Counterplay vs Outplay Potential

The first is something everything in the game has. Yes, even those things you really hate playing against. Counterplay can be strategic (builds, champ picks, team comps, over-all strategy, rotations, ward placement, eg all the things you do outside a fight) or it can be tactical (positioning, juking skillshots, picking the right time to use abilities, interacting with whatever new mini-game Riot has added to a champ, eg all the things you do inside a fight).

Outplay potential is a specific type of tactical counterplay and it typically consists of 'avoid the thing'. In recent years, Riot has been systemically removing features with low or no outplay potential and replacing them with features that CAN be outplayed. That might take the form of turning targeted abilities into skillshots, spreading out the time it takes to pull off a damage rotation, or adding some new form of interaction to the ability that gives the target a chance to invalidate the ability.

Riot's goal behind these changes is understandable. They want things to feel more 'fair' to play against.

The problem, however, is that this process has resulted in absolute havoc when it comes to champion archetype balance. DPS < Burst < Tank < DPS is the equation we're all familiar with. However, by spreading out Burst (or by making it easier to react to and counter) we throw the equation off. DPS becomes too powerful because no one is popping them in a quarter second anymore, they're trying to pop them in two. And two seconds is plenty of time for that DPS source to fight back and/or get reinforced by Tanks and Enchanters, rendering burst largely irrelevant.

This is a problem, obviously. Riot has admitted as such.

We're left with three courses of action.

First? We can ignore the problem and hope it goes away. It won't.

Second? We reject the misguided notion that everything has to have outplay potential and accept the idea that sometimes a guy who has built no defensive items is going to die instantly without a chance to respond.

Third? We add outplay potential to everything. That means a way to outplay basic attacks. That means a way to outplay buffs, shields, and heals. And that would probably require a level of work that would make the Rune remake seem minor by contrast.

So?

Which do you want to see?