The Interim 6.12 Balance Analysis and Discussion Thread

Since Riot's not really showing up to discuss matters of balance right now, we'll have to do it ourselves.

With data.

And analysis.

All data is taken from champion.gg (which means plat+ ranked games, people) or other sources.

Since last time was all about champions changed in the recent patch, this time will be about balance outliers! Namely, the top 5 winrate champions in every lane besides ADC!

TOP

Irelia. Irelia Irelia Irelia. They changed Triforce from crit to attack speed, and she rocketed right into broketown. Fortunately she's getting her ult CD nerfed, but who knows if it'll actually change much?

Sion. You might not think much of him, but he's got a pretty good winrate for all that his playrate is below average. Of course, this has more to do with being a tank and also a massive lane bully, but still. You should definitely not underestimate Sion or Sion players.

Pantheon. This guy. He's always always always been strong in the top lane, being the epitome of lane bullies, but the nerfs that Riot have been making to sustain have only exaggerated that. Maybe it's time to finally give him 350 movement speed, and actually let other champs have a chance at outrunning him?

Ah, Kayle. Walks up to you, pops E, and out trades you for free. And of course E is never down after any amount of CDR and she doesn't actually have meaningful mana costs, because why would she? What an incredibly interesting and not faceroll at all champion. Thankfully she's so boring that not many people play her. The Fervor of Battle change has helped this a little, but not by any great degree.

Honestly, fuck Swain. They could treble the cooldown on his ult (and it would still only be 30 seconds at base, lol) and it still wouldn't solve the actual problem of him never needing to come out of his ult (which makes him practically unkillable) in the first place. I suppose we'll see what them doubling the CD will do, but it probably won't be enough. Srsly, when a champ's dominating two lanes, you know there's a serious problem.

JUNGLE

He's rough, he's tough, his passive makes him unkillable and he's the king of early ganks, it's Volibear! And he's indubitably overpowered. 54-55% winrates for months on end should have been addressed far, far before this date, and even then he's only facing the lightest of lovetaps. I'm calling it now, Riot's going to have to revisit him.

I mean, there are champs who are underground, but few of them are quite so underground as our scorpion buddy Skarner. He's consistenly had good winrates for a while now, but his unappealing kit and the fact that you do actually need a few games into him to unlock the full broken potential means he's fairly underplayed. Nevertheless, he's currently sporting a 54% winrate in ranked and is just waiting in the wings...

Fiddlesticks is no stranger to being an outlier, having one of the weirdest kits in the game. On the one hand, his kit's own weirdness means he's not that popular. On the other hand, he's got one of the most dedicated playerbases in the game, and even for people new to the scarecrow he isn't exactly weak. As one of the few junglers who doesn't take Strength of Ages and benefit from that mastery being relatively overpowered, he bears watching. Oh, and a hearty lol at every single person bitching that the MYMU was nothing but nerfs to him.

Hecarim. Triforce having more attack speed and CDR means Hecarim is more powerful. 'Nuff said. Still, his (frankly massive) rise in popularity and winrate means that nerfs are probably going to have to come to either the pony or his favorite toy.

And then there's Sejuani. Jeez, talk about a champ that I never expected to show up here again. With the way absolutely every Sej main in the world bitches about her when the topic comes up, you'd think she was absolutely trash right now. But nope, she's chugging along with a nice, steady 53% winrate, and all it takes to access that sweet, tanky goodness is a little learning. Popularity's on the upswing, too.

...You know, as a note to myself and everybody else here, four of these 5 champs use Strength of the Ages, and have since it was introduced. It just might be time for Riot to take a long, hard, nerf-y look at that mastery.

MID

Hey, you remember how I talked about how a champion dominating two different roles is a good sign that something's wrong? Gueeeeeeeesssss whoooooooooo...it's Vel'Koz. A champ that Riot buffed for no reason in 6.11, and who immediately rocketed back into broketown again. Seriously, this is one case where Riot should revert a previous buff, he was perfectly fine before (even if Vel'Koz players had to get used to playing a balanced champ).

You don't get much more outlier-ish than our friend Malzahar. Really, he's been a problem ever since the MYMU, not that he was ever anything other than too powerful for Ranked play and not interesting enough for pro play. Now, though...let's be real, he's OP. He's got a massive winrate (~54%) middle, an amazing ban rate, and is even used in both the jungle and toplane to some success. And it all comes down to his passive, which...well, basically makes him immune to both burst and hard engage at the same time. I don't know what exactly should be done about him, but the only thing that comes to mind is making the choice of changing it to either not last for 1 second after it is popped, or not having it stop CC at all. Changing the cooldown on it again won't make enough of a difference to actually matter unless it's an absolutely huge change.

Let's see...builds RoA? Check. Not terribly popular? Check. Still amazingly powerful? That's a checkaroni. Aurelion Sol flies right along.

Swain again. Nothing to see here, folks.

Anivia's back again, and she's still just a little way too strong. Seems the catalyst (and RoA) changes just didn't go far enough.

Bonus mention! You know that champ that just recently got buffed, and had half of everybody else clamoring for more buffs? She's building RoA, and she's starting to look absolutely broken. Thaaaaaaaaaat's right! It only took Taliyah two patches and some small buffs to reach a 53% winrate, boys and girls! [slayer-jinx-unamused] ...Yeah, honestly, might need to look towards heavier RoA nerfs. Or (heaven forfend), the other common item found on this group, .

SUPPORT

Whoo boy, Zyra. Rather balanced as a champ, then along came the MYMU, and off like a rocket into broketown she went. The W CD nerf on the PBE isn't going to do anything near enough.

Ah, Blitzcrank. Everybody's least favorite hookbot. Well, I say everybody, but considering his play rate and winrate, it's more like everybody not playing Blitz. Which is nobody. He's going to see nerfs to his ult's early CD, but I'm of the opinion it's not going to affect him in fashions that matter the most.

Janna is...le sigh, Janna. She's powerful, she's picked, she's underappreciated. At least she has one absolute hell of a dedicated playerbase. Not for noobs, boys and girls.

Nothing to see here folks, just another overpowered champion.

As the most recent champion to receive a rework, it turns out Taric is actually the Shield of everybody's winrates. Still, he's not the absolute strongest, and he sure is pretty...