Thoughts on the current state of League (after playing for 5 years)

Dear Riot,

I don't mean to be rude but wtf guys. You see the result of your recent patches. You must notice something is wrong. Why don't you fix it. Why don't you bug fix things that are clearly broken right away? is a perfect example.

What you have done to this champion is absolutely ridiculous. You have made it so that any noob can absolutely wreck face with her just by right clicking and using Q. I watched an unskilled recently stand still (because she had no idea how to attack move) and get a triple kill at full build. Simply through life-steal and Q. That's insane. She went from being the hardest ADC to play properly to an absolute train wreck of a champion.

The problem is her Q. Revert the damage to what it was before it got buffed. A flat amount of bonus AD on hit. Let it crit, let it be used against turrets but remove the %AD because it's just mental. Hell you can even let the proc stay but the % AD has to go. I have seen the PBE nerfs and let me tell you, nerfing it from 70% to 50% max rank is not good enough. I'm serious. With those nerfs her Q will be the equivalent of a headshot, but with a dash and an auto attack reset attached to it. On a 2 second cooldown... Read that out loud and you will hear how insane that sounds. It's just mental! Her W also needs fixing, because an ADC that does not need to build a item while still doing more damage to tanks than an ADC that does is not balanced. Maybe change it to an active flat true damage on hit instead of a 12% max hp true damage 3 proc. Whatever you choose to do just do it quick. Because an ADC that can 1 shot squishies and 3 shot tanks is not balanced. I mean how the hell has this lasted this long??? She has a 53% win rate while being the second most played champ in the game! She's almost as played as ! That by itself is absolutely nutty... 33% play rate with a 53% win rate?! This is comparable to reworked on release but instead of a no cooldown healbot you have a true damage 3 shot special delivery courier. When you look at the two champions stats next to each other you could even say what we have now is worse:

Pre-nerf : 60% win rate. 20% play rate. : 53% win rate. 33% play rate. 7% less winrate but 13% higher play rate? You be the judge as to which looks stronger.

Remeber how much you guys hated that could bully people in lane and then become one of the strongest late game champions? Well this is like that all over again. If you lose the early game to her (which is not hard to do at all) then the game is practically over because she outscales every champion in the game. It's simply too overwhelming of an advantage. Strong lane phase, monstrous mid game and then one of if not the strongest late game of any champ? Cmon now...

got splattered by the nerf bat, got bugfixed. Why hasn't been fixed? Please change this. It's just not fun.

On another note. Bot lane in general is just kinda ridiculous right now. Get rid of the bot lane turret being weaker than the others. With such a strong emphasis on first turret gold it's practically impossible to play a game without the whole enemy team focusing bot lane because (for no reason whatsoever) the turret down bot doesn't have extra defensive stats. Like what? What reasoning is there for that. Do you realize that ADC's right now get one shot by EVERYONE. Do you realize that a 2-9 can out duel a 8-0 ? Or how about the lvl 3 JG ganks now while bots still level 1. Does this sound normal to you? Does this sound fair? The only champions that could even try to succeed through this shit are and (who are busted af AND simply outscale their competition) or and (the two safest ADC's who also have terrible winrates). Maaaybe could be added to the conversation as a mix of the two pairs. You have supports that can 1 shot ADC's. Just play a mage down bot lane and poof jobs done. Even if you aren't fed you'll win in a 1v1 vs an ADC. I got one shot recently by a lvl 7 support who only had a . Not even one completed item. She had 45 AP. ONE SHOT. Full combo, dead. No counter play. Literally walked up to cs after returning to lane, she was hiding in the bush and BOOM. Point blank root into dead. She was able to do this after she had only spent 850g. As an ADC one slight misstep and you are dead at any stage of the game. is a tank. If he full combos an ADC at level 3 they will be at 40% hp or less without the help of his team. That's ridiculous! Do you realize how frustrating it is that everyone can deal massive damage to you through base damage alone while you can barely reciprocate at all before mid-late game?

A full tank or can deal 70-80% of an ADC's hp in one rotation. That's practically a 1 shot. 300 armor, 280 magic resist. 4-5k hp. One shots ADC. HOW IS THAT FAIR?

TANKS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO ONE SHOT PEOPLE! TANKS SHOULD DO MEDIOCRE DAMAGE AT BEST. DAMAGE IS NOT THEIR JOB!

I'm absolutely fine with a tank being hard as hell to kill. I really am. That's the whole point. I'm fine with bruisers like , and doing good damage and being harder to kill than an assassin. But when both can easily kill you without you being able to leave a scratch on them, I have an issue with that. I'm fine with assassins and mages one shotting an ADC. But ONLY if they have the items to do it. For crying out loud its just insane. An ADC can get one shot by a feeding mid laner or JG. They haven't earned the right to be able to one shot. They do not deserve it. You should have to play well in order to earn the gold to get the items to have the damage output required to one shot someone. Do you think its fair that at level 18 an ADC has less than 2k hp while a mage can deal equal or more damage while having 3k hp or higher on top of having reliable hard CC? Or how a can build 2 damage items then go full tank and still be able to one shot you while also having a gap closer AND hard CC? Does that seem fair? The top 5 win rate champions for every lane have a 52.5% - 55.5% win rate with some junglers passing the 56% mark. That includes support with sitting at a wopping 54.59% winrate. However, out of 18 ADC's (including and ) only 6 have a 50% or higher with only two above a 52% those two being and both of which are considered to be overpowered as hell. As a comparison there are 11 mid laners that have a 53% win rate or higher while there are 14 top laners with a 52.5% or higher.

and are sitting at 45%. To put that into perspective , a champion who, as I mentioned earlier, has been completely butchered by the nerf bat, who no one would say is in any shape or form viable, has a 43% win rate. This is a champion who is pretty much useless and his win rate is comparable to and .

If you have played 125+ games with you have a 49% win rate. has a 61%. (the second most played JG) has a 66%. (a strong but balanced mid lane champion) has a 57%.

So why do ADC's have such poor win rates compared to every other class in the game? It's because every class can kill them quickly and easily with very little requirements at every stage of the game, while ADC's require expensive items which can realistically only be gathered by the mid to late game in order to match their opponents. But even then it does not matter, because if they build any defensive items, they no longer do enough damage to have an impact. Meaning that trying to build survivability dooms you to inefficacy. This doesn't even begin to address the fact that the who can perma CC can one shot you with 1 ability. And lets not kid ourselves here, 20 base damage off her ult is not a real nerf when it does 800 damage at rank 2. Or that Q can deal a third or more of an ADC's HP on a 2 second cooldown. Or an who can build only defensive AP items and still be able to 100-0 an ADC in less than a second.

So (in my opinion) it comes down to the fact that an ADC powerspikes way to late in the game, especially since game durations are much lower than they were in the past. If you want late game to be 30-35 minutes then let ADC's have the same advantage as the other roles by that time frame. Every class has cheap items they can buy for a big powerspike. Everyone but ADC's. Make ranged only AD items that aren't insanely expensive. If it doesn't work then bugfix it. But give it a try, it might actually be a partial fix to the problem.

Think of this, costs 3600g after which an ADC will start to do moderate damage over time combined with an AS crit item. For example a . But that costs another 2600g. So in order to gain a real powerspike an ADC has to spend a total of 6200g. A mid lane mage has the option to first build a (2900g) a (2500g) or a (3200g). After finishing one of those items they will receive a MASSIVE powerspike. For example an with can dash dealing AoE damage (that scales with AP) and then AoE burst your team, one shotting any squishies in the process while no longer having to use flash to do so. After only spending 2500g. Thats a little over a third of the cost compared to the first ADC item powerspike which is not remotely as large yet almost three times as expenisve... Or you could compare it to a jungler's first item. A can build a (2625g) for the largest scaling health increase item in the game which also grants sustain in the jungle, extra XP gained, a substantial in-combat AOE magic damage burn that deals bonus damage against jungle camps, 150% bonus mana regen AND, of course, a substantial buff to your ( depending on what the jungler needs that game) or a free built in . All for a mere 2625g. Oh and that price also goes for and . So no matter what jungler class you pick you can get the equivalent power spike at the same cost.

Do you see what I am talking about? Do I need to say more?

ADC itemization is the main culprit to blame for the abysmally low winrates of ADC's and is probably one of the main reasons as to why they are so hard to balance. You overload their kits to compensate but the reality is that if you made ADC items comparable to other classes items price wise then none of this would be an issue. Why are ADC's the only class who's damage items are all over 3000g with the exception of or . It does not make sense.

APC's have faaaaaar more options than ADC's too when it comes to itemization. I think it should be the same for both.

And please add some difficulty to jungling. You've made the role with the highest impact the easiest one to play. A well farmed jungler is higher level than a solo laner. Enough said. You've made it so that bad junglers can carry while decent ones completely dominate. I'm fine with a player dominating a game but it should be a reflection of their skill level. If you solo carry a game it should be because you are playing extremely well. The new jungle is so easy that it doesn't even require skill to have an impact. Compare that to playing (who is sitting at a 48% win rate): You have to farm perfectly, poke constantly with Q to do remotely good damage, make sure you don't mis step at all or poof dead, while poking and warding lanes because bot lane is an absolute fiesta. Now I'm fine with ADC being a hard role to play, but holy crap could you make jungling even remotely equal in difficulty considering it has more impact than any other lane in the game by MILES?!

So dear Riot balance team, I don't know how you can look at the current state of things and say: "Yeah! This looks like a good start to the new season! Looks pretty balanced to me!". Right now its kinda ridiculous to think that you believe everything is as it should be. There should be a clear balance of power. Each class should be strong and weak against certain classes. Or if that doesn't work for you and you want ADC's to be pure glass cannons then let their damage be a reflection of that (prior to 40 minutes into the game) compared to other classes. If a mage is a ranged APC, then let a ranged ADC have the same chance to snowball by giving them similar item prices! You just nerfed the cost of and why not do the same for ADC only items. Make ranged only items (like how are melee only items) and lower the costs of said items. Or at least give us some early game options if you consider an comparable to a . Give us an ADC equivalent to a . It's only fair.

Sorry for the rant but I needed to get this off my chest.

If anyone has any thoughts or opinions please feel free to comment, I'd love to hear some other peoples opinions on the subject.

Hope everyone who read this is doing well, and I hope you have a great day :)

A frustrated Main

PS: Pulsefire Ezreal deserves a VU. It's an old skin but it did cost 3250 RP and when you compare it to the other three Ultimates it just doesn't hold up.

Cheers.