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Who do you think is the most balanced champion right now?

Sooko··22 votes·7,169 views

Just wondering. I am sure we can agree with someone to belong in this list...

Also: By balanced, I don't mean unviable, underpowered, or really strong right now. I mean a champion that has weaknesses, strengths and overall viability, despite giving plently of room for the enemy to react.

Here would be my bets: Velkoz Low mobility, some mana issues, vulnerable to CC during ult and completely skill-shot reliant. Still capable of melting through a team, if he is played and positioned correctly. Congratulations to his designer for making a balanced champion in 2014! Urgot Okay... I know he is underpowered, and I am contradicting myself, but I still think he is highly underestimated. His bullying early game is extreme, and gets punished with huge mana problems and low mobility, as well as being skillshot reliant. Still looks like a champion that can be very balanced with his current kit, but I might be wrong. Malphite Well... I hate him, he is super annoying with that ultimate, but I can say that his mana costs, long cooldowns and the fact that HP is now more of a hindering stat rather than a strength, make him quite balanced, being rewarded with amazing late game scalings and one of the best initiations that is nearly impossible to dodge. Chogath Logic similar to Malphite (note: this is the only champion I actually play in this list, so I am not that biased :P). Big mana problems and inevitably stacks HP, as well as lacking mobility and having his disruption tool easy to dodge, but dealing heavy damage and being an amazing teamfighter if someone locks his foes for him to land a Q.

I will present my bans: Fizz Warwick Morgana

119 Comments

Linna Excel29 votes

Velkoz hasn't been buffed or nerfed since release and his 51% winrate is non-toxic in either direction. He's pretty close if you ask me.

Solidair313 votes

Nami.

Her success revolves around landing a skillshot, she deals some damage but not much. Good ult that is effective but fairly easy to dodge.

Sooko3 votes

And low mobility and huge mana costs, if I may add

KFDizzle2 votes

I wouldn't consider nami to be low mobility.

Wise Squirrel11 votes

I'd rather focus on champion I believe are unfair and frustrating to play against, like all those new champions that have both DAMAGE and MOBILITY built into their kits.

Kits should be more balanced, like the original 40 champs. If a champion has CC, he shouldn't have hyper high damage windows. If a champion is mobile, he should not have consistent damage (Kassadin's damage was gated by cooldowns and the access to high health and magic resist items in his time).

I also miss the tank era, where you could take punishment to allow your team members to pick off squishy opponents. Right now I feel like any champ I use easily gets busted down by carries no matter how much hp or armor I purchase.

At least Riot is beginning to take steps in reducing the power of these new generation carries. How I despise those.

Xtremey2 votes

I also miss the tank era, where you could take punishment to allow your team members to pick off squishy opponents. Right now I feel like any champ I use easily gets busted down by carries no matter how much hp or armor I purchase.

try maoki. With RoA, Iceborn, Spirit visage, merc/ninja tabi as core you pretty much become this supertank that can duel relatively well too.

SecretAgentHulk5 votes

Yah Warwick and Taric are totally balanced and there is a bunch of counterplay against them if you know what you're doing.

In all seriousness, though, I think Braum's shield makes him the king of tanks. And I don't really understand all the Kalista hate (Bronze I, fire away); only the most fed of Kalistas can withstand a little bit of coordination.

Lt Cuddles2 votes

Let her get near a brush Rengar. Anyway I have to agree, B V-I Kalista mains tend to fuck up jukes often, like children learning to walk, its cute~

not a starburst1 votes

I can understand why a lot of people who play at lower levels are puzzled as to why Kalista is so irritating. When you mostly just see mediocre or bad Kalista players, it's not hard to dismiss it as just more people whining about losing to her. However, Kalista has a number of glaring issues. First, she's too mobile. Her passive lets her relentlessly kite any melee champion and lets her reposition herself in team fights however she pleases, and the 'but you miss autoattacks if they cancel' drawback is only relevant against Vayne and Twitch, usually. And to cap it all off, she can dash walls with her Q, which is a pretty serious problem. She has too much damage, and her mobility makes her too difficult to kill. ADC's trade most of their survivability and mobility for their damage: Kalista has far too much damage and her ult lets her peel far too well. It's not like you can't shut her down or she's some kind of auto-win, because frankly she's not, but she's like pre-nerfs Lucian: tough to lane against, tough to catch, and hard to teamfight against. That tends to be a really toxic trifecta in terms of balance. It's why Jax got nerfed, it's why Kog got nerfed, and it's why Kalista should get some serious nerfs.

SecretAgentHulk1 votes

If you want to argue that she needs nerfs, I'm cool with that. I just don't understand all the people who think she's fundamentally broken.

RoyaiChaos5 votes

Yes, I agree, make all cc point and click, take away all mobility, let Ashe rise to pick/ban status. /sarcasm

Letsgetcooking7 votes

Trundle

Trundle, outside of his Freljord changes, only had one mana change in his Q(either raised it from 30 to 40 or the opposite). The rest are bugfixes. I might have missed something, but Trundle was basically untouched for 2 years. After his rework, he never got really touched again outside of a single base armor update.

Trundle, for a troll, sure is a great champion.

EDIT: Oh yeah ban Kalista. I never played against her as Trundle but i sure as hell know how worthless every melee are against her.

Narasimha6 votes

You need to clarify. Do you mean design balance or gameplay balance? There is a world of difference. Irelia has horrible design balance, but she's not too bad gameplay wise. On the other hand, Galio has an actually great design balance, but people won't touch him with a 10 ft pole.

LuckyReden6 votes

Zed "Balance, is a fools master"

InvalidGuest5 votes

Zed "Balance is a lie- We are the true ninjas!"

Pick Rate: seen approx. every 1 in 5 matches

Shen "Balance in all things!"

Pick rate: 1 in every 20 matches

OblongOtter1 votes

I thought Akali said that. Does Shen say it, too?

Nicktoons1 votes

They're all born in the same state and go to Kinkou Monastery. Except for kennen, he wasn't born there.

Source: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Ionia

Byrnes5 votes

Ashe Karma Lulu Sivir

And bans: Pantheon Fizz Warwick

While I agree with the Morgana ban, Pantheon's ability to solo Dragon*** at level 3 is extremely annoying.

Worgslarg3 votes

Umm, if you're level 3 when baron spawns, you have problems.

Byrnes2 votes

LOL OMG. I meant Dragon. This is what I get for commenting on things while in Champion Select.

SecretAgentHulk2 votes

Pantheon's ability to solo Dragon* at level 3 is extremely annoying.

There is good news for you on the PBE, my acquaintance.

Byrnes2 votes

I haven't even looked at the notes for this cycle yet...this is very good news!

LuckyReden2 votes

He can do it lvl 1 with attack speed runes.

Lights And Magic4 votes

I think most champions are balanced. There's generally a set of three categories each champion has two of: Tankiness, Utility, and Damage and almost every champion has outplay and weaknesses.

Bans: Akali Can lose hard laning phase, but the second she hits lvl 6, she instantly gets fed and carries, unless you blow all your cc on her in teamfights to shut her down. Warwick Until they fix the smite thing LeeSin Unfortunately it's hard to nerf lee sin because all of his strengths are part of his kit Leona 3 stuns obviously isn't an overloaded kit lemme tell you Yasuo Veigar Forces lane switches with your top laner because there's literally no way to counter them as an AP mid.

Bodkins Odds5 votes

Why do people keep saying that Leona has three stuns? She was two stuns, and one of them is her ult. Her E is a snare, you can attack and use spells if you get hit with her E, you just can't move or use dashes.

Anomander1 votes

She also has the worst scaling and lowest damage in the game unless a teammate procs her passive which counts as damage for the team mate not even Leona.

Sightless661 votes

Ok, three things. First, it's kind of funny to say "she has the lowest damage in the game unless you do that thing that gives her a ton of damage". Second, have you ever laned solo against a Leona? She can fuck someone up early. Triple auto hurts like hell. Third, massive initiation always scales well.

Anomander1 votes

Look at the base damage on her abilities. Riot made ther damage + the passive about the same as the base damage of most other champions. ( this assumes a teammate procing it every skill use)

I have played literally hundreds of games as Leona I have played her in every single role and just about every build you can imagine.

It is double auto's not triple if you want to get away clean. E in while in motion hit w to reduce any damage and to time it's damage. When you reach the location you should auto followed by a q auto reset as it stuns you walk away getting the w damage barely in range. This is a perfect exchange for a Leona top. You can get a third in while they are stunned however this keeps you in range foe their return damage

Sightless661 votes

When you reach the location you should auto followed by a q auto reset

That is what the triple auto refers to. Auto, Q, auto. 3, as opposed to most champions who can't get another autoattack off after an on-hit ability because their autoattack timer doesn't reset. You're not telling me anything I'm unaware of, you're just not calling it the same thing.

SexyTaylorSwift3 votes

Balanced: I actually think a lot of champions are pretty balanced. Strengths and weaknesses for most as well as there being solid counter picks.

Champions that I do not like at all because they are just not cool: Yasuo Warwick Tryndamere Pantheon (not once they fixed that level 2 solo dragon thingy) Riven Morgana (If they just fixed a few small things, she would be fine) Lucian MasterYi

Bans: Warwick Yasuo Urgot (Urgot never get any ban love, so I give him some ban love)

SecretAgentHulk2 votes

I actually think a lot of champions are pretty balanced. Strengths and weaknesses for most as well as there being solid counter picks.

Pretty much this. I main tanks, AP supports, and off-meta top mages (Teemo, Lissandra), and I'm not sure there's any one that's really O/UP. Even Teemo has a lot of counterplay; he just punishes the stupid really hard. Soraka might be the most OP but anyone with mobility counters her in my experience. Sona is maybe the closest to underpowered.

There's a special place of hatred in my heart for Ezreal though. I think I've been in maybe three games where an Ez ADC didn't suck.

Bans: Darius MasterYi Morgana

SexyTaylorSwift2 votes

Lol, I love playing Ez! I just like to play him because of his range, so I can still do damage if I have a really bad support. I don't like to play adc much, though, so I am a bit biased lol. I think there are some champs that are UP with the current meta, sure. But those usually come and go. One champ I think it really hit is Ashe. She is dead with the new meta.

I think people cry for OP when their main champ is countered by a popular pick. They then see that champ a lot and because they can't beat them, scream that they are OP.

SecretAgentHulk1 votes

I think, now that I know how to play Soraka, that I would have an easier time laning with him. Ashe is also pretty good in Bronze/Silver with a support that knows what they're doing. I Braum with a friend's Ashe a lot, and we're pretty much unstoppable.

I love how people complain about champs Fizz, Kalista, and Zed. They are not OP. You just don't know how to play against Fizz and Zed, and honestly, I'd rather lane against a Kalista than with one—she's too squishy and has no damage.

Remlap12233 votes

Janna JarvanIV Jinx Karma MasterYi Ryze Trundle Twitch

HeadHonchkrow8 votes

Hold it. RYZE?

Nicktoons1 votes

I say Twitch is underpowered, If he isn't fed and doesn't have at least 3 full items at 20-30minutes. He can't do anything.

Joe Dredd1 votes

no

DaCush3 votes

Jax is balanced imo.

Yoella3 votes

Anivia Anivia. She has a very low base speed, and thus has almost no mobility at all. No gap closing abilities either. She is extremely skillshot reliant with her Q, and it's a pretty slow projectile to boot. However she has a ton of CC, two slows and a stun, and a wall, if you can land her abilities that is. She's a champion who is powerful, but takes actual skill to be powerful with. She also has her egg passive, but often will die before it comes into play which actually lengthens her dead time.

In short she's a champion who rewards skill, and punishes a lack thereof. But is still not OP due to terrible mobility and tricky attacks. I mean, how many champions have an ability like her wall that can actually HARM your team and yourself?

HeadHonchkrow2 votes

Finaly, some love for Urgot!

I Solo Towers1 votes

Your list is bad, Cho and urgot are in an unplayable place. Urgot for a minute was at fp/fb status, then he got gutted (intentionally) to an unplayable place till he could be reworked. Riot came out and said his play pattern was toxic. Cho just got killed by power creep. They are both super UP.

I think sion is very balanced.

Matthevv3 votes

Are you challenger? No? Then cho is still playable. He may not be the best pick available but that is in part what makes him balanced.

I Solo Towers2 votes

Man if only you could look up stats by tier and see if what you said is true about cho.. Bronze 48% Silver: 48% Gold: 49% Plat: 47% Diamond: 47%

Well below 50% at every level. It's pretty stupid to enter a discussion about which champs are balanced and claim balance only makes a difference at challenger.

Matthevv5 votes

First off, you didn't even bother to mention what stats your percentages are so I am going to have to assume it means win rate.

Win rate from 3rd party sites is always inaccurate. Riot has stated this fact on multiple occasions, only they have the true win % of champions.

Secondly win rate is not what determines if a champion is balanced or not. Having a 50% win rate does not make a champion balanced. You do not even understand the subject with which we are discussing.

Also, 49% win rate in gold is unplayable? How do you figure that?

S H A Y C 01 votes

since when is 2-3% "well below" anything ever? They just about win 1 out of two games.... i believe this is the part where we all face palm

Terff2 votes

when you are basing it off of a large number of games 2-3% is a lot.

S H A Y C 02 votes

Yeah...i guess if you absolutely refuse to count the 47-8 entirely... lets do some monster math shall we?

test pool of 100,000 games

47-8% of 100,000 is 47,000 - 48k 3% is 3,000 2% is 2,000

while 2-3,000 is a lot in a vacuum...48k is still a much bigger number.

when the number of games gets higher the amount that a percent increases as you imply...but not just 3% you feel like looking at...the value of 47% and 48% increase respectively...thats why we made up the percentage system. 3=3 no matter how big the pool is....the value is still 3 and compared to the full 100 3 is still a relatively negligible number.

Terff1 votes

Yes, but the champion currently with the lowest win rate has about 43%, which is only 7% yet you probably wouldn't consider the lowest win rate to be a negligible number. I guess what I'm saying is, the range of winrates has a somewhat small window, so in that window 3% is a decent number

S H A Y C 01 votes

No i actually still think its pretty negligible, while those champions are obviously less powerful than the rest its is still 2/5 win rate, no it wont get you through promos, but who plays the same champ for 5 games in a row especially a weak out of meta pick during promos? That just sounds dumb. But a 1 off in a situation where say Cho'gath, the original topic...i think :-\ would shine you have a 2/5 chance to win in general, increased by skill and familiarity with the champ and increased again by putting Cho in a situation in which he even as weak as he may be, still has the advantage i would label him as viable still.

again with comparisons you say 43% is the lowest win rate? whats the highest? normally when dealing with percentage 0 is bottom and 100 is the high point, but in this case you say 43 is the bottom. whats the top then, lolking puts the top right now at 58%

so in a 5 game promo the lowest win rate should win 2/5 games, because there is no winning half a game. The same for a 5 game series for the highest win rate is what? 2.9/5? which in practicality is a 2 or 3 favoring the 3, because again there is no half game win. So the difference between the crappiest champ and the winningist champ is 1 game in a 5 game series. Yes 58% is better than 43% but that doesn't make them unplayable, that makes them situational, but you have to be really good with them

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