State of the rift address from a returning player

I gotta say it after leaving league for a few weeks then going back, League kinda sucks now. Taking a break and then hopping back in just brings up all the crappy gameplay stuff they don't bother to fix. So, for my own peace of mind, i'm just going to list out what i've seen so far. Feel free to flame/meme/etc. This is mostly for my own health, I don't expect any real change to come of it. Ignore rampant comma use, it's a genetic disease.

Runes: Runes are awesome in theory, I love the design, but its a balance nightmare. Every time I come back after a patch, there is one rune literally everyone is running, and a few champs run their respective stupid interaction keystones, and then the rest just pick the best of several bad options. You get champs like jhin who heals for loads with fleet footwork, i've seen games with him healing well over 7k with it, or champs like kayn with predator that just one shot champs, and then you have someone like illaoi. With no real solid single option that makes sense. Just gotta make do.

Lanes: Lane phase sucks now. It used to be a fun 1v1 competition between you and another person, 2v2 in bot lane, with some spicy jungle ganks in the mix, but now its way too short. Junglers can gank constantly and with spellbook people just roam whenever they lose a lane. I like that roaming gives people options in losing matchups, I hate that it means my 1v1 might turn into a 1v5 at the drop of a hat.

Top: Imo, top is the least fun lane atm, by far. Having been a top main for years, this is the worst state i've ever seen it in. Its so damn boring. Its either two tanks wet noodle fighting until a jungler shows up, or one person playing a melee and the other playing a spammy ass hyper carry with a lame ass free zhonyas who is just going to spam you with some shit you can't dodge then run in the opposite direction before you can fight. It USED to be my favorite lane, where you could constantly fight other people, and you'd get really intense fights like riven v fiora or renekton v darius. (At least I always had fun in those matchups) Two power houses testing skill and strategy. Now it's just whoever has the most easily exploitable kit/rune/item synergy. Skill plays almost no factor when a champ's kit is devoid of skillshots.

Items: Ship is sunk. Items are lame. Seriously, so lame. There is no WORSE game design than locket. It takes zero skill to use, and it stacks, AND it ruins the best counter to adc, and makes assassins either opop or pure garbo. Yes, adc's SHOULD be subject to assassins, thats why wards exist and GA exists, AND WHY YOU HAVE AN ENTIRE CLASS OF CHAMPIONS DEDICATED TO KEEP YOU ALIVE SINCE ONE CLASS IS DEDICATED TO KILLING YOU. Items keep getting reworked and changed, and they are just never balanced. Items have never been balanced, and I think the entire system needs reworked. It takes so much of the focus off the champion kit, and pours it into just a gold/farm fest.

Champs: Honestly, this is riots best quality. Their champs are all cool, with crisp, clean designs, but they are NOT all fun to play, or even fair. As far as i'm concerned, EVERYTHING should be a skillshot, with necessary exceptions, I can't think of many atm, but i'm sure plenty exist. On target abilities only serve to give a champion a position of power during a phase of the game they are not designed to have power. (see Klepto gp in early game) Lets compare two champions, say fiora and akali. Fiora has her free lanes, where she can exploit some champs weaknesses, all champs do, but she always takes skill. You can't just mash q e r w and win on her, her passive is critical to her kit and her success. Then you have akali. HO BOY. The poster child for TERRIBLE design. Honestly, no skills shots, two on target abilities, one of which is a low cd dash and the other is essentially super sheen, a stealth, because thats a fun mechanic, and healing/bonus damage innate. Oh, and she has no mana. So, she just spams q on you until she can get close enough to proc it, then goes invis, pops out for 2 seconds, autos you, insta stealth. I'm sure some god tier diamond streamer is going to tell me a thousand counters to her, but i'm not speaking from the position of someone who plays league instead of talking to humans, I use crippling anxiety and memes for that. I probably have more bad experiences than others against broccali, but the separation between champions that win because of skill and champs that win because of stats seems more evident then ever before.

Focus: It's been clear for years that riot really doesn't care about game health anymore. Ever since the LCS got huge, riot is all about the show. The 2017 worlds opening ceremony is a perfect example. It looked amazing on the surface, cool coordinated dancing, live music, cg dragon, but it was so bad as soon as you look into it. The coordinated dance was simplistic and boring, and pretty dumb when you think about it. Who the hell cares about minions? The music was LAUGHABLY bad live. whoever the woman is who sang legends never die should stick to studio albums, she cant preform live for shit. The dragon was a cool touch, but it was ultimately just stream fluff, and thats the heart of it. Riot is ALLLLL about the fluff and pretty pictures, and very little about actual meaty changes.

I've been playing league since season 2,well over 2500 hours in the game, not as much as faker, but I've seen the game in almost all of it's states, And i can say without hesitation that this is easily the most garbage the game has ever been to play. Its the most beautiful its EVER been. Champions look amazing, rift looks amazing, most of the game is pretty clear about whats happening, but the actual gameplay is trash. Honestly, I've lost all faith in riot to put out a quality product. I've never had less fun laning, champ pool is huge, but only a small number of champs are actually good, and the ones that are are almost universally good because you either cant dodge their damage, or some item breaks them. At this point, i'd tell anyone who is asking to avoid league, because it's not worth the investment anymore.

This is just my two cents, I'm sure people will have a billion problems with it, which is expected, we all have different experiences with the game. But I've always been able to enjoy league before, now? Every game is a struggle to get through, and even wins don't feel satisfying. I've lost every bit of faith I had in Riot, it seems clear to me they sold out years ago. If you managed to get through my berlin wall of text, godspeed, and good luck on the rift summoners, you'll need it.