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Should Bronze/Silver dicatate balancing because it features the most players?

Kowe The Ewok··2 votes·468 views

I think it shouldn't. But since Riot seems to balancing mostly according to winrates this seems to be the case.

Two examples:

Zed - is relatively confusing to pick up for new players. Yet he's realatively popular even at Bronze and Silver. As a result he has low winrates in a majority of his games. Meanwhile he's picked or banned in nearly every Gold and Platinum game and also quite popular at Dimaond. At this elo range he simply wrecks havoc. EDIT: (Or hell, even in tournament play http://youtu.be/nbCqWMIT-Pk?t=52s)

Heimerdinger - many Bronze and Silver players are overwhelmed when they suddenly face an additional minion which focuses them. Instead of abusing its low health and 24s cooldown and killing it by 4s ability they facetank it. They even eat the laser which by design misses every target moving from left to right. (It was a pain to spectate) At the same time basically any Heimerdinger at Gold or above gets absolutely destroyed. (Even without Trailblazer junglers) Only a few selected "hardcore" Heimerdinger players with exceptional skillshot hitrates even dare to pick him anymore. Sadly, this champion is not going to get buffed anytime soon due to his good performance at low-end tiers. (In the meantime Riot released Azir , who basically has the same role but is more difficult to use for new players, yet in the hands of a semi-skilled player 4 times as effective)

What do you guys think? Should Riot keep balancing according due to the majority of players? Or should they consider that players actually get better over time and champion performance rises? Do you think focussing solely on winrates (like they do it atm) is the way to go? Or should "best case scenarios" between two "better" players be valued more?

9 Comments

Dr Clueless PhD4 votes

They don't base balance decisions primarily on low rankings. That's one reason why this playerbase is never happy. They hold the competitive level as the most important level to balance at, and for good reason.

Now, that doesn't mean they don't care (perhaps too much still). They have done some serious changes for the sake of Bronze and Silver in the past.

SmokingPuffin2 votes

I dispute the claim that Riot is balancing with low elo in mind. The vast majority of their changes seem aimed at competitive play, and they clearly have no interest in putting every champion near 50% solo queue win rates.

I think the game is much better balanced for diamond elo than for silver elo.

BRBGTGBOWFLEX1 votes

They currently seem to balance around competitive play (Diamond/Challenger/5v5Ranked) only addressing extreme abuse cases at lower levels of play, which is fine.

While none of your specific arguments have a real basis in fact (Azir seems to do equally well in bronze and diamond, you have no statistics for heimer hitrates) your general argument that some things work better in low ELO is true-- and nothing needs to be done about it. Because people who are actually good enough with it, will place themselves out of bronze/silver quickly.

That said, I am more scared of a Silver Annie than a Silver Zed and I think that's fine. There are different things that people should want to ban at each elo that correspond with different weaknesses in play.

Seth Lightheart1 votes

False. Riot does not balance for win rate nor have they ever. With that in mind they do tweak champs for less skilled players, see Tryndamere. He was strong low elo because people didn't know how to handle him, higher he was a joke.

CollectiveFury1 votes

High CC supports dominate low ELL. Blitz, Leona. Very common. Most ADC's don't have any deciding factor in Bronze because they usually can't come back when behind save for maybe Corki and Jinx. Assassin mids are normal. Bruiser top like Darius. Jungle doesn't have much impact as usually no one ganks properly.

There you have low ELL in a nutshell. Pick a support like Blitz if you want to carry your lousy team. I am learning him myself and I'm getting better at him. He does well even when behind.

Kowe The Ewok1 votes

Congratz. You didn't read a single word of what this topic is about.

Celeste Benal1 votes

I haven't been impressed with Azir until recently. Been seeing players use him much more effectively. His early game is still bad though.

AtheosisX1 votes

Err...Heimer has a 52% win rate in Diamond. Win rates aren't everything but it would seem to me that if he was consistently getting destroyed there his win rate would not be that high.

By the way you do realize that he gives assassins fits right? You know assassins, the most popular class in the game after marksmen.

Talamare1 votes

They pay attention to the low levels and do some changes in according to it

but mostly they try to keep it balanced to competitive play

BUT THEY WILL DESTROY A CHAMPION IF ITS DESTROYING LOW LEVEL PLAY

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