This free week

deadlychuck·Dec 5, 2014·2 votes·367 views

So i hadn't noticed until today, but this free week of

has 7 AD champions 3 AP, 2 of which are listed supports, but all 3 have been played as supports.

like seriously what the hell, does riot realize how imbalanced and lop sided the ratio of AD to AP is it's getting rediculus, i'm not talking about not releasing champions with AD scaling, i mean the fact that the number of viable AP champions is diminishing, and being restricted to the support role.

6 Comments

Gear KittyDec 5, 20142 votes

It's more of the luck of the draw/trying not to put out put the same champs in the line up too often.

There's a couple rules they follow when picking Free Weeks.

Must have two Marksmen. The role is so pivotal in the meta worldwide that denying a new player access to them is hobbling at champ select. Reverse order going over the past several weeks goes: Ashe/Caitlyn. KogMaw/Twitch. Graves/MF(+). Quinn/Varus. Jinx/Lucian. Urgot/Vayne. Draven/Varus. Caitlyn/Ezreal. Corki/Sivir. Ashe/KogMaw. Jinx/Quinn. Graves/Lucian. +Kayle and TF get honorable mentions for their ADC off-meta builds.

Must have at least two Supports. You can probably count on one hand the number of times over the past couple years where there wasn't two Support champions in the line-up (whether by kit design or what the meta deems supporty). Reverse order: Karma/Sona (honorable mention Nidalee). Nunu/Taric (HM Jarvan, Shen, VelKoz). Leona/Soraka (HM Kayle. I know Liss is sometimes played support, but I've seen it successful less times than I've seen Support Eve win a game). Janna/Thresh (Annie). Blitzcrank/Zyra (Volibear). Lulu/Nami (Brand). Karma/Morgana. Zilean(+). Braum/Lux (Malphite, Maokai). Leona/Thresh (Azir). Soraka/Taric. Janna/Sona. +One of those weeks with no other meta Support, but the Veigar in that week does get played Support on occasion.

Must have two junglers. Whether Riot admits it or not, they do design and balance to the 1-1-1-2 Meta. Playing with no Jungler leaves a team at a significant disadvantage if the other team is using one. Reverse order: Aatrox/KhaZix/Rengar. Jarvan/Nocturne/Nunu. Diana/Hecarim/Olaf. Yi/Shyvana (GP). Amumu/Volibear (Sion). Rammus/Sejuani/Tryndamere. LeeSin/Vi. Pantheon/Xin Zhao/Trundle (Gragas). Maokai/Udyr. Skarner/Wukong (Nasus). KhaZix/Rengar (Fiora). Aatrox/Udyr/Zac.

They also like pairing up rival champions. You see Leona and Diana a lot in the same week, and I don't recall a time when Rengar was free and KhaZix wasn't.

After all that, it's rare that you have to stretch too hard to make two viable teams out of the 10 given. I'll give two examples.

Seven weeks ago, the one with only Zilean as Support.

Team A: Ezreal, Pantheon, Kassadin, Renekton, Xin Zhao.
- Ezreal and Pantheon Bot Lane. Not the best spot for our beloved spartan, but his target stun and initiation shouldn't be ignored. He has targeted harass with the spear throw, and with the rest of the team having a pretty high AD focus, Zeke's Herald is a great buy for him.
- Kassadin Mid, Renekton Top, Xin Jungle. This team has a heavy focus on mobility and bringing the fight right to the enemy. Their collapse should be good at all points of the game, and the only threats are the late game Trundle and fed Caitlyn/Veigar. Their fallback pattern is a split push with collapses in the jungle.

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Team B: Caitlyn, Zilean, Gragas, Trundle, Veigar.
- Cait and Zil Bot is pretty damn safe and would likely need the enemy jungler's intervention to disrupt it. Veigar is a little (ha!) exposed in Mid, and it will likely be their weakest role. Gragas Jungle ganks are not to be scoffed, and putting Trundle top gives him the farm he needs to split push and duel all day against most of the enemy team.
- Focus is on the Team Fighting, using Gragas to engage from the side with a well timed (ha again!) Zilean bomb, followed up with Veigar stun as the carries unload on who ever gets caught out. Zilean's Ult can bait out a fight or save a bad play, and Trundle's stat stealing can ruin the enemy's AD focused and low tanking team.
- Fallback pattern is a defensive strategy to mitigate the oppressive split push the other team has in spades. If the opportunity arises, they HAVE to go for the team fight and most likely will try to contest every Dragon and Baron.

Against each other Team A has the higher chance of success. Their champs are more self-reliant and naturally safer due to mobility. It mostly comes down to skill, though an even match will favor A if there's not early game throwing in B's favor.

Eight weeks ago.

Team A: Braum, Malphite, Maokai, Orianna, Sivir.
- Focus is on the obscene AoE damage Ori and Sivir can deal while Braum, Malph, and Maokai keep the other team locked down. This is Team Hard Engage right here, though each champion does have access to some level of poke for a fallback pattern. Malphite Top and Maokai Jungle.

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Team B: Corki, Lux, Udyr, Vlad, Zed
- Focus is on their great disengage with split push potential. Come mid/Late Game, Corki and Lux stay mid while Zed, Vlad, and Udyr roam and split the other lanes. Take note that while their CC is low, their single target focus and mixed damage along with safe poke means it's unlikely their tower defending will be easily crushed.

Facing each other, it's likely that if B can't gain a significant advantage early, they'll have to bring a really good poke game to handle Ori and her wave clear and two ball delivery allies.

Considering I've already been at this post for over two hours, I'll leave out trying to make two teams with the current FW Champs. They're there though, and honestly, it looks like a brutal brawl with so little naturally tanky options.

Carl FredricksonDec 5, 20141 votes

This

Cale017Dec 5, 20141 votes

Considering that no champions have ever been taken out of the game, saying that the number of viable AP champs is diminishing is just numerically inaccurate. There are no fewer now than there were a year ago, in fact there are more.

Perhaps there are more AD than AP champs, sure, but then again in an average match you'll usually have three ADs and two AP champs anyways, depending on what the top and jungler play. There is nothing overtly wrong with the current balance, but just because the free week cycle is particularly giving for the AP lineup offered doesn't mean that there are now magically less than there were before.

Chill out, man. Chances are you probably weren't going to play any of the free week champions anyways, or you already own them.

deadlychuckDec 7, 20141 votes

Well just because they aren't going away doesn't mean the average power curve isn't moving up and leaving them behind. It is true that AD is being produced more though. The thing is that very few champions have the skill set to go AP top, AP jungle is always being juggled around when ever big changes happen, and AD mids are becoming the more dominate force. Shoot if supports could build AD and still keep the utility they probably would.

Cale017Dec 7, 20141 votes

AD mids are not the more dominate force. Just because Zed is becoming a power pick doesn't mean any AD mid is suddenly becoming popular.

AD just applies to more things. The itemization options for AP is rather limited as well, you either have offtank (Elise), burst and pray (Diana), or sustained but squishy (Teemo).

Supports CAN build AD and keep the utility. Ever seen an AD Thresh? Terrifying.

You're making a very broad generalization of the state of the game based almost completely on this week's free champ rotation. That's ten out of over, what, a hundred and sixty now? Just because the tables might be a bit skewed towards AD doesn't mean that AP is being squished. In fact, Riot knows they have to keep a certain balance or else the game will become nothing but AD champs, and no one will be using either AP offensive or defensive items.

You can sing it until the cows come home but it doesn't change that four out of five matches are going to have a caster in the midlane. An all AD team is still the odd man out in the meta because it's easy to itemize against so no one really wants to run it without a damn good strategy in place, or if you have a Zed/Talon trying to carry in solo queue.