Rito, you seem to need help in your balancing process. Give this a try.
K. Obviously you guys need to "work on the communication issues" etc., cause we have absolutely NO idea what the hell you guys are doing most of the time.
I believe this to be one of the most balanced games I've ever seen. 100+ champions that, ideally, are balanced enough for competitive play is a daunting task to say the least. Most kits are unique, with a game-changing play-style reflected in their item choices.
On one hand you have champion kits, changing one tiny bit massively impacts how the champion is built, played, exploited (:<) etc.
On the other hand you have items, each minor change impacting many champions at the same time.
Clearly the same issues that have been plaguing you for this season are only just NOW (even more) noticeable because it's only NOW that your changes are affecting MANY champions, not just one.
To start off I'll just list several changes that you HAVE done that have been, to say the least, game-breaking.
- Devourer. It's balanced I guess, farming etc., but it radically changed many champs, typically not for the better.
- Runeglaive, the mother of all fk ups, it ruined AP junglers for me and gave.....nothing in return. Just TRY using fiddle with it. Oh wait, pro's didn't buy magus? HAHAHHAHHAHHA cough sorry, after looking about it's obvious that they used too.
I like that you are trying to introduce new concepts. Heck, I still like devourer, but I absolutely LOATH runeglaive. It gives NOTHING to the AP jungler. 40 AP < 40AD, since you can get 40 AP far easier. Does it solve mana problems in jungle? Sort-of. Does it help junglers ? No.
I'll get into junglers in another section, but honest to god PLEASE consider the implications or outright REMOVING and item from the game and replacing it with a much-degraded version.
Now there are many, many more changes you HAVEN'T done:
- Cass's kit....all of it...
- Zed's kit....nice 0.0001% nerf btw.
- Untargetable champs (Fizz, etc.)
- Mobile champs in a game where increasingly more champs only have skill-shot CC
- Resourceless champs......Yasuo wtf, needs to charge flow but can pull out a magical wall on a whim???
- Quinn....enough said
I fully appreciate what you're doing now, I 100% agree that a game needs to keep improving and expanding, but a game NEEDS A GODDAMN BASE.
You're building a tower out of toilet paper, it's not going to hold shit. Stacking up more and more champs doesn't do anything other than temporarily increase the amount of champs playable. Then the next nerfs come through and we're back where we started.
I swear, there's a ridiculously easy solution to all of this broken crap.
LEARN. TO. SET. DEADLINES.
I repeat for emphasis.
DEADLINES. DEADLINES. DEADLINES.
When you SAY that something is coming "soon", YOU BETTER GIVE US A DATE.
The Quinn BUG fixing has been coming "soon". New kit changes are coming "soon". Everything is always coming "soon".
Know what? The moon will blow up. "Soon". I will eat lunch "Soon."
Every single time you say something, MOST of the changes have ALWAYS been.....just not "been".
You look at a champ, say "New builds coming soon!"
Then in the same sentence, "It isn't as vital anymore as it was 2 seconds ago. Sorry."
Still not getting through? Here,
There are 123+ champs in LoL.
You release kit reworks on a champ, if you're in the mood, about once a Month+.
New champs about 2-3 Months (Typically less.)
At this rate.....counting that for every 2 reworks you introduce a new champ....
It will take us 123+60+30+15 = ~228 months before the game is "balanced" fully, assuming nothing changes from now and nothing else is unbalanced.
That's NINETEEN YEARS, before the game is "balanced". Not counting items.
This is , of course a much "exaggerated number". Some champs might not need as many reworks. You might only need to change the #'s a bit. Etc. But at this rate it will be at least 4+ years until the game is "balanced".
Given this, do you have ANY RIGHT WHATSOEVER, TO SAY YOU'LL DO STUFF "SOON" ?
As a community we have been THROWING fixes you could be doing, things you could try out, champs that are CLEARLY underpowered and CLEARLY need buffs/fixes.
You do, of course, have the say in what goes where. However, your only reply is either this
"..........."
or this "We are not considering your idea at this time. Please leave a message after the beep."
The point is, going off single-handedly and trying to balance 123+ champs is stupid.
Ignoring the input from the community is stupid.
"not ignoring" it, and then never doing the changes, is outright saying bullshit.
You guys need to get your act together. Here are a few, terse suggestions.
Once an issues has been noticed by you, create a mega-thread to deal with it. Title will be in this format for easier usability. "Champ/Item: Name of Champ/Item. Severity of problem. Estimated fix time. Overdue or not." This allows for easy sorting using the "find thread" option, looking for your fave champ or the most pressing issues.
When you create it, you say EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEM. Pro's, con's, issues, changes you've thought of and why you discarded them, etc. The more you say the better the community can help you.
Each week post 5 , I repeat FIVE GAME-IMPACTING changes. None of that Galio E "buff" or Zed "nerf" bs. The community will then vote on each one, deciding whether to accept it or not. Post ALL the information you can, what the change could mean, etc.
Speed the !@#$ up out of your development. Honestly your rate is miserably slow. In a game where only about 20 champs are viable at any given moment, another 20 plausible, and the rest utterly useless, you can't afford to dally in changes. It needs to happen faster, better, and more "open". We want regular updates on our fave champs. Give them to us, don't just roam about in the background mumbling "soon....soon....."
Create 5 super-mega-ultra board sections relating to a "position". ADC's, Supports, Mid's, Top's, Junglers, etc. These will address the issue each one is facing right now. The community will post there, and YOU ....WILL...READ IT.
The entire goddamn problem is easily solvable. Let the community do the work. Heck, they're ALREADY DOING IT, you just either don't react, or react 5+ months later. -.-
You can easily speed up your changes, and at worst you can blame the community for fuck ups. IDGAF if the ideas are stupid, if the community wants them IMPLEMENT THEM. The only ones they'll have to blame are THEMSELVES.
Most of your time is theorycrafting. That's all the community DOES, ideas swarm here all over the place. Freaking listen to them, ALL of them, not just 1-2.
By far the BEST thing you can do is give the reasons WHY you're doing something, or thinking of doing something. Or thinking of NOT doing something. Do this,
Create a "phamphlet", that goes through the boards by sections and looks at several threads there that have been rated well by the community. (weekly etc., mb a daily version)
It will include a link to the original thread, a summary of the idea, a list of pro's/con's as you see them, and if you're going to implement it. If you are, you give a date, and a reason. If you aren't, you give a reason and well thought-out explanation other than "We're doing other stuff now". Because you're ALWAYS doing "other stuff now".
This phamphlet will instantly let us know whose ideas have been considered, why they've been thrown away or kept, etc. The community sorts through the ideas, you sort through the scant few "good" ones. BOOM lots of work , YOUR WORK, done by the community.
This will NOT be just 3-4 threads. It will be about "top 10 champ update threads of this week", "updates on our progress on work so far", and "top 2 threads addressing roles, 2 from each*
This will let us know how you stand and WHY you stand on an issue. It will let us know that you're reading them on a constant weekly basis, and it will include A LOT of information.
Note: You may NOT keep reposting threads you've looked at the week before. Each week you pick new ones. The other "changes" will happen in the "updated thoughts" section, you must ALWAYS look for new ideas , not only change old ones.
You must address the champs we are screaming about balancing, the skins that need changing, the updates on the work you've done so far and any ISSUES YOU NEED HELP WITH, and then threads addressing roles as a "whole" and champs that "suffer" in their chosen role etc.
Summary of above:
Each week riot will post 5 changes it thinks of doing, as in BIG ones. Changing a little doesn't count. Adding devourer, changing many AP items, retooling GP, that counts. Changing base values doesn't count, changing CD's doesn't count, only kit changes count and item modifications. Basically, anything that affects MANY champs.
Riot will speed up its development.
Riot will create mega threads and super-mega board sections relating to Champions, Items, Etc.
Riot will give us weekly progress reports on ideas they've considered, stuff they've done, stuff they're doing, and stuff they plan on doing. They also note any issues they need OUR thoughts on. This progress report will be large, will have detailed responses and well-written explanations, and will also include DEADLINES.
Here's a example of an issue, and my "rant paragraph " etc.
Junglers:
Riot you have no idea what the blimping !@#$ you're doing in the jungle. At all. Period. None of your goddamn changes make any sense, instead of encouraging diversity you're decreasing it.
The problem: Junglers need help in fighting jungle monsters, and in the new jungle T3 jungle items are mandatory. However, while jungling they lose out on the vast damage etc. that regular items provide. Additionally items that work TOO well on junglers might be used in lane, where they shouldn't be.
Oh wait, how is the latter a problem? I ENJOYED fighting Runeglaive ezreal, it was something NEW , it was a whole different way to play the champion. I didn't see him as OP, he had more burst, less sustained damage. Problems ? no. Worthy of nerf? Yes......for some reason....
Basically, I strongly recommend giving items to junglers that are, "effects wise" comparable to their item conuterparts. Stat wise they're behind. Effect-wise they have a new, unique, way to play their champion.
Side note: We need tenacity on a jungle item.....and a much better AP jungle item.
Devourer is an ok way, but it didn't increase the pool of junglers much, more just made the already existing ones more "op" compared to their non-devourer counterparts.
They're more "OP " because they have an item.....more balanced than the others........
Just fix Warrior, cinderhulk, and @$ scrap runeglaive. Who in their RIGHT mind though that AP junglers, who use SPELLS TO CLEAR THE JUNGLE, WOULD SUDDENLY DO AA'S???
That's bruisers. AP junglers need AP, and bruisers didn't have that many issues jungling in the first place.
Think about the jungle like it's a lane with less XP, harder minions, and with more "stealth/surprise" focus. Jungling makes the jungler naturally weaker, so he has to gank , which means he does his role, which means it's balanced.
However, if a jungler has to buy a third-rate item to just CLEAR the camps without dying, then that's just stupid. So now the items give rewards. But most of them are obvious "weaker" counterparts of their laning items. So you give them special effects. But now those jungling items with bad special effects are even more noticable in a position where counter-jungling is important.
First cinderhulk, then runeglaive, now devourer. Tip? Balance all the jungling items at the same time, not one at a time.
Now , Riot should consider this at least marginally, others have much more detailed and valuable explanations. A Riot response would give reasons, deadlines, other issues/problems, etc. More than "soon.....".
( I haven't thought on the jungling problem much myself, although I DO notice the havoc your changes are doing. I'm a jungle main :)
My last point is that the current Riot is like a magpie or packrat. Sees something shinier? drops whatever its holding to grasp that.
Or say, a giant balloon with holes. Riot approaches to fix a hole, but then notices another one. Riot drops the tape, goes to pick up another piece, approaches the second hole. But there's another one, it drops the patch, goes and makes another one, approaches the third. But the others are still going, and this one wasn't fixed well, and now there's a fourth one!
Several at a time guys, and STICK to your changes. You want that new abyssal scepter? Don't !@$ freeze it, TRY IT OUT, CHANGE IT, IF IT DOESN'T WORK TRY AND TRY AGAIN. Don't say something is "soon" only to ditch it half-way.
Sigh......I guess that concludes my raging torrent for now, I might think of something else or edit something. Might even admit I'm wrong , but I'd sure appreciate feedback /ideas from the community/Riot themselves.
As a closer, here's an example of the current state:
Community: RITO, PLEASE HELP US! WE NEEDZ BUFFS ON CHAMP XYZ!
Rito: I'M ON IT GUYS, JUST GIMME A SECOND AND I'LL-
Buzzing, miniature explosions
Community: What was that?
Rito: Nothing, just a small issue, your patch is coming soon. In the meantime here's a flaming potato.
Community: FIRE FIRE FIRE! WTF RITO, WHY POTATO. WHERE'S BUFF.
Rito: Oops, here douses potato Your welcome!
Community: Erm...thanks? Where's buff?
Rito: Soon!
Community: When is soon?
Rito: Soon!
Community: DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH !@#$@ ?
Rito: We need to work on our communication skills. Sorry for the bother.
Community: Oh thanks!
Rito: In order to work on our skills and a new champ, we're putting XYZ buffs in the fridge for now. Your welcome!
Community: Well, at least they'll go and fix their skills. Right? RIGHT?
Rito: Skills coming soon!
We apologize for the interruption of this dialogue, we couldn't hear the rest past all the explosions. Damned smoke also blocked visuals of Riot HQ. Tune in for an update, Soon!
Last note: I need spoiler tags. People have asked them for like 10+ months. ...... Plus I have no idea how to make lists, space doens't work '-'
TL;DR ?
GO BACK AND READ IT. GIMME TWENTY READS, GOGOGO I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY HERE.
