This gross meta...

Kiwi Lemonade·10/22/2019, 3:29:12 AM·16 votes·10,230 views

Long post, assessing each lane atm with focus on win and play rates in low, high elo games, as well as worlds.

First some stats on some the biggest issues:


Mid laners Gold+: Garen (57%), Pyke (55%) Garen has a 57% winrate. Pyke has a 55% win rate. Not only should a champion never, EVER be this far above the crowd - these champions are not mid lane champions. Or at least, they aren't marketed as such. Now admittedly, Garen's winrate drops to 50% in high elo and Pyke steadies to 53% in high elo. They still aren't even below 50% where the best of the best are playing. Pyke still boasts a formidable winrate as support, and Garen steadies to 55% or 50% winrate top lane as well. (Reference A)

Top Lane: Biggest issues are Kayle, consistently high winrate (53%) in both high and low elo, minimal risk, and abuses Klepto far too easily. Pantheon consistently dominant numbers in low and high elos (53%), 100% pick/ban in worlds this year. (Reference B)

Support: Shaco at 56% low elo and 53% high elo winrate. (Reference C)

ADC: Ashe (54%/52%) winrates while possessing one the safest laning phases, dominant poke, and a literal game-changing ultimate that she need not even be present to utilize. Kaisa is selected in 40% of games. That's right, nearly half games ever have Kaisa in it and 11% ban rate sets it to either 50% pick/ban. The next champion to even come close is Lee Sin at a 25% pick rate, 10% ban rate. Near 100% presence in worlds too. Winrate isnt the only important stat when it comes to champion balance. With every other game having a Kaisa presence this obviously means she's far, FAR too easy to play and take paper to reality and you see it: Extremely safe laning phase, the most massive power spike at 3 items and no longer is an AA marksman, typically 1 ability combo +1 AA = death, and ability to get to the backlane far too easily to get the game winning kill no matter the past 20minutes. (Reference D)

Junglers: Almost none of the champs are the same in high / low elos for reference. High Elo has very high skill cap junglers or junglers that a small playerbase makes use of very very well like nidalee khazix and fiddlesticks. Low elo takes very easy champs like mundo and voli and wins lots. I think the jungle is hard to assess because the experience, pathing, and general state of the game is such a cluster-- that its skewed for no fault of the champions themselves. Nunu is the only constant, and its likely because his ganks are far too easy to pull off, far too difficult to avoid, and a failure on Nunu's point very rarely ends in his demise, as well as having two smites for later in the game. (Reference E)


Assessments:

A: This is very annoying to me. The PBE both by players and many videos made, all told you that Garen was busted in his rework. You tried to rework him before and paused because of the backlash. Yet this time you did not listen. I understand Riot is nerfing him next patch, but that isn't the point here. The point is that they don't even listen to PBE'ers, so why have the players test at all? I personally think, other than that issue, you should have a hotfix option for every change you make thats drastic - one that already has potential nerfs to a champion that you can roll out quickly in the event you underestimated a change and be more proactive in doing this. No one should jump 5-7% in their numbers ever under any circumstance and players shouldn't have to suffer under their overpowered shadow for an entire patch, struggling to learn to counter them, all for naught since you typically overnerf and gut them afterward anyway - leaving players on both sides upset. Also, you nerfed Pyke in solo lanes yes somehow his mid win rate in all elos is through the roof and his support is actually lacking now. You marketed him as a support no? Zyra, Janna, etc. got nerfed posthaste when you started seeing them pop up because its very evident you don't like supports in mid lane. Please be consistent. Pyke in general is too safe for mid lane, cannot be killed in mid and spreads gold to his junglers far too much when he/she ganks. In fact, camping the lane rewards way, way more than it should (and roams down bot result in massive lumps of gold). Its Talon on steroids.

B: Kayle might be exacerbated because she counters Garen and hes absurd right now, so her win rate/play rate might be slightly inflated. Still, her curve of power right now is too skewed and shes not weak enough early and far too strong later. Klepto is a major problem, for her and all ranged. Pantheon is busted. I like him and his rework, I truly do. But the stats don't lie and his worlds numbers don't either. Something's got to give.

C: Support Shaco is disgusting. See reference A on how you don't listen to players because I know this was brought up on PBE as well. Your proposed nerf will also just about kill jungle shaco in my opinion and Im a little sick of champions being utterly gutted because you missed the mark in an unintentional lane (that was told to you btw). I like Shaco in the jungle, I admire players that do well with him since I don't play him well - and Im sad that he needs to be nerfed unfairly because of lack of vision on the balance team and the terror that is Support Shaco today.

D: Ashe's dominance in lane is far too uneven, especially having an ult with so much potential as hers, to go along with never losing lane is extremely rough. But she isn't the worst offender in this lane. Holy Kaisa batman. I don't think Ive ever seen a champion with this much play/ban rate, ever. There's 140+ champions yet she is in 50% of games? There is something very, very wrong here - and bot lane is bleeding because of it.

E. Jungle is broken. I don't main junglers but all my friends that do say the same. Most have quit the role entirely. I can't blame a champion this time, and I (Along with others) do not believe preseason 10 proposed changes are going to fix it. If anything, the opposite. Also Nunu a bit too strong.

Finally, lets not forget the losers. There are champions, in their legit roles, nerfed to actual dust with abyssal win rates that aren't touched after, assuredly because of worlds. Braum, and Yuumi (who has been a cluster-- from start to finish - honestly I recommend removing her and trying again), and Poppy are some of the most wounded.


I just watched your Netflix show on how League began because of its close association with its playerbase and loved it. Please listen to them now.

TLDR; Busted champs stay busted for too long. Nerfs and buffs are never on the right mechanics or areas and overcompensating nearly always occurs despite feedback given to you. Please listen to your PBE. Play it safe with reworks, you can also buff damage numbers after, they are the easiest things to change. No champions should have a 50% play rate (Kaisa). No champion should have a 41% win rate (Yuumi). No champion should jump 7-8% outrageously (Garen). And for the love of everything holy fix your Lethality items, Tank items, Rune system, and jungle.

25 Comments

Clone Is Friend10/22/2019, 10:21:27 AM5 votes

i would say that support shaco isn't broken but sadly i can't. his winrate would be higher if adc's knew how to play with him and his winrate has been at 50%+ for ages since he is a onetrick champion. the 20 second nerf doesnt actually affect jungle shaco that hard. it just delays his clear earlier. but there still were better nerf options in my oppinion.

Charmy Bird10/22/2019, 4:37:34 PM3 votes

Did he just called kha zix very high skill cap? Lmao Btw kha dominates both low and high elo.

Saevum10/22/2019, 10:11:45 AM3 votes

God forbid brusiers to stand out.

Pumpedhero10/22/2019, 3:36:46 AM3 votes

Hi.. yes im still here waiting for them to give Aatrox compensation buffs for gutting him :).. since whenever there's a top problem, even if its not him, its always just, "Nerf Aatrox and all our problems go away"

Fella Air10/22/2019, 4:34:30 PM2 votes

I agree with all of this.

Yuumi's current fate is particularly ironic since the very same patch she came out in, they released that "Balance team behind the scenes" PSA where they talked about how if ANYONE falls below 50% winrate, they go on the list to get a buff. Well, at that time, Yuumi was sitting somewhere around 33% WR... Guess who got nerfed the next 10 patches in a row? She's furry, four-pawed and starts with the same sound as "Useless". Now, I hate playing against a good Yuumi just as much as the next man... That's the problem. 100% agree with OP that the very concept of the champion is impossible to balance and she should just be reworked in her entirety. One suggestion I've bounced around with my friends is that a percentage of the damage to her anchor transfers to her, say starting at like 10 or 20% and getting lower as she puts points in W.

Ashe is simply not fun to lane against, W cone is way too wide and spammable- The fact that if she basic attacks you once you can't get away is kind of annoying... And yes, the R coming onto screen out of a bush from the other side of the map and stunning you for roughly 8 years while her entire team jumps you from a mile away is a bit frustrating, to say the least.

Really, as many people have mentioned before, this entire meta is just way too damage heavy. It's a bit like a moba version of CS Go, where it's just a battle to see who can oneshot the other person first. Super binary, not very interesting. I think there's also too much prevalence of champs with no discernible weakness, with Garen being a prime example. He's supposedly easy to kite, but the combination of his tenacity W and his slow-cleanse/move speed Q begs to differ. His silence is obnoxious, his durability and damage combination is insane... Riot f'd up, and I hope they fix it instead of making it worse. [zombie-brand-mindblown]

Keshaun10/22/2019, 4:35:24 AM2 votes

I wish my man Ryze would get some attention because they took everything out of his kit and just left him to rot with all their players.

LostInTheDark0710/22/2019, 8:08:19 AM2 votes

Imagine buffing Garen while he s still quite tanky while having att speed items dealing constant dmg. Sounds like adc on steroids me. That shows how incompetent RIOT is and arrogant since people say here what they really want and they do the opposite like on purpose to piss people off even more. I also like how they re destroying bot lane next season by cutting off exp and buffing supports even more like they re not able to 1 v 3 the lane already. Small indie company.

Varindran10/22/2019, 1:22:35 PM1 votes

Although i agree garen is strong right now the main reason he is being played mid is due to being able to leave lane and roam easier than in toplane with predator. If he winds up in a bad matchup being counter picked by ether a klepto ranged toplaner or some stronger juggernauts he was just stuck under the tower falling more and more behind. Midlane can fix that issue since not many midlaners take klepto or are assassins whom he has a better time against. sure he as to farm under tower until 6 or so once he hits it and has pred he can get a pick on the midlaner or a gank down bot or top.

Valknut10/22/2019, 7:47:01 AM1 votes

Man helluva write up, and as a OTP poppy support I cannot agree enough that she is just in the shittiest place. Everything in her kit compared to the favored champs is just shit. Knock up is slow and bad range, full charge is a joke. Not having a shield component on W triggering or using passive is fucking laughable. Yes it can ruin some champs, but does it ruin anyone that really matters? NO It doesn't do what it should do an wreck champs like Pyke an Yas. All it does is secure the kill that you were going to get.

She suffers from leona syndrom as well. Once your all in, your in. She isnt innately very tanky her passive is way to easy to get fucked by or have fucked with. her charge distance and range is pretty god damn meh, her saving grace for me is a 2 second stun an pick potential. She used to have a crazy fun pick build with the keystone that gave AD for movement speed. Dead Mans Duskblade Trav boots an you just roam land a charge with sudden impact trigger electrocute an BOOM big damage. Its still good damage but its not good enough.