells and Kats ult is 110 seconds, id say they are doing better. Ive been waiting for those two to get what they had coming.

SparrowPriestNov 17, 20141 votes

Champions are not unbalanced, bad builds or bad build orders make champions bad vs other champions.

LisheNov 17, 20141 votes

They'll continue to be bad in my opinion as long as all they tackle is whatever sees tournament play.

DrNovaNov 17, 20141 votes

lol

FrikgeekNov 17, 20141 votes

Honestly, competitive games are always going to have lower champion diversity than what is actually viable. It's great that we're seeing teams take risks with unconventional picks, but safe champions that fit well into popular compositions or are good at multiple roles are always going to be picked over champions only good at doing 1 thing(even if they do their thing very well). Champions like Diana or Draven might be good in soloQ, but they'll almost never be picked over Zed or Lucian because the latter have less room to screw up or get outplayed. Like, if you miss a Zed Q you lose damage, but if you miss Diana's Q you lose not just the damage from your Q, but also the chasing potential and damage from your ultimate. If everything goes right for Diana she'll do more damage than Zed, but unlike Zed or Ahri she can't just R away from a bad situation and try again. This is also why you'll very often see Yasuo paired up with point-and-click displacements like Lee's or Vi's ults rather than avoidable knockups like Jarvna's EQ combo.

SkiasNov 17, 20141 votes

The game should never be balanced with competitive as the bar. Nearly the entire player base does not play at competition level.