Champion complexity/difficulty VS Power Budget.

As I'm sure everyone knows at this point Riot's not been as worried as they should be about budgeting the power of champions lately, so I'm gonna take a shot at weeding out the root of the problem. I'd say the issue lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of what complexity and difficulty are, and the fact that riot isn't adding complexity to kits, they're adding power instead.

Let's look at the poster girl for 'difficult' champions: . Everyone will tell you Riven is difficult to play so she should be stronger than the average champion. That might theoretically be true, but ONLY IF THAT DIFFICULTY GATES HER POWER Which it doesn't. Now my Riven is beyond boosted, but on the very rare occasions I've played her I tend to do at least halfway decently, not because I know the first thing about animation canceling or any of the skill ceiling tricks that make her 'difficult' but because I can flip flash at which point the rest of her combo is hit confirm and can oneshot squishies like an assassin. (For those of you who don't know what hit confirm is, new players and the like: Hit confirm is when a spell cannot be missed outside of extreme circumstances. Qiyana's EQ is hit confirm; point and click that essentially makes her other spell point and click unless you can cover about a screen of distance in the same frame her E connects.)

What this suggests to me is that somewhere along the line they got Skill Ceiling and Skill Floor mixed up at the very least. Riven isn't bad on rate compared to other champions just by looking at her numbers/scaling. She has more mobility than the vast majority of the roster, and it's unconditional. She has bigger and better AoE hard cc/engage than most tanks and enough damage to overkill any target that might be able to threaten her eventually in one combo. She has low cooldowns, an execute, more abilities than any other champion in the game etc. Now I won't be the one to tell you riven is hilariously overtuned right now, but you can't deny her kit is Strong.

Now the important part here is that is not more difficult than say to get at least passable results with, in fact I'd say she's easier, not because her combo is necessarily physically easier to execute but just because she's allowed to do more. Anyone who's played vs a Riven, especially if they're only marginally familiar with the champion themselves can tell you trading into her is an absolute nightmare. Even if you can stat check her, she can mobility/cc, whatever check you in response. Almost no one, with the possible exception of (ironically enough) a particularly well played is allowed to impose their trade/all in or what have you on as well as they might like unless the pilot makes a particularly egregious error, and she's a time bomb who'll outscale unless you can find some way to completely dumpster her. (This doesn't stop her flash oneshotting your backline, but that's a problem with so many champions these days I can't fault Riven specifically for it. Hell, the fact she even needs to flash or find an intelligent flank is honestly a point in her favor.)

Now at the very top end of individual play is a monster the likes of which we'll probably never see again. The animation cancel plays are absolutely nuts and they allow her to essentially do everything when played by a real master. That would be fine in theory, and I can respect to a degree mastery of a champion to that level. Do I think she should be able to do quite as much as she can? No, but that's another argument. The point is that she can only do that Because her kit has so much inherent power in it ALREADY that can be used by the average player along with a mechanical gimmick that breaks her at the highest levels of solo play.

Now let's say lost the stun on her w, or the shield on her E; she'd probably suck worse than your iron 5 bot lane trying to play up against Double and Aphro. But let's consider that if you WE cancel you get the whole package. That Gates the power in her kit behind whether or not you know about/can execute the animation cancels the champion is known for. Can't do it consistently? Well then you have to take the power deficit till you can. Hell, you could even lock the execute on her ult behind canceling out of it with her E. I don't think these are actual viable changes, that should be left up to someone more qualified than myself, but the concept stands.

Tl:DR: Adding power into a champion to increase their complexity has the opposite effect on their skill floor, and 'difficulty' is only actual difficulty if there's a gate or a skill you need to get minimum effectiveness. Or put simply, a higher skill ceiling needs a higher skill floor to balance or you just get overpowered kits.

Hopefully this is in the right board; could be general discussion, but since it's balance related I'd assume at least that it belongs here. It's not intended as a dig on Riven specifically, she's just an easy example.