Riot's Biggest Balance Problem? No Vision.
And yes, I did intend that pun.
What I mean is; Riot can't actually achieve any balance because they have no coherent vision for what balance is even supposed to look like. They have no overarcing goal; no destination. They're just wandering aimlessly and hoping they arrive there by some sort of divine providence.
When you look at other MOBAs, you can roughly tell what their overarcing balance goals are.
DotA 2? As many viable Heroes as possible, with as many playstyles as possible while not letting anything get too cheesy.
Smite? See above.
Heroes of the Storm? Focus on teamfighting and teamwork, while keeping a little bit of soloing there as well.
And their patches, balance changes and Characters reflect this.
Can anyone actually point to what Riot's overarcing balance and design goals are?
They'll tell us they want diversity in Champion roles, like having more impactful Support Characters - then 
escape Bot Lane and 
. But then let 
run rampant through Bot lane.
They'll tell us they want Junglers to be more involved and have more options; then they make 
the go-to item and put 
etc. above everyone else. Then have to backtrack and nerf it.
Tell us they want Melees to be more relevant and tankier characters to stand out - so they make 
God Tier and 
Top Tier and let 
etc. rot.
And that isn't getting into the item changes that make no sense.
How can you achieve any kind of balance when you keep changing what the target is?
