Riot, some advice on future reworks based on the feedback I've seen from juggs/preseason/mages
I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing or anything (I'm a Silver III scrublord lol), but there are a few things that I see big reworks fail at consistently, and it feels like the design team isn't learning or recognizing the issues at hand. I've seen at least one of the following patterns pretty much every single round of reworks:
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"We don't like this champ's identity so let's just add something crazy to shoehorn it into something else" : This doesn't work, it just creates hilariously unbalanced and annoying play patterns because whatever gimmick you add needs to be completely unfair to be "successful". Examples: Morde, Ziggs
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"Windows of power" : This idea works sometimes (ex: Darius), but on more than one occasion I just see it make the champ feel like absolute trash outside of their window instead of great while in it. The more central this "window of power" is to a champion's gameplan, the worse this syndrome seems to occur. Even worse is when they feel so bad that even if they're incredible overpowered nobody playing them could recognize it. Examples: Skarner, Brand (to a lesser extent)
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Power in exchange for usability : Avoid doing this at much as possible. I don't care how strong a champ theoretically is if it feels like crap to play, and apparently a lot of people agree with me. Adding delays and cast times is by far the worst example of this. Examples: Veigar (2015), Viktor, Anivia
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"Let's mess with this perfectly balanced character because lol" : Please stop doing this. Not only are you wasting resources on champs that don;t need it, but you're rolling a 50/50 dice roll on getting it right or not. For every Caitlyn and Vel'Koz, there is someone way worse off (or better off to an unbalanced extent). Examples: Skarner, Kog'Maw, Anivia