I have to admit, I love the way Riot has been adding skill expression into alot of kits with reworks

The skill expression comes in many forms, but it's something newer that Riot has been heavily focusing on lately. Let's look at some examples:

- Most of his abilities are delayed and work on a high cooldown system, being lowered by weaving auto attacks between abilities. Simple enough to do in a PvE setting, but difficult to maintain in PvP. Creates skill expression while allowing for high-impact abilities in the kit.

- Q and W are more impactful if you can delay the use of the ability, but can still be used to accomplish something immediately (damage + slow or a shield in W's case). As well as telegraphing effects to allow for counterplay, giving a huge scream to let people know Sion is ulting down the map.

- Highly telegraphed mobility giving time to cancel with any form of displacement. Also signifies who her target is during a dive through her ultimate. Can be powerful in 1v1's due to her Q, W, and passive, but not overbearing when in a grouped setting due to her telegraphing.

- Anyone affected by BloodScent knows it immediately, giving them knowledge that they can be a target to WW. E's damage reduction is very powerful but also short-term, so skill expression is done by being able to time its use perfectly, as well as allowing counterplay by waiting it out or CC'ing him during it. Q hold allows WW players to follow targets through any dash distance (which looks ridiculous if it's a teleport or Tahm Kench W) but can also be utilized by the enemy to bait WW into his allies or under a tower if used correctly.

- Passive and W create high moments of power and excitement when used properly, but can easily be outplayed by either side. Riposte for instance is a high cooldown ability with only a 0.75 second window of activation, making the Fiora have to time said ability properly. Her passive telegraphs to everyone where she wants to position to deal high amounts of damage and allows for counterplay around that.

- Ultimate being ally targeted while not following the ally creates a form of skill expression through team coordination and trust. Another case of expression being his W's continued channeling through crowd control and increase in power when channeled longer, allowed for a well timed start on W to create a huge opportunity for a fight (such as starting W right as you get pulled by a Blitzcrank).

- Most of the skill expression is through Barrels and how they are extremely powerful in the later stages of the game but are also easily disabled by enemies who know what they're doing.

I honestly love this, because it allows for champions to have windows of opportunity or moments of power on the extreme side of things while allowing for counterplay from both the player and enemies, all based on who can outplay the other. This also means there's a much wider range of abilities Riot can introduce to champions in order to make them far more diverse from one another.

In the recent example of the tank class update: - New Q allows for skill expression through target selection and position between selected targets to create a stronger amount of CC between them. Change to the ultimate allows for an immense teamplay if you can keep the enemy in your vicinity long enough, but still has some power on immediate use.

- Change to Ult allows for counterplay by positioning of enemies as well as the ability being far weaker in terms of crowd control when used in a short distance. Slowed travel time on W allows enemies to control where they will be a little easier when they are eventually Rooted (granted right now the travel time may be a little TOO slow). And most of his damage is centered around his E, which can be used as a threat for zoning enemies as well as a good way to bait for powerful plays if used correctly.

Ultimate is no longer an immediate team-wide stun, but rather a single target stun plus large slow/damage ONLY when the bola is thrown from a distance, allowing for short range use at the cost of impact. E and Passive interaction is quite powerful but easily be played around since the window Sejuani has to proc the passive portion isn't too large. And finally, Sej's new passive resistances make her a force when used properly for a full 5v5 engage, but weak to things such as poke or long skrimishes allowing counterplay based on how teams can execute fights.

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The only problem is, the number of champions who have skill expression in these forms are very limited and, in a sense, can only "outplay" eachother with how some of the mechanics work, making the older champions with simpler kits have little way to play around these newer kits. Which at times will make them seem overbearing, frustrating, or broken. However, should more kits get these bits of skill expression to allow more net power in the kits at the cost of additional counterplay potential, it could make for a far more interesting game in the future. There's also a problem of some numbers being overtuned in the abilities not centered around skill expression (read: Anivia using the E+R to get immediate burst), which can be fixed later in the future. Another problem that's been seen was too low of a skill floor, making the windows of power too easy to access making the champions frustrating (read: Camille being able to deal consistent damage while waiting for her delayed Q true damage, rather than being forced to hold onto all basic attacks in general to get the delayed effect. Fiora's mobility + range of passive regions making access to passive procs too easy at times. Vlad getting the full healing from R even if he deals no damage to targets during the duration, such as going into pool.)

These problems are something Riot would need to fix by changing the FEEL of the champion which can be problematic in terms of enjoyment, but in the long run can allow for further changes to the champion keeping them powerful, fun, but healthy due to allowed conterplay. Let me know what you all think and let's create a discussion where we can look through more ways to create skill expression or increase counterplay to some champions!