"Laning phase is so boring right now" ~ Controversial Opinion Incoming

Riot gave you what you asked, maybe not you, but the community.

You asked for Assassins and any playable fighters mid to be nerfed.

You asked for champions like and to not be stompy

You asked for champions like and to be nerfed, when they were prominent for "so long" Not saying they weren't prominent, but they are gank heavy junglers that force early game plays

You asked for invis to be nerfed, so champions like and got reworked or nerfed because they dealt "too much damage after coming out of invis"

You said champions like and were too overpowered, and that their laning was toxic.

You said that mages like and ADCs like could be too agro when they were good midlane and bottom

You said that champions like and dealt too much damage, and were too hard to avoid

You said champions like were to good early game, despite being actual garbage lategame

You said champions like need power pulled out of their main abilities, despite them being able to force plays on people who play safe

You said and roams are too overpowered for their lategame potential, and they make playing agro too hard because you get caught, or dove because you were too low.

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All of these are examples of what could be considered unhealthy qualities about champions, that were hated. In a good number of these examples the champions were nerfed accordingly. But do you see what all of these champions have in common? They start fights, and have the ability to win those fights

They were able to start fights on otherwise safe and farm heavy players, and this caused outrage.

People don't like getting stomped in laning, they'd rather have a chance outside of laning. They'd rather play safe and get stomped lategame because they finally made one mistake, and that mistake costs them loads.

The thing about people playing safe in lane is that there is no way to punish them without dives anymore without simply being better than them at playing safe.

Most if not all of the problems with League right now can be directly correlated with Assassins and early game champions being nerfed

"ADCs are too strong, they scale and just fuck our team up, and the entire team is just built around protecting them" - This was a problem earlier this year and late last year, this could easily have been solved by allowing early game champions to actually be a threat to ADCs and Mages

"The tank meta toplane is so cancer, why is it that we need to pick tanks just to protect ADCs?" - Assassins can't kill ADCs without being gloriously ahead, or if an ADC walks into an Assassin alone. Even in these scenarios, there can still be trouble. If ADCs can't be killed by Assassins or fighters, it is just better to peel for them. Also, because fighters were nerfed, playing a safe tank toplaner is much safer than picking a fighter.

"Supports are so damn strong wth, legit every item is overloaded with them!" - It's because ADCs were complaining about being killed, and now Assassins can't kill them when their supports are there. This caused riot to not only buff ADCs, but also their itemization and support itemization.

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These are a few examples where Assassins and Fighters becoming vialbe could be the solution.

I'm not saying it is the only solution, or that they should be able to kill ADCs without a second thought from behind, but what I am saying is:

Nerfing these champions makes it so making one mistake costs you the entire game. It's just that simple.

When the entire game is about playing safe, and when champions that play agro are in the minority, you have no way to make a play on an enemy team with a gold lead. You can't have a Zed catch out and kill an alone head ADC because "I'm 4/1 as cait, a 2/2 Zed shouldn't be able to oneshot me!!!!"

Without champions that can make plays on a key target, the game becomes a state of "Which Key Target becomes the key target"

Now adays when the enemy gets a lead, you just play passive and hope that they fuck up

With characters like Zed on the enemy team, it is possible to force someone to make a mistake by simply zoning them into a bad position. Because no matter what, a Zed should pose a threat to an ADC. Because that is his ONLY Use

These champions trade their lategame for their strong early game, and aslong as the community forces their Early game to be average, then ADCs will always be meta. And ranged ADCs will always be meta, because it's easier to play safe as a ranged ADC, then a melee one.

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I believe that the solution to the stuck meta is making champions that are aggressive good early game to the point where you should need to put resources midlane to keep a mage afloat. If the mage is able to stay afloat, then the Assassin deserves to lose.

The game should be based on Who can predict and punish mistakes better not Who can make less mistakes.

If you balance the game around making less mistakes, you essentially reward playing safe 100% of the time except when you have a massive lead mid-lategame.