Boards›Gameplay

What is the most horrible theme-to-gameplay execution?

SaltyToplaneGoat··51 votes·5,418 views

Although recent champs have been a lot better in that regard, some of the older ones appear somewhat... stupid. Even more than usually.

I'll make the start here.

Let's just look at Warwick, no? Ok, I am a horrible werwolf, slowly losing my sanity as the bloodlust rushes throug my veins... And my Q is the bitch-slap of health-sap?

Ohhhkay... So, What else can I do? I can howl. Oh, well right, I'm a wolf, so I can howl... what a waste for an ability slot. Oh, wait, THAT ability sounds cool. Now I can trace my enemies... while giving them a 5000 distance advance notice "yo I can see you now" - aaaand while not doing any real "tracing"-like stuff like following some kind of tracks. Not really convincing.

But at least I still have my ultimate. And the strongest and most powerful skill of a murderous beast of the forrest is... teleportation followed by sexual harassment? I'm... not exactly sure how that goes along with the theme... The Werewolf suddenly develops magical teleportation powers to grope the target from head to toe, hoping it dies from embarassment? No offence, but that's pretty much how it looks like.

So, what champs do you find absolutely horrible to play from that perspective? I'm curious ^^ (And I'm expecting a lot of rework candidates in that thread...)

162 Comments

Keevalroy84 votes

Malevolent spirit of vengeance using tortured souls to help hunt down betrayers.

Kalista "Lol I'm a kangaroo! _boing boing boing boing boing boing boing _ Outplayed scrub. Highlight reel pls."

mtman31815 votes

"Hop, skip, jump!"

ChaosThief2 votes

an enemy has been slain!

Wheatloaf5 votes

I mean, you can't escape vengeance, amirite?

terkmc6 votes

But Vengeance sure as fuck escape you Backward hop intensify

Ralantha2 votes

{quoted}

Malevolent spirit of vengeance using tortured souls to help hunt down betrayers.

Kalista "Lol I'm a kangaroo! _boing boing boing boing boing boing boing _ Outplayed scrub. Highlight reel pls."

hahah oh god. I spewed soda out of my nose ; ;

ModCaptainMårvelous47 votes

Shen "I'm the stealthy ninja assassin who maintains balance in the land of Ionia." Akali "So you're like me and stick to the shadows, kill important targets an-" Shen "Aahah fuck that I shoulder tackle fuckers and teleport to people with a giant screaming purple shield." Akali "Too much Naruto?" Shen "I don't feel like a ninja unless I'm screaming."

Sachabot21 votes

I want that last line on a shirt or something.

Schenix8 votes

Shen is literally the opposite of a Ninja lol

He shows up and just throws himself at the enemy first.

SIGMAS6 votes

He's kind of like a ninja bodyguard, "he appears from the shadows to save your ass, then dissapears into them again" In other words he split pushes, pops up for a team fight then he summoner 12 back to a lane for more splitpushing.

The Whamboozler42 votes

The worst champion in this regard is definitely Tryndamere . His lore and character suggests a fierce fighter who dives in regardless of the odds because he has no fear or reason when he's raging.

What he's usually used for? Avoiding 90% of the game's fights and slapping around helpless towers. Trynd should be in the thick of things screaming for blood, but instead he's pretty much the token splitpusher and backdoor champ. He plays very cowardly. In fact, half the time I see Tryndamere ult it's to save him while he's RUNNING AWAY. Unless the point was to make a champion who talks a great game but is actually a complete wuss, they kinda dropped the ball on that one.

SaltyToplaneGoat4 votes

Let's not forget about the fact that IF he's fighting someone it's pretty much crit roulette. Not brute force or fierence fighting, but simple LUCK deciding the fight... I'm not sure, but I don't think "luck" is a thing that should decide Tryndramere's theme...

FrozenMistninja6 votes

when you have 80% crit chance +, its hardly luck anymore :P

67chrome30 votes

Originally I thought you were giving WW a hard time, then I remembered his animations are really wonky and he's got blue fur and a banana suit. Guess he's trying to stick it to Soraka.

As for bad theme to gameplay? Yorick is not great. His abilities promise a really cool Necromancer feel. Or evil cleric, death-knight, something of that nature. His skills are named after the 4 horseman of the apocalypse and he's in a heavy-metal band, which is rad.

But in practice? His minions disintegrate in a matter of seconds. He doesn't feel like much of a necromancer. He doesn't feel like a minion-based champion or a summoner. Or a bad-ass.

His actual gameplay really sucks. Win lane, loose game. Lots of invisible power on his skills that allow him to dominate in lane, but they never really feel like they're worth the intense mana costs. Then late-game comes and his summons are pretty much useless, his only real contribution is allowing one of his team-mates a few extra seconds to live if they died.

The act of summoning his ghouls feels really off as well. Yorick's got this big shovel he supposedly digs graves with - but does he unearth ghouls? Nope. Does he even turn slain minions into ghouls? Nope. His shovel glows or he just sort of motions in a direction and a rapidly-decaying zombie appears out of thin air. His Famine summon is particularly bad. He just kind of...humps the air.

Anyways - Yorick mostly seems like an example of how not to make a zookeeper champion. Especially when compared to: Azir While Azir feels fairly clunky to play, his overall aesthetic is just really awesome for a summoner. His minions feel like minions, he feels like a commander, his kit feels like it's all about commanding minions. Summoning his minions from sand makes enough sense to buy into it and feel cool, and their appearance and weightlessness feels right for their in-game mechanical purposes.

SaltyToplaneGoat11 votes

Yorick is another case of massively wasted potential.

You have the entire zombie-horror-genre to pick from (apart from Sion's theme), and yet the result is... this?

I mean, you could have him interact with fallen teammates, reanimating their corpses, so they don't need to wait for a respawn and have some bonuses until they die again. A horde of skeletons breaking through the ground would be another thing.

Especially compared to Azir his theme as a minion-master is extremly flawed. They should focus more on the Gravedigger theme, that opens a few more possibilities apart from 3 crappy ghuls and hitting people with a shovel...

Mecha MaIphite30 votes

KogMaw Lore talks about him eating stuff, but in the game he just spits and barfs on people from a mile away.

SaltyToplaneGoat8 votes

He should at least be able to eat minions - and spit them back out! That could be a good addition to this Q...

Mecar19 votes

Aatrox.

SaltyToplaneGoat3 votes

Ohhh don't get me started on that one - although most of his thematic problems are caused by the ultimate. Who cares about that you can make your sword bigger? Size doesn't matter if your actual theme is turning an army of mortals into an undying murder machine!

His ult should be something like: After activation allied champions that would die around Aatrox do not die, go in temporary stasis, get some HP and can keep fighting again. This draws a part of Aatrox Blood Well and cannot affect one champion more than once every X seconds.

I'm pretty sure that's balanceable...

Vistha Kai7 votes

Or give him somewhat reworked pre-relaunch Sion's ult.

Also fits the theme.

LaceUp234 votes

Size doesn't matter

That's not what she said.

Abyssphere13 votes

{quoted}

Aatrox.

Funny thing about Aatrox is that they missed the mark so much with his gameplay that they can never actually make him fit his theme because he'll be a completely different kind of champion if they do.

It's basically as if they had released Bard... and he was an assassin.

B3ER19 votes

For me it is Elise. She's the Spider Queen yet she has no control over her spiders what so ever. Volatile Spiderling was supposed to make this work but in the end it's just a goddamn sapling. Her Cocoon is a boring stun when instead she could be setting up patches of cobweb. Her Neurotoxin does nothing to mess with the neurons, and her Venomous Bite doesn't envenom you. Frenzy is another boring filler that only helps in the jungle.

In the end, the only thing she does well is her Rappel. So much wasted potential on this Champion.

Meeks0119 votes

I bought Elise purely for her theme, but her abilities suck.

My suggestion for her E is to let her set up strings of web on a charge system. They are invisible to enemies and slow upon contact. If they run through multiple strands then the slow stacks. After running through three they are stunned. When running through strands Elise gains a speed boost.

One of Elise's quotes is "only the spider is safe in her web" but she has no fucking web.

Draven Always17 votes

Draven not enough draven Draven

SaltyToplaneGoat23 votes

Indeed ^^

1000angrybees13 votes

Definitely not the worst theme, but Leblanc just pisses me off in terms of her whole design. Her look is garbage. Her kit is ridiculous. her kit doesnt wholly fit her theme (I'd say only her passive and distortion at least somewhat fit the theme, everything else is kind of ??? especially her ult, which is just copycat and not deceptive). Her look doesnt support her theme, or interest me in the slightest. What the hell is that anyway? A cape with.... i dont even know what to call what she's wearing. It looks like a bunch of belts and straps with half a pantleg. Easily the worst designed female champ there is. She's just a mixed bag of 'I'm an evil magician' and she needs help.

Stellafreyja13 votes

Evelynn What is her theme exactly? Her kit fits an assassin though, they got that right. Leblanc I mostly just hate her look. But she needs a slight rework to fit her theme. Syndra She's supposed to be nigh-omnipotent, but just doesn't get the job done... Elise My favorite...I love her theme but her gameplay doesn't really fit. She should focus on snaring and executing. Caitlyn Her gameplay is fine, but her theme is terrible. She doesn't scream sheriff at all and I'm really hoping they revamp her look.

TheI3igDaddy2 votes

Eve's supposed to be a shadowy assassin with her passive, though her lore really is dumb. "Oooh nobody knows where this mysterious killer came from"

Which of course is what everyone thinks when she completely ignores your fucking wards during ganks.

Sugar Mantis13 votes

Shen Im a tank. Akali Youre a ninja. Shen No, Im a tank. Kennen Dude, youre a ninja. Shen ... Shen Im a tank.

TotalJerk12 votes

You know, there were ninja who's role in the squad was to be a giant distraction while the others did business. Thematically, that's probably Shen's job.

SpecterVonBaren9 votes

It does make me think about how there are also champs that fit their theme fantastically like Lulu and Veigar

Lulu is the Fae Sorceress, her w and ult fit with this from a visual standpoint very well, turning someone into a small creature or making someone giant, but her gameplay is also very fitting in how her basic abilities work differently depending on if she uses them on an enemy or an ally, much like how fairies and the like are traditionally just as likely to maim you as help you.

Veigar is one of the best examples thematically that's also a very old champ. He spends most of the game being this squishy, easily killed fuzzball in a hat, but if you underestimate him then he'll grow in power and destroy you in a second.

Sachabot8 votes

Teemo Teemo is supposed to be a scout and an assassin, and he's played like a fool with a magical blowgun despite having no magical abilities. I mean, the ideas behind his skills sorta make sense? But I feel like if he were made around the time of Rengar's release he'd be a lot more.....sensible.

Swain Swain, the master tactician, requires no real advanced thinking or planning.

Shen Kennen Despite being ninjas, neither is sneaky.

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

The theme of a "stealth/sneaky tank" is almost contradictionary by itself. It can be done, but not how shen's abilities are set right now. Kennen is more like an "fuck being sneaky, I go full pikachu now". Not really ninja, indeed.

Teemo on the other hand could be some kind of trapper. Shift to focus from his blowgun to remote controlled traps (he has to activate them whil being close) and suddenly the theme actually makes sense...

Vistha Kai3 votes

Kennen is a guy.

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

Did I ever state that he is not? O_o

Vistha Kai2 votes

You said "she's".

First of all it should be "hers". Secondly, Kennen is male (I know his voice is crap, but still)

SaltyToplaneGoat2 votes

That was a typo, I was writing Shen and forgot the last letter ^^

67chrome8 votes

I always got from Teemo that he was kind of a David vs. Goliath character, small and weak but uses cunning and tactics to take out stronger foes.

Which plays out Really strongly in-game. His win-condition is completely about hit-and-run tactics, outsmarting stronger, faster, and bigger foes by baiting them into traps, catching them off-guard. Teemo is incapable of straight-up overpowering probably 90% of LoL's roster.

Reaaally irritating when fighting against him. But then again - half the fun of playing midget/quirky characters is to annoy the crap out people. Especially the alpha-gorilla/bull/ram players trying to overpower their opponents with raw testosterone. Nothing quite like cutting down the "I have the biggest sword" guy by showing them size doesn't mean everything.

I'd say Teemo doesn't have any issues in terms of theme to gameplay. His aesthetic is really strong, which is supported by how iconic he is to LoL.

It's a stealth-fantasy aesthetic rather than power-fantasty aesthetic in a power-fantasy game where the goal is to be stronger, bigger, and mightier than your foes, even for most assassins.

His issue is more his theme-driven gameplay is so irritating to play against he cannot be allowed the stats to be competitively viable.

As for bad theme/gameplay - not sure why you'd use Rengar for a benchmark. Release Rengar seemed like Riot testing to see if the bulk of what makes Trynd, Evelynn, Yi, Katarina, Shaco, Leblanc really irritating would work. Manaless, stealth, insta-gib potential, double-spam the same damage skill for a massive level 9 spike, so awful at team-fights he split-pushed 24/7. Pretty much the epitome of what everyone hates about melee carries and assassins, and more over the glaring issues that make several melee champions nonviable competitively.

While a lot of release champions are a solid step forward from where LoL started, Rengar was reaaaally depressing to see on release. Especially as a player that likes playing assassin and melee carry champions. It was kind of like seeing Riot come out and say "If we rework Fiora, Yi, or Trynd right now - they're going to be more annoying to play against, less fun to play, and even less competitively viable".

Totally agree with Swain and the Ninja's though.

But to be fair with Ninjas - if they did play into the stealth fantasy, they'd "probably" be closer to Teemo in their fun-vampiric prowess. Really weird overall aesthetic and gameplay for them nonetheless.

thePandev6 votes

Are we all forgetting that Brand doesn't lose health walking through the River?

SaltyToplaneGoat1 votes

Well brand is an elemental spirit posessing a human vessel, so a little shallow water should not be able to kill him instantly. A nami Ultimate on the other hand...

Stiv12348 votes

You are aware Nami can heal him by throwing some water at him?

OperationDEEZ14 votes

Brand Can die to ignite c:

SaltyToplaneGoat3 votes

Well, fighting fire with fire, no? ^^

On a more serious note: brand's passive applies to burning targets. He's burning all the time. Why do his spells not affect himself somehow? THAT'S something one should consider for a Brand rework. You are supposed TO BE THE GOD DAMN INFERNO. Not random fire mage #785463 <_<

Remlap12234 votes

Ahri (after the damage amplification on her E was removed)

Blitzcrank (A steam golem that shoots electricity? Really?)

Cassiopeia (Sorry, sorry, I'll call off the angry mob)

Corki (He's a fighter pilot that's slow and does magic damage and has primarily AP sclings? OOOK)

Evelynn (Don't get me started.)

Irelia (She's supposedly this interesting swordmaster, but she's basically just a weird hybrid of Fiora, Jax, and an ADC)

Kalista (A relentless spirit of vengeance, that is hypermobile and uses her bunny hop to run away from chasing enemies. K)

Mordekaiser (A master of metal that just whacks his enemies to death with his mace and puts a curse on them. OOOK)

Quinn (A duo that's supposedly has a bond greater than blood, and doesn't interact with each other outside of harrier and skystrike.)

Shen (A ninja that is slow and specializes in extended duels and sustain. K)

Sona (A music based champion without auras. Thanks Riot)

Swain (A master general that morphs into a gigantic bird creature and charges in headstrong. K)

Taric (A gem knight that does nothing with Geomancy)

Tryndamere (An extremely angry king that wants vengeance by running away from fights and split pushing all game)

XinZhao (A former gladiator that supposedly almost took on 400 dudes that specializes in killing one person and swatting away tanks. K)

Zilean (A time mage who's theme was better implemented on Ekko)

SaltyToplaneGoat6 votes

KIinda glad someone brought up Cass. Here theme was wonky before the rework at best, and after that it's just a complete fuck-up. I mean where in here lore is "snake-fang-minigun"? It just doesn't make sense...

Qarekeo9 votes

Tryndamere, in the lore, is extremely angry. In-game, he makes everyone else angry.

McAllister4 votes

Swain

Tactics? Plots? Noxus? No, let's just go with turning into a giant bird with Edgar Allen Poe puns and be a mage. For crying out loud, the guy's theme should revolve around his teammates, but he has the least team-reliant kit imaginable.

HighKingOfSkyrim3 votes

Great thread!

I agree on Warwick and Yorick. Their kits and the visuals of the abilities really are boring and kinda silly, if you consider the theme.

I will throw in a small one for starters: Singed doesnt actually 'drink' his insanity potion. Also the fling doesnt seem to make that much sense. I still love that champions kit. But why does a mad chemist throw people over his shoulder... Also his legs and bodys looks so fragile... why is he a tank then.

Why does Jinx have a stun gun and not the police Caitlyn ?

windwolf7773 votes

Because cops don't get in trouble when shooting somebody lethally

More from Gameplay

3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay764 comments
7,167
votes
3 Refunds per season, upvote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay156 comments
3,510
votes
UPVOTE FOR URF
Gameplay606 comments
2,440
votes
Yes plz.
Gameplay456 comments
1,721
votes
3 Refunds per season, up vote if you want 3 refunds per season.
Gameplay114 comments
1,716
votes
When is ANYONE at riot going to address the awful new player experience?
Gameplay634 comments
1,383
votes

More by SaltyToplaneGoat

As a 600k Soraka main the very existence of Senna is just a slap in the face
Gameplay198 comments
247
votes
Congratulations Riot, with this patch...
Gameplay252 comments
234
votes
Wouldn't it be possible to code the Nami Ult as a lot of tiny projectiles?
Gameplay141 comments
199
votes
The focus on Esport will be the downfall of this game.
Gameplay137 comments
175
votes
I do understand that Akali as an assassin needs massive damage and mobility, but...
Gameplay207 comments
170
votes
We shall remember the date as Caitlyn has become completly obsolte...
Gameplay201 comments
167
votes