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I wholeheartedly believe that League is unflavorful and incredibly unbalanced right now.

Blumpkin Nation··2 votes·829 views

Let's be honest here, they keep creating champions who have nothing but stale or overcompensated kits. Either they bring too much CC, damage, or utility. Sometimes all of the above.

I don't know a lot about balance, but I do know you're not suppose to make champions who specifically (coincidentally or not) counter one enough.

A healthy way to make counters is to have a better selection of items. It's available to everyone. With the current Meta of tanks, why would you ever choose Liandry's? Yes, the damage adds up over time but not many teamfights are drawn out enough to make use of it. WHY wouldn't you create an item that melts a target's Magic Resist every time they're damage by a magic attack (similar to black cleaver) or bring back Blackfire Torch.

Riot has been stubborn (albeit they have added SOME items) and has kept a majority of the items the same. It's gotten pretty stale. We're into our 4th Season now and the itemization is poor for all situations.

There are so many champions and yet we still only get 3 bans. You cannot possibly prepare yourself for every contingency. We're not Batman, Riot. How do you deal with the tank Meta when you have a newly overbuffed Galio (thanks to his stronger ult and 2 second taunt which can't be reduced by tenacity). How do you counter that? By buying QSS? That item is expensive and has a long cool down. Use Cleanse? That is a horrible spell.

I won't stop believing in playing LoL but it hasn't been my Go-To MoBA anymore. I'd rather play Smite or HOTS. At least the variety there is malleable enough to make a difference in gameplay.

End Story; Riot needs to add a HUGE variety of items to counter specific problems every comp will have. Then it will become a challenge and an ACTUAL show of smarts to watch what people choose to use.

tl;dr Don't tell me you enjoy Runeglaive right now, either. Cause Riot has a history of making horrible item development choices. Which is why they need a bigger variety so than one isn't abused. Or stop giving certain champions an easy abuse system.

12 Comments

LaowPing1 votes

You know that liandry's is great for tanks right? Magic pen and damage based on maximum health. It's the perfect item for doing damage to tanks. On top of that, abysmal scepter already reduces magic resist. Void staff gives magic pen. There are plenty of items for dealing with tanks.

On top of that, champion counters are to be expected. When there are a wide variety of champs, some are going to counter others, plain and simple. I agree with more bans but picking items to counter strategies is the same as picking champs to do the same thing.

Also, qss is 1250. How much CS are you missing where that is expensive? That's half an item made specifically to counter cc. Cleanse is also a fine pick against certain CC.

I think you might just be bad at the game.

Blumpkin Nation1 votes

It only deal's current health. I know it's suppose to be a tank Shredder, but with the limitation to magic pen (and alternatively, the plethora of MR items to counter magic pen) makes it kind of useless. At times, you may only be dealing an extra 100 damage over those 3 seconds if you don't have a slow or CC added to the ability you attacked. Even then, we have Luden's Echo now that deals extra damage on spell hit. So you either choose between a huge AP Item +Movement speed and extra damage instantly.

Or an item that gives lackluster damage, decent pen (should really be 20-25 for how much it costs) and decent health. It's a VERY expensive item to build. If anything, they should change Haunting Guise into a smaller version of Liandry's like Cinderhulk or Sunfire.

I'm not directly defending mages, because they have their problems, but the fact that Riot refuses to incorporate useful items for everyone to build is just... idiotic. And they nerf champions enough to make them completely item dependent in the first place.

1250 is expensive for an item that has a long cool down and doesn't benefit AP characters because the only build for it goes into Mercurial for AD champs. And THAT final item is expensive. It should cost 800 gold and have different paths. At least a 3 tier path.

Their design in item choices is stale and begs the question; why do I play League when there is no diversity and champ select is way too imbalanced for any mode other than Draft or Ranked.

You shouldn't be thinking "who can I live with playing against" instead of "I just want to play and not feel like I'm useless for picking this champ."

LaowPing1 votes

MR items don't couner magic pen, it's vice versa. And the main reason mages may not seem to be able to shred tanks is because they bring other things to the table. They have CC or mobility or burst damage. It's usually up to the adc to deal with the tank who should be focused last anyway. QSS does not have a long cooldown. It's up at every team fight. The final build for MS is expensive becomes it includes BF sword which is meant to be a spike in power similar to NLR. Current health is more than enough to kill a tank. If it gets to the point where liandry's isn't doing much magic damage then the tanks are low enough for you to finish off anyway. And lastly, if tank weren't hard to kill.... well then they wouldn't be tanks now would they?

Blumpkin Nation1 votes

There's also a difference between being an actual 'tank' and a fighter/assassin/bruiser that can build that kind of path and still nuke Mages. That's the concern I have for the meta right now. Why have a damage dealer, let's say, like Lux who can 100-0 the enemy ADC. But she blows her load and the 3 tanks just crush her and everyone else because 'tanks' are OP right now.

Many champs who can build 'off-tank' or straight up tank have enough utility/cc and etc to match a Mage. They just don't have the ratios. However, when someone is building damage and the other is building defense, neither should outrightly win. But because this is Riot/LoL, the one who built defense will outlast the damage. That shouldn't work that way. And that's more champs than itemization but both are a problem.

Eh, in the end, Riot is just making LoL a very stale game every season. There is nothing interesting anymore. Even with champs like Rek'sai and Ekko who are actually pretty neat, the itemization is just.. bland and expected.

LaowPing1 votes

Lux is a burst mage, she's supposed to "blow her load." Yeah, 3 tanks can crush her afterwards because three of any role can crush 1 champ. "the one who built defense will outlast the damage" That's the entire point of building defense. I'm assuming this is talking about a one vs one situation. Let's assume Lux fights a tank. She uses all her burst on the tank and the tank lives. After that, either the tank doesn't do enough damage to kill lux or the tank is just ridiculously fed. No one can just run up to a lux and kill her while still being able to take all of her damage (assuming they are on the same level) unless they are a insanely good duelist. And in that case, the duelist won't be bring nearly as much to a team fight as a lux will since she can half health the carries in the back every 40 seconds. The role of mages is not to melt the tanks, the tank's job is to survive the damage so that the carries won't have to deal with it. And in that case you should also have tanks to protect you so that you can deal your burst damage to the enemy team. League isn't a simple enough game where you can build a few items and everything will be 'K. You need to know your job as part of the team.

1 Wing1 votes

poison + liandry = super poison. Malz and Teemo think Liandry's is worth building :)

Blumpkin Nation1 votes

Yeah, but when do you really get a chance to build it at a time that's efficient for either of them? Teemo players usually rush it, but it doesn't help you early on as much since most players haven't stacked QUITE as much health yet. Malz has mana issues early on, so building it as a 2nd or 3rd item seems kinda silly. It's definitely fun.. I just. It's lacking. Very much so.

I feel Liandry's should be given more pen for how much it costs. 2900? At the very least, it should provide a little more than what it does. OR cost less. either.

Telemachus71 votes

With 120+ champs, it's hard to balance. Plus champion counters is apart of the game, that is why all competitive teams will hire people specifically to figure out what is a good match up for certain champs and players. Some champs have more counters then others and some have none. I've seen a lot more ahri players in my elo(Silver 3) since the latest patch. I think that's because of leblanc nerfs. Now Ahri become more viable. Same with urgot, he used to be urgod, but now he is hardly every played. At the pro level or even lower elos.

I also think the item variation is very good right now. Plus with the AP item overhaul, I think that will solve a lot of the problems you bring up. That's what Riot said they wanted to do more of in season 5. Make items for of an impact, so they can change those without directly changing champs. Like to Runeglaive Ezreal, turns out that item combo (runglaive, ludens) is a nasty combo that is kinda broken. But it still has counter play (super weak early). Even when something is broken, intentionally or unintentionally, Riot seems to find a way to balance it.

Tl;dr: Champion counters is part of the game, and always has been. The item variation has added to the that, and will continue to level the playing field. imo.

1 Wing1 votes

Also, Wit's End steals magic resist from a target. Oh, sorry that activates from auto attacks and not spells, but it's situationally viable.

Blumpkin Nation1 votes

True, but with Mages being notorious for having poor base attack speed (I can understand not giving them a high growth rate, but having under 1 AS at level 18 is just bad) means that only a very few mages can mage use of Wit's End. I think Wit's End could use a change- On hit magic damage is why we have masteries, instead of empowering Champs who can abuse the item.

I Just want Riot to make the game more interesting. Nothing League has makes me think "I want to keep playing."

Binxy Prime1 votes

The problem that mages have with killing tanks is that it takes 2 rotations and an ult unless you have sustained AP damage like Cass or Ryze for example. MR is actually pretty difficult to itemize for right now for tanks, for instance if I build all armor items i can easily get 350-400 armor but if I build complete for MR I can get maybe 200-250

Blumpkin Nation1 votes

I should clarify; I don't mean to say I WANT Mages to easily kill tanks. But it shouldn't be such an awful thing to endure. When you have a tank dealing more damage to you only because they can out sustain you or because they're loaded with magic resist. Having sustain + an item like Visage, which is a ideal MR item for most any tank, means you're well ahead of the mage building damage.

At most, you can have a max of 30 flat Magic Pen or 50 (if you count Abyssal's reduction, but that item isn't viable for ALL mages) + the 33% from Void. 40% + 30 is a pretty good amount for negating 200-250 magic resist, but that's only factoring in the flat values. Most MR items give you an additional effect compared to Armor items though.

ADCs and Crit ARE a problem, but item diversity doesn't help that either. They took away Executioner's, and never gave it a suitable replacement. There are no counters to lifesteal/heals unless you bring Ignite and ignite shouldn't even be a spell to begin with. It's a cheesy thing Riot added in.

Something I'd like for Riot to do, ABOVE all else, that would make League so much more interesting is by allowing everyone to choose an additional summoner's spell at level 11 or something. That would be pretty cool.

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