This seems a little backwards.

Onotori·Apr 13, 2018·3 votes·821 views

Irelia comes out, and not only is she hotfix nerfed, she's nerfed again next patch. What's her winrate? Oh, between 48 and 49%. She struggles in lane and can hardly fight most tops and mids early, and only comes into her own late game.

Kai'sa comes out, she gets hotfix buffed, and then buffed again. What's her winrate? Oh, 54%? Not one nerf slated for her, despite having a 20% pickrate and a 54% winrate (meaning she's literally freelo, but hey).

See, thing is, Irelia has a higher skillcap now, and whales can't play her. Not only that, but she can actually compete with ADCs late game, and that's not allowed. So she's being nerfed repeatedly to prevent that. Kai'sa, on the other hand, is braindead and an ADC, so whales love her -- which means Riot does too.

Isn't F2P neat? So glad it's a popular thing now.

8 Comments

HalcyonDwellerApr 13, 20183 votes

They explained their current policy with balance on-release, they aim in a direction and they are trying to avoid the balance oscillations caused by repeatedly buffing and nerfing back and forth. By moving in one direction and giving more time between changes, they reduce the chances of missing the target when they finally do make the needed changes in the future, as I'm sure they will do for Kai'sa.

OnotoriApr 13, 20181 votes

So, let me translate that into English: "We want to milk the brokens as long as we can get away with."

HalcyonDwellerApr 13, 20182 votes

That's really not the case. When you assume malicious intent you're going to see it everywhere even when it's not there. Stop spouting conspiracy theories, Riot isn't trying to milk anything.

Alistar "You can't milk those!"

OnotoriApr 14, 20181 votes

Well, Kai'sa has been overperforming since her release -- and that was what, March 7th (more than a month ago)? They've known she's broken for a long time now, and yet her one and only change was a buff.

Now, if you ask me, that looks a bit like Riot is trying to milk it, doesn't it?

HalcyonDwellerApr 14, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Well, Kai'sa has been overperforming since her release -- and that was what, March 7th (more than a month ago)? They've known she's broken for a long time now, and yet her one and only change was a buff.

Now, if you ask me, that looks a bit like Riot is trying to milk it, doesn't it?

They slowed down patch cycles with the 1-big-1-small strategy this season, and with another character release since Kai'Sa, they've added more to manage as well.

It can look like any number of things. It could be due to caution, incompetence, or misguided good intentions as well. Don't use Occam's Razor when you've failed to eliminate other possibilities first. And to be honest it's way worse for your arguments when you assume malice, which is extreme and unlikely already, add that to the failed Occam's Razor and you've got a really poorly supported conspiracy theory.