Basically, which Champions are who you would use as a baseline when you are altering Champions during a rework. For instance, the baseline Marksman, I feel, is Tristana, while the baseline Juggernaut would be either Darius or Garen. Vanguards? Definitely Leona.
But who fills in as a baseline for each slot? And if my picks are wrong, why?
Variks the Loyal1 votesI think Sion is a better Vanguard candidate. He plays really uniquely among them; most of them are 'do your CC and then do ambient AoE damage'. Sion is more focused and can do things like purposely commit suicide to proc his passive in a teamfight, or roar at an enemy's summon (Like Tibbers or the Maiden) to knock them out of the fight temporarily.
Talon would be the 'standard' Assassin, I'd say.
Fiora, the standard Skirmisher.
Alistar, for Wardens.
Darius for Juggernauts.
Sona for Enchanters.
The rest are a lot of different champions, so it's harder to get a baseline.
darkdill1 votesNo, Leona's more what a Vanguard represents: great durability, great initiation, great CC, terrible damage output.
Anonagon1 votesVanguard - Sion (very standard "go in, CC some people, do some AoE damage" pattern. Leona has far too little damage potential to be representative of this class as it exists in the game today. Perhaps after the rework she'd be a more appropriate standard, since reducing tank damage is a goal of the update.) Warden - Braum Juggernaut - Darius Diver - Vi Skirmisher - Fiora Assassin - Talon Burst Mage - Syndra Battlemage - Karthus Artillery - Xerath Disruptor - no one, the members of this class are very distict from one another Enchanter - Sona Marksman - Jinx (I feel Tristana has far too much self-peel ability to be considered a baseline for the Marksman class. Its hard to pick a single Marksman as a representative of the class, but I think that speaks to how well Riot has defined most marksman from each other [though there are exceptions, looking at kog and lucian])
darkdill1 votesI'd say the quintessential disruptor is Janna. She also happens to be one of the best disruptors.
As for Leona vs Sion, I think the fact that Leona has worse damage actually makes her a better fit. This is because she's much more team-reliant than Sion, something I think should be essential for Vanguards. They are supposed to start fights, but not win them alone.
Anonagon1 votesSee, the problem with that is that Riot doesn't even consider her a disruptor. Under Riot's own list, Janna is an enchanter. While I understand why it would be tempting to call her a disruptor, I agree with Riot's interpretation as Janna's goal is not to disrupt the enemy team but to protect her allies, while the champions who are classified as disruptors focus on punishing opponents for positioning mistakes with high damage and lockdown. Janna has several portions of her kit that are purely enchanter things (passive, E, healing on ult), and most enchanters do have powerful CCs, even if they aren't as powerful as Janna's.
Valor Bot1 votesDisruptors create literal zones of threat on the battlefield though, oftentimes covering large areas at a time. The closest thing Janna has to this is her Q, whereas other Champions like Zyra and Anivia have multiple spells that function to this end.
Mysticman891 votesI feel like each of the classes exist more as an abstract ideal and none of the existing champions are 100% representative of any given class, they all have little elements of others in them. Like I would imagine the abstract marksmen to be someone who relies primarily on autoattacking from range, but is immobile so needs to be peeled for and stays on the edge of fights, while trist has her rocket jump for mobility, and furthermore even will want to jump onto an enemy sometimes.
One could debate who is closest to each class ideal (and that's probably the point here to a degree), but I think if one was considering reworking someone they'd keep the theoretical ideal in mind, rather than the champ that closest represents it.
