I just realized Riot can never actually bring "balance" to League with their current methods.

Sunfire Sandals·Jun 5, 2018·4 votes·2,299 views

So I frequently read posts about the current state of balance in these forums. About how so and so champ is currently an "S" pick, and about how Riot changing the meta every two weeks is disruptive (in their futile attempt to bring balance). Here is the problem.

Riot looks at champions who are currently "S" ranked or sometimes even "A" ranked on picks/bans/win rates. They nerf these. Seems logical, yes? That temporarily brings some sort of balance, they get more in line with the rest of their category. However the mere act of nerfing a champion will bring other champions forward just a little bit and raise their win rates accordingly. After enough nerfs around the board, a new champion is S rank and needs a nerf.

Or perhaps they will "buff" a champion instead. One of the lower ranked champions to get it up there on par with the S and A ranked champions and bring those back down to a fair level. Then all those champions are considered the same rank and all viable picks. When they do this, they make other types of champions weaker though. Buff enough marksman and mages/bruisers get weaker in comparison. Same problem with nerfing enough champions of a category, you boost a different category. However this is a predictable outcome that Riot can logically prepare for. If you buff marksman, they are going to get stronger in comparison to other categories, this much is obvious.

This process in theory could give a semblance of balance, or at least as close as they can get. Here is where it gets bad... Riot adds/removes/changes items and introduces new champions.

The moment you adjust the item meta in any way, you are going to unintentionally make certain champs way more powerful. The new item Stormrazor for example while useful for "some" Marksmen, is not useful for most of them since it doesn't mesh well with crit builds. Its worse than a normal crit, so if you are building high crit rate it is pretty bad. However it is amazing for Assassins and Bruisers who don't build crit, because now they have a free crit! Any assassin with an enhanced auto attack especially (I have found it very strong on Nocturne, Rengar, and Yasuo).

When they add a new champion things get almost as bad as changing items, but not quite as bad. The new champion makes certain items amazing for that champion, and the solution to Riot is to adjust said item or nerf the champion. But the new champion is another variable in a chaotic system. Because now if you are adjusting items to accommodate the new champion, you are throwing off the balance you had before with that item and the rest of the champions. Don't forget merely adding another champion adds another potential counter-pick for an existing champion, also shifting the balance.

The worst offender though is Riot coming up with a new meta every 1-2 weeks with heavy broad changes to ENTIRE CATEGORIES. We feel jungle is too weak, lets buff ALL JUNGLERS. They don't even have time to test changes anymore before implementing them, they just implement them. I have to say right now my Jungle game is way better than ever and quite possibly unfair. I cannot confirm since I haven't had enough time to test, but knowing Riot they will change the meta before I have had adequate time to test the balance.

I want you to think of League as in a state of entropy. Riot tries to bring it to a state of order. They can do this by making minor adjustments to existing champions, adjusting items, and maybe even CAREFULLY adjusting the Meta. This works in theory and works well for other battle-arena type games who see major changes less frequently.

What Riot does however is they are injecting new variables into an already high chaotic system faster than they are allowing it to move towards a state of order. If this continues, at some point it will have become so chaotic there is going to be no solution except Tabula Rasa. Wipe it all clean. Redesign it all from the bottom up. This could be a good thing to some people but I think most people would agree they don't want the game flipped entirely overnight.

The solution then is to give time for major changes to be tested like they once were, allow the flow of new champions and items to be done in pre-season patches so that players can adapt to a new meta, and stop overhauling every week. These are not my solutions, it is what I have gathered from reading other posts, I am just trying to bring it all together.

12 Comments

BladeleafJun 5, 20183 votes

The goal is not balance.

The goal is engaging gameplay.

Starcraft 2 tried 2 years of few balance patches and no gameplay updates. That didn't work.

Mastering a game only goes so far. Eventually you get into the upper echelons of fine tuning like chess players.

But that's not what most people want in a game. Permanently changing dynamics and metas are extremely healthy and fun for the game.

Balance is just the tool that tempers the unpleasant side effects of the changes.

People are complaining now because the balance has not caught up to the levels of changes. Riot has gone a little too far here.

They need to continue this business model of constant changes, but slow it down a little so the balance team and the playerbase can get their feet on the ground.

TheWizardMJun 5, 20181 votes

this ^

If they wanted balance, the current playstyle of both assassins and tanks would be completely removed from the game, but that would upset alot of people now wouldn't it?

Tzuyu Is My BiasJun 5, 20181 votes

Rather, they would remove all champions of each class except one class. If every champion is similar, there would be almost perfect balance. But that would be at the most boring state.

TheWizardMJun 5, 20182 votes

again, a bit over the top. You can easily achieve balance with multiple classes (just look at rock paper scissors). THe probem occours when one class beats more other classes than other classes do, which is where assassins and tanks come in.

Tanks beat assassins and bruisers, and go pretty even with mages, while losing against carries (2w 1e 1l) assassins beat carries and mages, go pretty even with bruisers, and lose to tanks (2w 1e 1l) carries beat tanks, go even with bruisers, and lose to mages and assassins (1w 1e 2l) bruisers go even against carries, assassins and mages, but lose to tanks (3e 1l) mages beat carries, go even with tanks and bruisers, and lose to assassins (1w 2e 1l)

As you can see, both tanks and assassins consistently beat more than one class (keep in midn that this is a bit oversimpllified, and doesnt apply to all champions)

Tzuyu Is My BiasJun 5, 20181 votes

Yes, you are correct, but the more variables you put in the harder is gets. The more variables you eliminate, the easier it gets. There are already champions that are exceptions to the rock paper scissors trinity.

Sunfire SandalsJun 6, 20181 votes

{quoted}

again, a bit over the top. You can easily achieve balance with multiple classes (just look at rock paper scissors). THe probem occours when one class beats more other classes than other classes do, which is where assassins and tanks come in.

Tanks beat assassins and bruisers, and go pretty even with mages, while losing against carries (2w 1e 1l) assassins beat carries and mages, go pretty even with bruisers, and lose to tanks (2w 1e 1l) carries beat tanks, go even with bruisers, and lose to mages and assassins (1w 1e 2l) bruisers go even against carries, assassins and mages, but lose to tanks (3e 1l) mages beat carries, go even with tanks and bruisers, and lose to assassins (1w 2e 1l)

As you can see, both tanks and assassins consistently beat more than one class (keep in midn that this is a bit oversimpllified, and doesnt apply to all champions)

This is a brilliant analysis, thank you!

PeachsPropertyJun 5, 20182 votes

the thign with games with tons of playable characters....is just that. lots of varied choices.

if you nerf/buff one, that will indirectly effect others.

its a domino effect.

MetalGearTeemoJun 5, 20182 votes

yet somehow Dota laughs hysterically at league in terms of pick rates at high level. The issue is homogenization. Since Riots trying to encourage you to buy the latest releases and force a meta to their liking there will always be massive skill overlap, and champions who come with better versions of the same kits in the same roles.

Even the bench warmer bottom tiers in dota have unique things that only they can do, and they can appear in high level pocket strategies to counter something specific. (see: Omniknight from TI 1 to 4 or so. )

rtbf48419282Jun 6, 20182 votes

It's impossible to balance this game. There are so many factors that are difficult to quantify in determining the OPness of a champion. But the goal should at least be to make all champs in the game to have reasonable winrates and have reasonable learning curves and to make all champs in the game playable.

Some champs really do have ridiculous win rate along with popularity. Fortunately such champs also have high ban rates (which makes them unplayable). Utilize the bans; that's what the bans are for.

SEKAIJun 6, 20181 votes

Nerfing and buffing makes no difference as euqlising approaches, it's just only a matter of gearing towards the high or low. If you use buffing as the primary approach to balance, it will end up with stat-creeps, which is what the game is atm because Riot has been precisely using this method to balance the game since the last season.

The real reasons why the game will never be balanced is because Riot introduces significant or even gigantic game-changing factors every 2 weeks or so, which repeats infinity without giving any time for anything to settle in and actually be worthwhile to balance.

A house of cards is never going to be built if your hands never leave the cards and as you relentlessly touch all the cards on the house every few seconds, but that's exactly the problem with Riot.

Harden StepbackJun 6, 20181 votes

The game will never be balanced. Notice how all the newer champions and reworked champions are straight up broken? The design philosophy has failed and league is spiralling downwards quickly.