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Champion Types That Are Inherently Broken

Mrs Qtpie·9/17/2019, 6:32:45 PM·62 votes·17,389 views

Broken means the champion design breaks some aspect of the game if said champion is viable.

  1. Support Carries - This is problematic because these champions do not need to compete for gold to deal massive damage. This breaks the competituve nature of the game. Why should the enemy Brand be able to 1 shot my entire team with his high base damage + passive despite having a nominal amount of gold and experience? It feels incredibly unfair and unfun to play against. It especially sucks that this type of champion often does the most damage in the entire game, despite having the least resources in many cases.

  2. Invisible Assassins - This one is just obvious: no one wants to be 1-shot from invisibility. For squishy champions, there is no reasonable counter play to an invisible assassin. Some people argue that the fact that rhese champions reveal themselves when they're near you means that they aren't broken, but this is clearly a bad argument. If the assassin has gotten close enough to your adc to be revealed, it is already too late, lol.

  3. Scaling champions with lane dominance - Think Kai'sa, Gangplank and increasingly, Vayne. These champions are characterized by having a nigh infallible lane phase, while also having the ability to out-scale most champions in the game. If the champion doesn't outright win most matchups, they at the very least have a very safe lane phase that allows then to circumvent the stage of the game where the enemy team is supposed to have the oppertunity to shut them down.

I typed this on my phone, so I apologize if my grammar sucks because I am not going to read this over.

70 Comments

Zero Shingetsu9/17/2019, 6:48:47 PM37 votes

  1. Absolutely. As a support main, I empathize with this issue. I'm here trying to be a good support and get my carry kills, and I end up losing half my lanes to selfish supports who run Ignite and build pure damage items, no wards. The Support Carry meta punishes you for playing support the right way.

  2. This is tricky. Assassins need a way to have a chance to get in close without dying instantly. Pink wards guard against this to a degree, but those are easy to break and are only truly reliable when plopped down before a teamfight is about to start. However, you also have a point. Personally... I think your point might be a side effect of the damage meta. If assassins couldn't one-shot almost anything in the game, this wouldn't be as huge an issue. At least make it take a full combo...

  3. Agreed. It's not that I've never beaten these sorts of champions, but objectively speaking, it's an imbalanced move to create a champion who is extremely difficult to lane against but also has a very strong late game. It should ideally be one or the other. Either the champion is very strong in lane and mediocre in late fights, or the champion snowballs late but takes a while to get started.

Garen is adopted9/17/2019, 11:36:45 PM14 votes

4 . Riven

AccurateYeet9/17/2019, 11:51:05 PM13 votes

1: 100% Agree. Mages shouldn't be stronger than carries on no gold, and Pyke is just degenerate.

2: Assassins should in theory be able to 'oneshot' people who are behind or squishy, but not without those people having an option to react. Dying to a rengar combo isn't remotely fun or fair. He can't miss, he can't be reasonably denied, and he can't be kept off that break point in any meaningful way. Trade offs need to exist for all assassins and right now they just don't.

3: Scaling champions with lane dominance usually have a U curve like Tristana, so they do at least have a point they can be punished. I can't personally speak to gp, but Kai'sa has a bit of that at least. It also seems bad to deny them a laning phase at all or the possibility of building advantage. They aren't actively onehitting people with no counter like your average assassin, so at the very least if they're strong early there's a point you can handle them.

Saezio9/17/2019, 7:02:43 PM7 votes
  1. Support carry is only viable (and really advisable to do so) when you are not 100% sure your adc will be really good and knows how to carry. Picking a supportive support is just a bad move if you play for example with random sub diamond ADC players. You are putting all the eggs in the ADC basket which might end up having a huge hole in the bottom. But if you know your ADC is solid, picking a supportive support is infinitely better than picking a damage support. Carry support essentially means you believe your real elo is above your current elo and you are taking matters into your own fingers. I do not think this is a case of "inherently broken class" simply because no such class really exists. Or rather, is nowhere near as effective as it's counterparts in an environment of 10 equally skilled players.
5050BS9/17/2019, 6:52:54 PM7 votes

Yep

Bârd9/18/2019, 5:26:17 AM6 votes

They aren't innately horrible, but the way Riot chooses to handle them makes them so.

Like, you see these kinds of character all the time in Dota and it just isn't a huge deal.

Carry Supports These are fine, it's just that Riot doesn't make carry supports. They make gold independent semi-carries, and then rebalance them to the point where you can barely play them outside support anymore.

A straight up mage played with the income of a support while mainting their usual game impact is horseshit, but a support putting him his big-boy shoes and carry his shit team with his 3k net worth?

Yeah, sure that can be cool.

Here's what Dota 2's Enigma (basically a walking talking Orianna ult) does. This man literally needs no items (though they help a ton), as long as his ult is off CD he's one of the most threatening heroes in the game.

He can kill an entire team, yes, but it's not like there's nothing you can do about it. If you interrupt the channel he becomes garbage, and if you don't clump you'll force him to solo ult people.

Stealth Assassins These are fine, it's just that Riot has no idea what a healthy assassin design looks like.

Riot seems to have the misconception that an assassin needs to be super bursty, but that's just not true, and that's especially false when it comes to stealth assassins.

These guys should be squishy champions who pop out of nowhere and fight when the enemy is unprepared to deal with them; exceptional at fighting on their own terms, but outside those conditions they need to turn tail and run.

Here's what Dota 2's Twitch equivalent does. This son of a bitch HURTS, but you don't see him twoshotting fools. You have enough time to react, and maybe to even fight back.

Scaling Champions with Lane Dominance This is fine, but only if the character in question is based in disruption and utility.

This is honestly one thing Riot has done well in the past.

Just look at this perfect, flawless in every way, absolutely amazing (and not to mention sexy) champion Bard

mack91129/18/2019, 8:51:39 AM6 votes

That’s like a lot of champions.

Linna Excel9/17/2019, 7:20:39 PM4 votes

  1. If you are talking about Pike I agree. If you are talking about battlemages, they exist because riot pushed assassin mids and early ganking junglers too hard and never really did anything for the battlemage class to keep them mid. As much as I'd like riot's balance team to start putting them back mid, that's something that is completely up to them.

  2. Assassins when played correctly in general are a problem. Poorly played ones aren't, but akali shows riot gives them too much.

  3. I agree and Vayne shouldn't be an early game champ at all. Early game champs need to be weaker as the game goes on and scaling champs need to start weak.

Jennifer4209/18/2019, 11:50:20 PM4 votes

"season 7+" champs.

basically every champ released in or after season 7. overloaded kits, %max or %true damage, hypermobile, enough stuff on one spell to fit into 1 season2 champs etc.

MaskedMadness9/17/2019, 9:57:52 PM2 votes

i main Rengar and i can full heartedly say rengar is the worst assassin in the game compared to the strengths of the other assassins.

Serika Zero9/18/2019, 5:09:39 AM2 votes

I disagree with you.

In my opinion what's actually broken is: Assassins with shitload of escapes. An assassin's job is to kill its target. If an assassin can do his (or her) job, great, you killed someone. That's your high reward. And for a high reward, you have a high cost: a high probability of dying unless you're good enough at escaping. The moment rito decided to add an "easy escape button" to assassins they broke the class.

Another one is: assassins with CC. Just like Assassins with escapes, assassins with CC (like ekko) are broken by design. Assassins are about high burst or quickly inflicted dots, and then get the fuck out though their own skill. The moment you add element of another class (tank, mage, enchanter, etc) you also break that assassin.

Next: champions that break the game rules: Yasuo's double crit. Trinda's extra crit. Jhin's passive. Reworked kog's break of AS cap, etc.

jocomotion9/19/2019, 3:49:49 PM1 votes

  1. Yes and no, I agree some support carries go overboard like brand, but then you got ones like Xerath where his damage is terrible if he falls behind and only mediocre if they end even.

  2. Again yes and no. You failed to mention most camouflage champs have some kind of preset warning like Pyke’s sharks, Rengar eyes, Evelyn heart etc... and it’s those spells that have the most one shot potential but then there’s champs like Shaco or Wild who I can’t vouch for when they’re strong.

  3. Yes.

hhaavviikk9/18/2019, 7:20:01 AM1 votes

This is why Twitch shouldn't have stealth, come late game he's a ranged stealth assassin, or even just when he gets fed, he can pop-out and assassinate you from a safe distance

FrancisMuni9/18/2019, 12:20:15 PM1 votes

Yep, these kinds of champs have inherent traits that completely nullify their weaknesses. Why can a Brand oneshot an entire team with 2 point-and-click abilities while building support? Why does the most overpowered battle mage (Vladimir ) also have one of the safest lane phases in the entire game? Why do Evelynn or Akali even exist?

I also would want to add overpowered juggernauts like Illaoi or Urgot . Both of them are lane bullies. Both automatically win 1 v 1 against everything. But they also perform well on teamfights: the former can negate an entire enemy engage with the press of a button while the other is a ranged hipercarry that can contribute tons of max hp% damage, CC and a lot of tankiness. Seriously, why would anyone play a tank when he does the job better? And Morde with his "now your carry dissapears for 7s and probably dies" is obnoxius as well. Not to mention than ganking him from level 6 on is literally impossible.

Lovelle9/18/2019, 1:37:54 PM1 votes

Pretty much every AD fighter in the game can use SoS, it's just that none of them actually need it.

I would much rather see tanks get some better health+cdr options, or see on-hit itemization improved because both are pretty lackluster atm.

Rıots Bad Client9/18/2019, 10:55:27 PM1 votes

From what I gathered.

They're trying to buff champions so they're good in every stage of the game. rather just make caitlyn weak late and vayne weak early. That weakness range has decreased significantly. Making them strong In almost every stage.

There are champions whom I think are still in this zone of 'old' balancing. Like Kog'Maw, Or WuKong.

I dont like this.

Literal IRL Tree9/19/2019, 9:32:10 AM1 votes

Gp late game isn't as strong as people think. Not a bad champ late but he isn't doing your full health in a combo and his barrels have decent cds. Can't go steraks without banking on a shitty 50/50 crit chance or go without an LW item.

The Kombinator9/19/2019, 11:09:39 AM1 votes

  1. Currently only Brand is seriously broken. The rest has a good early game vs enchanters, but after 6 they lost, if not fed already.

  2. This is where the "carry supports" lose badly. The very point of the assassins is to oneshot the squishy guys. It doesn't matter, if they run out from stealth or teleport on you from miles away. Point is, that if you can shoot him, then he can go onto you in 0,1second, and tear you apart. Enchanters are meant to counter these so the ADC isn't forced to buy Zhonya, or any defensive items. As Xerath i win botlane 100% of the time, and lose midgame always, if there is a good enemy assassin. They just jump on me, and oneshot. And if i Zhonya, then they try again in 30 seconds.

  3. This one is a serious problem, and told by many. There are several champ, that are meant to be "lategame", and thus no lane dominance in early. But that's not true. Some of those champs are very strong in lanephase. So if they win, then monster, and if they lose, then become monsters later.