This is a different kind of meta; A safety meta.

If we look at currently "OP" champs, you'll start to notice a trend:

Farms with relative safety due to his shadow mechanic, and has a safety net ult for that special skillshot. Can cover amazing distance with his dash-teleport, control an area with his AoE stun-shield, and if he's in real danger, he can hit R. Janna has been the best performing support for a while, the main reason being that she doesn't need to be up close to be a useful support. She has her shield, her amazing passive speed, a knock-up specifically designed to end chases... And again, a super disengage ult. Same case as Janna, she can be quite far away and still have impact. If she's getting assassinated, she can throw down an E on herself as well as ult.

These are the ones being complained about right now, but not too long ago we had a few more meta friends (,, and ) that were banned nearly every game due to how safe they were. So this isn't exactly new. It's becoming quite evident that making champs safe to play makes them quite good picks... And it makes any sort of buff to them extremely oppressive. That isn't to say all safe champs are op, but you will notice a trend in the fact these champs don't sacrifice much to be safe.

I'll demonstrate how this works in the favor of these champions briefly. Lets say 50% health Zed is getting jumped by a jungling after he made the enemy recall due to his amazing poke. Sejuani opens with a flash Q, getting Zed down to about 30%. He then shadows away, nearly under his turret. In a last ditch effort, Sejuani throws out her ult. Zed sees it, and casts his ult on her. He effectively dodges it, and shadows back to his turret.

Zed had to give up his ult and his shadow, but still has his flash in case the midlaner has something to throw out as well. Sejuani is an extremely sticky champ, and zed has three chances to escape from her. The problem is then stated; Zed has far too much mobility for little risk. Now, working on a reasonable nerf for Zed isn't going to be a nerf to his ad or armor. Hell, you don't even have to give him an entirely new set to make him fair. All you have to do is make Zed riskier to play. I'm no challenjour, so I expect Riot or somebody more qualified in the comments to make more refined nerfs than these:

• Make his ult have an energy cost, so he can't just panic button when he sees a skillshot fly at him.
• Make Zed unable to go back to his shadow unless he has used it aggressively. (Maybe he has to land a few spells on the target?)
• Make Zed's shadow slow him down while active, so he has a much needed vulnerability state.

Like I said, I'm not perfect, but the meta we're in definitely could use a push in balance. I'd love to see some feedback from either reds or professional players so I can get the full picture.