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riot should take a break from making new champs for a while.

Yi Wreck Shen·6/2/2015, 1:12:11 PM·101 votes·21,184 views

We all agree that new champions are fun and exiting, but there are a lot of things riot needs to work on to better balance league and make it anext even better game.

Rework the champs that needs reworks. Getting Ashe was basically like getting a new champion. It brought a lot of people to pbe and was and is a very popular pick now. Saw some lcs Play too. There are a ton of champs that need minor tweaks or complete reworks. Balancing what you have already presented us should be priotithere. There are a ton of champ options and diversity now.
Learning champs is incredibly hard for new players. This game gets bigger every day. I started playing a year and half ago. Learning every champ and what they did toOK a very long time. I have only played probably about 25% of the roster. There are so many champs already and you have to master a few if you want to get anywhere in ranked. How can you expect all these champs you took time into making to get played by noobits when there is a new champ released every month and said players are trying to learn and findo already released players they may like.
Why do I have to go on Lolking.net to figure out ratios and what not for champions? Why is the in game description of skills less descriptive then online? Why are certain things even left out in game description? Like the fact hecarim can move through creeps and a bunch of others.

This game is great but I feel like it's time to start doing some fine tuning and it would make the game experience a lot more enjoyable. FixING champs and reworking them is like a new champ in itsself. We basically got two new champs back to back with Ashe and Ekko. Work on fixing poppy/Taric/Yorrik etc. Then those champs will get a bunch of play again.

73 Comments

Phoenix Kotori 6/2/2015, 2:39:12 PM33 votes

You act like riot hasn't already dropped the focus on new champions, we got like 25 champions a year before, now we get around 7, and I don't think that needs to drop lower.

RiotGhostcrawler6/3/2015, 6:41:04 PM15 votes

We have separate teams making new champions and updating old champions. While we could probably increase the update cadence if we collapsed the first team, we do get some benefits of working in parallel.

Figuring out the right cadence of new champions releases is something we talk about A LOT. There was a belief a few years ago that we were going to freak out players (new and existing) if we kept shipping 20 champions a year. On the other hand, getting a new champion is one of the most exciting things that can happen to the game for existing players. I think the game might actually start feeling stale if we stopped releasing new champs. We'd like to figure out a way to release them a little more frequently than we have done the last year or so, if we can do that without affecting quality.

We understand it's a challenge for new players to learn League and that adding more champions over time doesn't help with that. But, honestly, we feel like it's the right thing to do to support you guys, you know actual League players, than starve you for content in the hopes of getting new players. There is a lot we can, should, and eventually will do to make League easier to learn, but I worry about any strategy that improves the learning curve at the expense of current players.

Ghiefelstein6/2/2015, 3:04:22 PM13 votes

New champions keep the game fresh for people who played for years. Most new champions teach you something or make you think differently about the game. You can say about the new releases what you want, but they are definitely unique and require you to learn to play with and against them.

You do make a good point about new players. LoL seriously lacks information for new players and new champions make that even more complicated.

Jofeyy6/2/2015, 8:37:08 PM10 votes

Nowhere in the game does it say that Yasuo abilities' cooldown scale off of attack speed instead of cdr. Thats something you have to learn on your own or search up online.

Edit: it only says that steel tempest (Q) reaches a max cooldown at 55% attack speed in the tips section of the champion profile.

Rew7116/2/2015, 2:24:52 PM9 votes

Honestly, since I main Veigar, I found that his power was the only thing to be diminished. I can still win my lane. Somehow trick even pro players to be stunned. My W always lands where I want. And I now have twice the Q. My R even still deals 1/3 of a tanks life, together with my W, and Q, I can pretty much dwindle any champion to bellow 50% health easily.

U Just Got Slain6/3/2015, 5:23:27 PM7 votes

So here is me standing up for Riot a bit...

When we had that "dry spell" of champions last year, everyone was complaining. Not many people really saw the value in what Riot was doing. They reworked and changed so many things in a positive aspect, yet people were tired of waiting for a new champion. This year Riot is going faster than last, and now people are wanting them to slow down? I feel like it's a lose lose situation for Riot, people are always going to be unhappy.

Now for my 2 cents...I personally don't need a new champion every month or so. I am content with how they released them last year, but I do believe they should put the focus into the other champions, looking at you Aatrox. I also believe they should update the way we can view champions, like when you click on them and read their bios and such. I would love to see ability scalings as well as possibly a skin preview? I don't know if that is asking too much but I feel they should shift focus off of releasing so many new champions and now work on other areas that wouldn't mind some love =]. BUT EITHER WAY I AM HAPPY!

DeynaTaggerung6/2/2015, 5:02:42 PM4 votes

I think this makes sense, simply because from the time I first joined league I saw that exponential growth isn't sustainable here. At the moment there are several different forms of the same type of champion and eventually I feel new champs are going to feel like a better (or worse) version of something we've already seen. If league is gonna continue for a long time (and I really hope it does) then it needs to find some other way of keeping things fresh and fun.

In summary: exponential growth isn't really viable so while new champs should be made, the number should be kept small.

Aevo 556/2/2015, 8:50:57 PM3 votes

While i agree that there need to be some things changed, I think that the new champion design team and the 'rework' team (champion update team?) are separate.

Retillin6/2/2015, 3:28:10 PM3 votes

[{quoted}](name=Yi Wreck Shen,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=iebsJXO1,comment-id=,timestamp=2015-06-02T13:12:11.939+0000)

3 Why do I have to go on Lolking.net to figure out ratios and what not for champions? Why is the in game description of skills less descriptive then online? Why are certain things even left out in game description? Like the fact hecarim can move through creeps and a bunch of others.

This so so much....

Silents4296/2/2015, 9:31:09 PM2 votes

They already said no to this.

Transgressor6/3/2015, 4:23:41 PM2 votes

This post is all over the place...

Who on their right mind would upvote this trainwreck...

Who on their right mind thinks the same team reworks and creates champions, who in their right mind think that new champions make it harder for new players to learn the game(this one in particular doesn't even make sense), who in their right mind would be unable to comprehend that mastering a champion takes more than just reading spread sheets.

DrNova6/2/2015, 9:36:03 PM2 votes

Not to mention I'm sure champ releases are a spike in income, which this free game needs so the majority that DONT spend money can keep playing for free.

Wyrmblade6/3/2015, 12:46:28 AM2 votes

They can make new champs AND rework old ones at the same time. Riot's got a lot of money and a lot of people, different teams do different things.

Hell, more people on the rework team might even slow things down, since most of the effort seems to be figuring out what they need to do.

High56/4/2015, 1:22:57 AM1 votes

Lazy players shouldn't determine whether or not Riot adds new champs. This isn't a hard game to learn if you spend a little bit of time doing it.

Generally, the new champs (Rek, Azir, Ekko) have all been very good and added more depth to the game.

XVI Jake IVX6/3/2015, 12:38:12 AM1 votes

You should of been here when riot was coming up with a champion every 1-2 weeks. Those were the days. They finally decided to listen to the community and cool down on it. I've been playing this game since 2010 and I think its amazing. They need to add more free to play champions! They have added like so many more champs. Now they need to add more free to play champions. Maybe 2 or 3. Also Kagami is right riot use to make tones of champions each year.

Bârd6/3/2015, 2:21:02 AM1 votes

Sorry man, they just started teasing the next one on the beta.

Bubble sound effects and laugh

Probably a swamp monster champ.

Maybe a Zac skin, but I doubt they would put teasers in the actual map for that.

Swampmajikk6/3/2015, 3:50:59 PM1 votes

i've been saying this forever.. granted there is a lot more time between releases than there used to be, theres too many loose ends in this game as it is. adding new champs creates even more.

although i have to say the balance differences between now and like S2 when i started are huge..

AirSonance6/3/2015, 4:25:59 PM1 votes

Arguably, some champions do need tweaks. Maybe not everyone needs a newly tooled kit, but some might need tweaks or re-works to abilities. However, these tweaks would still be limited to the champion and how Riot and the rest of the community envisioned/uses them. Changing a champion's kit doesn't change the champion. It's still the same assassin/tank/adc at the end of the day.
New players can play new champions as well as any other champion. They are new players, after all. A new champion shouldn't have an effect because everything is new. In fact, it's kind of a good thing for the new players because they're getting used to everything including the new champ. If anything, new champions affect the more experienced players as they need to build new habits or fix old ones in order to do well against the new champions.
Statistics on champions doesn't improve a player's skill or understanding of a champ. It just tells you if everyone else is playing them, and how well they appear to be doing. The descriptions for abilities in-game is actually good. In fact, there are videos accompanying the abilities to show you what they do. Also, things aren't left out. If you've read Hecarim's passive ability description, you'd see that it tells you he ignores unit collision.

My thoughts? We've got a lot to work with right now in what champs we have, I agree. Although, new champions are necessary to bring something new to this game. Otherwise it just becomes stale with the same champs on the same maps.

Lugg6/3/2015, 5:44:20 PM1 votes

I totally agree. Riot needs to fix the champions they currently have before releasing new ones.

Gigablitz6/3/2015, 6:40:05 PM1 votes

Hi! I think I agree to an extent, you raise legitimate concerns. But they already release on an extremely slow pace (1 champion every 2-3 months), so new champions are not an issue.

The way I see it, their problem is not "releasing champions", but "addressing issues slower than desired". Thoughts on this? :x

Dethkilr6/3/2015, 8:33:41 PM1 votes

I've been playing for almost a year now and I love when new champions come out! Yes they are usually either overpowered or underpowered at the start, but after about two pbe cycles they settle into where they're supposed. I think ekko has so much he can do and very little he can't, but I'm not complaining so much because I know it's only temporary. New champions are even exciting for new players, even if they do add more to a game that they now know even less about. An overpowered difficult champion will likely not see play in early levels due to their skill floor anyway. I honestly would totally support them releasing champs at a faster rate, along with also reworking champs quicker. I don't think there's a such thing as releasing too much because it after about a week people are already over any new champs or reworks (Ekko is cool, but is anyone super excited about him anymore at this point? Would you be mad if the laugh on the pbe was another new champ?)

Salidfingers6/3/2015, 8:36:17 PM1 votes

I think we are up to a point where we need champions based on need or for fun based on some event.

A need would be more point and click champion to counter the mobility in the game or possibly more tank killers in the game.

Plus whats the point of having over 125 champions when over half don't see play because they are sub-par, Some cannot even counter the champions they are suppose to counter.