There should only be a single "versatile skill" per champion

The Voids Call··1 votes·257 views

What i mean by "versatile skill" (VS) is those skills which can be used in both offensive and defensive manners. So for example, fizz Q/E, Zed W/R, all of thresh's skills, yasuo W/E, all untargeted and some targeted dashes.

When a champion has multiple of these, it starts to get insane! They become almost impossible to lock down without at least 2 people coordinating CC. If they are given a kit like lee sin or thresh who can use every single one of their skills for either offense or defense, (excluding lee passive). It quickly turns into a situation where nerfing their numbers will result in either complete dominance or total uselessness.

That said i think it's fair to have so called "neutral skills" (NS) which can work for both and tend to be considered defensive, but they aren't necessarily one or the other, with the other thrown on for free. So neutral abilities would include things like CC, healing, shielding.

Yeah, there can be a few exceptions to these rules, but they can't be the damn assassins they are now! With that design philosophy it's turns into a case where the ones who are that hardest to kill have the easiest time killing you. They need to be high risk high reward, where you can quickly kill a target, but more you're leaving yourself open after or while you're assassinating a target. Positioning should be 10x more important on an assassin than a marksman. From both a thematic and balance stand point.

1 Comments

MisterHealYoGirl1 votes

If you're doing it right, almost EVERY skill is offensive and defensive. For example, Janna's shield gives AD, her Q and her W are hard CC that can be used to engage or peel, her ult heals and can misplace enemies. Shen's dash can grab enemies with a taunt or get him out; his ult can defend an ally or let him escape a sticky situation, and his shield helps refresh his offensive passive. And so on and so forth.

Generally, the thing with this kind of skill is that they have to be used offensively OR defensively. Once Fizz troll-poles IN, he can't trollpole OUT. If Lulu shields an ally, she can't put Pix on an enemy. If Thresh uses Flay to shove Talon off of his carry, he can't use it to pull Jinx into them. They have to commit to either offense or defense; just because they can commit to either doesn't make them unanswerable.

Generally, it seems that all of the abilities that you've listed are mobility abilities, with the exception of Yasuo's wall (how is that offensive, by the way?) and Thresh's Box. While mobility creep is a legitimate issue, i feel like removing mobility options from the game is NOT the answer. Some champions are more mobile than others. This is a fact, and it's a strength that they make up for in other areas.

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