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Instead of Nerfing Everything, How About Buffing Things For a Change?

TheSilentBang··2 votes·459 views

I've been playing League of Legends for three seasons already. One of the things that has remained a constant from Riot regarding game play, strategy, items, champions, summoner spells, synergy, etc., is that if something is strong, they nerf it to make it "balanced." Every single champion was stronger, significantly so, in the past. Lucian, Elise, Hecarim, Irelia, Rengar, Kha' Zix, Cho' Gath, Volibear, Vayne, Tristana, Ezreal, Jax, Master Yi, etc. Literally every champion in the game has a received a nerf regarding their dominating presence in League of Legends. While balance is a worthy and reasonable goal the game developers have, the mentality that goes along with it needs to be changed.

A typical responses from Riot is if something is stronger than its relative counterparts, it needs a nerf. Why? If Lucian's early game harass is strong making for little counter play, why not buff the champions that have this weakness? Create or tweak an item to offer counter play? Alter features surrounding the laning phase to make really aggressive lane bully more of a strategic decision rather than a constant no cost/risk element? The point is, strong does not mean it needs to be beat to death with the nerf stick. It might mean other champions are so shitty in terms of power and presence because of your nerfs that they can no longer play in the current style. It might also mean that certain champions are weaker that others, (counter) and is there really anything wrong with that? If something in the game exists that legitimately has less, or no counter play, then yes, something needs to change about it. Creating a counter play does not have to mean reducing or removing the eliminate that makes a particular champion, item, strategy, etc. strong.

With the new changes being made in season five, some seem ridiculous while others seem reasonable expansions to strategy and decision making. Shields to in turrets is only useful against poke comps, so those took a direct nerf. I literally see no other thing that a shield granting inner turret accomplishes other than nerfing the poke focused team composition. You are completely re-doing the jungle items. Great! This is a change that isn't ridiculous. It's true, certain items in the game are rather ridiculously strong and sometimes, the items for junglers don't really match well with certain champions. Changing jungle items and making new ones to accommodate (buff) other champions makes sense and offers greater champion diversity and strategic decision making. Even altering the buff spawn timers in Season 3 made sense since it made certain lanes stronger simply because of which side of the map they were on. This was clearly unbalanced, but was this the best fix? Creating a new jungle camp to even out this aspect of the game might have been equally as viable, and possibly even more rewarding.

The point of this length post is to offer a different perspective on the CONTINUOS nerfs we are seeing on LITERALLY EVERY ASPECT OF THE GAME! How about a series of buffs for a change? They are equally as powerful and, I would argue, more rewarding for players if you do. If you have opinions on this, or perhaps another suggestion all together, I would love to hear about it.

9 Comments

Quepha3 votes

"this one champion is kinda strong" "ok, draw up 120 buffs for the other champions to bring them up to that champion's level, we'll start testing them tomorrow"

TheSilentBang1 votes

"this one champion is kinda strong" "ok, draw up 120 buffs for the other champions to bring them up to that champion's level, we'll start testing them tomorrow"

I realize that having them buff every single other champion is riduclous and immpossible, but that is not what I am asking for. A generally applibalce alteration, like creating an item, or individualized buffs to the most prominently effected champions is neither unreasonable or immpossible. For the Lucian too strong example, how about strengthening certain runes (armor) or changing weak laning phase champions (vayne)?

Quepha2 votes

For the Lucian too strong example, how about strengthening certain runes (armor) or changing weak laning phase champions (vayne)?

you think it's wise to make a "buff" that makes ALL AD champs weaker? or making unique, individualized buffs for ALL weak lane phase champs?

TheSilentBang1 votes

For the Lucian too strong example, how about strengthening certain runes (armor) or changing weak laning phase champions (vayne)?

you think it's wise to make a "buff" that makes ALL AD champs weaker? or making unique, individualized buffs for ALL weak lane phase champs?

I'd say better than the current model. Is it wise to weaken only one champion because of their relative strength? There is a reason why some champions are hardly played, if at all. Some champions have fallen completely out of favor because of their nerfs leaving only a few viable options that aren't too weak. That does not seem healthy for a game with an enourmous champion pool. Also, complete balance is unatainable, but I think buffs and real-time stategy gameplay focuses are better than individualized nerfs.

Dolyna3 votes

You can't just keep buffing everything. You'd end up with a ridiculous upwards power creep. It would unbalance minions, turrets, etc, and require buffs for them too. It's far easier to make a couple key nerfs than buff everything else.

But the devs aren't just nerfing things here and there, they're also buffing things here and there. Buffs and nerfs go hand in hand in games like this, in order to try to maintain an overall balance. So I voted "other".

TheSilentBang1 votes

You can't just keep buffing everything. You'd end up with a ridiculous upwards power creep. It would unbalance minions, turrets, etc, and require buffs for them too. It's far easier to make a couple key nerfs than buff everything else.

But the devs aren't just nerfing things here and there, they're also buffing things here and there. Buffs and nerfs go hand in hand in games like this, in order to try to maintain an overall balance. So I voted "other".

The problem is, it is overwhelmingly nerfs. Of all the changes made in the game, I'd venture to say 90% have been nerfs. Easier? Yea. True. Better? I argue its not. What has happened is a "downward power creep" to borrow your terminology. This has done the exact same thing in reverse. A nerf to one champion makes another stronger, who also eventually needs a nerf. It does the exact same thing you argue buffing a champ does, only the outcome is continuously weaker champions.

Matthias91191 votes

Indeed, Riot has even written about how such "whack-a-mole" balancing causes issues and they try to avoid it.

Typically situations like that are indicative of larger balance issues, like an entire class of champions being too strong. In cases like that you either need to nerf/buff a whole bunch of champions at once, or address the underlying issues by making changes to itemization or gameplay systems.

For instance, certain junglers are waaaaaay better than others right now, at least at high skill levels and in organized play. Rather than swinging the nerf bat wildly, they're revamping the entire jungle for S5 in an attempt to fix the underlying reasons that certain junglers are too strong in the metagame.

TheSilentBang1 votes

Indeed, Riot has even written about how such "whack-a-mole" balancing causes issues and they try to avoid it.

Typically situations like that are indicative of larger balance issues, like an entire class of champions being too strong. In cases like that you either need to nerf/buff a whole bunch of champions at once, or address the underlying issues by making changes to itemization or gameplay systems.

For instance, certain junglers are waaaaaay better than others right now, at least at high skill levels and in organized play. Rather than swinging the nerf bat wildly, they're revamping the entire jungle for S5 in an attempt to fix the underlying reasons that certain junglers are too strong in the metagame.

Exactly. The jungle changes attack the core issue rather than specific champsions. The new items and jungle features, at least as I've played them in the PBE, are a better balance than the "Nerf Lee-Sin, Kha'Zix, Rengar, Elise" changes they made earlier. Only played the Dragon, Baron, and mini river creep changes so far so IDK how everything else works out.

Hayaishi2 votes

Because that makes the game counterpick based and riot doesnt want that.

Buffing everything is the lazy balance.

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