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Champions for the sake of Style (and a word about contradictions)

Genreninja·11/7/2014, 4:11:23 PM·1 votes·686 views

[Edited for Clarity]

TL;DR: How do you feel about making less-competitive champs in favor of having a few that are more fun, dynamic, or strategic?

So I've been reading some of the people who noticed the back-pedaling in philosophy when it comes to playstyle. See: Kalista vs. Karma for some of that discussion.

But it did start an interesting conversation between my friends. We pulled in recent discussions about Cassiopeia. And posed the question does EVERY champion have to be viable in Ranked play?

Yeah, fair question. This one came down to a cost/benefit assessment of how much should we limit the experiences we can offer and potential for cool moments in most games versus exacerbating an existing problem in a subset of other games. I'd argue we've actually been a bit too risk adverse in the past, limiting or avoiding some really cool abilities that 99%+ of the time would create great gameplay because there were some negative cases. -- @Meddler

This peaks my interest. It definitely excites me a little. To think that we could get some "Cool" champions that broaden strategic potential even if they come at a significantly higher risk than most champs currently do (i.e. Kalista's troll/afk issues). Id' really like to see that expanded further to include design kits around experiences that deliver something other than competitive viability. Champions that teams can use to create "cool" experience, where Riot "accepts" that for the sake of fun a few champions may not #1 picks in ranked and may never appear at worlds, but at least will offer tons of excitement in Normals.

I'd like to see Riot be ok with that. Not every champion will be strong in ranked play. So, why not be OK with that, and leverage some fun mechanics that come with significant risk.

and in a passive response to allowing people to ban these champs in ranked without sacrificing traditional bans, I don't think it's too much to ask to add a 4th ban choice to each team. We have enough champions to support that.

Maybe even play with a few Mini-champs that are non-ranked map-specific champions. That can be chosen through Team-Builder and customs. I can think of so many creative ways to utilize a small system like that.

5 Comments

TehNACHO11/7/2014, 4:35:02 PM1 votes

Or you could just look to even the newer champions like Vel'Koz, Gnar, and newly reworked Sion who completely do not fall into this category, what with their kits in execution (Gnar, Sion) or even on paper (Vel'Koz) being absolutely nothing like how most other champions operate at a higher level.

Or even the overall viable champions like Braum or post-rebalanced Twitch who have very clear moments and situations of strengths and weaknesses. It's near undeniable that Braum is a powerful support champion, but he has very clear weaknesses to certain other supports in bot lane in exchange for his dominant presence against others (Braum operates at a far different level against Poke Supports rather than against Hard Engage Supports, for example). Twitch is also still a well used Hypercarry based ADC thanks to the one thing he brings to the table that no other ADC can offer; his invisibility based assassination play style. Hell, the nerfs against Twitch are in fact the exact opposite of what you are describing here. Twitch was rediscovered to be far too powerful of an overall pick, so with nerfs to his early game and reinforcing that Ambush is made for ambushing enemies, not defending Twitch, were all directed towards giving Twitch a very specific area of strength and denying his overall ability.

Of a champion you even mentioned, Evelynn had her base damages nerfed in trade for scaling to dissuade the damage dealing beefy tank that dominated the LCS as a general all around pick.

Look, I'm not saying you are completely wrong, I just think you've overgeneralized something here. Yes, there are champions who's entire niche is about being jacks of all trades (Lucian and Lee Sin are strong examples), but at the same time there are very recent and very relevant champions who have very clearly defined strengths and weaknesses that deny them of being anywhere near capable of being "viable in all scenarios".

ThePurpleKnight11/7/2014, 5:33:33 PM1 votes

Well not really, I mean clearly hey nerfed Skarner to just be unviable as a whole, removing all his duel potential despite the fact that he is a Fighter. And then mocking him and making fun of him saying he's a tank, he's clearly not.

I really wish they'd fix this already, it's so easy, I even made a guide, a couple of changes and he could actually not suck ass. http://imgur.com/ouo9V1J