I Don't Think Balance is Going in the Right Direction
I don't tend to be like "Fire the entire balance team" but I sorta want to discuss what's going on with balance, and why I feel they're making mistakes with some of their approaches. Just FYI, I'm Silver at the time so don't expect some super educated opinion, but most of player base is Silver so you could take it as an average player's views.
The Rito Special Ezreal gets nerfed in the same patch that the keystone making him strong gets nerfed. Really? This has happened a lot (Sejuani and Sona come to mind for me) and it shouldn't happen again. It's a poor way to handle issues, especially with the new patch pattern. It seems pretty simple: in the big patch nerf the item/rune/etc. making the champion OP, NOT the champion. Then in the small patch (or in a hotfix), fine-tune the champion's balance through either compensation buffs, necessary (but not overtuned) nerfs, or shifting power. That way a champion doesn't get messed up in one patch and have a chance at being in a better state.
The State of Top Lane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-JXOLrD4EA This video explains it pretty well. (Yes, it's Hashinshin, and while prone to rants or outbursts at times, he has good points). Bruisers aren't impactful enough, Riot hasn't shown anything to fix top lane but just said they'll fix it (how tho?), and STILL no keystone rune. Main issue I believe is that quite a few bruisers have no way to deal with tanks, that being max % health damage or armor shred. Not much to say, the video explains it well.
Balance Avoiding the Issue For a while I felt this has been a large issue, in which a nerf to a champion avoids what should be changed, and instead makes the champion less fun, less unique and skill-oriented, or just outright gutted. In recent patches (and on the PBE), this is fairly present.
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Zoe's changes a while back made it take longer for her Q to register her new location with her R, making the ability feel less smoother (as I have heard) and not affecting her damage output at all. Zoe needed changes to make her damage less reliable, such as lower minimum or maximum damage, removing her E's trap effect for missing, etc. But instead this happened.
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Ornn's changes in the recent patch made his W no longer completely unstoppable. This does not mean ALL CC will stop the ability, only displacements and knockups will completely prevent abilities, while stuns are snares are supposed to allow him to keep breathing fire. It's not as bad as it could be, but considering Riot's intentions in nerfing him (stated in Quick Gameplay Thoughts on Jan. 24th) I fear for the state of Ornn. I think the main issue with Ornn is his damage output. Not only does Ornn have max % damage in several instances on one ability, it also has a decently low cooldown and not too punishing on mana. Ornn doesn't need to lose his CC blocking ability, he needs to be less oppressive in top lane. Make his W Brittle last less time, make his W have a higher mana cost or cooldown early. One post I saw said he shouldn't get extra mana for buying mana items in lane, but only get maximum mana.
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The Kalista changes on PBE are rather concerning. Reducing her range by 50 (to 500 from 550 range) is a big nerf. And while I'm no fan of dealing with Kalista, I feel this isn't the nerf she really needs. What she needs is changes to the more problematic parts of her kit. Give her Rend a damage cap (scaling with either level or rank) and change her passive. A good approach may be to remove her ability to jump after every auto, but in turn allow her Q to let her jump, and make her autos still track out of sight enemies. If necessary, move part (or all) of her W passive to her natural passive.
Throwing Balance at the Wall to See What Sticks Nunu buffs? Aftershock giving 70 armor and MR at level 1? It all seems to just be the product of boredom and not really going for the "perfect imbalance" Riot wants, in which the game is always in a shifting state. This is what threw me off from last patch mostly. It was great that top lane felt a bit better (Klepto's weaker and targeted spells draw minion aggro) but in turn we had to deal with those Nunu buffs?
So I'm not calling for anything drastic like firing the entire balance team, but Riot should probably take a look at the balancing ideas and think "Is this really what players want?" We got some good changes recently, but the chaotic and poor balancing choices leave those in the dust at times. While the players speaking out may be a small minority of the entire community, if people are calling out some bullshit it usually means there's bullshit, since people who are angry or frustrated are definitely more vocal than those who are content because they want something to change. As a support and top lane player, I've had my fair share of issues with the state of the game. With both my roles feeling un-fun, I've personally had my fair share of issues with how Riot is acknowledging top lane and the recent Sightstone changes just don't click with me, but I still see Riot as good not half-bad company. If we can actually get fixes instead of promises, I will definitely enjoy this game more. My personal points?
- Focus heavily on making top lane a more fun experience. Make bruisers more impactful and better and not just tanky-but-not-tank-enough-and-damage-but-not-damage-enough.
- Riot needs to reevaluate how they balance this game. With their methods and them seeming to ignore some issues.
