Champions that are truly balanced

AbsolKnight·Feb 13, 2015·2 votes·869 views

MANY champions are complained about, and that's healthy, because it keeps the game evolving. Some champions are OP, some are UP, but what champions are actually balanced?

Imo, a balanced champion is one that does not guarantee brainless kills, takes some knowledge to play, if you're good, you can carry, if you're bad, you don't do so well. Regardless of meta, you can do well with a champion if you're strong with them (eg Varus is not a favourable pick now, but a good one can wreck hard). A balanced champ has positives and negatives, wins some match ups, loses others, and overall is fun to play as/ not a stupid experiences to play against. These champs are not cancer/toxic

Who are "balanced" champs? I'm truly curious to know which champions you guys think ARE indeed balanced.

These are a couple just off the top of my head

Kennen Zyra ~~Annie~~ Varus Shen Ashe Diana Sivir Twisted Fate Anivia

Feel free to suggest more / disagree with my choices in the comments!

12 Comments

FrikgeekFeb 13, 20152 votes

Annie is most definitely not balanced. You need 2 cheap items(sorcs+haunting guise) to kill an adc with your full combo. This means that even if you're annie "support" you can still oneshot their AD at lvl 11 with a cheap build. And her autos have way too much range, making it super easy to poke people with frostfang.

Cosmic WarperFeb 13, 20152 votes

Diana isn't balanced. Her numbers are left weak because if she snowballs then she completely demolishes any squishies with a QRR. Ashe isn't completely balanced either since she has a perma slow on her autos in teamfights. That's her only unbalanced skill. The rest are fine.

Icy AuronFeb 13, 20151 votes

Anivia.

Annie is NOT balanced. Her AP ratios are way too high. TF is terrible. Shen is UP. The rest look fine.

EDIT: Actually looking at a list of all the champs now. The following are either balanced or pretty close, imo:

Aatrox (suffers a little bit from feast or famine) Blitz (although I hate him) Brand (his passive should be current HP, but aside from that) Braum Cait Corki (Maybe? Rarely see him) Darius (ult should be physical damage, everything else is fine) Draven Elise (balanced version of Nid) Ez Fiora Galio GP Garen Gnar Gragas Graves Hec Irelia Janna Jayce Jinx Karthus Kat Kayle Kennen Kha Kog Leblanc Leona Lissandra (CD on Q should be longer or have a lower AP ratio) Lucian Lulu Lux Mal Malz Maokai Yi MF Nami Naut (could use some love with a higher base MS, but overall pretty good) Noc Nunu (AP ratios on Snowball and ult are a little high) Orianna Pantheon Poppy (misunderstood, could definitely use a rework) Quinn Rammus (wish he scaled with defenses as opposed to AP) Rek Renekton Rengar (again, feast or famine) Riven (Wind Slash is way too strong, but everything else) Rumble Ryze Sej Shaco Shen (needs some love) Shyv Singed Sion (needs a little boost, but overall, in a good spot) Sivir Skarner (needs love, but maybe not quite back to his pre-4.10 Godliness) Sona (despite all of the nerfs, I don't think she deserved them) Soraka Swain Syndra (for the most part) Talon Teemo (annoying as hell, but relatively balanced) Thresh Trist (the rework balanced her, imo) Trundle Tryn Twitch Urgot (could use higher base MS or basic attack range) Varus Vel'Koz Vi (maybe a little on the strong side, but in a good place in terms of damage:tankiness ratio) Vik Vlad Voli Xerath Yasuo Yorick (could use a rework, but still viable) Zac Zed (if he lost the ability to return to his ult's shadow, he'd be fine. As is, he's way too safe) Ziggs Zil (not for long with the upcoming rework) Zyra

Cosmic WarperFeb 13, 20151 votes

[{quoted}](name=Icy Auron,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=QfEjGsvI,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2015-02-13T15:58:23.888+0000)

Anivia.

Annie is NOT balanced. Her AP ratios are way too high. TF is terrible. Shen is UP. The rest look fine.

EDIT: Actually looking at a list of all the champs now. The following are either balanced or pretty close, imo:

Aatrox (suffers a little bit from feast or famine) Blitz (although I hate him) Brand (his passive should be current HP, but aside from that) Braum Cait Corki (Maybe? Rarely see him) Darius (ult should be physical damage, everything else is fine) Draven Elise (balanced version of Nid) Ez Fiora Galio GP Garen Gnar Gragas Graves Hec Irelia Janna Jayce Jinx Karthus Kat Kayle Kennen Kha Kog Leblanc Leona Lissandra (CD on Q should be longer or have a lower AP ratio) Lucian Lulu Lux Mal Malz Maokai Yi MF Nami Naut (could use some love with a higher base MS, but overall pretty good) Noc Nunu (AP ratios on Snowball and ult are a little high) Orianna Pantheon Poppy (misunderstood, could definitely use a rework) Quinn Rammus (wish he scaled with defenses as opposed to AP) Rek Renekton Rengar (again, feast or famine) Riven (Wind Slash is way too strong, but everything else) Rumble Ryze Sej Shaco Shen (needs some love) Shyv Singed Sion (needs a little boost, but overall, in a good spot) Sivir Skarner (needs love, but maybe not quite back to his pre-4.10 Godliness) Sona (despite all of the nerfs, I don't think she deserved them) Soraka Swain Syndra (for the most part) Talon Teemo (annoying as hell, but relatively balanced) Thresh Trist (the rework balanced her, imo) Trundle Tryn Twitch Urgot (could use higher base MS or basic attack range) Varus Vel'Koz Vi (maybe a little on the strong side, but in a good place in terms of damage:tankiness ratio) Vik Vlad Voli Xerath Yasuo Yorick (could use a rework, but still viable) Zac Zed (if he lost the ability to return to his ult's shadow, he'd be fine. As is, he's way too safe) Ziggs Zil (not for long with the upcoming rework) Zyra

You just listed almost every champ in the game. Do you even know what balanced means? ...

Icy AuronFeb 13, 20151 votes

Most champs are in a good spot. The problem champs are just ruining the game that much.

Cosmic WarperFeb 13, 20152 votes

[{quoted}](name=Icy Auron,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=QfEjGsvI,comment-id=000000000000,timestamp=2015-02-13T16:41:48.377+0000)

Most champs are in a good spot. The problem champs are just ruining the game that much.

I really don't think Vi is balanced due to the nature of her ultimate and mobility. Vlad is left weak due to the nature of his kit, and is therefore unbalanced. Poppy is NOT balanced. She's getting a rehaul for a reason. Elise is very weak kit wise and number wise right now compared to others. Zilean is not balanced right now with his lack of any counterplay. His rework needs tweaks (mainly on timewarp), but he'll generally be balanced afterwards. I don't really see how leblanc is balanced with that ton of mobility and the ability to 3 shot squishies in quick succession and get out without a scratch. Garen and GP are on the severely weak side and need reworks to their kits if they ever want to be played. Aatrox is also weak and his kit doesn't work together completely, along with his super low base stats for a fighter. Shaco isn't balanced either since his kit lacks general counterplay and isn't cohesive at all.

mvargusFeb 13, 20152 votes

Balanced means that in your average 1v1 situation the better skilled/experienced player would win. That's true of most of the champs in the game when facing similar champs. Put Zyra v Sona and the two will mostly cancel each other out if played by equally skilled opponents.

The problem champs ruin this balance. You get a champ with too much mobility (Kalista) and suddenly the whole Meta has to undergo a huge shift to try to accommodate the lack of balance. That's where Riot fails constantly. They really need to react much faster to those shifts and not necessarily stop them, but work to limit their extent. Right now most of the "unbalanced" champs have too much mobility and they push out the vast majority of the balanced champions because they shift the play that much and most of the balanced champions find themselves on the wrong side of the new Meta.

Icy AuronFeb 13, 20151 votes

^ This.

Most of the champions in the game are fine. The problem is when you start comparing them to only the most problematic champs. To add to this, kits are made with only things that exist at the time in mind. When Anivia was made, Crystallize was HUGE, because it was MUCH harder to subvert its effects. Now, just about every new champ has a way to get around it.

Another problem with the problem champs is that while they have visible strengths, they lack meaningful weaknesses. Kalista, for example, gets tons of utility on top of her manaless, zero CD mobility. Zed has almost no CC, and has to go into melee range on his ult (big risk!), but then has three Flashes to get him out. This completely negates the inherent weakness of his ult, making him incredibly safe. If he couldn't return to his ult's shadow, he'd be much more fair. Lee Sin does everything, and does everything well. Broken AD ratios, built-in everything, insane mobility, and extremely low energy costs.

Using Anivia again as my poster child of balance, she's very strong and has a lot of utility, but she's extremely slow and squishy early game, and has high mana costs. Neither of these weaknesses exist in Kalista, but both strengths are present.

Riot only nerfs champs that people are complaining about this month. This is the opposite of what should be happening. If Zed is the target of everyone's hate for a month, who cares. Let the game/players shift to accommodate. If he's still a problem in a few months, do something about it. Fizz was a rampant problem since season 2, yet it took him until 5.2 to get any sort of nerfs; nearly three seasons of being broken. Zed has only recently been the subject of widespread hate. He's always had people upset, but he hasn't been defining his role for four years (cough LeeSin cough).

Moulin RougeFeb 13, 20151 votes

Lux

Catch her with her q down and she's toast.

RaxicorFeb 13, 20151 votes

I think Hecarim is in a pretty good spot right now, though his charge bugs out some times. He's a good ganker and initiator. He is very item reliant(movement speed ahoy) and gets significant power drops when slowed. His ult is big on utility; short power spike, short cc, can go through walls, again good initiation. He needs follow up though or the opposing team will collapse on him and tear that pony apart.

ScreamPasteFeb 13, 20151 votes

Riven is a great example, imho. She's fairly mobile, but not overbearingly so because her dashes only add up to about one full sized gap closer and their travel speed can't be increased. Her gap closer is also a lot of her damage so she loses damage if she engages from range.

who do we reportFeb 13, 20151 votes

TF is extremely OP vs all champs except a select few. If those few aren't in the game its basically an instawin, ex lb + some others that I can count on one hand.

-d2 tf main.