Not even getting into energy and fury based champions, but why do certain champs have zero resources at all?
And before the yasuo fanboys come in, flow does not count as a resource. You do not need flow to cast abilities but you sure as fvck need mana.
Because they make tradeoffs in other directions. Its not always a linear thing.
Kat - A melee assassin stuck in a ranged lane. And her full combo requires a channel, so its worse if her opponent has any hard cc. Riven - Second lowest base regen in the game, with Mini Gnar taking first. Relies on her rapid engages and disengages and suffers against bruisers that can keep up with her. Guess which lane she's taken in? Yasuo - Has to rely on his windwall and flow to survive lane. Too squishy for top, too weak for the jungle. Garen - Its.. Garen. He'll never be great, but never that terrible either. Kind of the poster child for a guy always in the middle.
It was originally to make some champs easier to play for people new to the game, where they trade no resource for higher cooldowns. The only person who is still like that though is Garen though.
More along the lines of why do certain champs HAVE to have resources. The answer, to act as a gate on their early game for mana users. Or in the case of energy users, to act as a gate throughout the entirety of the game. It forces them to hold back a little instead of going as ham as they want. See URF.
They destroyed Kat's bases. She has one of the lowest base combos in the game.
Riven is actually third in HP5 @ lvl 1, because Soraka now has 2.5 hp5 at level 1 as well. The reason why her HP5 was low was because of how well she dominated lane. She used to have like 8(?) hp5, but Riot gutted this stat of hers in order to give her a weakness in lane (harassing her). It has nothing to do with her being manaless.
Why not just get rid of resources all together?
