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"OP" champions: Breakers of the Natural Law

Be Kind Rewind·1/7/2015, 9:12:51 PM·113 votes·10,036 views

(Problems with Zed , Fizz , etc.)

When you join the game, you're taught the basics, given a clear understanding of how lanes function, minions, the risk of going into enemy towers, the need to stay behind your minions, etc. What you're taught - and grow to learn - when you first join the game are what I call the Natural Laws.

My argument is this; Often times, a champion becomes considered "OP" simply because their kit allows them to freely break the Natural Laws, thus making them feel cheap, cheesy and anti-fun to play against, regardless of their actual state of "balance". (Although often a champion is broken because they freely break the natural laws.)

Stick with me.

EXAMPLES OF THE NATURAL LAWS

  1. Tower Diving. The prime natural law, taught to you almost immediately, is** the safety of towers.** Granted, you aren't invincible by being by one, but they attack enemies that hurt you in their range, and you are "playing safe" by farming from afar within your own tower's range. Furthermore, going into the enemy tower is generally a death sentence, unless they have one-hit of health left - and even then, it's highly risky.
  • Respect the power of Towers.
  1. Skillshots.
    You learn that you must stay far enough away to have the time to dodge skillshots; standing right beside your opponent will get you hit instantly. This is a skill you develop over time, but learn as a fundamental immediately. I.E. "If I sit still right beside ahri while I'm csing, I'll probably get charmed. So I have to actually try to be safe."
  • You have to actually dodge skillshots.
  1. Over-extension. You begin quickly developing this as soon as you play with other players. The law is simple. The further you push the lane, the closer you stand to the enemy tower, the further you are from your own tower? The more at risk you are of being ganked and taken down quickly. You get cocky, you get punished. Everyone has to play cautiously, even with wards.
  • Shoving the lane, overextending, and arrogantly sitting against the enemy tower range, without ever falling back or playing safe, gets you ganked and killed.

So let's take a look at a problem case.

**OFFENDER 1) FIZZ "The Freelo" FISH Fizz **

Here's the thing about this guy. I don't think he's broken. I think he's really strong, but not totally overwhelming. So why is he so detested? Why does everyone despise him so much? He easily, often, breaks all three of the natural laws listed above. And how does he do it?

By pressing "E".

http://leaguecraft.com/meme/asset/meme_760px_11733.jpg

He can often dive you when you'd be safe against many, many other champions strictly because he shrugs off tower aggro by pressing one button. This is his issue with the first law. You're taught that, fundamentally, you're safe as long as you play cautiously and stay near your tower, and that if 1 person tries to dive you, the tower will punish them. He makes this null. He can walk in, dash through you, auto you, then press E to flick out before one shot even hits him. This is a bad enough negligence of the first natural law, but it extends to all the others as well.

If he chooses to play like this, he can walk right up to you, casually, and blast a chunk of targeted damage on you without you getting any reaction at all. Because as soon as you use a punishing skillshots, a root, a charm, a snare, a stun, a bind? Dang, he dodged it pressed E. Dang, I missed he pressed E. Dang, I got outplayed he pressed E. Again.

This is a huge defiance of the second natural law. Extreme mobility already gives some champions too much strength in this area - they can get up close in danger-range, but still avoid damage by using mobility moves for dodging.

But for him to have a mobility move that also makes all shots go through him? Seriously? It's a double-advantage and a double-nuisance because it has NOTHING to do with your skill or his skill, it has NOTHING to do with aim or dodging, it is simply a matter of Fizz YOUR SHOT GOES RIGHT THROUGH ME Fizz

In the exact same vein, his E allows him to often times neglect the 3rd natural law as well. Ganking often times is contingent upon the jungler being skilled enough - and the enemy laner being bad enough - that they land one root, one bind, one knockup, etc. when the enemy overextends. The 2v1 damage is then usually enough to secure a kill. Problem being? His E not only allows him to wait out and ignore whatever that ganking ability is (think: elise's snare Elise) by pressing E, but it also has such mobility that he can escape much quicker than most of his midlane opponents.

Compound this all with the fact that he gets to ignore unit collision for reasons, and you've got someone slippery enough to walk and hop away from every gank you throw at him - even when he's sitting against your tower range as a melee champion.

OFFENDER 2) ZED "b-but muh zhonyas counter!" THE NINJA Zed

It seems to be that every Zed player KNOWS they're breaking the natural laws, because the half of the time they aren't breaking them, they're sitting there spamming laugh.

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=1061847&d=1409718393

I don't need to elaborate much on this one, but I might anyway.

  1. The first law. His "reworked" ultimate makes it so that he can simultaneously commit fully to a kill and not commit at all. Hmm. Want some damage on the enemy midlaner? Press R. Shadow shuriken. Press R again. Did they die? Congrats, you're probably spamming laugh and saying "your fault for trying to have mana sustain instead of buying an MR item QSS to survive." Did they survive, or bind/root you? Well, thank goodness you can warp out the instant the CC ends by pressing R again!

  2. The second law AND 3) the third law. Actually, once again, they tie in together. If he sits up at your face, he can shadow away from skillshots, so he already has that advantage. But furthermore, if you try to land something critical on him before he ultis, then he has untargetability (just like Fizz) by simply pressing R - boom, free waste of your CC skillshot, and probably your only chance at survival!

A common misconception is that you can simply CC him as soon as he ults and appears behind you. The reason this argument is null is because with 99% of any other champions in the game, if they are sitting still taking tower shots while rooted/stunned/snared at a low level, they're dead. You're low enough once the CC duration ends to be finished off by the laner+spare tower shots. The only way to possibly survive such a stupid, hapless dive is if, I don't know, you could literally just warp right back out instantaneously.

Oh.

Wait.

Zed HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. Zed

230 Comments

7ha7guy7771/7/2015, 9:49:12 PM49 votes

edit: step 0. learn how to properly play the Prophet of the Void step 1. use the Prophet of the Void step 2. profit

Ð É M Ø Ñ1/7/2015, 9:35:12 PM29 votes

That meme of Zed and his Noodles made me ROFL. Totally made my day. They should make Fizz's entire move kit skill shots and then make it so his E doesnt make I'm untarget-able and that would fix the issues.

But zed isn't really broken. People just need to learn his move kit

TheKingDodo1/8/2015, 1:01:20 AM13 votes

Jinx "rules are made to be broken"

JESUSSAYSNO1/8/2015, 7:36:47 AM7 votes

I think if you think any champion is broken or overpowered, you need get better at the game. Each has their own counters and weaknesses. You should learn them before you make threads calling champs 'OP'. I think the term is overused so much that it has completely lost meaning.

I own Zed, played Zed, and mained him for a while. He's good, yes, but he's FAR from untouchable. I stopped playing him because I felt that other champions were far better. even if Zed did give me kills, he didn't give me games. 1: he is VERY VERY item dependent. if you can deprive him of gold, you win, Zed's now useless for the rest of the game, harass him as much as possible, get him pushed out. 2: Zhonia's is a hard counter, and in the mid lane, where most champions scale on ap as opposed to ad, Zhonias can be effectively rushed, rendering Zed's kill potential 0 against a smart player. If you don't rush zhonias as an ap champ agaisnt zed, I don't and never will feel sorry when he ults you and drops you from 100 to 0 3: he is easily counterpicked. Break the meta, play a tank mid lane against him, all he has is a physical damage poke. Go Malphite or Sion mid, see if Zed can kill you. **The meta is not an ironclad rulebook, it's a guideline. So you usually see Zed, Ahri, Fizz, Kat, etc mid? counterpick their champion, don't pick a midlaner. ** 4: You have to be caught out to die to him. He has 0 teamfight, no initiation, is stuck in melee range, and you're squishy as fuck. If you have your team with you, and they're smart, it's easy to shut down zed before he can do anything. 5: Hard cc renders his ult useless.

Let me come back to the bold. The meta is a GUIDELINE, not a rulebook. According to the meta, there's generally a set pool of champions that go in each lane. Lets pull Yasuo out of the hat to use as an example. He can be played top or mid, but is too squishy to deal with the bruisers and raw early game damage of the top metapool has to offer. So he's sent mid. Now do the math, Yas is weak against top laners like riven and fiora, but can deal with the meta midlaners. So, assuming your team is smart and saves mid for your last pick, or yas and their top laner has been locked in, it's your turn to pick. What do you do, pick a mid laner because it fits the meta, or pick a champion with enough early game aggression to shut down Yas? Say you pick Vel'Koz, who has no mobility, and relies only on skillshots. He's a midlaner, yes, but he gets destroyed by Yas, you lost midlane, yas is fed, a fed yas ends games. what about Fiora? She's mobile, has one of, if not the most agressive early games in the game, insane gap closing, insane dueling. Under no circumstance can a Yas beat a Fiora of equal skill in lane. You've won lane, outfarmed yas, potentially snowballed, and are doing good.

If you're having problems with a champion, and adhere to the metagame, that's your fault. Add Sion, Chogath, and Fiora mid to your roster. Think about an adc or mage top lane. AP carry that snowballs effectively in the bot lane instead of an adc. There are countless ways to counter 'OP' champions with a little creativity. Not only do you confuse your opponent, potentially putting them in lane against somebody they don't know how to play against, but it can fill any gaps you have in your team as well.

Metabreaks that have worked well for me: Sion mid (if the team needs a tank or against early game monsters (my counterpick for Fizz)) Fiora mid (against melee midlaners, if we have a tank in top or jungle OR we have bruisers in top and jungle) Swain as APC instead of an ADC (if opponents are weak to CC) Quinn top (against anything but a tank, and if we have a tank in the jungle)

GLWuffie1/8/2015, 12:37:02 AM6 votes

Do people even know you have at least half a second to react to Fizz if he dashes at you? People act like it's ALL in one go, but ever player should know that even HALF a second can make all of a difference (heck, even a quarter of one).

For once on these posts I want to hear WEAKNESSES, not their "OP" strengths. These champions have a weakness, I know Fizz has many. I cannot say the same for Zed because I don't have/play him. In that same note, even though I personally think he's OP (compared to Fizz), I can't even say that because I haven't played as him to declare that.

Fizz has high mana costs, he's mostly AP-based, he's melee, and he lacks sustain. That's a few of his weaknesses. Instead of everyone just saying YEAH HE'S OP, why don't some of us who play them explain why they can be countered IF they can be countered?

~GL