What is balance, baby don't hurt me
I quit League around mid to late season 3. I was bored with the game. I was a Riven main and I carried myself to Platinum with this brokenly overpowered champion. It bored me to death, but like anyone else in ranked, I played to win. Obviously, at a certain point, I got tired of LoL and quit for other games like Dota 2 and Heroes of the Storm. The flexibility and innovation with character designs in those games was a breath of fresh air. I could build silly items and still be viable in Dota 2. I could take a silly talent tree like in Heroes and still be relevant. It was the diversity and ability to change up my gameplay that made it enjoyable.
Enough of the past. I came back to LoL recently. Given almost 3 years of time had passed, I was hoping the gameplay would have matured and hopefully become more balanced. What I was greeted with upon playing again was nothing short of a laughingstock of horrible Q&A and TERRIBLE hero ideas and designs. Riven, in the new item system, is stronger than EVER. The new Hydra is so strong it makes me want to puke. It's not a big surprise almost EVERY MELEE IN THE GAME RUSHES IT. Yasuo, this new samurai champion, is so broken it makes me want to cry. His Wind Wall blocks ultimates and is instantly deployed upon use, making several characters almost useless against a decent Yasuo player. Sona? Never getting that ult off. Janna? Why even bother. Morgana or Lux? Useless~!
That also brings something else to my attention. Playing Dota 2, there were several heroes and abilities that had the ability to drain your mana or their abilities changed based on how much mana you have. In LoL, some champions don't even HAVE mana, but CLEARLY use magic. So I got to thinking something that ACTUALLY makes me upset: Garen and Riven don't use mana. At all. Darius does. WHY!? Speaking from a purely conceptual viewpoint, there is NO REASON FOR DARIUS TO USE MANA. Garen can summon a huge fucking sword make of light from the sky and doesn't use mana, but Darius, just SWINGING HIS AXE IN A CIRCLE, does. WHY!? Who thought this was good character design!? Garen and Riven can mash their keys for days, but Darius has to worry about mana costs? I can't even tell you the number of times I've been unable to kill someone or suddenly become useless earlygame as Darius because of my mana costs. And GUESS WHAT KIDS, the popular champions toplane? Most don't use mana. I WONDER IF THAT CONTRIBUTES TO THEM BEING OVERPOWERED AND EASIER TO PLAY AND MASTER? HMMMMMMM.
Hey, Riot. Maybe don't make champions without a resource bar do the same damage as people who have to manage that same bar. It's not fair, makes their champions so much easier to play, and inhibits my ability to use my champion. I understand casters, mages and supports using mana. But Caitlynn just shooting her gun doesn't make sense and honestly just ruins the game. Using MANA to balance characters, and then turning around to remove that same inhibiting resource bar from other champions makes no SENSE.
