Daily reminder Meddler nerfed Swain cause win rate

[{quoted}](name=A Miss Fortune,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=px6AU3yO,comment-id=00080002,timestamp=2016-01-02T21:59:40.158+0000)

Riot's balance team has absolutely no intention of really balancing the game. They just want the game to be enjoyable for the most part but even then they're extremely underperforming.

Sometimes I just wonder what Riot's balance team actually does for work. I'm assuming they work typically 4 - 5 days of the week and work typically 8 - 12 hours on the days they do work, but what do they actually do?

Sorry but I don't think it takes me 8 hours to figure out "hmm, Tahm with 6 Warmogs able to one shot people doesn't seem quite right.". Remind me again why almost all of Riot's balance team is Bronze 5 - Silver 5.

Since when is the vast majority of Riot's balance team Bronze?

neither sion nor sejuani were bad after nerfs or right now fight me about it

I'd say optimistic, but still a little right. What's best for the sport isn't inherently what's best for the player.

I don't see a connection between game health and their intent to make games shorter this season. If anything, it reduces the potential for comebacks and reduces the effectiveness of late buffs like 5th dragon because most games end before a team is able to get it. Couple this with towers falling faster than before and suddenly champs that rely heavily on farm to succeed are in a much worse spot this season, despite them not being a problem before.

There were multiple threads when the tank meta popped up a few months ago praising Riot for the state the game was in, the people against it mostly being marksmen mains. People didn't praise Riot during the assassin meta, the marksman meta, but the tank meta is what felt fair. Aside from the standard reasoning of "cut off the top of the power curve", Riot provided almost no explanation for why the nerfs went through the way they did. Riot's also incredibly unwilling to buff the tank related objects because "we like to shift the window of popular champions", yet the versatile monster of Lee Sin has almost never lost his fervor and Zed (and other assassins) is getting a shiny new item despite already being picked one of the most picked champs currently (alongside other currently strong champs like Rengar).

Finally, it's in Riot's best interest to keep the hype for this game going as strong as it is. If it ever reached a stable point, after a while people would think that the game would feel repetitive, strategies would become stale, and the fanbase for the game would start to drop. Something always needs to change even if the game's in a good state in order to prevent that. So while Riot does do what's "best for the sport" that doesn't equate to being what's best for the player.

i remember it. It was the best thing for the sport. Why else would riot do it. all they did in was give everyone else something to talk about while watching hour long pregame shows for a sporting event. It gave people a story line, what juggernauts make it into LSC, will mort get through the ban phase? stay tuned for an hour and find out!

you guys don't see the disconnect between making the former game league of legends fun and balanced, VS doing what is best for the ESPORT. they pushed mort out for the tune of 1 billion dollars!!! yea baby!!! ESPORTS

Trundle is strong because of the meta. He is incredibly weak in fast moving mobile fights and strong in immobile arena style fights.

Same with

I actually have a friend IRL that cosplayed as Swain. But you're right, even men dress as Ahri.

What makes me scratch my head is that Riot nerfed the part of his kit least associated with what was making him overbearing (his DoT doing more through DFT). By nerfing his W, metaphorically speaking, they took the cane away from the hobbling bird-man; It usually expires against a good opponent before he can hobble to them.

It's even worse when he's easier to itemize against than Zed. ADCs are ridiculously powerful right now, so is already a potentiall powerful item later, and Morellonomicon is a core-build item on most mages. It's even funnier when Mortal Reminder was rarely built during Swain's peak and ADC/AD mains would complain that he was too strong. That didn't even mention Merc Treads and a buffed Hexdrinker/Merc Scimitar.

Then there's the fact that Brand was relatively left unscathed despite being strong for the exact same reason (DFT). His mana costs were slightly nerfed and he is still having a relatively good Winrate-Pickrate (54%W-9%P) ratio where Swain hardly reaches 49%W-2%P. Then again, Brand actually loses to Ahri statistically, so maybe we're not too far from the conspiracy tree on this one given Swain was a renowned counterpick for Ahri and Zed.

My point is mostly that Riot handled the situation poorly, just as they did with Hecarim and Viktor. I don't want to call favoritism because it's insulting to the respective designers/teams, which I don't want to insult any of them under any sane circumstance, but they seem to really bare down hard on certain champions more than others that are easily proving to be more successful. It becomes more irritating when those same successful champions are seeing more buffs than nerfs because their popularity goes above 15% for more than a few patches.