Riot seems to boast their champion roster like they're all playable.

Varalessia·6/30/2015, 1:34:07 AM·92 votes·5,045 views

Is it just me that finds this irritating? You have riot sneaking in mentions about how big their champion roster is like it's supposed to be impressive when so many of them are just unplayable. You have champions that Riot hasn't touched in ages that need everything from minor tweaks (Mana rebalancing on Anivia, for instance) to champions that they touch of death (Elise change.) when they're supposedly trying to help. And then you have the forgotten champions that are simply out dated or Riot has promised an update Soon(TM) that have been lost to the sands of time without a single word about it like that Fiora update that Guinsoo was working on.

Does anyone else get this feeling or am I in the minority?

140 Comments

Drunk Rummate6/30/2015, 2:05:56 AM31 votes

lack of diversity at a pro level comes largely from pro players practicing the same champions and team playstyle over and over and only feeling comfortable with a small champion pool as a result.

the amount of practice it takes to work that cohesively as a 5 man squad is pretty ridiculous. this is why you can look at TiP and say "they play sivir/alistar based aggressive comps" and you can look at TSM and say "they play to lategame teamfighting centered around Bjergsen." It's because these are the playstyles that those teams are comfortable bringing when actual money is on the table. It's because they practice it day in and day out and they would be crazy to just throw caution to the wind and try something new for no reason. A jack of all trades is a master of none.

Narasimha6/30/2015, 2:50:00 AM12 votes

If a champ hasn't been touched in ages, they're either upcoming for a rework, or they're pretty fine. Jokes about Anivia being manaless aside, she NEEDS to be heavily gated because of how much her kit offers. It's comparable to some of the champions released today. Elise is also a touchy zone. She has to be buffed slowly, because otherwise, we get the terror she was back in s2. And the Fiora rework was lowered on the priority scaling, since there are others that need it more (Poppy, GP, WW, etc.)

Joe Dredd6/30/2015, 2:59:25 AM10 votes

(Mana rebalancing on Anivia)

Every time someone references anivia as needing any buffs whatsoever it invalidates anything they have to say for the rest of the post

Mat7itan6/30/2015, 2:26:37 AM9 votes

All of the champs are playable.

PiVoRx6/30/2015, 6:34:24 AM9 votes

"#LCSBIGPLAYS" above all

Llanite6/30/2015, 3:32:13 AM6 votes

They're viable when there is new item change.

Warwick was useless, then with Devourer in 5.0, he was everywhere and even had to get nerfed. Gragas was considered trash post-reworked, couple patches later, with zero buff or nerf, he now has 80% ban rate due to Cinderhulk.

Galewings6/30/2015, 3:34:03 AM6 votes

Yeah, and Riot likes to push how their matchmaking is 'fair' in the new player guide on their own website yet the game is riddled with smurf accounts that absolutely destroy the new player experience but Riot won't do anything about it since they don't consider smurfing a problem.

Rinky Dinky6/30/2015, 4:20:34 AM5 votes

Almost all of the champs are viable.

There are no more than I would say 5 who are so bad that you should never pick them ever.

3TWarrior6/30/2015, 2:03:50 AM3 votes

well, some of the minority champs are actually pretty strong in certain cases, but fall off in others, so it makes it difficult to make them the new "overpowered or nothing" meta

for instance, I started playing mordekaiser again because he's really fun and manaless with the ability to duel melee specialized champs and beat any mage down

some champs take a lot of itemization to make a playstyle, like critikayle. she's normally an attack speed or AP champ, but she can build critical and play like an adc with her ult and her innate stats, same with poppy and other unused champs

it's the champs that riot pays attention to that are fairly toxic, such as Zed...virtually untouched since release yet one of the most toxic kits there is(though he has a really high skill floor(for those of you who call it that))

then there are champs like jinx, blitzcrank, and thresh. jinx has her own crowd control in two forms and a move speed/other stats steroids whereas blitzcrank and thresh can lock down early game assured

Nautilus does mostly the same thing, but he's actually fairly balance with lower damage scaling and a reliance on his team to follow him into battle(not to mention he can't grab someone from over a wall)

IndianHippie6/30/2015, 6:16:13 AM3 votes

It is true. Though if you dont care about ranked then normals is quite fun for me. I can play almost any champ and if i lose I don't get that disappointed. I have fun none the less. Shaco

Myrddin6/30/2015, 12:04:55 PM2 votes

only one champ hasnt been playing in the competitive scene over the last 2 seasons, that's darius.

So, hey guess what, games pretty balanced