Quitting league until the game is fun again

I've been a league player for over a year, I've spent a sizable amount of money on my account, and have enjoyed the game immensely until just recently. I dropped quite a few games in favor of league, WoW, Dota, various triple a titles, because I enjoyed the game, the right blend complexity and simplicity make it a very fun and enjoyable experience.

I'm what you'd call a 'dedicated' (read: addicted) gamer. Won't call myself good by a longshot, I'm a really bad player all in all, but I've played this game a lot. I follow the PBE, meta shifts across high and low elos, I watch streams to try to improve my play by learning new tricks. I dedicate a lot of time into this game. Currently, the game is in the worst state of balance it's ever been in. I gave it the benefit of the doubt, but I can't anymore.

My initial theory for the patch would be that the game would have a holy trinity of burst assassins, tanks, and ad carries (sustained dps). One would counter the other, and so on, a circle. I was flat out wrong. There was a hefty nerf to AP itemization, that ended up keeping them building at the same speed as they were the last patch, while AD champs built faster than ever. There was a massive nerf to the raw AD from items that AD assassins needed to burst people down. Tank items are on the same page as AP items, price got nerfed so they build at the same speed as last patch.

Alright, so that's there. All the AD changes were based around the ADC role. they were impossibly squishy, and tended to get popped. So now, most of the reworked items give them utility and tanky stats. I almost want to call this the League of Lifesteal right now because of how overbearing the stat is on almost all items. Bloodthirster+Death's Dance+Phantom Dancer makes an ad just as tanky as a bruiser.

Alright, so we've got really really strong AD carries who have gotten a slight damage nerf, but have made up for it in utility. AD assassins are garbage. Flat out. Melee adcs are godly due to mobility and the extra utility from the new items. AP champs have gotten a nerf. Tanks have gotten a nerf. Lets be honest, this is league of legends, there's always one class of champ that's better than the rest. However, it usually lasts only a patch or two. This brings me to my next topic. PBE notes

Poppy removed from the game, likely cause of rework comign within a month or two. New snowdown skins. Bard buffs. Lore 'updates'. Standard stuff. Now that's less than half the patch notes. Lets look at the other half.

Bonds of stone, damage reduction reduced by 1% on your own, 2% grouped, 2% damage share nerf.

Deathfire, nerfed HEAVILY, nerfed damage, and it takes a full second longer to get your full damaeg from it on single target spells, and half a second longer on aoe spells, this was not an overbearing skill on anybody except DoT mages. This change is a heavy nerf to all casters, ap and ad, just because 2 champions were good with it.

Feast cooldown increased by 5 seconds. Who needed this primarily junglers and weak earlygame champs.

Veteran's Scars. flat scaling health (up to 45 at 5 points), instead of up to 4% bonus max health. Completely gutted for tanks and HP stackers, leaving no strong second tier resolve choices for any tank who doesn't have self heals or a shield. Only champs with a weak earlygame benefit from it now. This is one of the changes that I'm actually somewhat mad about as opposed to just disappointed in.

Unyielding. 6% bonus armor and MR dropped to 5% bonus MR. Strict nerf to tanks, as Recovery doesn't really do anything and will never be better on anything but squishies who don't build defense.

Brand's pillar of flame's mana cost increases more with level. Brand is mana hungry from the start if he spams his spells. He usually has a mana regen item early in his build path. An extra 20 mana on his Q at lvl 9 isn't an issue at all. The reason he is strong is the synergy between Deathfire and his passive, not his mana costs on Q. Nerf is targeted at the wrong aspect of his kit.

Ramus powerball slow reduced from 3 seconds to 2 second. This is taking a full third power out of his slow. One third.

People will complain about the Riven base HP regen buffs, but honestly, she's an AD caster, and AD casters got fucking gutted in 5.22, and they're getting nerfed again in 5.23. I won't say she's fun to play against even now, but she is incredibly weak as it stands, and the buff is fine. She'll be weaker in 5.23 with the deathfire changes than she is now.

Siver bouncing blades buffs. To counter the AD loss from the item changes.

Skarnar Q AD scaling nerf. Why? Actually why? He isn't even good this patch.

Swain's one point wonder skill, nevermove, gets turned into a mandatory secondary max. Same kind of nerf as Brand's. As a DoT mage, he synergized with Deathfire a lot, perhaps too strongly. So they nerf deathfire, then target Swain's CC? When has is easily avoidable delayed CC ever been too strong? He has been a good champ this patch, but not overbearingly so. The decision to nerf the thing that made him a cut above the rest, and then after that, nerfing a critical aspect of his kit seems very unjustified.

Essence reaver now gives 10% crd for 15% crit, still caps at 30%. Negligible nerf. All ADC's have at least 50% crit in their build, usually pretty early on.

Dead Man's Plate nerfed a hundred health. Strong defensive item on everybody, even non tanks, I'd call it justified, but I'm bitter about it because it has been my favorite item in the game since release.

There are a handfull of changes are are fine. Slight buffs and nerfs that aren't worth mentioning.

These are all PBE changes that should be going live this week. Nerfs to champs that can deal with the ADCs. Strict nerfs to all tanks period. Unjust and stupid nerfs to ALL ad and ap casters, just because DoT champs can abuse a mastery. Snowbally minion changes should be coming here unless I'm wrong, reducing comeback potential.

Lets look at the current metagame. Snobwall, games decided by 12 minutes, ended by 25, often by surrenders at 20. You get 8-12 minutes to farm, then you group. Whoever has the advantage wins. Meta is almost purely AD. Ramus is strong because most champs being played are AD. Jungle is impossibly hard to clear on most champs. Champs who can use rageblade are strong. Select few champs are borderline broken due to changes and the meta shift (yasuo, graves, jax). How do I feel on it? It's frustrating, as somebody who enjoys tanks and bruisers, and the lategame. None of my favorite champions are viable, let alone good, and my favorite part of the game doesn't exist anymore.

The upcoming patch makes all of the issues with this patch's meta worse, crippling champ diversity, build diversity, and just making the game even less fun to play. I love the moba genre, but honestly, this is the single least fun patch I've seen on any semi competitive game I've ever played. Even the Troll Warlord-Sniper mask of madness rush meta in Dota, I'd say the least balanced dota patch ever (two heroes could stunlock you with a single item, one had less stunlock, but has sizably more range than any other hero in the game, the other was melee but had more damage and better stuns), was better than this, because you knew you could just deny them farm and pick strong early fighters and you'd be alright because they didn't have exceptionally good earlygame.

I'm gonna have to put league on the shelf for now. None of the games I've played recently have been remotely fun. I can't play the champs I enjoy with a remote chance of being useful. There is a massive problem with balance that alienates anybody who doesn't play ADCs and earlygame champs, that's only getting worse because riot doesn't see it as an issue. I might go back to dota, might just go through the ever growing backlog of single player games I have, all I know is that League has entirely lost its fun, and it doesn't look like it's gonna get better for at least a few months. I'm not angry, I'm flat out disappointed and a bit sad. I really want to enjoy the game, but at the moment, just can't. So, until I see the rich, fun, and diverse meta again, I'm done.