My thoughts on the meta
Tl:dr Higher damage Fix suggestions: Change to nerf only patch cycle Nerf champion classes by patch Nerf to runes
Itemization, lethality is poorly designed and highly complained about. Fix Suggestions: Make lethality champions late game Revert Lethality to Armor Penetration
True Damage is unhealthy Gave points as to why I think it is unhealthy
Actual Post:
Hey guys, I often see posts about damage being too high in the game, not that I disagree. The issue with many of these posts is that they are often heavily biased, poorly written (not that this one will be well written), and poorly argued. These posts often conclude on the premise that x item or y champion is busted and needs nerfed, with some saying everything should be nerfed. In short, many of these posts fail to offer a viable solution or a path to help Riot to move forward.
Issue 1, virtually all champions can one shot with a lead. This is a hard thing to fix. As many people know, a straight nerf to everyone is a complex task. Doing this will heavily impact the meta. This could cause issues because a rapid change could alienate players. One possibility, shift to a nerf only patch cycle. This would mean that riot would start to gut super prevalent picks but not buff them when they become unviable. The issue is that this could leave many champions in the gutter for a long term period. Another option would be to go class by class with nerfs. This would take a multitude of patches but could be a faster fix, even though it would require a large amount of effort and resources. It would also be likely to induce a tank meta. If they do take this option, there would need to be a path to do so. I think for this, we would have to start with DPS classes then move towards burst. We also need a baseline to attempt to move these classes towards. We know that a DPS class should not one shot, almost ever. On the other hand, what makes the time to kill of these champions fair? But what about burst classes, when should they be able to one shot from when they have a lead? What is fair? 100-0, 75-0, 50-0, 33-0? Once we assign these baselines, we can start to adjust classes. I think the best route would be DPS Mages/ADC> Bruisers/Juggernauts> Tanks>Burst Mages>Assassins. Another option would be nerfing all runes, this is only problematic because it would effect every champion rapidly being insanely hard to balance.
Issue 2, itemization. People often complain about lethality. The issue is lethality contradicts the goals of champions that prefer it. This is why champions like Zed perform better in the late game rather than mid game. Lethality also allows for these champions to be itemized against too effectively. Often, stacking lethality and percentage penetration is the only way to effectively overcome an early armor start. This feels bad for both players. It stalls a heavily lost match up while lethality has to be able to eventually catch up to counter itemization. This also creates an issue of champion disparity along elos. Assassins can perform well at lower elo and terribly at higher (High Diamond+) elos. This is because higher elos are more willing to compromise their own damage to counter the enemy. Flat Penetration is an option, it can be itemized against. However, the 0/3 laner no longer shuts down the lethality user when they finally buy a seekers. It also allows it users to spike in their desired part of the game. Yes, people hated Flat Penetration, but I think it is a healthier overall design than lethality. Another option would be to make its users designed towards the later part of the game. Yes, I'm sure people complain about other items, this is just by far the most complained about in my opinion.
Issue 3, increasing availability of true damage. I personally believe this is unhealthy. If true damage is abundant, tanks have to become damage dealers or have extraordinary high health. This also invalidates a large number of defensive items. Additionally, if everyone does true damage and we have to raise tank health as a counter measure, tanks become too effective because they will counter all damage dealers, where as they are currently pressured to choose against armor or MR.
What is everyone else's thoughts? Sorry for the long post guys will do a tl;dr at the top.
