Problem is that Riot performs only Surface fixing rather than addressing the Underlying Issues.

LilxPaprika··2 votes·754 views

It's like the mythological story of the Hydra that when you cut one head two more grow.
This is the current modus operandi Riot is practicing.

It's like there isn't enough work to do so they fashion work, by breaking their game.
Riot's Balance Team is afraid to give you a great game because if they did they'd be out of a job.

Way I see it maybe a better system would be to pay your Balance team such that they get like a royalty on their work so that it has lasting power.

You could pay them less overall, but that's okay because they would have more freetime to make money doing other things with their talent, as well as grow/expand on their talent.

Example: years later a successful musician can continue to make plenty of dough if their album was successful for years after they were actively making and doing concerts etc. So in this manner, if the game was successful for years and largely unchanged since it was fixed.
The devs would need to properly annotate all the fundamentals that should stay in place or only replaced with other fundamentals. As longs as he(r) was / they were correct in their assessment/evaluation of what order of importance the game's design should be in, then they should have this lasting stake in the game's ongoing success.

That way they and everyone can move on to better things and enjoy an existence where they can sample more things that life has to offer than to re-encounter the same old problems only temporarily & haphazardly treating them, not identifying root issue never really moving on.

Devote more effort to cutting the problem's head only once with a searing blade (at the base) so as to prevents the growth of other heads. We can do better. If there's a will there's a way.

@Meddler and rest aren't you all tired of this never ending cyclical madness.

5 Comments

Father Bard2 votes

LilxParika has a point that meta's would still be a thing, my understanding of the argument is just to put a stop the frantic "balances" that either buff a champion into 100% pick/bann or nerf into oblivion. There would still be balancing just much more thought out and less accidental side effects that are painful to deal with.

LilxPaprika1 votes

yep exactly, well put.

ReshiKillim1 votes

That's just makes the balance worse. And coming from a player who's been playing since the end of S1/beginning of S2, I quite enjoy the cyclical madness. Prevents stagnant metas with the game revolving around protecting/killing one person, like Kog-balling metas, or the "Bow before Vayne" metas, or the plenty of other metas that got real unpleasant real fast.

LilxPaprika1 votes

I was under the impression people in general do not want metas. BTW what I propose does not remove the option of having metas, and diversity between seasons.

This can still work, it's just we would have more control over it under this proposed approach rather than letting the metas form out of the dev's not knowing what they are doing. Deliberate/intentional meta forming can be a thing and probably better because it can be done in a controlled manner.

ReshiKillim1 votes

There's been several enjoyable metas where the game wasn't really too imbalanced, where most roles all had near-equal agency. The problem is the skewed metas.

Kogballing/Bow Before Vayne metas were examples of skewed metas, as all you needed to do was turtle around the Vayne/Kog and hit them with as many shields/heals as possible while peeling.

A perfectly balanced league is impossible simply because champions have different kits, but a perfectly imbalanced league is. Which, should be Riot's goal. A meta that changes from time to time with varying builds/champions being on top, but without any one role/champion grouping being exceptional.

Basically: An ideal range of meta vs non-meta power ratio, on a scale of 100, should be something like this, depending on the kits and skill levels involved in optimal performance.

Meta Champions: 51-55/100, Non-Meta Champions: 45-50/100.

The current issue is that getting things to that range is hard, since Riot's trying to clean up clunky/old/hard to balance mechanics, which is why banner got removed, marksmen items got reworked, enchanter supports are getting nerfs, etc.

Not going to say Riot's doing too great of a job at it, but they're trying to balance things out so that there's less edge cases of abuse, and a lower discrepancy between meta and non-meta champions.

People also tend to forget, that Riot has to balance for NA, EUW/EUNE/Korea/etc all at once, and that what's meta often varies heavily between regions.

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