[MEGATHREAD] How did we arrive at this Meta: A trip down Patch History since Season 3 (LONG READ)

Wall of Text incoming. This thread is not for those with short attention spans. PS: My main account is in LAS, this account is just to partake in these boards. I took 5 hours of research and writing to gather these links.

The thread is divided into three sections

1. Patch history
2. The summary of the effects of said patches
3. My personal Conclusion and how we could start fixing things.

Well.. Geez , where to begin? I think many would agree the state of the game as of this moment, is not the best it's ever been. But what I see a lot of people either confused or arguing about is: When did it get like this? This thread is going to be my personal opinion, through my long journey into League's history starting from very beginning of Season 1, as to how I personally believe we arrived to this point. I will try, despite venting, to be as constructive as possible in my explanation, because when I try to explain to people this it's hard because many believe things became like this at one point, that there was one big change.

But it's not.

The current state is a result of changes that stem waaaayyy back, arguably from season 3 imo. Some where large, others where medium or small, but when put together with future or past changes became much worse or influential, and THIS is what made them go under the radar of many (myself at the time included).

The problem I see with League now a days are several, but the principal is, it feels like its both 1. Lost its skill expression and 2. Champions have lost their identities due to overloaded stats everywhere.

This is due to several factors, but the main one is: Excess. Excess of everything, but primarily damage. People don’t look for strategies, or mixing comps that much anymore like in season 2 so much as they do look for what can dish out the most damage and explode someone faster. They don’t care about what a champ was originally meant to do so much as how they can get it to just kill their opponent faster. Ill get into more detail on this latter, giving examples of what changes killed which champion's identities and how they affected lol in the Long run.

PATCH HISTORY TIME!

So, I began playing shortly after Season 1 just began, that’s right, the original first season. I been around this game forever, only in 2016 did I take a huge hiatus due to personal reasons. LoL was chaotic back then, we had a champion every two weeks and they were usually very strong or nerfed shortly after, like Nocturne and Lee Sin. But that’s not where I believe the problem began. This first point is probably one of the only BIG moments, where the change was really profound imo. I believe the place to start is almost 2 years later in Patch V1.0.0.152, the preseason patch to season 3.

Boots got nerfed, all champions got buffed. 25 points of mobility were taken from boots and placed into the base stats of all champions. Everyone became faster, way faster. When people ask where mobility creep began, it began here. Most people now a days never knew what it was like to walk at a constant 300 mov speed on most champs permanently until you purchased boots, now a day's even mages can run around at a steady 350 without the use of boots. Boots, which back in the day had often been a rush buy, or opened many different strategies because of the advantage they offered, where no longer such a big deal. Many sat on tier 1 boots, other upgraded after their 2 even 3rd item. What was once a dynamic, strategic choice of going for either power or mobility became irrelevant, because now you could begin focusing more on raw power.

Im an Udyr main btw, and back then I also played a lot of Sejuani, Volibear and Hecarim and you can bet I felt this change immediately. Where once the advantage I had with either Hecarim, Volibear or Udyr of rushing Boots of Mobility or swiftness, thus making ganking much easier due to the discrepancies of speed, became a lot less impactful. Laners didn’t have to worry anymore, they could be less careful about their actions and positioning, and I believe a lot of champs who had movement speed advantages saw their identities and uniqueness die down a bit that patch. Increased safety made supports less important, which was why back in the day this role was underappreciated and in need of much love, a story that would repeat itself until supports became overpacked themselves (well get to that later), because boots was just the beginning. The next changes occurred over several patches, and where small at the time, but would become bigger much later on with other changes that would follow.

Our next step takes us to Patch 4.20 (yah light up the blaze it jokes). This saw several things happen. Elixars where removed. Strategies in top lane revolving the risk of Elixars where removed. So where beloved JG items like the Spirit line items. Warmogs was nerfed in the health it offered. Baron was reworked. Dragon no longer gave team gold. The game exploded in change. Baron allowed to end games earlier due to empowering the crap out of minions. Dragons lost their value in gold (and where somewhat useless for a time imo). Overall tho, the game's health improved in a lot of aspects. Many of you never saw the monstrosity that Feral Flare was (Remember I was an Udyr main), or Sword of the Divine Rengar. But the spirit line items, particularly the Golem one, hit many champs hard, and the game speed up. Short term, the game improved, but seed of future problems would be planted in the speeding up the game and the decisions around the jungle changes.

This bring us to Patch 5.22 First, I believe a honorable mention patches, specifically Patch 4.15, which made mobility and CDR more accessible to mages and supports via Aether Wisp and Forbidden Idol, this once again, contributed to the mobility creep, which would be made worse in patch 5.5 (more on that later), at the time, it was overlooked because of Feral Flare and the impact it had in the game, also patch 5.16 saw some changes to Randuin and Warmogs, well get to them later.

5.22 once again saw the removal of many items, I think the most mentionable one being vision wards, also worth mentioning that people could only put 3 wards as a limit, but more importantly some of items got "buffed" gold wise. The biggest of these where the ADC items, BF sword, and zeal. They became a lot more accessible. Damage, became a LOT more accessible. The combination of vision changes and more damage to everyone made the game hella faster and more snowbally. Many diversities would be affected by this. Shorter games meant some champs never reached their lategame, others made it so lategame came a lot quicker. Certain ADC's, once conditioned by gold and their powerspikes achieved later in the game, found them earlier, this killed certain strategies, and if you want to know where the problem with the ADC meta were still in began, it was here, although it wouldn't reach its peak until season 7, where supports finally catched up to their power.

After this there are a few small changes worth mentioning that happened over several patches. 5.2 Saw Death Fire's Grasp removed, and many mages saw changes over several patches, culminating in Luden's Echo in 5.5, where they traded explosive power for mobility. Ghost also became popular around this time, further contributing towards mobility creep.

When we take into account the changes from 4.20 - 5.5, the game saw much of its diversity die. Many champs became super fast, some, ADCs and Mages, who originally gameplay and design wise had no business being fast or self peeling, suddenly became so. Also worth mentioning that CDR throughout all these patches began to appear in a TON of items, which spiked CC creep and Mobility creep further since both cc and dashes, blinks, speed boosts became more accessible. This in turn, made the importance of Supports less relevant, since they did not need to peel so much anymore, as such, Riot began buffing them in numerous ways so they would feel useful, and when you put that into combination with the changes to the accessibility of mobility and damage, in combination with shorter games due to jungle gold and turret changes which occurred during these patches…. well, the game became faster, more focused on raw damage and actions instead of plays, diversity and strategic thinking.

Now onto the next big block of crap, Patch 7.9 Mid Season 7. Health got nerfed. Hard. On all major Items . Nerfing health indirectly buffs damage, obviously, and by now, True damage was becoming much more prevalent, Dominks got buffed and I believe that this is where our current meta truly kicked off, made worse by the new rune changes in season 8 which with Aery, Electrocute, Conquerors, overabundance of free sustain and the damage they brought with them pushed us into the state we are now.

Summary of the Effects of these Patches:

So, let's summarize why I believe the game is where it is today. Over time, damage became more accessible. Mobility became more accessible. Health and defenses became scarce, and damaging abilities, be it from runes, champs and other things got buffed.

During this whole time Riot wanted to solidify champion diversity and identities, and ironically, they killed them. Why? Because -> What is the point of playing or picking Wukong or J4 as a Fighter/tank/initiator like season 2 or 3 when he can burst you down with duskblade? Playing Jhin as a lategame ADC who builds crit when he can go Duskblade and burst you down? Why play Bard as the roaming support he was designed to do when he can Meep Q you for 1/3 of your HP with Electrocute? Why Play Sona as a multi utility support when you can burst with Lichbane? No worries about picking Vayne for the lategame when she can outduel you with just BORK? Who wants to play Volibear when people can outrun him with just base ablities/stats/tier 1 boots at most? What is the importance of positioning when most Carries can either self peel or supports are grossly overpacked with Shields? Protect the carry comp around Kogmaw? Pfff lets make a comp where every champ can just burst the crap out of you. Its not like the nerfed Health or resistances means much with the easiness of damage from runes, ignite, conqueror, Electrocute, easily accessible penetration, or the tons of true damage found now a days. Towers feel weak? Its not necessarily that they are, because if I took the current towers and threw them into season 2 or 3, they would feel oppressively strong. Hell as udyr I used to be able to solo towers without minions man, unheard of since they were briefly given lasers (I think it was patch 6.9). Its that relative to the current champions, and the abundance of damage and mobility and CC thanks to its low cost, prevalence of CDR and tons of mov offering items, runes and abilities, diving and escaping their range is easier than its ever been, as is taking them down. THAT’S why they still feel weak.

Diversity and skill expression died because with less health and more damage, there is less chance to outplay your opponent via skill, skirmishes are shorter because you often end up dying quicker. Everyone is running fast so a lot of mobility based champs or strategies lose their identities. Strategies revolving around rotating or split pushing or avoiding teamfights or defending become less relevant, because now a days it all comes down to who can Team Deathmatch better, and once one wins a DTM towers fall quickly because of how much damage there is, more so if you have Baron. Solo carrying is gone in general because everyone has damage, everyone can kill you instead of just the carries, even the supposed Tank and utility support contribute to bursting you down. Meaningful ingame decisions like, take mid lane, "Do I buy boots first or focus on AP for damage?" Are gone because you can have both, or "Do I focus on a CDR build to spam abilities but sacrifice some power due to not being able to get some of the Hard hitting AP items? Or do I just go full hard AP to burst but make every ability count due to low CDR?" IS GONE, because now every damn AP item has 20% CDR, especially True after Patch 8.9, Now you can just have all 3, damage, and CDR, and mobility AND sustain all packed neatly into small purchases. EXCESS.

Look, over the years, ive seen Riot improve in their decision making, they began to give context on their way of thinking that had me many times that I was shocked with changes go "huh, well that actually makes a lot of sense", or moments where they finally listened to some obviously broken thing like Nidalee's spears hitting you for your full HP, and they fixed it, and for a time it seems like faith was restored, that they knew what they were doing…. Then Zoe came out -_- and it was the same nightmare but now with a 2.5 lockdown to prevent you from dodging. These are the moments that make me, and many others, lose all faith in you Riot. Most importantly, because most times you take to long to act (Ardent censor Meta taking a full year to fix), or because your context no longer adds up to me, and way of thinking no longer make sense (hell I read the context behind many things and was scratching my head, especially in Spear of Shojin, (like bruh a AD tank item for champs who dont want to build tanky? Everything about that sentance is WRONG... )), and because you continuously repeat your mistakes, whether its in making something like Zoe or buffing Banner of command despite continuously having faced moments whether its with Banner or ZZrot portal that hard pushing items cause problems (at least this time you hotfixed it quickly). One guy brilliantly predicted what would happen with 8.11 wayyyyy before it came out just by looking at previous patches, and low and behold Kaisa and Ezreal were busted thanks to BORK being more powerful. .

And all of this is made worse by the fact that communication with Riot is the worst its ever been, even since these boards replaced the old forums. Cant remember the last time I saw Xelnath, Morello, Ironstylus, Zileas, Grumpymonkey, Scarizard, CertainT, Guisnoo, Ghostcrawler…the list goes on.

This now 8 year old thread by Zileas , which I saved because it was arguably the best thread in Boards/forum history (and it’s a DAMN SHAME we don’t have discussions like this anymore), is a must read for both players, and probably some of the current balance team too (especially the Anti-fun part), looking at you Lowbo, and especially Meddler (sorry dude, I just can't agree with 80% of your decisions these last 2 years). Because if everyone from low elo to Faker finds the game super anti-fun than its ever been, you know you've gone in a direction that is terribly, TERRIBLY wrong.

Conclusion, and how I believe we can start fixing things… Dial things back. I think the main culprit here are items. Yah, some runes shouldn’t exist, others should be flat out nerfed, and some champs ARE over packed in stats, abilities, ecs… but the main issue from what I can observe are items. As you can see, the current state wasent one problem, it was numerous, stacking problems beginning long time ago and being made worse by future changes which were unnoticed at the time because they looked small, but are huge when you put them in the grand scheme of things and how we ended where we are. Even Pros and high ranking/playing streamers believe this and have stated several times, From Dyrus joking about banner of command to HashinShin Raging in every stream, or Tyler or other pros raging about zoe, or C9 when they saw the new support and said how everything is overloaded now a days… or my personal favorite, Riot's favorite poster boy: Faker himself has addressed that the game feels horribly snowball and quick lately. I don’t know at this point who Riot will listen too.

Where do I think we should start to fix this: Where it began, with Boots , and go forward into what I stated previously from there. return those 25 points to not tier 1 boots, tier 2. Make getting boots more important. Make people have to worry more about where they are positioned, how far into lane they are pushing, this will also slow down Junglers and the speed at which they clear and gank unless they invest in boots. Have mobility cost more in general, so champions who's identity focused on being peelers like Nautilus have purpose again, instead of just playing him or Tahm Kench for their AP builds or juggernaut builds focused around bursting or abusing the damage of their W. Diving wouldent be so easy either since escaping a tower would be harder without boots.

Hell I cant remember the last time I saw a Sejuani since like 8 patches ago, or when a Maokai had an impactful teamfight ult since his R was reworked, or when a Mundo, despite his R now healing him for 100% of his health wasent quickly cut down in a TF from all the damage. Tanks just feel deader than they have ever felt. BUFF Health. Make being a tank mean something again, being an initiator matter, or an aggro-tank not getting bursted in 2 seconds regardless of build, this will make people think twice about only ever investing in damage regardless of their champion. Things are so ludicrously focused on damage that now we even got Spear of Shojin, an item that on paper makes me just want to scratch my head. %Damage reduction on an AD item? what the hell? I swear I read threads somewhere in the old forums talking specifically about how %damage reduction on offensive oriented champs or assassins was a terrible idea. Why isnt this effect for a Tank instead of an Assassin/fighter?

And finally, dial down CDR and the availability of damage so easily. Lowering CDR will stop ability spam, both for CC (which CC creep went up these years exactly because of this, because of how many items have CDR now), and mobility focused champs who can perma spam their dashes, blinks and so forth. Champions like Leblanc used to have to either CHOOSE between a CDR heavy build or a highhitting AP burst build, but with things like Luden's offering CDR and Burst AND sustain, who gives a damn about item decision making? Weaknesses are gone, and further using Leblanc as an example, what was once a weakness of pushing her in because she didn’t have waveclear, has been changed. She has burst, waveclear, and mobility, and everything else now.

Hopefully this will start to make champs feel unique again. So when I look at a champ like Pyke, who is meant to be a kill support, I don’t feel like hes new or unique, because currently every damn support is focused around dealing damage, even Soraka for god's sake is now maxing E and Aery to poke down opponents (yah You’ve even murdered the identity of League's Heal bot from the excess damage there is now, literally every soraka ive seen lately has been maxing E first), so a champ like Pyke, who is meant to be a kill support already has HIS identity stolen on release because of this. And yes, all these changes would slow the game down, but Id much rather have a 40 min back and forth than have the one sided stomps being decided in the first 10 minutes. Longer games lead to the most epic moments like this or this Both where around hour long into the game and had epic comebacks. No one cares about watching the next LCS 15 min stomp.

Fix you stuff Riot, please.