Meaningful Counterplay

So Riot has been telling us recently that they're all about creating meaningful counterplay, and while I think they've done a mostly alright job on this front there are things that are being done that just don't fit that philosophy, whether it's due to random stats being tacked on to them or just a lack of real counterplay options in their gameplay patterns.

I think this guy qualifies as one of the top dogs in the random stats department. Doubled crit chance and a crapload of arpen tacked onto his ultimate just make him a pain to deal with with no real drawbacks for him. However, I find his gameplay patterns to be mostly alright. His ease of farming in lane due to his manaless-ness can be a bit problematic but I think overall his big problems are that bonus arpen and crit chance, making itemizing vs him incredibly difficult while not adding any meaningful counterplay elements.

All seem to suffer from the gameplay pattern of "either they have banshee's or QSS and they live or they don't and they die". The whole burst mage concept SHOULD exist, and can exist beautifully in champions such as (both champions have a dodgeable skillshot that sets up the rest of their kits to do damage, which is a HEALTHY GAMEPLAY ELEMENT imo), but tacking on a, for all intents and purposes unavoidable, stun just makes it feel like there's only one thing you can do to survive or nothing at all. Veigar especially would become a huge problem and be immediately nerfed if everyone realized how strong he is. These champions do have drawbacks in their relative immobility and mana pools but at the same time are played in such a way that they're either overbearing or worthless- not really fun for anybody.

Both have random heals tacked onto their kits. Both have entirely point and click gameplay patterns. Both are unhealthy in their current states. Nuff said.

Another ball of stats champion with HUGE utility in his kit. Hell, his transformation in and of itself is an unhealthy gameplay mechanic. For the 15 seconds or whatever that he's transformed almost nobody can go toe to toe with him, especially in laning, thereby reducing any chance of fighting back against him in that state. Then he becomes a ranged champion with a great escape! There's just no winning vs this guy.

While I love Lee Sin dearly, he IS rather problematic. He shares this problem with in that both of them give everything you could want in a jungler or marksman, respectively. Their kits are just too well rounded. Not to mention also has a bunch of random ass stats just popped into his kit willy nilly. Spellvamp, Lifesteal, Bonus AS, incredibly high base ad and some of the best utility in the game mean something has to be done about

I hope Riot gets around to addressing some of these champions at some point or another. Whether they get random stat bonuses that are poor gameplay elements on their own or just have their own play patterns that don't make for interesting champion interactions, the key points I addressed here are big problems with the way League of Legends is being played.