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Let's take a poll: What type of balance do you want?

ModCaptainMårvelous··2 votes·669 views

I see two types of balance desires here on the boards and I want to set the record straight. Does Gameplay boards want casual/pub/ranked balance or do they want balance aimed directly at pro play. For the sake of this there's no in-between, as I feel that we're rapidly approaching the point where buffs/nerfs aimed at either will have a drastic effect on the other. It's impossible to balance for both instances forever. One -will- eventually take precedence over the other. With that said:

#Pro-centric balance

  • +More unique picks in the pro scene.
  • +Healthier for the competitive and long-term aspect of the game.
  • +Allows more leeway when it comes to giving champ tweaks.
  • -Bronze-through-low-plat are basically neglected.
  • -"git gud"
  • -Terrible solo champs get nerfed. Easy-peasy solo que stompers get buffed.

#Player-centric balance

  • +Aims at the larger of the two groups. (Pros vs. Normals)
  • +Everything still viable for normal play.
  • +"Balanced" in the sense that outliers are struck down.
  • -Pro scene loses a lot of diversity for the sake of pub play.
  • -Forces a "rotational meta" for the absolute highest level of play.
  • -People who honestly aren't that good will dictate who gets buffed or nerfed.

Poll below.

9 Comments

LU Vanilla Rice 5 votes

First off, there is not question as to which is more important. Champions have to be designed around pro play and high elo. This field of players is where champions are being properly used and properly countered. It is at this point where you can effectively determine the strength and weakness of a champion.

As for Riot only wanting "flashy" champions in the LCS, that's not true. It all depends on the meta. Don't forget the tank meta was a thing, where even Nunu was played (not frequently, but not just once or twice).

Or, if Riot focused around low elo players (the majority) think of what could happen: a champion the community believes to be op will get nerfed out of any potential for competitive play, Zed for example. And a champion the community believes isn't strong will be left alone or buffed, making it an absolute premier pick in pro play and high elo, Rek Sai, for example.

I understand it can be frustrating for the majority of players, but it has to be like this. This doesn't mean Riot should outright ignore the community, absolutely not. But the strength of a champion must revolve around where the game is most properly played, and that's high elo/pro play.

catastrophicSkil3 votes

If the game isn't balanced around pro play then the viable champion pool becomes limited. Imagine a world where azir isn't nerfed to what he is today you would literally see him 100% of the time. Same goes for Lee sin/yasuo and basically any champion that is said to require a high skill cap

I think Gankplank is the biggest offender there is no doubt that in the right hands he is a monster but its not that easy to master his kit and barrels if they balanced it so every noob would be decent with him then he would be 100% broken with anyone who knows what they are doing

Erockandroll2 votes

The problem with that is, everyone is a damn meta sheep. What ever is strong in the pro scene will become strong in YoloQ.

If you balance champions around the average ONLY. Your going to end up with very few champions who actually represent the epitome of skill. And your going to end up calling people out on their champion choices. (A Lee sin main? what's a Diamond ELO doing in my game?)

And Really, Riot wants people to be inspired by the upper tiers of play. ("Get Gud" is never going to be seen as a negative)

Besides, I bet it would be near impossible to actually balance the game. Without a pro circuit who Job is literally find the best Champions, teamcomps, strats, Build paths. And show them to the world all for our personal amusement.

Critmaster Garen1 votes

there is another downside to pro play balance that you forgot. the commercial aspect.

riot will buff champions and get champions into the meta that they consider more interesting to watch. even at high level play theyre not aiming at actual game balance, but to a large part to make it an interesting spectator game.

even if they could make champions like nunu balanced in high level play, they would be reluctant to make him viable over someone like lee sin or elise who can pull off more flashy plays, early dives and ganks to keep the action going.

so when the game is balanced around pro play, dont expect a large pool of competitive champions in tournaments. the viable champion pool will still be artificially limited to the champions who are most interesting to watch and bring the hghest viewer count to their streams.

i feel like the esports scene is killing the strategic aspects of the game, that revolve around outfarming and counterjungling your opponents and get passive gold leads by micromanagement of lanes and macro plays on the map, over constant explosive teamfights, ganks and skirmishes.

Mordepool2 votes

Which league of legends Definitly is not

Critmaster Garen1 votes

{quoted}

Which league of legends Definitly is not

but you can already see that it has an impact on the game with past changes.

for example riot will never make true lane tanks ever viable, because theyre afraid of something they call "noodle fights". when two tanks lane against each other and are tanky, while dealing little damage to the point that theyre never able to kill each other in a trade.

this would mean lanes between two tanks become farm lanes for 20 minutes where players focus entirely on trying to get a cs lead over their opponent instead of killing each other. possibly with the addition of stealing jungle camps from their opponents.

while this was enjoyable to play, at least on my own opinion, this would be very boring to watch. this is why theyve changed the game to make true tanks less viable and more or less force them all into tanky damage ap bruiser builds with items like rod of ages, rylais and abyssal.

its also why they did the recent turret changes just before the worlds patch. they made bot lane the entire early game focus by adding turret first blood and removing fortification from that turrret.

they already want to create large fights for bot lane in the early game to skip the "boring" lane phase.

if you played this game in season 2 or 3, then you will remember it as an entirely different game. it was more strategic and farm focused than on constant fights, roams, ganks and stacking up kills.

in pro games you usually didnt have more than 2 or 3 kills in total at the 20 minute mark.

Mordepool1 votes

Oh i remember bud. Back then the game was fun. Some champs were stupid broken though. Still take me back this game now is just work no enjoyment to it

Sona x Rubick1 votes

pro centric, lcs would be fun to watch and players would be forced to get good.

HOWEVER i don't want both at the same time.

Choten1 votes

Player-centric should always take precedence if you're going to even allow Solo Queueing. It's complete garbage that because a player does well with your favorite balanced champion in a tournament, Riot feels the need to nerf it into the ground mean while they ignore problems champs that take 2v1 ing to deal with. Games like SSB4 and Overwatch do well because of less frequent patch updates and the idea that most of the characters were made balanced. Not some excuse that they're keeping things fresh by patching things every other week like they said here: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/community/q/ask-riot-how-you-get-s-urgot

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