A note on balance philosophy [Balance]
Let me know if I'm way off base here, but I wanted to post a few thoughts on the current philosophy of balance in League of Legends. This is a long post. Heads up.
First, I've played a lot of games. Always been somewhat of a gamer. I've played most of the Blizzard games, dota at one point, magic online, etc. While we know that Riot says they don't want to play "whack-a-mole" with nerfs this is a prevailing aspect in every game with any unequal parts (in this case champions, but can apply to multiple races, cards, hero classes and so on).
What tends to happen is with so many players there is a constantly evolving meta which usually starts when someone notices one aspect of the game is particularly strong. They start winning a lot with that champion, create a meta, then a counter meta is created and the wheel turns. Sometimes it's not the champion that's overpowered, but the meta we find it in.
So, for example, in an assassin heavy meta if you have a champion who excels against assassins due to being very tanky or reflecting damage that champion will look seriously OP. The usual response is to promptly nerf said champion, because their win rate shoots up in the current meta. The issue of course, is that this "OP"ness only lasts as long as the current meta is favorable, and as soon as assassins for example aren't popular anymore this counter champion goes back to being regular run of the mill. Except when it becomes unpopular again it stays that way with extra nerfs applied.
When these kind of nerfs are flung around it makes certain champions much less playable. It seems to be a strategy to drop a champion to it's lowest power level where it is still functional, but not able to pull off the kind of plays it used to. In other words, good enough to pick up kills, but not take over a game. This is fine, in theory, but it also means that people just keep on gravitating to whatever stays more consistent. If you nerf the potentially strongest champion, people move on to the next one while that old champion stays under-powered for months to years at a time.
What does this mean for league? I'll start by saying some champions definitely are NOT balanced out in this game (and a completely balanced game becomes stagnant rather quickly). I don't mean OP, but that some champions are clearly easier to use and more consistent and several are obvious bottom of the barrel picks. I hope Riot will pick up on this and fix those champions (hi Urgot, and Zac), but I want to talk about the reasoning behind nerfs here.
Recently, Warwick has been nerfed several times. Yes, WW was overpowered during the introduction of skirmishers saber. Some point to the devourer enchantment, but feral flare was still around in S4 and often in use. This was the meta though and not the champion who had been very under-powered in previous patches and almost completely unpicked. He's also countered by a lot of the most popular junglers. So, fine he was overpowered and they nerfed the saber. Then they went right on to nerf WW multiple times. His ultimate damage has been severely dropped, and the cooldown on it increased multiple times, and his W doesn't last as long. Ok... great so he's not OP anymore, but he's not really as playable now (I mean he can still win but will be much less consistent) and the item that made him OP isn't the same anymore.
This has also been true of several other champions. This is not a QQ buff Warwick or against Riot post. It happened to Shyvana, Rengar, Aatrox, and several others. The point here is that champions shouldn't be nerfed into the ground in case they **might **be OP, but just let more champions be strong all at once and have players create the meta. Let Shyvana be strong with her fire shield, let Rengar get off more power with his Q, and all that. It gives the players more options. More options creates a healthier meta. It's ok if some things are "OP" in the current meta. It's only a problem when the character itself is ridiculously OP for some reason (and lets face it some were like that and stayed that way anyways for the whole s4).
TL;DR: Let more champions be strong. Give us, the players, more options to enable a changing and evolving meta. The best thing you can do for players is let them have fun playing what they like the best. Don't get scared into swinging the nerf bat just because something might get to be too strong.
