Item balance chart based off Champion balance chart

Galiö·May 22, 2019·10 votes·8,557 views

Recently riot had been doing more work of buffing weaker champions and mini gameplay reworks to many champions.

They are trying to make a structure through a chart that will provide some information as to provide nerfs/buffs on top of their standard approach of selecting champions to adjust.

I was wondering if this can also be applied to items?

Nerf an item based on playrate/winrate and buff a couple items based off playrate/winrate every other patch or so; as to not create too many variables as to which champions are adjusted every patch.

Itll be nice to expand focus to itemization, even in minor ways, rather than always focusing on champions.

11 Comments

R4ndom F1nnMay 22, 20194 votes

That feeling when some champs suck so much they aren't even on the chart

GaliöMay 22, 20196 votes

I think they are all there. Just not everything is labeled in that image.

ShahamutMay 23, 20191 votes

Skarner ?

I bet he isnt on the list XD

GaliöMay 23, 20191 votes

Why wouldn't he be. He has pretty good winrate for like... 3 months now. Not too high for nerfs and not low for buffs

ShahamutMay 23, 20191 votes

except that he is so unpopular that Riot forgets he is there until someone picks him in LCS.

GlaricionMay 22, 20193 votes

I think that it'd be pretty hard to do a graph like that for items. There are core items, win-more items, snowball items, items that are only picked up by/against one or two champions, items that are only picked up if you are very far into your build...

Would end up being a series of conditional graphs and tables.

Just look at stormrazor, it is great on Kai'sa for cheesing out evolutions, but on everyone else it (seems to be) sub-optimal, even after the series of buffs (fun to use though).

Probably better to think of item balancing as a way to indirectly rebalance classes, manipulate power curves, and (dis/en)courage certain builds. Speaking of items, ¿AP BRUISER ITEMS CUANDO?

SH AzykanMay 22, 20191 votes

wait some champs are labeled twice? How do they have 2 separate win/banrates for the same champ on the same patch?

5050BSMay 22, 20193 votes

Yasuo Top Yasuo Mid Yasuo Jungle Yasuo ADC

ThisName1sDumbMay 22, 20192 votes

[{quoted}](name=Cry4 Azykan,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=nMh4u2Zy,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2019-05-22T22:36:05.369+0000)

wait some champs are labeled twice? How do they have 2 separate win/banrates for the same champ on the same patch?

Different roles

ModCaptainMårvelousMay 23, 20191 votes

I was wondering if this can also be applied to items?

Not really. Champions are exclusive to themselves and are affected by items/runes. Conversely, Runes/Items can apply to a variety of different champions so the comparison doesn't really work.

As an example: Let's say Yuumi has a 60% winrate. While it might be items she's abusing or a rune that's broken with her kit, the problem still primarily lies with Yuumi, which means we can buff her counters, nerf her kit or nerf aspects she uses.

Now let's say Athene's has a 57% winrate. However, Yuumi is pushing this up due to always building it. Conversely, other champs who build this item (Such as Janna or Soraka) only have around a 45-52% win rate. A bit of a spread but we don't know if this item is busted or not. Granted, there are times when items can be broken. Those cases are often because it raises an entire class of champions up. However, this could ALSO mean that the class of champion is meta, such as when IE has a massive winrate because so many champs build it in an ADC meta.

So some criteria for if an item is BUSTED busted:

A low usage item has a massive winrate (AKA: Only Volibear builds Bear Gloves. Bear gloves have an 80% win rate)
A high usage item with a high winrate across some classes (All supports building Banner of Command)
A high usage item with a decent winrate across ALL classes (Everyone using Thunderlord's Decree)

TL;DR Items have far more variables for why it could be/is broken than a champions do.

GaliöMay 23, 20191 votes

I agree somewhat, but those variable can typically be applied to champions as well.

Although items have more variables, it isnt much different from champions.

Champions like lissandra were considered garbage until people played her with aftershock for example.

Most champions that's prioritize aftershock over other runes tend to be strong, however the game balances the champions while leaving runes mostly unchanged.

Sometimes there is a class of items that make champions strong and the ones that are too strong get nerfed until the champions with different itemization can outclass them.

Edit: I know itll be initially harder due to niche items and "troll items' -manamune (ezreal) -iceborn (mostly ezreal) -hextech gunblade (katarina and akali) -hextech GLP (glacial augment) -ohmwreckers (that one alistar one trick or griefers)