The Big Five (And why they're proof the game is poorly balanced.)

There are a handful of champions I see frequently, and I almost never see them beneath M7. Remember, M7 is supposed to be tricky. It's supposed to be a bit of a grind; proof that you really have your ducks in a row with a champion. I know people will say "Nah, it just means you've played them a lot," but no. It doesn't. You can achieve M4 that way. To achieve M7 that way requires a great deal of luck. Or... at least it should.

Master Yi. Garen. Zed. Yasuo. Darius.

Pay attention as you play and see, in games where these champions show up, what percentage of the players aren't M7 with them.

By logical extension, we can presume that "Almost anyone can succeed with these champions with little effort or practice." After all, if 80 out of 100 people cleared The Unbeatable Bansuke, it wouldn't be very unbeatable, would it?

Thus we come to this statement: If almost everyone can attain M7 on these champions with little effort, why have they not been rebalanced? They haven't even been power crept. Riot literally keeps buffing some of these (Yi...) to keep their relative power level solid amidst a changing game.

At what point do we say enough's enough and put our foot down about how poisonous this is for the competitive nature of the game?

Here are some brief, off-to-top-of-my-head rework ideas that could fix a lot of this.

Master Yi

• Alpha Strike is now triggered on basic attack.
• Alternatively, Alpha Strike is now a skillshot, hitting each enemy in the path of the skillshot at cast in turn. He reappears on the last enemy hit.
• Highlander. First, change its name. I know "Highlander" technically refers to anyone from elevated lands, but this boy's no Celt. Second, bonus attack speed climbs per hit and resets after 2 seconds of not hitting anything with basic attacks.
• Alternatively, bonus AD is reduced to 60/65/70% while active.
• Alternatively, bonus AD is reduced to 25/30/35%, but is converted to true damage.

Garen

• Judgment can no longer be canceled, forcing Garen to pick his moment to spin.
• Judgment scales with AP instead of AD. This forces Garen to decide if he'll get basic attack or spin damage.
• Demacian Justice now activates on the next basic attack within 8 seconds, instead of on target.

Zed

• Abilities mimicked by Zed's shadow now deal only 25% damage, but deal it as true damage.
• Shadow Slash no longer slows, instead stunning of 0.5 seconds.
• Death Mark changes:
• First Cast: Zed launches along the path of a skillshot and marks the first enemy hit. If no enemies are hit, Death Mark can still be recast within 5 seconds, but will trigger the first cast effect instead of the second cast effect. The second cast effect thus won't trigger at all.
• Second Cast: Zed becomes invisible for 2 seconds. Attacking, taking damage, and casting abilities do not break this invisibility, but true sight penetrates.

Yasuo

• If Steel Tempest hits no enemies, its cooldown is set to 9 seconds.
• Gathering Storm knockup time is cut in half, forcing Yasuo to think fast as to whether or not he intends to capitalize.
• Wind Wall becomes Squall Stroke: Yasuo slashes horizontally, creating a line of wind for 0.2 seconds. The length still scales with level. The wind deals no damage, but blasts enemies it directly touches back 50/100/200/400/600 units and deflects projectiles similarly. Slashed skillshots "switch sides" for Yasuo's team and bounce straight back, dealing half their original damage to any enemies affected and applying any other on-hit effects they would have applied based on the original champion's effects.
• Sweeping Blade cooldown becomes 1/0.8/0.6/0.4/0.2 seconds if a minion is hit, or 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds if a champion is hit.

Darius

• Hemorrhage no longer scales with AD, but the bleed is applied as true damage.
• Apprehend no longer slows. Why does Darius need two slows?
• Noxian Guillotine recast is reduced to 5 seconds, and at rank 3, becomes 10 seconds.