The Burden Of Balance - Skill Shots, Mobility, And You

Hey, Kouga here.

I've been waiting for a good time to bring this discussion forward. I think you and I need to sit down and have a good long discussion about a few core philosophies within League of Legends and the impact it has on us. I've been playing League off and on ever since a friend brought home a beta key from PAX - so I've seen it all. I've seen a lot of discussion around champions and why some are so hard to balance or why they constantly seem broken - but I want to talk about more than just QQ threads about a specific champion. This is about a much larger question. Why are these champions problematic? And why does it feel so oppressive at times? And no, the answer is not because Riot hates you. The core of the misconception lies with what I call The Burden of Balance. This is a perspective that looks at how mechanics and design interact with player input, and how it effects the ways Riot can balance a Champion.

First, let's discuss Counter Play. Its kind of a buzz word. The trend has been giving the player options on how to respond to a mechanic or ability - this leads to an increase in skill shot (SS) abilities over Targeted Abilities (TA) and a rise of more mobility champions. But Balance and Counterplay are not the same thing. The community had regularly railed against the power of Nidalee's Spears - but this was a slow-moving, easily avoided skill shot. However the perspective that players had was that if she throws enough spears, one of them is bound to land, and that one spear was enough to make the whole ability seem unbalanced. Statistically, she was likely to eventually hit something (this is what I call The Blitzcrank Theory)

So we know that balance goes beyond that, but its still one of the easiest ways, on the surface, to give an ability "counter play." However, what good is it to have a skill shot if you don't have any way to dodge them? So to some degree I would probably associate the rise of skill shots, in part, to the increase in mobility. The whole point of making the ability a skill shot is to give the target options, so more mobility only increases the interactions you have available. Being able to jump, blink, or burrow around lets you maneuver around these additional skill shots. Even more "pseudo skillshots" - let's look at an example.

We've seen already the relation between mobility and ability mechanics with the recent Veigar changes. A mobile champion is designed to avoid an ability like that, but Veigar's previous state made it, for all intents and purposes, a targeted stun in the hands of a skilled player (this is the first real look at the Burden of Balance I mentioned, and we'll get to that) so Riot changed the mechanics of the ability to fit in line with their idea of balance and counterplay.

Now I'm not saying the Veigar changes were either negative or positive, I'm just saying that it fits with the trends that we've already seen.

So what does all of this have to do with champions like Lee Win or Zed? And more importantly, what does it have to do with non-mobile champions, such as Sejuani, or non-skill shot champions, like Fiddlesticks?

With Non-Mobile, Targeted Champions, The Burden of Balance is on Riot

This means that Riot has the primary ability (and responsibility) to balance these champions. I mean, this makes sense - they have the levers on their side. A player can't change how far Fiddle's Drain leashes or how many times his crows bounce. While there is certainly strategy to apply (Crow the crowd, not the isolated target), overall his big levers are just numbers. And players can't control that.

But here's the heart of the issue --

With Mobile, or Skill Shot reliant Champions, the Burden of Balance ALSO Falls on the Player

When you consider the Hard-To-Balance champions like Lee Sin or Zed, who require a huge amount of Player input, Riot's ability to balance them is a lot different. You start factoring in whole new layers. It isn't just, Can you land a Skill Shot? Its - can you predict your enemy pathing? Can you account for minions? Memorize the range and projectile speed of their abilities? Can you hit a stealthed champion, or one in the FoW? These are actual skills to some degree, the ability to observe, predict, react in different ways than a TA champion has to deal with. That isn't to say that a targeted mage doesn't require skill, but the gap between really good and really bad players are going to be much wider with these champions.

And that, I think, is the biggest problem with our perception. These champions aren't just Over Powered - if only it were that simple - but they just have a much wider skill gap. When used to their absolute max potential, they probably are magnitudes stronger, overall, than a champion that doesn't have those same mechanics. However, the player must be able to use them to this degree. Its no mystery why Lee Sin is the classic example of, "Our Lee Sin Vs Their Lee Sin" videos.

Riot will have a much easier time balancing a Champion like Annie, who has very clear power limits. Even though her ult is a skill shot, its pretty reliable. So making her stronger or weaker is going to be pretty easy - just change her numbers.

So Kouga, what does this mean for ME?

Basically, I'm just trying to present a perspective, a lens through which we can view some of the mechanical, design, or balance changes that comes down from Riot. I heard some raging on the forums earlier because Sej was getting a nerf, but Lee still isn't removed from the game. When you stop looking at this from the realm of "OP VS UP" and start considering, "what makes this Champion strong? What options would Riot have to change it?" it might make some of these a little easier to swallow. If Sejuani was a little overbearing, Riot can try pulling on exactly one lever and see how she does. But Lee Sin, or Zed, or Ahri - they have much more complex factors into their power level. You pull on one lever too hard, and it can completely change the way that champions functions.

Well, that's my two cents. If you have your own thoughts I'd love to hear them. If you would like to see some of my other thoughts on the game, take a look at my own Reward System idea. Thanks for reading.

Your humble player, Kouga