Patch 4.17 removes silence from Talon and Viktor. Silence has always felt cheap on both ends, and it does not fit Riot's design values as it limits counterplay. Limiting counterplay was the chief reason it was removed from Kassadin and LeBlanc earlier this year.
Riot, does silence have a future? I think champs like Garen, Cho'gath, Blitzcrank, and Malzahar don't need it and/or would be better off with something else.
Silence's issue is that it might as well be hard CC against ability dependent champions, and especially so with Slows. However, Silences are still weaker than hard CC overall so they take up less of a power budget. On burst and/or poke champions, the drawbacks that Silence has compared to hard CC are marginalized. Many of the Silences being changed or taken out also lack counterplay, which is related to power budgeting (being weaker than a Stun is probably why they were made low counterplay in the first place).
Silences do have a place in the game but for the most part they need to have counterplay, as hard CC usually does. Being weaker than hard CC can be compensated in some other way, like the unique way Soraka will be using it.
What are you talking about? they are not removing it from Soraka, they are giving her a huge fricking AoE Silence.
the lack of counterplay that you mentioned is usualy the only thing that keeps the champions with silence in game (lb talon, soraka, ) riot just takes silence away but they are shooting themselves in the foot champion who relies on silence will get sheduled for a rework when you remove it, riot should just skip the part with the remowal (like they do with soraka )
Getting rid of LeBlanc's silence ruined her. Yes, she was a little overpowered before, but now she has a difficult time doing anything in team fights. Where before she could take out a caster and escape, now she trades her life for hopefully one kill (less if you're against a team that is intelligent). This will happen to Talon as well. If you remove the silence you have to add something to compensate or these assassin champs become worthless. Kassadin got a shield which kept him relevant. Not sure what you could add to LeBlanc or Takin, but it would make them worth picking.
I always use to say to my friend who mains Talon that the silence is what made Talon OP, im glad they are removing it but i dont really like what they are replacing it with. As for Viktor i thought his silence was alright, it was very short and it didn't seem stop most abilities anyways. Interrupting channels is a good replacement at least.
Removing the silence from Malzahar would make him even more useless then he already is... His silence has tons of counterplay, its called dodging. It has a delay before it hits and it broadcasts it pretty obviously. He needs the silence to set up his W - R combo otherwise they will just flash or dash out before you can ult or you will still ult and do no damage.
On Garen i think the silence should be a slow instead, it would mesh well with his E. But im pretty sure removing the silence on Garen would make him useless against certain champs and he would stop countering a lot of tough tops.
Cho'gath and Blitz silence need to be changed, there is no skill or counterplay involved.
Silence deserves to exist. Thematically, it is a solid component of SOME champion's kits. I do feel they gave it away a little too freely, but champions like Soraka and Talon, deserve access, as it's thematically correct for them. Soraka's is being given counterplay (an AoE) instead of being outright removed, and this approach needs to be taken to Talon as well.
You're pretty much on-point with saying that it often got removed for counterplay reasons. It's the same reason mana-draining was removed as a mechanic entirely early on. Because of the core differences between these 2, silence is still able to be in this game where mana-draining could not.
Silence was removed from a lot of the people that had it before for similar reasons. The biggest reason is that attaching a silence to someone that bursts people (assassins especially), limits counterplay in the fact that you either die from their followup that you can't do anything from besides basic attack, or cast a single spell on their tuchus as they walk away. Silences are more fitting for champs Cho, Blitz, and Soraka because they are not heavy damage dealers**. They are champs that rely on it more for the innate disruption, rather than having it be a window to be a great threat.
**Even though it's a discussion for another thread, while yes they can be built damage and are from time to time, it's still not enough damage to be concerned about unlike the old days of AP Yi.
