Champion kits I think they are problematic.

KaisadiIIa·3/7/2015, 5:48:33 PM·3 votes·538 views

First of all, remember that this is my opinion, I don't think this is The Absolute Truth told me by The Flying Spaghetti Monster at my last happy night, so let's be civil. I'll skip mentioning champions that have small problems (plz remove Ahri's speed boost from her Q), and I will mention only champion that I think they have a huge problematic kit: either they are "op" or "useless".

Ashe Ashe: Her kit is just a remain of an older game. Her passive is ridiculous: it encourages her to not attack, but she's a markswoman based on basic attacks. Her Q (permaslow) is a bad concept for the current state of the game: it has to be weak or she will become a monster-carry which can trap you forever as fast as she hits a basic attack. And let's not forget that slow is in a bad spot overall right now since most mobile champions can plainly ignore it. Her kit overall lacks diversity to compete with newer, more-flexible kits from champions like Jinx or even Varus. She needs a moderate rework that maintains her core identity as a slow-heavy champion, but giving her a more flexible and interactive kit

Darius Darius: What can I say about Darius? Probably the worst designed and most binary champion in the whole game. His play pattern is exactly the same every game, not depending on anything else. Just E > Q > W to harass until you can R to execute an enemy. Once and another. If it works, you win, if it doesn't, you lose: he insta-win or insta-lose a match-up at champion selection. He needs a full rework to make him a high, sustained damage with more decision-making and a far more interactive kit (and please, that doesn't mean more mobility).

Fiora Fiora: She's a extreme case of lane super-bully but useless at teamfights. Her identity is a mess: she's an assassin, a weaker version of Master Yi, even if you try to play her like a fighter: her kit just don't work to be played as a fighter. She needs a full rework, with different abilities, her high-assassination potential must be reduced if you want to make her viable as a fighter (she's the Duelist, not the Assassin, plz). I know they had planned a rework long time ago but seems like they forgot it.

Gangplank Gangplank: I don't know what to say about this champion. I have no idea what are you supposed to do with him. I mean, I know how people play him, what they build, and that he's nearly useless. He needs a full rework, I don't know what this champion is supposed to be.

Gnar Gnar: I said I won't talk about champions that have only small problems, but Gnar is a special case, since his mere existance invalids a whole roster of champions, and I think that's a huge problem. I have no idea what to do with him, nothing major, just some adjustment to prevent him from abusing too hard from melee champions.

Kalista Kalista: I think we all know what her problem is: passive mobility. This champion offers little counterplay once she's fed, and her presence forces you to play things like Lissandra to be sure you'll be able to shut her down later in the game. The fact that her mobility scales with items makes it even worse. And it scales with items too much: boot tier increases her dash range, while attack speed increases the amount of dashes. When she has zero items, her passive is tolerable. When she has Tier 2 boots + 2.0 attack speed, her passive makes any melee or ranged, skill-shot based champion want to punch the keyboard. Her passive is the problem. It's a cool mechanic but too abusive and toxic. It just need to be changed.

LeeSin Lee Sin: And here starts the hate against me. Yep, I think Lee Sin's kit is toxic and problematic. He's not overpowered though. His problem is that his kit has too many tools to adapt to every situation really well. Lee has almost no weaknesses, and has the tools to exploit the weaknesses of every eneny he might face. I read a funny comparison in this post some time ago, and I think it's pretty accurate: Imagine Nautilus has a pack of big, high-quality shovels, and Lee Sin has a pack with different, decent tools: one good shovel, one good screwdriver, one good spoon, one good ward... If there is a competition of digging holes, Nautilus will win, but at every other competition, Lee Sin will win with no problems, so he just has to avoid hole-digging competitions. It's also worth mentioning that Lee's early game is too abusive, while his late game is too underwhelming. Even champions like Riven have not that huge power difference between early and late. Take away some unnecessary power from Lee while strengthening the rest of his power. Shift some power from his early to his late. REMOVE WARD HOPPING, IT'S NOT FUNNY.

Pantheon Pantheon: That's a fun case of a champion that is useless but frustrating to play against. His spears are the first reason people suicide around the world. I can't imagine a champion more toxic than Pantheon (ignoring Darius). He needs a more interactive kit, and he should not be able to ignore turret hits (it's frustrating to get dived by a Pantheon that tanks two or even three turret basic attacks in a row). He needs a rework that keep his core identity (if he has that), but make him a more interactive champion overall. Also, stop blocking turret hits.

Thresh Thresh: I'll be clear: he has everything. Champions like Lee Sin lack diversity if you compare them to Thresh. Just take away unnecessary power from his kit. Remove his basic attack steroid (on his E). Remove the shield grant by his W. It's done.

Veigar Veigar: I would not be mentioning this champion some months ago, but since you've stated you don't like his insta-stun, I have to do it. Veigar's current state is awkward, he's too weak and no tweaks will change that. His whole kit is balanced around having an insta-stun and his "If you enter within 675 range from me, you are dead"-playstyle. Just do a bigger, better rework if you don't want him to have an insta-stun. I wrote this post some days ago talking about a mini-rework.

Vi Vi: She invalids immobile mid mages. Nothing more to say. Reduce her gank potential against Lux.

Zilean Zilean: His skill-shot based Q just doesn't work. Sion-level rework.

Teemo Satan: He is Satan. Kill him.

5 Comments

BuCkeT SeiZureS3/8/2015, 7:48:48 AM1 votes

Some were good. Others not so much. But I do applaud you for doing this in the way you did. It was at least not derogative.

Pryotra3/8/2015, 8:27:07 AM1 votes

I'm going to simply put my opinions on these champs. Note that these do not represent what nor Riot believes are the only champs up for reworks/need help.

Ashe - Actually, all I think she really needs is 2 things. 1) A new passive. The current one is awkward, as you said. And 2)Slows need a mechanical fix to affect the growing number of dashes ingame. I wouldn't even mind if the "slowed" the animation based off of the Slow %. Otherwise, she'd be great.

Darius - CertainlyT champion CertainlyTruly needs a rework. However, I do think that most of this one can be preserved. I think a moderate rework, with heavy emphasis on his R tuning to make it more bearable/fun to use and counterplay.

Fiora - Yeah... I think she needs something EXTREME like every other melee adc has. Yi has EXTREME steroids, Yasuo has EXTREME utility, Shaco has EXTREME ganks/escapes, etc. Every Light fighter to date has needed something EXTREME to work, and simply put Fiora doesn't have that.

Gangplank - This is a champion that has slowly lost almost everything to keep one thing in his kit. To this date, he is the only champion with a self cleanse. On a heal with such a short cd, this means that he actually has a place. He is a surprisingly successful light fighter, and that really makes it interesting. I think that he is the "EXTREME range + AoE" light fighter, as a melee with pistol, he has a surpising amount of safety and AoE effects, both friendly and unfriendly. Actually, I think this one is in a decent spot.

Gnar - I'm unsure about this one. I don't think he is as big an issue as you claim, and frankly I think that I need more experience with him to comment further.

Kalista - CertainlyT champion CertainlyTruly needs a rework.

LeeSin - I think this is a spot on analysis, but to add I feel he has single handedly enforced the mobility creep as well as warped the jungle around him. Needs to be put down until a Sion level rework comes out IMO.

Pantheon - Interesting point, but I feel he is still fairly balanced. As you said worthless, but frustrating, but IMO I think Pantheon is one of those champs that seal their fate in the laning phase, which is a Season 1 level of counterplay. Basically, it was more about strategy then, and the strategy was to stay safe in lane while poking him/asking for ganks. After not being able to do much, Panth tends to start losing power mid game if he doesn't have kills.

Thresh CertainlyT champion CertainlyTruly needs a rework. Honestly, I don't see any reason for ALL the mechanics he has to be on a single kit. Sure you could axe pieces of it off, and it would still be viable, but think you might as well do a medium level rework. There is so much going on in that kit that just axing pieces off won't make it better. He needs to be reworked with a certain power budget in mind, as this one simply mocks the concept of powerbudget.

Veigar - I don't think he needs a full rework tbh. I think he only needs a healthier way for his stun to work. I personally like the idea of imediately turning it into a "no dash" zone on cast, while if they don't walk out of it they get stunned. Also, shorten the time on the delay.

Vi - Beleive it or not, I don't think this one is an issue. I main immobile mids. If you play safe against her, she has a really hard time doing anything, especially if she is trying to charge Q towards you.

Zilean - I'm not convinced. It's been a week, give this one time. I've seen some interesting zileans with these new bombs. I think the player base needs to let it sink in.

Teemo - 100% agreed.

Only Play Darius3/8/2015, 8:40:03 AM1 votes

GP was meant to be the Rogue archetype, causing trouble in the backlines with his high single target damage, CC removal, and high base movespeed. Kinda like a guerilla fighter, hit and run, get out quick, hard to pin down, but will keep poking at you until you really commit to kill him. As you can imagine thought this playstyle is difficult to balance.

He makes a pretty good off-tank support, I have had success using item 3097's brace on him.