It really bugs me how many champions get shelved for later work

Big Lincoln·Feb 17, 2017·4 votes·512 views

Seems like the list of champions that Riot will 'have to look at later' just gets bigger and bigger. Some of them Riot won't leave alone

, i'm sure I've missed some

i won't lie and say that I'm unhappy that I never see some of these guys , but is it really necessary that each and every single one of them just gets brushed off to the side for later? Is it impossible to put some of them in a reasonable position of power with adjustments to what they have now? I'd really love to see more than the same handful of champions every game, even in normals.

I don't think I've ever seen so many champions just left in shitty spots or set up to be reworked in the future, and I definitely haven't seen the balance team doing so few balance changes around this time of the season before.

9 Comments

Brutalitops01Feb 17, 20173 votes

You apparently don't realize how few champion design/rework teams Riot has compared to the resources they have available. They have several new champion design teams, 2 VGU (visual and gameplay update, like the new Warwick rework) teams, the champion roster team (think the assassin updates), and the balance team. I know that they were originally planning on doing divers for midseason and Aatrox was going to be on that update, but now they've changed their mind to tanks and have confirmed that he will be getting the size update he would've gotten in the diver update before the tank update goes live.

Kalista and Azir, on the other hand, are the result of some of the last massively overloaded kits with insane skill floors that Riot put out. I'm gonna guess Aurelion Sol falls into this category, too. Champions with insanely high skill gaps, but if you can figure them out, they're busted. With all of them, something is gonna have to give. Kalista will be between Rend being Smite, but better, her insane kiting, and her ability to save her support from any bad situation. Azir will be between his DPS from long range and his Shurima Shuffle (personally, I would get rid of the Shuffle and ramp him up in ranged DPS). I'm not sure what Sol would have to pick and choose between for him to be able to exist and be strong, yet healthy at all levels of play.

Nidalee was the queen of the jungle for the entire last season, no matter how they nerfed her, but got kinda destroyed by the jungle updates and is in a state where it's incredibly frightening to put power back into her kit for the same reason as Kalista and Azir. If they put some power back in, it could either do nothing or make her busted again and it's near impossible to find that sweet spot.

As for the rest of them, I for the most part can't find much wrong with them. Morde and Shen are the 2 biggest problems, but I don't know how they could change them. Riot has said that they aren't happy with Shen's spirit blade mechanic, and it's probably going to be reworked in the future. Morde on the other hand needs a full VGU to fix the fuckery they put on him, and I don't know how that's going to work. Rek'Sai, Kog'Maw, Kindred, Malzahar, and Skarner are pretty fine right now, I feel. Skarner might be able to use a passive different from the crystals just because they kinda force him into the jungle, but they're still kinda cool and work decently well in my opinion. Otherwise, I feel like he's fine.

Big LincolnFeb 17, 20171 votes

and have confirmed that he will be getting the size update he would've gotten in the diver update before the tank update goes live.

can you link that for me? pleasantly surprised if this is the case.

as a tl;dr of the response to someone else

Azir Kalista Nidalee need to have some things taken out of their kits; they're really bloated with extraneous shit that manages to not look broken until someone masters them.

AurelionSol is sort of the same? He has a high skill curve but his kit really isn't that insane. I can't remember what Riot shelved him for.

Mordekaiser just needs small touch-ups and I'd probably start playing him again. W XP is unnecessary and I've no idea why they kept it at all.

Brutalitops01Feb 17, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Big Lincoln,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZqmBmd9A,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2017-02-17T03:20:15.405+0000)

can you link that for me? pleasantly surprised if this is the case.

as a tl;dr of the response to someone else

need to have some things taken out of their kits; they're really bloated with extraneous shit that manages to not look broken until someone masters them.

is sort of the same? He has a high skill curve but his kit really isn't that insane. I can't remember what Riot shelved him for.

just needs small touch-ups and I'd probably start playing him again. W XP is unnecessary and I've no idea why they kept it at all.

Since I'm on my phone and the website isn't the most mobile friendly, I won't be able to find the Aatrox stuff. However, Riot has started posting news updates on a page on the website called the Nexus and I remember one post with Aatrox in the title confirming that, if they do tanks instead of divers for midseason (this was before they decided), he would get his diver update before the midseason update.

Nidalee I kinda both agree and disagree with being busted in the right hands. She was like that in the old jungle, but now she has the lowest jungle win rate and has had this low win rate, barely above 40%, since the new jungle came out. Why is because she relied on the small minions at blue and red to take them by placing down several W traps and using them to mark all the camp's spawns to get targeted cougar W with reset rather than fixed range W with no reset. The new jungle removing those slowed her clear of the buff camps to a crawl, while the extra chickens and krugs give her trouble clearing those too by way of taking too much damage, and finally the keystone she would run, Strength of the Ages, which gave her the health she needed for larger fights and jungle clearing, was just the nail in the coffin for her. They're trying to buff her so that she can function in the new jungle without making her god-tier again (for example, I believe that she just got a buff that made her traps reveal as if they were full wards rather than a tiny area around them). I feel like she just needs to be repurposed for mid lane or support, both areas she has been meta in in the past, if she's going to continue to exist without a full rework. And I'm talking scrap the whole kit except maybe the cougar form and restart from scratch rework, not just a simple mini rework or roster update-sized rework, like Aatrox needs.

MordepoolFeb 17, 20173 votes

Mordekaiser has a delay on his E

GigglesOFeb 17, 20171 votes

Well Morde just saw play in the pros so I'm waiting for his nerfs.

Big LincolnFeb 17, 20171 votes

o shit, really? is there a vid up, i wanna see that

GigglesOFeb 17, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=Big Lincoln,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ZqmBmd9A,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2017-02-17T03:10:24.904+0000)

o shit, really? is there a vid up, i wanna see that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdgGnEiiiv8

It sounds like it was one of the most exciting games they've seen in awhile.

legionnaire99Feb 17, 20171 votes

Yes it is impossible for them to be in a ok power level Aatrox just unhealthy kit over all AurelionSol just his passive is busted but he still really strong when you main or Azir he going to be a god midland or trash RekSai not bad with a team of 4/5 Kindred I think it was a unhealthy kit Shen pro play... Skarner Mordekaiser read aarrox Kalista read azri but say adc KogMaw his kit doesn't really work with the way league is Nidalee broken or useless

Big LincolnFeb 17, 20171 votes

Mordekaiser really isn't that unhealthy, lol. all they rly need to do is cut out his XP passive and maybe delay his E. he has very clear counterplay in teamfights with his W and Q. He isn't GREAT design but he's far from the worst

KogMaw rework was fine until the balance team tinkered with it and made him busted. could have still been salvaged by reverting to that or by making on-hits apply at reduced effectiveness

Kindred there was a really nice thread I saw the other day offering an idea on how to give Kindred healthier sustain. I really, really hate Kindred but I think she can be salvaged

RekSai I do want reworked just because I hate playing her full tank and just being tremor sense + knockup. kind of boring kit too, her tremor sense and tunnels are the stuff that stand out, Q and E are snooze

Azir Kalista could be made better by trimming their kit and in Azir's case rebalancing his Q burst vs his W's DPS. I think Azir is salvageable; Kalista should definitely be redone though

Aatrox can't really speak for him, I've never played when he might actually be considered a good champion

still, you have to admit they are really slow at tackling the issues that they put up. it's been a very long time for some of these champs to just sit and wait; it seems like bad business to drive away potential players (and players = customers who buy their skins) with this sort of sluggishness.