[{quoted}](name=Thee Pie Man,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=cdV3iQgR,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2018-04-12T10:35:38.205+0000)
I think Riot is trying to make items see more worth the purchases versus how other games play off items as just additions that fill a role. The balances around champions, the damage ups and the less health make decisions more crucial and makes the mentality to just go in every chance you get less appealing. You should be thinking about your engages, actively looking at the map and weighing potential risks. This along with what I mentioned earlier allows you to evolve and gain experience at a faster pace without actually changing the game length with more things being lengthened to the long game, with power spikes being slowly removed from my viewpoint.
I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. I've played this game since Season one on and off, so I feel like my opinion has a little weight behind it when I say we should wait and see where this leads us. People are talking about the snowball mentality that's going on- and how it seemingly is to increase the dramatic factors in games LCS and what not, but I do not think that is the case at all. I believe the game is just trying to stabilize and we should give it a bit more time to do so before we start hunting Riot and their balance team for changes that may be necessary to make the game more fun again.
Finally a constructive post! I see what you mean by that because you have to play smart and not start brawling every chance you get, gearing the game toward a more punishing gamestyle that is gonna make it harder to braindead play the game is does seem likely, Hell it even it's even a good argument for the rise in game. Don't get me wrong, I still want damage to be lowered but I still respect a good counter argument when I see one.
However I do think that certain factors need to be adjusted in order the game to be tuned so they are longer if damage is lowered towers and long term impacts should be considered in order for that to happen, also having a standard for the amount of deaths should happen in order for the game to revolve around a high damage meta so you at least can see when "the water is gonna burst through the glass ceiling."