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Nexus Blitz - Why fighters are weak & how it can be fixed.

Kaisa Aran·8/18/2018, 3:56:59 AM·4 votes·4,013 views

tl;dr: Fighters aren't strong or fun to play in Nexus Blitz because they rarely get the opportunity to do their primary job (Splitpushing/Dueling). Making the map larger, ditching the 'one and a half lane' bullshit & slowing down the game pace slightly would do wonders.

There's been a lot of talk and feedback going towards Nexus Blitz recently but I want to take a moment to address my biggest concern with the map: It's treatment of fighters/brusiers. I've already told Riot about this multiple times (including in a survey) but I'll explain it here just so it can get more coverage and so people can get a better idea of why some toplane players could be complaining.

Why are Brusiers/Fighters weak?

Their inability to duel & split-push. Without cutting corners the current Nexus Blitz is without a doubt (excluding Howling Abyss) THE WORST MAP that a fighter could ever ask for. The "1 1/2" lane concept fucks over early-game by 1v1s constantly being be turned into 1v2s/1v3s (because let's make everything cramped and not give laners room, right?), grouping for turrets is essentially mandatory outside of the first two outers & events like Bardle Royale, Push The Cart. King of the Hill & Loot Teemo force even further grouping. See where I'm getting at? Brusiers (for the most part) are not designed for teamfighting, they're designed to be in a side lane dueling another top laner or split-pushing. Forcing them into extremely early skirmishes, 1v2 lanes & continuous grouping puts them at a huge disadvantage. I mean seriously, how is this even fair? The only brusiers that are currently doing well are either ones that can snowball the game out of control with an early lead (Tryndamere, Lee Sin, Aatrox, Renekton, Patheon etc.) or ones that have immense teamfight potential (Yasuo, Rumble, Gnar). Late game brusiers? They don't stand a chance unless they ride the snowball wave, you can play Jax/Fiora/Irelia/Garen all you want & it won't matter because their teamfighting is awful without at least being even.

Now, Devil's Advocate: It's wrong to generalize all brusiers as doing poorly when some aren't. In addition you can argue that mid-game skirmishes are extremely good opportunities for brusiers & that if they can't capitalize on those before later teamfights occur then that's the fault of the player. That's fair. However, just because fighters CAN be made to work in Nexus Blitz doesn't mean that it's fun compared to Summoners Rift or Twisted Treeline. Not going to lie - I'm around 50 games in on Nexus Blitz now (all of them on Irelia) and it's a pain in the ass to constantly be stuck in a 1v2/2v3 laning phase because people other than my main laner are always, ALWAYS coming in and out of the 'lane'. All I want is to be able to have a better opportunity to do my job & solo carry through map pressure, not through forced fights to win the game before the enemy Veigar gets 1k AP at 10 minutes because yes, increasing his passive scaling was totally a good idea.

**In other words...Fighters can't be played properly in this mode due to the small map size & 'meshed' lanes which makes them weaker & less enjoyable to play (at least from my viewpoint). **

How can Brusiers/Fighters be FIXED?

Simple - MAKE THE BLOODY MAP BIGGER. I've been monitoring feedback in the official Dev Corner thread on Nexus Blitz testing & a lot of the comments I've seen more or less want an increase in map size. It's cramped and it feels forced, especially to a fighter who doesn't want that type of map layout in the first place (though you'll bet your ass early game junglers do - hence why Lee Sin is doing well & why Rengar is having a ball abusing the sheer amount of brush this map has). Pull a Twisted Treeline, separate the mid/botlane or redesign the map entirely so that it's far more like TTT in its layout (jungle/objectives in the middle, lanes on the far top/bot sides).

In addition to this it would help if:

  1. Game tempo was slowed down (Why does it even do Sudden Death at 18 minutes, what clever soul thought that wouldn't trigger my OCD? 20 minutes. 20, not 18. 20.)
  2. Catapult of Champions was nerfed (Because it makes getting around the map way, WAY too easy and the last thing a Fighter needs is for people to be catapulting onto them all the live long day).
  3. Event rewards & Hand of Baron (Rift Herald) were nerfed - Teamfighting & objectives are already strong enough, no need to screw over fighters by having their split-pushing be worthless when a Snowball Fight leads to the enemy team getting 1.2 HP BF Shields. :)
  4. Certain ranged champions were nerfed - In particular Veigar (Revert the buff to his passive scaling, he was fine in ARAM & now he's broken in NB), Ziggs (turret siege/early lane dominance way too strong), Karthus (Dominates King of the Hill, Bardle Royale and any skirmish that happens in a tight area - which Nexus Blitz has plenty of), Xerath (because he has a mana-based passive for a reason & it's being negated by the global mana regen aura) & more.

And more.

That's about it. Not a Gameplay+ tier post because it has some (much needed) venting but to be honest I can't help it after playing this mode for 50+ games. It's seriously imbalanced in terms of teamfighting necessity versus map awareness and in particular the inability of fighters to do what makes them strong & fun in the first place really drains the experience at least in my case. So please - think of the toplane players who would prefer not to have to go a tank all the time just to be relevant. Improve the map design, make it more spread out & slow the game pace/nerf poke champs while you're at it. It'll do wonders, I promise.

Side Note: I absolutely hate Snowball Fight currently, not because it's annoying and it feels like shit to be hit but because it takes up both of your summoner spells. Like seriously what the fuck, either put it in ONE or PUT IT IN THE TRINKET SLOT INSTEAD!

17 Comments

RiotAD Yuumi8/18/2018, 7:00:27 AM9 votes

Agreed that fighters might need some help. Also agree that many of their kits being 1v1 focused is part of the reason why they struggle.

While we're unlikely to increase the size of the map (we like that players are forced together and fight as group of 2, 3, or 5), or slow down the game (we think one of the reasons to play Nexus Blitz in the first place is how fast it is), we have been thinking about other ways to help out duelist champions.

Some of the things we're going to try for 8.17 are adding an early game mini objective to bottom lane that's easier to take with a single person. We're also trying to get a couple new events in that are more advantageous for lonewolf champs (one of which is SUPER SUPER FUN).

Longer term we may also need to look at melee starting items to make laning a bit easier for a number of melee champs.

On the bright side, when I say that fighters "might need some help", it doesn't mean they're terrible. Our internal data is showing many of them to be hovering around 48-50% winrates, so they're not totally left out to dry compared to other maps like ARAM where some of them get down to sub 40%.

Also agree that snowball fight isn't as good as it could be. We've got some improvements to it coming in 8.17 to make landing multiple snowballs feel more rewarding. One thing to remember is that if you don't have your summoners, neither do your opponents. I've seen a number of great engages happen during snowball fight where a squishy on the enemy team gets slowed and then is engaged on by the tanks and bruisers while they're unable to flash away.

Warmanreaper8/18/2018, 4:01:01 AM6 votes

{quoted}

tl;dr: Fighters aren't strong or fun to play in Nexus Blitz because they rarely get the opportunity to do their primary job (Splitpushing/Dueling). Making the map larger, ditching the 'one and a half lane' bullshit & slowing down the game pace slightly would do wonders.

This is literally what the mode is about, nothing can be changed about that, it's suppose to be a fast pasted mode with a small map, that's its original design. I'd say maybe make fighters hit a little harder and get a little more speed to catch people out more and punish positioning in this mode, but slowing it down and decreasing the map size is the complete opposite direction this mode goes in.

heroikc8/18/2018, 4:05:13 AM2 votes

Honestly, if you want a bigger map and slower pace, try Summoner's Rift.

5kull12/11/2018, 1:21:14 PM1 votes

looool. "fighters aren't good or fun in this game mode. I have payed FIFTY GAMES all with the SAME CHAMPION and i NEVER have fun hurrrrr." Uhmm.... how about pick a different champ that works better for the game mode then lmao.