Right now, Riot is really struggling to balance League. The game is jumbled, complicated and unruly in every way imaginable. One might even say League is "rotten to the core" as far as gameplay. Right now, Riot can't fix the game. No matter how much the Boards flame them, Riot can not fix the game in it's current state. What the boards is currently doing right now is asking Riot to balance weights on a scale who's middle point is always shifting. There is no standard for comparison in anything for Riot to balance, their is no central axis around which the game runs. League is broken, but not on the surface, deep in it's roots, the core of league is dying, and the surface visibility of the game is showing it in complex and indecipherable ways.

> The following will be a series of points league is broken on. Not Zoe, not Executioner's calling, none of that. No single focus, instead each little blurb will identify a main point of the games core that currently can not be answered by the game's state.

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How Do Players Impact The Game?

This is a question that lies at the core of the game, what is the mechanism that guides all player agency concerns. I put forth there are two major categories of impact a champion can have Doing Damage and Limiting the Other Team's Damage

Doing Damage

Divides cleanly into three subcategories.

1. DIY You simply do damage, and you do lots of it. ADCs fall into this category, on fact they are the for front of it. This is the primary focus of all carries
2. Set the Stage You create favorable conditions under which your team can do damage more efficiently and at lower risk. Many Supports, especially those oriented around Picks fall into this category like Blitz, as well as engage champions that start a fight advantageously
3. Provide Opportunity This category is far more Meta and broad. It refers to the ability to grant advantages and opportunity for your team to do damage, and do more of it. Controlling the map with vision and rotations, providing pressure with ganks or shoving, taking objectives and manipulating waves to assure more effective farming.

Limiting Damage

Divides not as Cleanly, but similarly

1. Negate Damage Simple as simple gets. Have resists, casts sheilds, give heals. Absorbing damage, or directing it in a way that makes it less effectively placed.
2. Controlling the Field Preventing the opportunity for damage to be done in the first place. Zoning people out, CCing them, Eliminating their opportunity to fight. Crowd Control is the simplest example. As well as damage debuffs, terrain obstructions, and pets.
3. Denying Opportunity This is the twin to the one above, preventing the enemy from being able to gain damage, to enable their allies, or to fight on their own terms.

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It's all well and good to define these groupings, they seem reasonable and they're accurate in their ability to encompass nearly every facet of the game into at least one of them. The usefullness of such a frame work is to use it as a core axis along which all champions fall. Every champion quality champion should be clearly designed along these 6 points, with unique and interesting mechanics for each. A champion that does only one is too easily outclassed or countered, a champion that does too many is either spread too thin to be effective (Jack of all trades, master of none) or is simply overturned (master of all trades) here are some examples of Champions that are good and bad through this core lense.

> # Examples

( If you'd like to skip ahead, their is a similar box marking the end of the examples)

Skarner Has recently come into power in the Meta. He's a strong jungler, with decent ganks, healthy enough clear, and can capitalize on an early lead. His main weaknesses are a tendency to be outscaled both in tankiness and damage, as well as being a short ranged champion. Let's examine him through the 6 points. 1.) Skarner doesn't do a lot of damage. He does enough, but it's not fast, and it's reliant on his cooldowns and skill. 2.) Skarner has CC, which also provides himself a self buff. His ult is the strongest displacement in the game, and can singlehandedly set up an otherwise impossible pick if he's willing to invest the resources and cooldowns 3.) Skarner is a jungler with healthy clear. He provides enough of a threat to allow his lanes to fight evenly. Skarners spires also give him decent control on objectives. 4.) Skarner is frequently outclassed as a tank. His damage reductions are minimal, and he doesn't have much reason to stay alive very long anyway 5.) Skarners ult, as well as his Slows and Stun make it dangerous to run up to him. The tide of a battle can rapidly change if Skarner has successfully caught someone out of position, or force them there. 6.) Skarners lacks any flashy mobility or technique. Steals and invades aren't his strong suit. Though he may succeed at holding down somewhere his team has gained, he struggles to retake new areas.

So, considering this, you could conclude Skarner's primary focuses are on controlling the positioning of the enemy team so as to nullify enemies in a fight as well as to provide picks and objective pressure. These two and a half points of strength are what skarner does well, with the rest being the opportunity for counter play. Singed, with his immense pressure on the map, objective control, lane pressure, and his ability to out tank and deal damage highlights the ways in which another champion can shut down Skarner.

Now Consider one of the lower teir champs in the game. Aatrox who is and has been a bit of a meme. 1.) Aatrox can do damage, but it's rare, difficult to get a chance to, and is usually too little too late. 2.) Aatrox has CC but it's clunky to land and it's often unreliable. He otherwise offers no utility. 3.) Aatrox has 0 pressure early, and while potent as a split pusher late game, he must chose between being safe with resists, or being able to kill those who come to defend, with damage. In either case, Aatrox is too easy to deal with as a nuisance. 4.) Aatrox has little in born durability. He lacks sheilds and is too easily wiped out in a fight to be considered a "less efficient target for damage" 5.) He isn't a threat. He lacks any kind of zoning mechanic as he is easily kited and even can be caught if he is separate from his team. 6.) Aatrox can not run into the fog of war, he can not exercise lane control, or safely manipulate waves and set people up to take over and control the game. He simply lacks the tools needed to threaten I'm this way.

In all possible ways, Aatrox sucks. He does nothing well, except some stuff which he does meh. It shows in his play. Any amount of buffing to his current design will be mediocre at best, and provide a vector for him to become broken with later changes at worst, because at his core, his design lacks a definitive agency vector.

I can go on and on, talking about the ways in which certain champions do and don't meet these standards. How assassins mainly center around number 5 not number 1. They remove enemies from the fight. Or how Champions that excel at both 2 and 4 are your powerful tanks, like Maokai, and how bruisers can take advantage of 2, 3, and 6 to hold sway over the game even if they're other wise lacking. Or point out that Zoe has 1, 2, and 5, making her always useful, and never easily over whelmed as she can set up herself, as well as eliminate people.from the fight entirely. Mayne talk about how at present, early game junglers are unable to excel at 3, because tank junglers have a little too much of 6 due to overly healthy clear and some high damage. But there is more adventure to be had.

> # When Does Who Do What?

It's a mouthful, but simply put, what are the major divisions of the game in regards to time, what events can be expected during those times, and most importantly: How heavily does each of the 6 agency points of any given champion impact the game

ie, if a champion Has setup (2) is it at level one like Blitzcrank, who can snag a buff or secure a cheese kill or is it at level 3 like Alistar when he has a full combo. Does a champ do lots of damage (1) when they hit level 6 like a Riven, Darius, or Renekton or do they do it at 25 Minutes, like a Twitch, Tristana, or Varus. When a champion does stuff is just as important as what it does.

So, there are three simple divisions of the game Early, Middle and Late Game. These categories of timing actually adhere very similarly to general war strategy, or chess.

Early Game

It's all about getting a foot hold. Establishing some power, gathering resources, and preparing for the coming battles. Lanes farm, junglers farm, people trade in lane, try to gain advantage and starve their opponents. Here, the resources, especially gold are key, alongside buffs and xp. In this time period, the most powerful characters are those who can most directly translate their 6 agency points into starving the enemy for resources (6) and gaining more for themselves or others (3) Here simple timing and numbers advantage make all the difference, so even the slightest pressure can have massive impact. Here is where bruisers thrive, using their cooldowns and combos to take over their lane, and then extend that power into other lanes, and delay their own enemy lane. It's also where Assassins build up power for the next part.

Middle Game

Here, the objective of early game remains the same, gain power for later fights,but now some resources have already been scrounged. Advantages in pressure have given about lane free farming, a successful gank has granted a 400 gold advantage in lane. A few invades have off set the jungle pressure and paths. The presence of these resources now allots the ability to expend resources. To take risks, and real rewards. Fights, and skirmishes break out, towers fall, Dragons and Herald can be taken or traded. In this time, the small advantages gained early are translated into bigger snowballing leads. The assassins who were gifted a free kill can now use their lead to kill lone champions in rotation to objectives. Bruisers can trap their laner by shoving them in and chunking them out to provide numbers advantage in a fight, even if they themselves aren't a big help, they've made someone else equally useless (5) additionally, supports with set up and sustain now can use their power to enact seige or make picks. (2)

Late Game

The advantages are gained, the resources gathered and now the battles are in full. Big five man goon squads Duke it out to take large swaths of control, strangling out the enmy team as they lose their Base. Eventually, one huge fight happens, and who ever did the most damage and negated the most damage wins it, and eventually the game (1 & 4) tanks and carries, with everyone else trying to use what little agency they have to facilitate these major groups. Now it's up to the carries, and everyone else to real the fruits of the labor they put in, and get carried. Simplest part of the the game is the end, also the most fun and intense at times. Everything is in the balance.

The question is again, what can we derive from this understanding. It's all well and good to compartmentalize the game, but how can we use each compartment? Or better yet,how can we keep them separate.

#Scaling It's the easiest and most apparent way to define the transition of a champion's agency points throughout a game. Singed and Yorrick are both champions in lane that farm and shove in the lane, trying to outfarm the enemy. They provide decent pressure and pretty good skirmishing through early and mid game, but as the game progresses, they both scale, however, they do it differently. In Yorricks case, his pressure quadruples every 5 minutes, making him a split pushing God with the threat to take your base in no time. He forces resources to be spent on stopping him (6) Singed however gains Team fight power as time goes on, as his Ult gives him major regen, resists, and even some decent team wide damage. His abilities become more about setting up picks (2) when previously they'd been used to escape chases and waste time (5 & 6) Singed changes as he scales, Yorrick doubles down on what he does best.

Then there are champs that don't scale. Unlike an ADCs and carry mages who scales into doing damage late game, Champions like Khazix, Darius, Riven, and Gragas get their power in the early and mid game, then they become less efficient by comparison as time goes on. This is because AS, Crit, and AD all scale off each other, like Health and resistance do for tanks, but even more, however AD is flat by itself, and CDR has a cap major cap, which limits the nonscaling champs (in case you wondered why some champs scale, and other don't. It's not magic, it's math) the opportunity for a champion to have an impact is when they are comparatively the most efficient member of their team. In order to assure that the mid game actually occurs, Midgame oriented items are often cheap, such as Lethality, which provides lots of damage for allow price, but is incredibly inneffective as time goes on and enemies get armor. This also goes with the High scalings but similarly high cost for AP on many mages, that rewards the high impact, low life expectancy of such champions.

Failings in scalings makes for all kinds of issues, rendering entire categories of champions and their playstyles as entirely useless, as their niche is encroached upon by other champions and playstyle.

Core builds play heavily into this, as well as the order in which items are bought.

A current major issue of the game is tanks doing so much damage, especially in the jungle, and about toplane being useless, (and correspondingly, bot lane has immense impact) these are the symptoms, but using the above outlines, we can make judgements that are far more useful to fixing the underlying game that results in this symptoms of dysfunctionality.

The first issue is what they do. At present, Varus is Meta ADC. Varus is veritably broken, because he manages to do lots of damage (1) Set himself up with large aoE CC, peeling and engaging all by himself (2) quickly clear waves and camps with his blight stacks and abilities (3) Heal from the lifesteal of the on hit items like Bork he builds, along with rageblade, which enhances this, as well as gain resists in a wits ends, and mobility from zeal items (4) And extend his effect over a massive range, with slows, poke and an area of grevious wounds (5).

Varus does nearly everything well, and he does it fairly consistently too. He generally lacks any weak points, except his vulnerability to Chain CC (but even QSS messes that up) and insane burst like from a veigar.

The other Meta ADC is Kogmaw, now, he doesn't hit as many of the comes as Varus, even though it's close, no Kogmaw is oppressive to the exclusion of all other ADCs for a different reason. Kogmaw scales really well off of one item, allowing him to reach his spike early. Along with the cheap availability of AD and successive zeal based items, Kogmaw provides the classic example of why prices and economy are so vital to maintaining balance. It's not just what a champion does, it's when they do it.

Kogmaw highlights this particular issue clearly, because his W Bioarcane Barragehas insane synergy with his 7% max health bonus damage on hit effect (cause he didn't already do enough damage, he needs max health damage for 0 skill added) but in general, ADC itemization is readily obtained. For the cost of one Tiamat, and one Black Cleaver, the first items of many top laners, the ADC can buy A shiv, a BF sword, Boots, an additional dagger, a refillable pot, a control ward and still have some money left over. Not only do Shiv and BF simply provide way more stats than the Black Cleaver and Tiamat respectively, they also synergize with each other insanely well, in fact, the do so with a double multiplier, because there are three synergizing stats involved. Unlike the top laner, who just has one.

The Zeal itemization is an issue, because it eliminates the early game, providing power to ADCs to fight on even ground in a time that is supposed to belong to others. This is an issue not with champions, or with simply over tuned items or two, this is a fundamental design error,to the point that many players new to the game, or in lower Elo's areled to believe that the ADCs job is to be a letter to 1v2 people, and split push, because no one can stop them. The issue requires a close look at the core of the game, something that is rapidly crumbling around us.

> # "Tanks do too much damage"

Yes. But also no. Current tanks do too much damage. Furthermore, the tanks doing the damage are the wrong tanks. Tanks that do damage, though, is not innherently bad or unbalanced. Zarya, from over watch is the perfect axample of a tank k that does damage. Zarya's damage however is locked behind a central skill based mechanic that she must excel at and play around, and as a result, so must the enemy. Gragas is a league tank who can do damage. The rowdy rabble rouser can readily obliterate a squishy target, however, his entire ability to do so relies on landing his Car and Bodyslam to actually get the enemy in position to take meaningful damage from his Q. A skill mechanic controls Gragas's access to his damage, and furthermore requires him to give up something else in order to get that damage, IE, his only mobility spell. Reinhardt is another. In order to be attack, he uses his sheild, which is most effective if the enemy is far away. In order to do damage and kill things he must land his charge, and if he misses and even if he lands it, he is then up close and personal where his sheild is hard less effective, because you can get behind it. Sejuani is an example of just the opposite. She just does damage and just has CC. She has mobility and durability (4) while also being able to chunk out the enemy and blow up squishies (1) while also setting up her team (2) with AE stun and by having mobilenks and steal potential (3 & 6)

> This doesn't just refer to tanks doing damage, this opens the larger can of worms of "How do certain Champions get to access their Agency?" Often, one of them is a given. A taste k just is tanky, an ADC just does lots of damage with their autoes. The other stuff, like combos, CC, Orbwalking, rotating, pressuring, split pushing. They're often skill gated. Some mechanic determines the availability of these agency factors. Gold, levels, cooldowns, Mana, stacks, ghouls, hits on a passive like Tahm, prepared stun like Annie, status effects like Abale. The question becomes what does a Champion do automatically. If you had a monkey play this champ, what could they do randomly hitting buttons. And then what else is gated behind some barrier that your champ can access, if you're able to get there. Draven will 1v9 carry IF you get the Early Lead. Azir did do insane crazy flashy team fight plays that could win entire games IF you were skilled enough. Gangplank can kite anyone IF you are smart with your barrels. Singed can get so much farm and pressure every lane IF you are smart enough to understand when to try and when to do other stuff. Lee Sin can do insane stuff IF you are an insane player.

Alright, post over. I'm tired and I want to sleep. I may have more, I may even make balance discussions about this stuff a more regular thing if it goes well.

Thank You Reader

If you got this far, thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to read and consider the importance in defining, understanding, and adhering to the core components of leagues design and balance. Going forward, I hope you take this with you as a useful standard for understanding the real reasons behind why something is op and why it sucks dong. I also hope you can appreciate someone on the gameplay boards who actually wrote something nice, and put effort into making their wall of text legible to the human eyes.

Thank You Riot

If you've read this, thank you for doing so. I know it was a lot to read, but it's cause I care about the game, and I actually want to see it fixed and fun to play for everyone. Remember your core's of design, and don't be afraid to tell the community what you believe. Have principles, have design philosophies close to your hearts, and adhere to them. For all of us.

####TL;DR The game is broken on the surface due to many underlying issues. I lay out a bunch of the core parts of the game about how players can have an impact and why it's important to understand, as well as game pacing, scaling, and character balance. I provide a framework for consideration for better communication among community members, and then explain many familiar issues of game balance in terms of these underlying roots of league of legends.