A Year of Reworks

IOffMeta GtOvrIt·12/18/2018, 5:59:22 PM·7 votes·7,183 views

To say this has been a controversial year in league is probably an understatement. With the new runes implemented, the upcoming rank changes, as well as the pro scene's production changing drastically we've had a lot of changes that have been met with praise and criticism.

However, probably the central topic that has garnered the most heat from League's community is the reworks. It seems like more and more, champions of old are heading into the Ryze territory in that post rework you're either extremely effective to the point of broken usage or completely useless.

I wonder is there any way to rework these champions to the point of satisfaction without sending their difficulty curve spiraling out of control? What would resolve this issue?

Sounds like a daunting task in and of itself and I wouldn't want that responsibility. Feel free to share your thoughts.

6 Comments

The Ecdysiast12/18/2018, 6:24:51 PM7 votes

Nunu definitely falls into the "not strong enough" category. And I'd say that's because they mistakenly kept his ultimate, which you could argue was a defining part of his kit, but which still has the same problems it did before that made it outdated and bad.

Akali and Irelia fall into the "too strong" category. And that's because the new unique strengths they were given are far too strong compared to what every other similar champion has at their disposal. Which makes balancing them almost impossible, as to remove what makes the ability overpowered would pretty much be the same as to remove what makes it a viable ability.

Swain and Aatrox are a little trickier, as their not-quite-unique but also not quite common spellvamp is always an issue. Either champions with it can kill quick enough to be competitive casters and as a result end up burst healing, or their healing is offset by making their damage unreasonably slow.

When it comes to Ryze and Galio though, they're tied directly to their performance in professional play. Why is that? Because unlike Akali (W) and Irelia (Q), Ryze and Galio's unique abilities (R's) are entirely team-focused. Meaning that in the situation where your team is incredibly coordinated-- that is, pro play-- you can do things with the champions that the vast majority of players (~97%) can't replicate. So we saw that when Ryze was Balanced for the 97%(~50% win rate), his ultimate pushed him upwards of 65% in pro play. As a result, he saw heavy nerfs that placed him between 40-43% win rate for every rank below Diamond. But because his ultimate hasn't been reworked, he's now roughly balanced in very high ranking and pro play.

Galio's ultimate is of a similar vein, but the last patch they actually put in changes to push strength out of his pro play and more towards use for most players. The nature of Ryze's R, though, makes that almost impossible without making the ability essentially worthless.

Handy Sandy 12/19/2018, 12:28:58 AM1 votes

I know it's an unpopular opinion but I really like Irelia. She doesn't feel too strong to fight against and she has counterplay but I think that's just because I main someone who destroys her.

If she needs any changes, it's her stun. It should take longer to stun someone the farther those two little blades she drops are away from eachother. Also, her ultimate. It kinda just forces you to sit there and fight her while being pretty impossible to dodge. I would rather make it a ranged AOE skillshot that executes, keeping the model and how it looks when it's thrown out. Just have it do damage for when you escape from her with like 2 hp and remove everything else. From my understanding of her theme, Irelia doesn't want to be sitting in a cage with an opponent. She wants to be jumping around and I think her current ult doesn't fit this. She should be Qing around, R someone low health for a kill, and then Q and fight someone else. Lastly her numbers could be a little bit lower.

Akali has 4 dashes. Why? I don't like it. Also too much sustain. Revert her.

I think nunu is pretty balanced. I don't see anything wrong with him, he has counter play and his statistics are pretty ok.

Swain right now isn't the complete worst champion in the game, I would leave him alone for now and let the meta shift. I think with a couple buffs he'll come back around once the meta favors him again. To completely fix him, his healing has got to go. Draintanking is never good.

I dont really know/played against him enough about aatrox to form an opinion on him. He doesn't feel incredibly strong to fight tho. Being able to move as fast as he does while reviving is a bit questionable.

La Bello12/19/2018, 3:34:10 AM1 votes

my main problem with the reworks is that sometimes Riot wants to keep everything that makes the champion "that champion" even if they KNOW for a fact that it was a mistake back when they first did it and that its very likely to be a mistake now.

good example would be MANALESS characters with innate sustain.

I HONESTLY believe that Akali Aatrox both should not have retained their in-lane perma sustain abilities as those things do far mroe harm than good. It discourages trading and just makes the champions feel "cheap" as they can autowin most people by attrition. Sustain should ALWAYs be connected to another resource such as mana so that way it feels more fair and trading isn't a exercise in futility.

Like I dont think the people who played those champions would just up and quit the game if that small part of the overall kit got chopped.

so thats one part I dont like. I feel like LoL re-designers are on the side of "let people have thier cake and eat it too" mindset where they try to carry over ALL aspects of the old designs even the ones that we know for a fact are outdated.

the other big thing I cant stand about current champ reworks is overabundance of mechanics. Powercreep via a thousand tiny mechanics is so ridiculous.

Aatrox why does his Passive apply a G-Wound debuff? nothing in Aatrox's kit screams "anti healer". Its just there for the sake disguising how "meh" the ability is in actuality Akali why that ridiculous Bonus minion damage @ rank 5 thingy? Why the bonus movespeed when running at someone when Akali ALREADY gets MS from her shroud? why that MINI STUN on the first part of her R? does it really need to be there? Jesus CHRIST1!! Irelia Why does Irelia passive BREAK shields? what the fuck does THAT have to do at all with her champion? why not just make shieldbreaker like a fucking item or something ? Why does her R DISARM in ADDITION to dealing that ultra powerful slow and second pop of damage? Why does her Q heal her on executes when it already applies on-hit effects like lifesteal? its overkill that irelia can go down to 10% Hp, Q a backline and be back up to like 80% Hp. so.. freaking...frustrating

yeah this shit really pisses me off. Its okay to have a ability thats just a single sentence and this is probably the biggest reason why new champions feel so bullshit to play against sometimes. It gets to the point that champions get "over-rewarded" for simply doing the things they're supposed to do, as though riot felt they needed to "idiot-proof" these champions so people could ALWAYS pull off their kits or win no matter what. and HOTTAKE I think a CERTAIN(ly) designer is most guilty of this ever since Yasuo. Its a running trend that nearly all his champions have like 101 options and mechanics to the point of parody and near absurdity.

Besides that thought I think Reworks are definitely a thing that needs to continue happening. there are LOTS of older champions I want to see realized and "fulfilled"and I think the newer champions can actually in a lot of cases be better for game health than older ones after they're "tuned down" appropriately with enough mechanics or power shaven off.

TheBrothersGrymm12/19/2018, 1:00:53 PM1 votes

Warwick Rw was good, Nunu was ok, Aatrox was uncalled for he needed buffs not to be broken new aatrox is still strong AF, Irelia is a complete joke she needs massive nerfs all around but Korea loves her so she wont also her stun hitbox is so broken the reset Q is dumb cuts sheilds and get bonus att speed like whyyy riot, Akali needs to be reverted but keep the visuals giving her true stealth was dumb why cuz she a ninja shens a ninja and aint got stealth???, ezreal got massive buffs for a changed w went from 3rd best adc to 3rd best but even better, Swain was cool i feel hes in a good place, I miss old galio but new one is ok the buffs on his Q are going to far tho, Ryze is a meme hands down always will be

GreenKnight12/19/2018, 7:05:38 PM1 votes

Year of breaking the game