Like Dad always says, "If ain't broken, don't fix it".

..But that's exactly what they are trying to do with patch 5.22.

The game overall felt like it was in a good place back in 5.21. Admittedly after the juggernaut update, Top had its winners with a few particular champions, but nothing overly egregious. Jungle could farm sufficiently and still provide support to other lanes even after Monster's durability and damage output were buffed. Mid didn't receive much attention save for new and improved items, but that was enough in so much as it allowed different item paths to build into where they didn’t exist before. Bot received light adjustment, but then Bot hasn’t really changed in the last 5 seasons, and rightfully so. The result of a game is often determined by how your ADC/Support performs in lane.

Essentially, LoL and it's developers are always trying to reinvent the wheel each and every season. I understand some change is necessary and we learn to adapt, but what they've done with patch 5.22 is erroneous and over the top.

And that is where I'll start. I don’t want this to get too lengthy, so I’ll summarize and bullet point the things I see wrong with this patch as there is very little working well at the moment. This is clearly expressed by A LOT of negative feedback from the community, and it’s justifiably so. Fill me in if I miss anything that is essential to why 5.22 isn’t working, I'm sure I'm missing a bunch..

• Selecting a group of 6 ADC and giving them arguably superior “identity”, which often I find translates into power. Pair this with a plethora of new items designed at DESTORYING whatever it is an ADC intends on destroying, and you’ve essentially fucked with a fine balance of power that’s been enjoyed since the inception of this game.

• Nerfing the strength of towers, making them weaker while intending to make minions stronger. Games are ending far too quickly, and there is little room to sway the tides of victory once a team has the upper hand, particularly in those crucial early minutes.

• MANA POTIONS. Why on earth would you take these away? There are far too many champions that rely very heavily on mana, and playing a mana heavy champions against an energy, rage, etc. type champion easily gives your opponent the upper hand. This problem is compounded even further when you play specific champions that have skillshots that are designed to be used often. (I.E Ezreal, Veigs, Ori, etc) This can render them mana deprived very early, creating a disparity that has no easy or cost efficient remedy. And that’s just a Mid lane comparison, any Junglers dependent on mana feel the effects early as well.

• Nerfing AP items. Made the likes of Yas, Zed, etc. more prevalent, and generally just a big middle finger to Mid laner casters for no reason.

• Removal of items unnecessary. MORE is better. More choices, more item paths, more diversity. Why are you getting rid of pocket picks, or builds that people used on the regular? If it’s only for the sake of introducing new OP items that would create redundancies, well that’s just not a very good reason to make new items.

• Vision. Warding has always been a big part of this game. And suddenly it isn’t as important with 5.22. Vision is and has always been critical to success. Any pro can tell you that. Why are we no longer able to make educated decisions on what when to engage and on who because of lack of wards? Playing blind is never ideal, but with less wards, and the inability to purchase greens that’s essential what you’ve created.

• Masteries. Why so linear? Why so simple? We simply aren’t allowed to make the ideal build path, because you don’t want us to. We have to pick one or the other. Too WoW’ish.

• Jungle item pathing is just so unnecessarily complex. And why remove Trailblazer? Tanky jungles relied on this item so much, now they have such a difficult time in the early stage of the game.