(Extended Detail) Riot: Stop Over-Nerfing Champions

Riot's been on a big trend of over-nerfing champions. A trend that, rather than increasing the number of viable champions in the game, keeps the number of viable champions the same while changing the particular champions viable at a given time. I don't know about you guys, but I would really like to see some change in the Balance Team's methods. When a champion is being overplayed, I would like to see a nerf to the part of the champion that is making them difficult to play against and not a nerf that just guts the champion completely. Rather than strictly nerfing champions, I would like to see small nerfs coupled with small buffs of the competition. The rest of this post will focus on the recent examples of over-nerfs and how they cripple the targeted champions. For further discussion on the methods of balance, here is a separate post I've written (also in great detail) that discusses the cause and effect of the Balance Team's current methods and trends: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/eQiPKHXE-riot-balance-team-youre-changing-your-methods-for-the-worst

Let's talk about the most recent examples. For a while, Akali, Jayce, Ryze, and Sylas have been the 4 prime competitive solo lane picks. They decided to hit Jayce and Akali first, with Sylas and Ryze on the list for next patch. The Jayce nerf and Akali nerfs both crippled the champions and both failed to target the aspects of the champions that were toxic to play against.

We don't have to nerf champions into the ground to allow other champions to become viable. We CAN just nerf the toxic part about the champions while leaving the champions for the most part intact. There's a large amount of satisfaction that comes from mastering a difficult to play champion. I don't see why we can't just nerf the toxic part of these champions while giving smaller buffs to other champions. The goal should be to increase the number of viable champions in the game. Not to simply keep the number the same and change the particular selection of viable champions by nerfing things into the ground.

Example 1, Jayce: The toxic part about Jayce was just how dominant he is in the early game for a lot of top lane matchups. He's an early game champion. He gets an early game lead and tries to run away with it. Riot nerfed his late game scaling. This actually also has the effect of crippling Mid Jayce, which sacrifices some of that early game power for a stronger mid-game power spike and some late-game scaling. The variation of Jayce that can function as a poke champion. What Riot should have done was figure out a way to make Jayce less abusive towards melee top laners early on. There are ways to do this without crippling the champion. My idea, which in my honest opinion would be most effective, is removing the mana gain passive on his hammer. Why? Because this is a passive rarely utilized when playing mid but utilized a lot when playing top lane. Most people who play Jayce, even in competitive, haven't taken the time to truly master him. It's like playing Riven without mastering her combos and animation cancels. Doing this will make it more punishing if you miss your Qs or EQs. This method of nerf has also been proven to work with Cassiopeia. In the old days of Cassiopeia, you got level 2, and you just went all in for the kill. Now, ever since changes on her, you actually don't have the mana to 100-0 someone level 2. If you land everything perfectly and take ignite, there's a chance you could still come away with a kill, but it'd honestly be pretty close and would still guarantee require your full mana pool. Cassiopeia is a separate discussion, but a good example for how we might be able to nerf Jayce's early game power without crippling him as a champion. For goodness sakes, I build Wits End in place of Maw/Scimitar just yesterday and legitimately felt like I was dealing more damage. I checked the game stats and they confirmed this. Sounds stupid, but I think that should speak for just how bad the nerf was.

Example 2, Akali: The toxic part about Akali, as far as I can tell from my own ranked experiences as well as from watching competitive, is the fact that if you land your first R on a full HP mid laner, you can most of the time just kill them 100-0 if you land everything else in your kit. This is just because of the sheer amount of burst damage your ultimate provides. Instead of targetting that big burst damage, Riot opted into nerfing her only form of consistent damage. And scaling-wise, any 20% nerf is a BIG change. I know Akali is one of the champions that did need a bit of a nerf to allow other champions to have a chance to shine, but we don't need to totally cripple the champion to do that. If we really do, then we ought to just rework or revert her, because it must mean she has a faulty kit if she can only be either overpowered or an afterthought.

Example 3, Karthus: This example is also meant to help make the point on Akali. Let's imagine that instead of nerfing Karthus ultimate damage this past patch, Riot gave a significant nerf onto the scaling of his Q. It's pretty easy to tell that this would totally cripple Karthus as a champion. A late-game scaling champion with no good consistent damage output. What? They didn't do that. Thankfully. The toxic part about Karthus was how great his ultimate damage has become with the newly added effects of Runic Echos, Ludens Echo, and Dark Harvest. It turned out to be a big burst of damage for something that can't be dodged without having a spell shield or buying a zhonyas. Riot brought it down to earth, and that change works.

Upcoming, Ryze: There is no doubt in my mind that Ryze will not be viable after the current proposed changes. That are half reworking him to his old form, in a sense. Spell Flux and Rune Prison don't reset Overload's cooldown. Overload is still a skill shot. Spell Flux bounces like it used to. Ryze's new passive is that every spell cast reduces other spells cooldowns by 1 second. Q: 10 second CD all ranks --> 6 seconds max CDR W: 16 second CD all ranks --> 9.6 seconds max CDR E: 4 second CD all ranks --> 2.4 seconds max CDR Suppose Max CDR: Cast W: Wcd(9.6) Cast E: Ecd(2.4), Wcd(8.6) Cast Q: Qcd(6), Ecd (1.4), Wcd(7.6) Wait 1.4 seconds: Qcd(4.6), Ecd(0), Wcd(6.2s) Cast E: Qcd(3.6), Ecd(2.4), Wcd(5.2) Wait 2.4 seconds: Qcd(1.2), Ecd(0), Wcd(2.8) Cast E: Qcd(0.2), Ecd(2.4), Wcd(1.8) Wait 0.2 seconds: Qcd(0), Ecd(2.2), Wcd(1.6) Cast Q: Qcd(6), Ecd(1.2), Wcd(0.6) Wait 0.6 seconds: Qcd(5.4), Ecd(0.6), Wcd(0) Cast W: Qcd(4.4), Ecd(0), Wcd(9.6) Cast E: Qcd(3.4), Ecd(2.4), Wcd(8.6)

Total Spells Cast: Q(x2), E(x4), W(x2) Time (assuming no cast times and able to cast spells immediately as they come up): 4.6 seconds Problem: For a total of 4 seconds, Ryze is essentially standing still auto attacking and casting his E twice. Problem: If even a singular overload misses, you aren't dealing much damage. 4 seconds is a long time for anyone to be walking around in such close range that one needs to be to cast these spells and only doing a total of 320 + (2% max mana) + (80% max ap). This assumes a 1v1 where there are no bounces. I'm sure we can all think of a good number of mid laners or even some top laners that don't need a full 4 seconds to kill you. Keep in mind this is at a point in the game where Ryze has enough items to be 40% CDR.

Upcoming Sylas: I've already gone into so much detail with this post that I want to start to wrap it up. Basically, Sylas has pretty long cooldowns besides his Q, which isn't THAT short. It's 6 seconds, 3.6 at max CDR. The base damages are 120, 180, 140 at max level for all 3 abilities. The AP scalings on these 3 abilities are 40%, 20%, and 30%. Sylas probably won't look as bad as Jayce, Akali, Ryze, but these are still significant nerfs that are going to make it difficult for Sylas to matchup to other champions.

All-in-all, it's pretty clear to see that Riot is strongly focused on using big nerfs to create game balance. There is nothing gradual or minute about the changes they are implementing. We are on a trend of nerfing champions into the ground and then reworking them when the balance team just doesn't want to take the time to make their kits work.

Does anybody else actually appreciate this method of balance? If you ask me, it's not healthy or efficient way to create game balance. It is an effective way to completely remove champions from viability.