Last patch feedback post.

I wrote enough feedback for the last patch as part of the feedback survey I felt I should post it here. That way someone might actually see it. I'll be surprised if any positive responses are made to it.

Most of the changes I can agree with and push their respective champs in the right direction, however there are a few changes I disagree with and which I feel are extensions of the direction LoL has been going for a while (which I disagree with). Specifically, I completely disagree with Sion's rework, Akali's nerf (and there is no way to pretend that it wasn't a nerf), and the Ezreal buff.

• Sion (IDK how my attempts at formatting will hold out): Pinning down specific components of the Sion rework that I dislike is difficult. In truth, I despise it in its entirety; though that total disdain is, as previously stated, more a reflection of my anger at the direction this game has taken since the end of Season 2 than anything else. Mainly I dislike the lack of any respect for his AP build path. Riot has been systematically reworking/changing champions who can be built either AP or AD, as well as hybrid champions, to force them into building only AP or only AD, with any vestigial ratios of the forsaken Stat left as a late-game avenue for minor additional power through Baron and Potions. Rather than providing decent hybrid itemization and/or providing more corollaries between AP and AD items, which would greatly ease the building of such champions, Riot has chosen to simply dumb-down the entire build process by needlessly simplifying champion kits. Back to Sion though. The charging skillshot is a poor replacement for Sion's old stun, and additionally is an, at this point, over-used mechanic. It was refreshingly new when used on Varus and feels right on Vi and Xerath, however it is pathetically clumsy on Sion. The combination of his shield and health snowballing, and the rank-irrespective percent-max-health-scaling thereon removes any thought required in determining his optimal skill order, as well as providing him excessive free damage that is off-type (he's now an AD/Physical Damage champ with significant free magic damage). I honestly don't have too much issue with his new E, sans that isn't his old E and it's scaling again reinforces the Q-first skill order (a dumbing-down of the champion). His ult is a knock-off of Malphite's Unstoppable Force that trades versatility for raw damage, which results in its range being borderline useless. Further, the distinctive, global audio key played upon it's activation gives those outside of visual range plenty of time to get out of the way. Finally, his passive is another over-used mechanic: auto-ressurection. While some effort has been made to limit the strength provided by this mechanic (namely by placing it in the revenge-res sub-category) it is still quite simply bad-form. Champions which can ressurect themselves present an unhealthy situation in which they are either balanced with that ability in mind, and thus are made weaker than other champions of their class whilst alive, or the rest of their kits are balanced without respect to the rest of their kits and thereby left over-powered while alive. Additionally it simply creates the problem that such a champion is disproportionately hard to achieve a true and fulfilling victory against. Unless you completely dominate him, he's likely to kill you after you kill him, which leaves both players sour. The "victor" feels cheated, as Sion receives significant damage and sustain steroids after death and gets that second chance, while the Sion player is left knowing that they only managed to get the kill because of the massive steroid they got following death. In team fights, the MS boost Sion gets becomes borderline useless, as just about any team will have the CC to kite Sion. At the same time, It presents the same problem as it does in lane: the opposing team feels cheated for having to deal with a threat which cannot be ignored despite having kill the guy. The Sion player is unlikely to feel bad at this point however, as they are providing a significant threat even after death. I honestly feel that Anivia and Karthus are the only properly implemented cases of auto-resurrection. I need to get on to the other parts of this patch, but I welcome the opportunity to open a conversation on this and over topics of LoL's design and direction. (Username Learn34, email [email protected]). 2* Akali: This is more a direction disagreement. In the context of Akali as an assassin, this patch's change makes perfect sense. My issue is that I feel Akali was and should be a hybrid carry, not an assassin. To make Akali a healthier champion requires changes to the available items and to more than just one part of a single ability. I have included nebulous suggestions below, which would need to be numerically defined and verified though mathematical analysis:
  • Change Twin Disciplines back to requiring her to build both AD and AP before the bonuses kick in. The base bonuses would be equal in strength to what she would have at present were she to build the threshold values of AP and AD.
  • Change Mark of the Assassin to deal AD-scaling, spell-vamp-procing physical damage on the initial cast, but for the mark-triggering to deal lifesteal-procing magic damage (you've already got the code basis for this in Nidalee's Takedown).
  • Twilight Shroud I'm not sure on, besides bring it back to providing bonus Armor and MR. You could shift it so that instead of being an AoE stealth and slow field it granted Akali bonus Armor and MR, as well as a personal stealth (think Twitch, Rengar, etc.) which broke on using champion/summoner spells, items, and attacking. It's duration and CD would need to be altered to effectively balance it.
  • Crescent Slash will likely need it's scaling altered, and might need to have it's damage type shifted to Magic or Mixed damage (more on that later).
  • Shadow Dance needs to have a CD between casts instilled. This will force Akali's damage out over a longer time. The damage type (and thus scaling) will likely need to be modified.
  • The general goal of this rework would be to force Akali to build both AP and AD (this is how every hybrid should be balanced), deal equal (+/- 10%) amounts magic and physical damage, and slow down her damage output while providing her the sustain that requires, thereby shifting her from an Assassin to a Carry. The first two of these goals is achieved by mathematically modeling how she scales with the stats available to her, and modulating her ratios to ensure she gets the most output for putting her gold into both AD and AP, as well as benefiting equally from the two stats. Subjectively, this can be achieved by giving her ratios which are individually too low to build straight AD or straight AP, but when combined leaves her with higher-total scaling than is found on straight-forward champs. This scaling and damage modulating practice should be used on all hybrids. They trade easy early-game itemization for better late-game scaling than their straight-stat counterparts. The last goal, spreading her damage output over a longer period of time, is central to the distinction between Assassins and Carries. Assassins should be able to annihilate any one champion, even one built full tank, but then contribute nothing more for a prolonged period. In other words, they get to kill one person of they play their cards perfectly, but once they've kill someone and gotten out, they're absolutely, completely done for a few minutes (outside of auto-attacks): no further contribution to a teamfight, no innate wave-clear, etc. A Carry, on the other hand, deals more damage than an Assassin and has more room to fuck up, but deals that damage over a much longer period of time and, as a result, has to build sustain (spell vamp and/or lifesteal) in order to survive and is far easier to kite/stop. To summarize the difference I feel should exist between Carries and Assassins: Assassins get extremely compressed damage output but pay a severe penalty in their overall DPS, while Carries take a while to get their damage out while benefiting from greater overall DPS. On this note, fix Yi, he's an abomination at present. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest removing the AA-based CDR on Alpha Strike and change his ult to grant high values of tenacity (70%+), rather than slow-immunity. That way he remains targetable whilst still being able to stick to his targets. Burst or High DPS, not both. 3* Ezreal: Basically the same stuff I've been saying. He was intended as a hybrid when created, he used to be played that way, see my comments on Akali. I will re-state that proper hybrid itemization needs to be created. The best way to set up the items, I feel, would be to make corollaries of any given item in all three stat foci (AP, AD, and Hybrid). Further discussion would get into all the ideas I'm putting into a hypothetical rework of the game, and I just don't have time to type it all out atm.