[Champion Balance] Abilities interactions and conditions might be a good start
In this text I would like to talk to you about something that can help the current state of champion balance in a healthy way. Nothing's perfect, I know that, but my following ideas/opinion might be a good way to start. And for me to know it, I'll need your reactions/opinions about this thread and its main points.
What is conditional power? By conditional power, I mean the bonus power and interactions a champion can have in his own kit or with the assistance of others. When you think about it, some champions already have conditional power: Darius' bonus ult damage need 5 stacks of Hemorrhage, Poppy's dash needs terrain to stun an enemy, Bard's Cosmic Binding needs terrain/second enemy to stun, Talon's AAs are boosted on CC'ed targets only, etc. The reason why I am talking about this right now is that I believe these interactions/conditions in a champion's kit are healthy since they reward better players. The game becomes more "Who's team is performing better?" rather than "Who's team has stronger champions?".
While we're talking about it, I would like to say good job to Riot for Bard. Even tho he still haven't seen much play other than in PBE, I have a good feeling about him because his kit demonstrates pretty well the points I'm trying to do here; interactions and conditions. As Bard, do you throw your Q right now to slow only or you wait some seconds in case you can re-position yourself better for a stun? As the ally, do you use the heal pillar right now or you let it grow, increasing the risk of getting grabbed/ganked, etc. during this time? Those are just some of the many aspects that I think are made right by Riot about this champion.
But putting an emphasis on interactions and conditions alone won't really help until the popular meta picks aren't tweaked accordingly. So it is with this set of idea that I'm now going to talk about a few popular meta champions and then give some examples/suggestions on how they can be nerfed while keeping their strengths and gameplay uniqueness (what make them different than others). Notice how I try to soften the toxic aspect(s) of their kit while rewarding them for playing smarter. The following ratios and cooldown numbers are by no means definitive and are just thrown as examples.
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Strengths and gameplay: His kit allows him to assassinate a champion 1vs1 and his lack of team fight potential is quickly backed up by his high mobility and general safeness, coupled with relatively low cooldowns for an energy-based champion. Even if his kit is focused on single target killing, his abilities allow him to do decent damage in a team fight.
Problematic(s): His early game is overwhelmingly strong, making it too much easy for him to be very well geared up/fed when mid and late game come. His strong assassination potential and safety should be rewarded only if his early game was more than "just okay". Most of the assassins, bruisers and mages that have amazing late game potential have limited potential in early game. Zed doesn't. His unhealthy-ness might come from here.
Possible solution(s): 1: Allow Zed to swap place with his ult shadow only if target is killed. This nerf allows him to keep his true assassin nature while making his safeness and mobility less overwhelming. 2: Increase his Shadow Slash from 4 to 6 seconds but Shadow Slash's cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds if he (shadow included) hits an enemy champion. This nerf is specially aimed at lowering his early game farming and late game split pushing potential while leaving his purpose (assassinating champions) where it's at. -
Strengths and gameplay: Lee Sin's kit allows him to do a large variety of things, from initiating to ganking, passing by protecting and disrupting. I think some people call it "overloaded", as in, "filled with so many useful perks". I gotta admit that it is true.
Problematic(s): One of his problems resides in his assassination potential in my opinion. His incredibly high base damage and AD ratios shouldn't be linked to a champion that is possibly one of the most mobile and safe in the game. Moreover, his high mobility might be too much overwhelming too.
Possible solution(s): 1: Reduce his base ult damage and/or ult ratio at all ranks but the farther you get knocked up from, the longer the knock up lasts. So a champion that is very close to the initial kick would get knocked up for 1.0 second up to 1.5 second if he would be at the farthest range point. This would strengthen his non-toxic bruiser disruptive-ness while softening his exagerated assassination potential. 2: Lee Sin's can't dash to ally ward anymore but ally champion now receive half of Iron Will's passive if Lee Sin activates it after using Safe Guard on him/her within 3 seconds. This tweak reduces Lee Sin's incredible annoyance when being chased, making him easier to catch but also more useful for his allies. -
Strengths and gameplay: Nidalee's kit allows her to be ready for every situation. Long range, melee range, escaping, ganking, healing, chasing, sniping, bursting. She almost got it all. Again, the fact that her kit might be overloaded is, in my opinion, not exactly the source of the problem.
Problematic(s): If we try to find the toxic, overpowered and exaggerated aspect of his kit, it's easy to find out that her mobility and safeness is the source of the problem. I have no problem being sniped by a well placed spear, or bursted hard for getting too close while all her abilities were up in cougar form. I have no problem of seeing her healing herself and increasing the attack speed of her ally. While these elements are very strong in a kit, they are not directly frustrating. However, her ability to jump, for no mana cost, every 5 seconds is insanely strong itself. Especially since Nidalee's player tend to get at least 20% cooldown reduction at some point of the game, making it less than 4 seconds.
Possible solution(s): She already have a conditional cooldown reduction on pounce, so I see no point in adding another one or changing the current one. A direct cooldown nerf seems to be the best idea. Starting at 8 seconds, every rank of her ult could reduce the cooldown of 1 second, she then get her original 5 seconds cooldown back at level 16. This would soften her jungling and map presence in the early and mid game, while keeping her late game intact.
If you disagree on the suggested ratios/numbers/ideas, it is okay. It was not my main point. I was just trying to demonstrate the idea of interactions and conditional power the most realistic way possible using very popular picks. Now I would like to know more on what you have to say about all this, guys (and girls). I am pretty sure that every one here has their own fresh, interesting and unique ideas to soften the toxic/overwhelming aspects of those meta champions while keeping their true nature intact.
As a side note, I just want to point out that I hope Riot won't come up with things like Talon's Cutthroat getting a 99% slow for 0.25 second. While I completely agree with the removal of the silence, I think the compensation is laughable, not only for being weak but also very dull. Riot should have gave him more interaction within his other abilities to make the Cutthroat more interesting. Trust me, I have a lot of ideas (interactions and conditions) to make Cutthroat less underwhelming and boring. We all do. I hope Riot won't do something like that again, especially with the fact that they still haven't talked about it since the changes brought to Cutthroat.
In conclusion, I hope the thread was interesting and lit a flame of creativity in your head, so this way maybe Riot will notice all those passionate players with great ideas to make champion balance a real, serious and fair thing.