TFT Balance Discussion

I'm a huge TFT fan and am loving some of the recent changes they've made. (i.e. fixed some super glitchy issues with targetting, pathing, and ability usage, demon build NOT burning 100% mana anymore.) That being said, I feel there's still some more changes that need to happen badly to balance out gameplay.

Now I know everyone has their own preferred team comp and combination of champ sets, so I would appreciate feedback from other players, if for nothing else than to show me the other side of the argument.

First and foremost; Hextech passive is a horrendous idea. Riot mentioned in earlier patch notes that they are well aware of the oppressiveness of RNG in the acquiring of items. They patched it to up the chances of getting those items to what I and my friends considered a very healthy level. Sure, some games one player in the match would end up with like 5 items by the time they fight their first match against another player, but once in a while YOU get to be that person, and it feels fun. NOW, they patched it and stuff felt quite balanced. Then enters the hextech element, and now all of those items we've watched for so desperately and placed so carefully on our team, are disabled. Yes it's only 8 seconds, but anyone who's played until the last few rounds knows perfectly well that the first 8 seconds of the game are THE most crucial. That GA you placed on your front line nuke to bring them back with the GA rez + AoE ability? Nah, he'll just die now, thanks for playing. This hextech bomb is also very unstable in terms of its interactions with attacks, mana gains, and abilities. At times champs just sit there while bombed, sometimes they randomly stop gaining mana, and other times they don't use their abilities as they should. (Could it be a scenario where say a champ had a Seraph's Embrace @ the start of combat [+40 beginning mana] and the champ THINKS their mana bar is full because of where their mana bar would have started gaining, but the disablement of the item confuses them?) I do not have video proof of the claims above, and I'd like to know if other players have experienced this.

OKAY, there's the problem; I have suggestions on how to make the hextech ability more manageable. I suggest one of the below ideas:

1. Make it disable ONE random item on a champ for the same duration.
2. Make the bomb target champs in a reliable fashion. Blitz and assasins always go for the furthest enemy: make an assignment to the Hextech passive as well so it can be played against.
3. Make it silence enemies instead of disabling items.
4. Make it suppress set abilities for the duration. (i.e. that set of 6 1* glacial champs can't just permanently stunlock your opponents and give a free win until after the 8 seconds.)

Problem #2: Glacial build is not balanced. That pretty much sums it up. That team of 6 glacials legitimately makes an ice cube tray out of everything it touches. You're permanently stunlocked, and depending on the spread of their champs vs yours, your entire front line just sits there and there is ZERO defense against it. The 45% freeze rate is FARRRRR too high. A hard stun, which just turns into a permanent stunlock in virtually every case, is not an acceptable 'passive' ability.

I suggest one of the below ideas:

1. Lower the stun rates, by @ least half. With your uber attack speed Ashe (Who is always paired with Vayne or Varus to DOUBLE her attack speed) will just freeze everything it touches anyway, even with a lower stun rate.
2. Add diminishing returns. It applies to armor and MR, need to apply it to CC.
3. Add some status like 'Thawing' to champs to make them immune to the stun for the same 2 sec that it froze them.
4. Make it so that glacial champs can freeze an enemy ONCE per unique enemy.
5. Make it slow attack speed and mana gains by 50% instead of stunning. Call it Hypothermia.

We already nerfed the Demon set, (thank the RNG gods), now it's time to look @ glacial.

Below are more general observations that I feel need attention.

There are certain champs who can use their ability right when they hit 100% mana, while others have to get off another auto attack in order to trigger it. While I personally gain from this more often than not (because Lulu, Ahri, and Veigar are prime examples of this), I do not think it should be the case. I suggest all champs be on the same playing field with respect to this. I do not have video evidence of this, but anyone who's played a decent amount of games should be able to share the experience of witnessing it.

Blitz is wonky. Assassins mess with his targeting frequently, and many times he starts off combat with 0 mana, despite his passive. He's a robot, he scans the battlefield beforehand, meaning he should already know who's an assassin and plan his pull accordingly. PLUS, if the assassins go invisible the second combat starts, they shouldn't interact with his targeting in the first place. Yeah, just fix him please. I don't use him that often but when I win against someone with a blitz who just Reeeee'd and lost the match for them, I feel bad.

WW often just sits there for up to 3 seconds after using his ability if it kills someone during its use. Let him have the ability to resume attacking as soon as his ability ends, regardless of its outcome.

I'm sure there's tons of other examples that other players have noticed, and I'd like to hear some of them, along with opinions of players who frequently use the Hextech and Glacial builds to see how they feel about them.

Thanks, Rags