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Do you guys feel like Riot likes AD champs slightly more than AP?

ckkinder··4 votes·777 views

Let me start off by saying that I am in no ways flaming at anyone, I just really want see what others think of the state of the game, I am not mad that (in my opinion) AD champs have pretty good advantages (I play AD champs and AP champs). I just don't really think that they should have such a big advantage.

Anybody else think Riot is loves AD champs just a little too much? I think Riot really loves their AD Champs for some odd reason...

Firstly, Riot has so many awesome items for AD champs, and just a few cool items for AP champions.

AD Champions can get: -Blade of the Ruined King -Death's Dance -Duskblade of Draktharr -Frozen Mallet -Infinity Edge -Lord Dominik's Regards/Mortal Reminder -Maw of Malmortius -Muramana -Phantom Dancer -Rapid Firecannon -Ravenous Hydra/Titanic Hydra -Statikk Shiv -Sterak's Gage -The Black Cleaver -The Bloodthirster -Youmuu's Ghostblade -Essence Reaver

Then AP Champions get: -Abyssal Scepter -Archangel's Staff -Banner of Command -Frost Queen's Claim -Liandry's Torment -Luden's Echo -Morellonomicon -Rabadon's Deathcap -Rylai's Crystal Scepter -Lich Bane

The list is almost half for AP champs, and really Morellonomicon doesn't really have an awesome affect so it really shouldn't count...

Next onto keystones:

AD Champs get: -Warlord's Bloodlust -Fervor of Battle -Thunderlord's Decree

While AP Champs Get: -Deathfire Touch -Thunderlords Decree

Which really isn't a huge deal though, since thunderlord's is so strong anyway....

And Lifesteal vs Spellvamp, Lifesteal items are numerous and great to build for any ap champ, get the bloodthirsters and you get a couple hundred health shield with all that lifesteal. On the other hand, spellvamp (which I am aware they are taking it out) has two items (Hextech Gunblade, and WIll of the Anchients).

Another thing is the Armor Pen vs Magic Pen:

AD Champs get: -7% Armor pen from masteries -45% from the pen item of their choosing -10 from Duskblade of Draktharr -20 from Youmuu's Ghostblade -10 from Maw of Malmortius -Black Cleaver's 30 Armor Shred

AP Champs get: -7% magic pen from masteries (Which is lowered to 5% magic pen when you get your void staff) -35% from void staff -15 from sorc shoes -15 from Liandry's Torment -20 Shred from Abyssal Scepter

3rd looking at CDR items:

AD champs get: -Essence Reaver for 10%-30% -Death's Dance for 10% -Black Cleaver for 20% -Trinity Force for 10% -Youmuu's Ghostblade for 10%

AP champs get: -Athene's Unholy Grail for 20% -Banner of Command for 10% -Frost Queen's Claim for 10% -Lich Bane for 10% -Morellonomicon for 20% -Nashor's Tooth for 20% -Will of the Ancients for 10%

What I really don't think is fair about this is that Essence Reaver is the only thing in the game to give 30% CDR alone, why can't AP champs (the champs that rely heavly on their abilities) get a shorter stick than AD champs. A Lucian shouldn't have to build one CRD item to get 30% CDR which is all he needs when an AP champs has to buy a minimum of 2 items to equal that...

That's all off the top of my head, I'm not flaming of anything, but I really do think that they should do something to help AP champs. But I may be alone in my thinking, leave a comment on your thoughts!

16 Comments

Niyumi5 votes

They most definitely favor AD over AP. The majority of the items in the game are AD, and the strongest champs (imo) are all AD. The only time an AP champ is ever strong is if they're really ahead.

But, I think it's safe to attribute that to the fact that League is F2P.

The AP champs are by and large (minus some like Annie and etc.) much more complex than their AD counterparts. These days, easier games sell better, since society teaches you that any amount of effort, patience or thinking is just taboo. So, in the spirit of greed, Riot makes the easier champions a whole lot stronger, and focuses on them a lot more, since that's where their income potential is. Whales don't like it if some complex champ they can't play beats them.

So, unless they make AP champions really flashy and pretty for all the whales to enjoy staring at , we'll never see them actually be competitive against AD champs -- and you can thank all the morons who went and enabled shitty F2P companies for that. ^^

Jalkan3 votes

Wow, better get your tin-foil hats out for this one hurr durr capitalism

This is stupid. What the hell makes AD champions harder than AP champions? And that's not even the worst part of your post.

Niyumi2 votes

Prove me wrong. I dare you.

Prove that Riot gives a damn about ANYTHING outside of income potential.

Prove that AD champs aren't heavily favored.

Prove that Riot doesn't exist solely to please whales.

Prove that Riot gives a damn about balance.

I dare you.

CrazFight 3 votes

{quoted}

Prove me wrong. I dare you.

Prove that Riot gives a damn about ANYTHING outside of income potential.

Prove that AD champs aren't heavily favored.

Prove that Riot doesn't exist solely to please whales.

Prove that Riot gives a damn about balance.

I dare you.

[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]

Jalkan5 votes

{quoted}

Prove me wrong. I dare you.

Prove that Riot gives a damn about ANYTHING outside of income potential.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-08-11-if-they-let-me-change-league-of-legends-i-could-double-its-revenue

Prove that AD champs aren't heavily favored.

http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.winPercent&order=descend&roleSort=Middle

As you can see here, both AD and AP champions suck. The top 10 champions include have AP and AD champions, and the top champions by play-rate are AP champions until Yasuo.

Prove that Riot doesn't exist solely to please whales.

Free stuff from hextech crafting.

Prove that Riot gives a damn about balance.

They have balance patches.

I dare you.

Try proving otherwise about these things.

Also, > What the hell makes AD champions harder than AP champions?

Niyumi1 votes

{quoted}

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-08-11-if-they-let-me-change-league-of-legends-i-could-double-its-revenue

Sure, they're not fucking assholes, but they're still a greedy, sleazy, nasty company that doesn't give a damn about quality, balance or anything so long as they make money off of people. This is why it takes them 8 years to update Taric, takes them several months to update a splash art, takes weeks to fix bugs, and all that. Just the fact that they're F2P alone proves that they literally do not care about anything but money. I know you're not likely old enough to understand how a business works, but the design philosophy in an F2P game is dramatically different than in a P2P or OLD B2P game (not an MMO).

http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.winPercent&order=descend&roleSort=Middle

As you can see here, both AD and AP champions suck. The top 10 champions include have AP and AD champions, and the top champions by play-rate are AP champions until Yasuo.

Now uh, here's the thing: In that list, is ANY champion that requires any amount of effort / thought / skill anywhere NEAR the top? Mmmm, absolutely not. The first champ I saw that takes some level of skill to do well with was Sol, and he's rank 87. Just goes to reinforce the whole "easy = happy whales" thing. Only in the mid-low 40s (winrate) do you start seeing more complex champs.

Free stuff from hextech crafting.

Designed in such a way that it promotes more RP sales. You get more keys than you do chests, and the rewards are enticing enough to push you to buy RP for chests to fit those keys. Some people will even go so far as to just straight up buy both chests and keys.

They have balance patches.

Yeah, those placebo changes they call nerfs? Right? Like -3 AD on Vayne? Yeah, that's not a balance patch. What about when they go and buff Xin Zhao, who was already absurd, into basically god-hood? Or when they added Sated Devourer despite THE VAST MAJORITY of the community saying it was a bad idea?

You mean those "balance" changes? Yeah, sorry, they're not trying to balance their game, they're trying to create FOTM waves to spike skin / RP sales.

Try proving otherwise about these things.

Also, > What the hell makes AD champions harder than AP champions?

AD champion: Right-click, AFK.

AP champion: Aim various skillshots while utilizing all kinds of synergies / interactions, all while paying attention to CDs, resources and the rest of the game.

"But wait!," you'd say. "What about champs like Zed, Pantheon and all them? They do more than right-click!"

But to that, I'd tell you that all they do is click on people with more targeted abilities (or abilities you'd have to be special needs to miss) with absurd damage / scaling, and win just as easy as any braindead ADC.

Of course, champs like Annie don't apply.

*stops the clock* Your move. ^^

Best KhaZix Void2 votes

{quoted}

Sure, they're not fucking assholes, but they're still a greedy, sleazy, nasty company that doesn't give a damn about quality, balance or anything so long as they make money off of people. This is why it takes them 8 years to update Taric, takes them several months to update a splash art, takes weeks to fix bugs, and all that. Just the fact that they're F2P alone proves that they literally do not care about anything but money. I know you're not likely old enough to understand how a business works, but the design philosophy in an F2P game is dramatically different than in a P2P or OLD B2P game (not an MMO).

Now uh, here's the thing: In that list, is ANY champion that requires any amount of effort / thought / skill anywhere NEAR the top? Mmmm, absolutely not. The first champ I saw that takes some level of skill to do well with was Sol, and he's rank 87. Just goes to reinforce the whole "easy = happy whales" thing. Only in the mid-low 40s (winrate) do you start seeing more complex champs.

Designed in such a way that it promotes more RP sales. You get more keys than you do chests, and the rewards are enticing enough to push you to buy RP for chests to fit those keys. Some people will even go so far as to just straight up buy both chests and keys.

Yeah, those placebo changes they call nerfs? Right? Like -3 AD on Vayne? Yeah, that's not a balance patch. What about when they go and buff Xin Zhao, who was already absurd, into basically god-hood? Or when they added Sated Devourer despite THE VAST MAJORITY of the community saying it was a bad idea?

You mean those "balance" changes? Yeah, sorry, they're not trying to balance their game, they're trying to create FOTM waves to spike skin / RP sales.

AD champion: Right-click, AFK.

AP champion: Aim various skillshots while utilizing all kinds of synergies / interactions, all while paying attention to CDs, resources and the rest of the game.

"But wait!," you'd say. "What about champs like Zed, Pantheon and all them? They do more than right-click!"

But to that, I'd tell you that all they do is click on people with more targeted abilities (or abilities you'd have to be special needs to miss) with absurd damage / scaling, and win just as easy as any braindead ADC.

Of course, champs like Annie don't apply.

*stops the clock* Your move. ^^

this post is so bullshit it pains me physically to read.

Niyumi1 votes

What's bullshit is that kids like you -actually- believe that Riot cares about their product and, by extension, you. Maybe if people pulled their heads out of their asses, we could kick greedy suits to the curb, and bring passion back into the industry.

But, that's not likely, so I'll just continue to watch gaming as a whole die off, and lament the loss of my lifelong hobby due to fucking greed and laziness.

disregardable4 votes

No.

CrazFight 4 votes

No ~ would explain but its 1:41 so just accept no XD

Jalkan4 votes

Of course not. What could possibly be the point of prioritizing AD champions over AP champions? Did this come into mind simply because the AD itemization change occurred before the AP one?

Also, it seems like there are more choices for AD items if you count them as a whole, but that''s because they encompass 3 classes - Bruisers, AD assassins, and ADCs. AP champions only include Tanks (which don't build many of these offensive items), Burst mages/AP Assassins(what most of these items are good on), and DPS mages, which only really have Nashor's and Liandry's unique to them, and for the rest of their item slots use the items for the bigger AP item pool.

EDIT: Downvoted for truth.

Strawberrycocoa4 votes

Well, considering Riot is currently building a massive overhaul to Mages and AP itemization as we speak... lets wait as bit, hmm?

ckkinder1 votes

That is true, hopefully the mage update is nice. But they aren't doing much to the items, a few are being added which look awesome and a few being tweaked, but we don't have anything on the actually mage updates. But yeah, lets see.

WinBoat3 votes

Yeah.

Best KhaZix Void1 votes

no.

Stars Shaper1 votes

As for now I noticed 2 things about the AD vs AP situation:

  1. ADs have a huge advantage in taking objectives as they focus on boosting the stat which affects the only damage source you have to deal with turrets (AAs).
  2. APs, and usually "Casters" (aka "active skills using" champions) have major impact in Teamfights.

These 2 aspects of the game make it so champions roaming inbetween of such categories (AD casters and APs with a lot of AA modifiers) tend to dominate depending on the meta while pure ADs and pure APs suffer by their counterparts being meta and the abalance attempts Riot delivers to contain their fellow caster ADs/AA APs.

Characterizing champions more and more giving them betetr defined thematics, synergies and niches might help restoring some balance overall and yeah you need to upgrade both item sets (AD and APs) in order not to make a category fall apart because of outdated balancing.

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