What happened to this game?
I used to really, really love this game. I remember back in the day champions had clear weaknesses, and clear advantages. Beating someone on lane with my trusty old croco Renekton used to mean something. I was tower diving them, killing the enemy top + their jungler 1v2, I used to feel like king of the world, but often I was camped and just outplayed by better players to the point where I couldn't even approach the minions without getting 100>0'd. Those games taught me the most. I'd be like "Ohhhh so Jayce can do that huh... I better be careful next time". Learning about all those small things that would teach me how to win the lane, how to trade with different champions, everything was so fun and intriguing and I feel like all of it is gone - in a sense, it's like NONE of it matters anymore...
To give you an example, I just played against a Vladimir with Frost queen claim first item. I completely crushed him in lane cause he played poorly, killing him over and over again. But when mid game came around and he found some farm, he could EASILY go toe to toe with me despite me being 7-2 with a bunch of assists under my belt I got from roaming and making plays (also another aspect of the game I had to learn), and he was 1-6. The fights between me and him 1v1 were so close that if I didn't have my ignite up and he had his I would've died. This wasn't late in the game, maybe 17-18 mins in, so it can't justify his "hyperscale" status. I couldn't believe it.
How do you guys explain this phenomenon? That a Vladimir with spellbook, who basically fed whole laning phase can still keep up with me in the mid game 1v1?
And I've noticed it's not just Vladimir nowadays, it's many of these new reworked champions who have lost ALL their weaknesses, all the opportunities to punish them, and everything that made them fun to play against.
The games feel so volatile, so out of my control, and everything I do feels insignificant and when I do win I feel like I only won cause my jungle / bottom were performing and not me. If my bottom is losing I can at best stall the game out for another 5-10 minutes and then lose.
Is Renekton really such dumpster tier? Am I playing like I'm playing on Season 3 patch? I mean, what happened? I played against a Jax the other day, and I had a kill up on him, I bait out his E and engage him (we're both lv7), I had phage and 2 doran blades and I just get destroyed by him, and I look at his items and it's Ninja Tabi and a doran shield.
So, how is my early game champion being bullied by these late game hyperscaling champs such as Vladimir, Jax, Kayle or teamfight monsters like Kennen etc?
Idk... Game is so weird to me now... Maybe I should skip playing Season 8 like I skipped playing Season 6 and see if they finally do something about returning the importance of individual skill again. At least on top lane. Maybe reduced the damage / heals / shields by 30% straight out and see what happens from there ... Maybe remove the insane passive gold generation? Insane early game jungle presence? Insane snowballing on bot lane that can lead to the enemy adc being same level as me ( a solo laner ) ?
