An evaluation of current game balance.

I haven't gotten a response, but I applied for a riot QA job, and am pretty sure I'll be turned down. In the meantime, I'd like to discuss current champion balance and my understanding of it, and get your feedback, so in the future I might be able to be considered competent in game design.

Qualifications to pretend to understand balance: Season 3,4 : medium to high D1. Season 5: Diamond 2. Team captain for successful collegiate team in ivylol and CSL.

Changes to characters that may be a little too strong right now, by the numbers or kitwise. : Personally, to give her a weakness I would remove the movement speed on her Q. Recent changes have continously removed ahri's innate weaknesses, until none have remained. She now has good waveclear, good sustain(mana and hp), assassination potential, and safety in lane. These were changes that all didn't impact ahri much on their own, but together leave her no weakness in lane and thus a top pick in the current meta. The free ghost was a change meant to help ahri get over her reliance on dfg, when alternate builds were already viable on ahri.

+0.25 seconds casting time on tibbers, this could allow an animation of either tibbers dropping, or ripping up out through the ground, or even annie throwing her teddy bear, which would be nice for all the people who enjoy things making more sense than suddenly a bear appearing. Think Brand W for animation time. I love that she is a lane dominant mage. It can be extremely painful to lane against her but truthfully, just looking at damage output, support karma does more. Her real power comes from her passive, and the instant cast tibbers. This interaction would be where I choose to shift power from annie.

: Reduce damage on W. W deals a good portion of Vi's damage, so either reducing its damage or ease to proc would be a good way to reduce Vi's power without ruining the champion.

This Champion is meta-dependent in my eyes. When lockdown is needed for extremely mobile champions, as it is now, Vi is locked in. That isn't saying she isn't strong, or too strong right now, just that the meta was very ripe for her comeback. The biggest problem I can see in the kit is the lack of reaction available after an ult. A vi can easily combo her ult, into a short knockup from her q. An opponent can flash during this duration, but in diamond 2 at least, no one ever does and the combo works allowing a huge amount of damage for almost no cost.

Lissandra: Possible changes +cooldown of frozen tomb - Scaling of Q

Once again the meta is right for single target lockdown abilities, this is the main reason Lissandra is picked. I can't think of an appropriate change for this champion, because almost all of its power is in setting up a claw into frozen tomb initiation combo. : either Rework, Remove human form E or Add mana costs to cat form abilities, lower human form mana costs.

If you ask most solo queuers, nidalee will be one of the champions they state is just annoying to play against. Personally I think she requires a full rework that removes her heal. Nidalee has a fully functioning kit that allows her to do significant amounts of damage from both afar and melee range. This is fine, but also having large amounts of sustain really makes this champion frustrating to play against. This is most likely the most powerful heal in the game, as it is the only one that really scales with ap well, and its on a champion that does not need it. Cat form mana costs would allow nidalee to be caught if she is out of mana, and I think thats a viable change.

: Rend Caps at smite damage. This cap scales with level just like smite.

Kalista will probably deserve more nerfs as people get more skilled with her but in the short term, junglers should at least have a slight chance to outsmite a kalista. I feel like this change should apply to all units, not just jungle monsters, for simplicity as well as minimally affecting kalistas damage. 8 spears at level one for reference. Kalista will be absolutely huge if the meta ever shifts away from Vi, lissandra, ahri, lockdown.team. This champion is countered by long range burst. This is why graves is so good against her, e in, q auto r, before she can use her passive to flash away, and she is dead. Kalista is sitting at a 49% winrate in solo queue, and all but the best kalistas still aren't skilled with her. When I support a kalista in teamfights they always forget to ult. This champion will almost definitely increase in winrate as people get more skilled with her.

: Decrease Q range by 50 or 100

Zed is a great assasin with high mobility and high damage. however, especially in the earlygame his poke rivals those of dedicated poke mages. Its frustrating to have lesser range than an assassin in the earlygame. Some people might say he isn't very strong right now, but he crops up in professional play every once in a while and always dominates the pace of the game.

Champions that might need a little bit of love.

: Bloblets no longer hate zac. This is the simplest change to zac I can think of and probably would make him at least viable in the toplane again. I can't tell you how many times I use an ability as zac only for my bloblets to fly halfway across the lane directly towards my opponents turret. This was changed because on release the bloblets stayed right next to zac, but I believe a happy medium would put zac in a healthy spot.

: Complete rework

Lower Range of Neurotoxin from 625-575 increase AP scaling from 3% to 3.5% Increase ap ratio of Venomous bite to 3.5% Nerf Range of repel Add Functionality, everyone in rappel range is slowed. Leaves web on ground for increased readability. Remove Dark Fervor heal

Elise is fun to play as, absolutely miserable to play against. She has every single thing you would want in a kit, except a knockup for yasuo synergy. Sustain, poke, execute, invulnerability, CC. The first step I would take is removing parts of her kit that really aren't essential.

These changes give her clear weaknesses, poor sustain and low range. Her play pattern becomes more focused on whether a stun hits. This champion has proven to be extremely hard to balance, as a good elise is still really strong right now, so I'd like to see how the changes affect her playstyle before significantly buffing her.

MY MAIN MAN . Missile Lock? more like missile uh bounce. - Urgod no longer locks on to enemies affected by noxian corrosive charge. :( - When Acid Hunter hits an enemy unit it checks whether a unit hit by noxian corrosive charge is within x units, and if detected bounces to that unit. prioritizes champions. -Terror capacitor shield strength scales with maximum mana.

URGOD has been held back by his relatively oppressive and easy playstyle. If E hits, you get sent 300 miles behind your turret or you die. Now urgod has to try a little bit to burn the peasants, but he gets to be unkillable with his 6 muramana build.

My Opinion on recent changes that some in the community are livid about.

Warrior enchant nerf: Its 5 ad... most champions wont even notice the nerf, It is probably still the best jungle enchant just due to the fact that the jungle favors ad bruisers. This doesn't affect the viability of junglers in any way whatsoever. Lee sin will still invade Nautilus at level 2 and murder him instantly. Vi will still have a quicker clear than zac. Jungle diversity is dependent entirely on a champions 1-6, before they get a jungle item.

Dj Kassawin rifthopper: Most of the changes I made to the champions that were weak right now were nerfs, and people were probably mad about that, but sometimes a kit needs to be nerfed, and then number brought up to make up for this. Kassadin is the god of mobility, and mobility is the best stat in league of legends. He needed the nerf to riftwalk, and is still probably viable. You: But Nidalee is better at being mobile. Me: thats true, but that champion isn't in a good spot right now anyway. If 5 champions are op, its better to balance 1 of them than none of them.

Edit: As an aside, some of you mentioned that you think Skillshot champions should be more rewarding than targeted champions. This is where I personally think that untargetability should come into play. Untargetability should be just that, targeted skills cant hit, or cant target the unit. Brand Q for example, should hit Fizz on top of playful trickster, while his E, or annies Q should not. This would incentivize skillshots, as well as decrease the frustrating aspects of things like rappel and playful/trickster.