After playing Lee Sin for the first time...

Alright, before I start, let me say that as it stands, I'm a fan of most of the game's ballence as it stands. There's a lot of diversity in the game right now and I'm really liking it. I have a bit of an issue with the mana regen nerfs being taken overboard. They needed to happen, but not as bad as they were. I'm really not a fan of assassins getting gutted as a result of mages being weakened. Majority of the jungle changes I can back easily as well, up until 5.1's stalkers blade nerf. Bot, top, and mid are balanced as it stands, even if I don't personally don't like mid's 'nerf it until it stops existing' balance. I really don't even think Zed's that scary, and he gets shut down by anyone with half a brain.

I bought and played Lee Sin for the first time 3 days ago. I proceeded to gank at level 2 for a kill mid, go top without backing, get a kill, clear a camp, go mid for a kill, then back for my Stalkers Warrior. This was my first game with Lee Sin. but this was a pub, and my pub games match me somewhere between high bronze and mid gold usually. Long story short, this got me thinking.

So we all know about the new jungle. And the direct nerf to gap closing on Stalkers Blade (50% slow to 20% speed steal). And the cost nerf on item upgrades. I think the reason for the later two changes are strictly because of Lee Sin, Reksai, and Jarven.

If you don't know how Lee Sin works, you take Krug, Red, Raptors, and then gank mid or bot with 3/4 full health at level 2. With three camps down, you can back with 350 gold. Lee Sin's kit gives him a 20% slow on his E. Prior to the Stalkers Blade nerf, you could land a level one E, slowing a 350 speed champion to 280, then smite them to slow them to a pathetic 140 movespeed. At level 2. 350-350(.2)/2=140

Due to his playstyle, and the cost of the Stalkers Blade, you could clear 3 camps, FAIL you gank, back to get stalkers blade, clear a camp for level three, then go back to finish the job mid with your absurd slow. Absurdly powerful at a stage of the game where NO other champion is and ever will be.

So, Stalkers gets nerfed, closes the gap slower, lets them escape 30% faster than they used to, you close the gap 10% slower, your allies close the gap 30% slower. Right on, sweet, lee can't 350 to 140 you anymore at level 2, he lost an absurd amount of early game power, it was a solid nerf to Lee Sin. And ONLY Lee Sin. Jarven and RekSai, the other two insanely powerful level 3 gankers are untouched by the nerf due to their hard CC at level 3 and amazing sustain. A lot of other junglers that NEEDED that sticking power got removed from potential viability due to one champion's unfathomably broken level 2/3 power spike.

Shaco, Amumu, Evelynn, and many more NEEDED the sticking power to pull off a gank before 7 minutes into the game.

So, we've dealt with Lee Sin. His level 2 or 3 powerspike is good, but not absolutely broken beyond belief. But wait, all of the big three can clear 3 to 4 camps, gank at 2/3 health, completely fuck up, get counterjungled mid, feed the enemy Yasuo a double, and then pick up their jungle item, clear 2 or 3 camps, and just go ham again? No fucking way man. Raise the cost of the items so you HAVE to clear 4 camps if you want to get your item with enough gold to ward and get pots for your next clear and gank. You cannot fail the gank without huge costs on these 3 champions, as it should be, but not at the cost of the rest of the potential jungle champions.

The jungle is perfectly balanced right now. For Jarven, Rek'sai, and Lee Sin. These are the only three champions that are seeing balance changes around. WW was an issue for a short time and preforms alright and Udyr's fine. But there is such little jungle variety right now. 5 champions are known to be widely viable right now, and I've named them all in this paragraph. Two of them just get by with their kits' pure sustain and dumb luck. This is a major, major problem for many, many champions without a powerful level three spike.