9.13 displays everything wrong with the development team

EnigmaticMachine·Jun 26, 2019·8 votes·1,541 views

They finally nerfed sej and pyke and sona, but they start showing their true colors with random buffs and unnecessary item changes. I swear Riot uses the excuse it’s a meta game to cover up the many flaws they make while having all the info they need to just fix the game. I’m going to new games or mostly older games that don’t involve loot boxes or some monkey constantly changing the state of a game just for revenue purposes. Games are meant to be fun and a form of art style. Not a freemium trash heap that most games have become today.

11 Comments

HotarµJun 26, 20199 votes

but they start showing their true colors with random buffs

Illaoi struggled at higher ELOs, Ornn needed a slight boost (and probably needs even more since he's got a 48% WR at almost all ELOs), Sylas is one of the weakest champions in the game at the moment, Syndra struggles at higher ELOs, and Tristana has a 49% WR so she needed a slight buff.

The only champion who probably didn't need any changes was Udyr (52% WR) but I think it's because he falls off harder in the late game.

Literally every single champion buff was warranted with the exception of Udyr.

and unnecessary item changes

Essence Reaver wasn't being built as much as IE, so they buffed the item and changed the build path accordingly so ADCs couldn't rush it without serious investment.

Randuin's Omen is a niche item as is and crit champions tend to deal a lot of physical damage anyway, it's not exactly unwarranted.

Rod of Ages' cost was decreased because it takes too long to stack and be useful in today's meta.

Not a single one of these was "uneccesary".

that don’t involve loot boxes or some monkey constantly changing the state of a game just for revenue purposes. Games are meant to be fun and a form of art style. Not a freemium trash heap that most games have become today.

Are you seriously trying to use the term "freemium" to describe League? You don't have to pay a single cent to play this game, get every champion, use or climb the ranked ladder, or even get certain skins/rune pages.

You aren't required to pay anything and if you do, it's not even a P2W bonus. Someone who has dropped $10k on this game has the same bonuses as someone who has spent $0.

Get real, please.

ApollogyJun 26, 20194 votes

{quoted}

Illaoi struggled at higher ELOs, Ornn needed a slight boost (and probably needs even more since he's got a 48% WR at almost all ELOs), Sylas is one of the weakest champions in the game at the moment, Syndra struggles at higher ELOs, and Tristana has a 49% WR so she needed a slight buff.

The only champion who probably didn't need any changes was Udyr (52% WR) but I think it's because he falls off harder in the late game.

Literally every single champion buff was warranted with the exception of Udyr.

Essence Reaver wasn't being built as much as IE, so they buffed the item and changed the build path accordingly so ADCs couldn't rush it without serious investment.

Randuin's Omen is a niche item as is and crit champions tend to deal a lot of physical damage anyway, it's not exactly unwarranted.

Rod of Ages' cost was decreased because it takes too long to stack and be useful in today's meta.

Not a single one of these was "uneccesary".

Are you seriously trying to use the term "freemium" to describe League? You don't have to pay a single cent to play this game, get every champion, use or climb the ranked ladder, or even get certain skins/rune pages.

You aren't required to pay anything and if you do, it's not even a P2W bonus. Someone who has dropped $10k on this game has the same bonuses as someone who has spent $0.

Get real, please.

The Udyr change is actually a nerf.

The change to Phoenix stance isn't strong enough to pick it over Tiger stance is any situation. (Every possible build, other than AP, is better on Tiger stance).

And nearly 70% of Udyr players never reach the late game to take advantage of the 6 points he can start putting into his abilities at level 16+.

Udyr is an early game champion who didn't need his early game strength removed so that he can have a better late game. (The changes are so minuscule that it'll be hardly felt. His numbers aren't the reason why he's irrelevant in the late game).

The change was unnecessary, but not because his winrate is 52% and it's a buff. But, I don't fault anyone for thinking that, if you're not familiar with Udyr or his current situation in this game state, then nobody could expect anything more. It does look like a buff. One of the reasons his winrate is high, and it almost always is over 50%, is because the only people who play Udyr are basically Udyr mains or one tricks that live and breath Udyr. Very few people just have him as a part of their roster of champions. Even when the game doesn't support Udyr being picked, ever, and picking him is basically the same as trolling your team, as bad as picking Soraka JG for example, you might still see over a 50% winrate.

With the recent scuttle changes, Udyr was actually hit really hard. Combined with all of these EXP nerfs and minor changes to the early game JG, it's a struggle to play Udyr like he should be played. He relies on an early game lead, but most of the recent changes make that harder than ever. While the laners are peacefully last hitting minions, Udyr players are forced to not to waste a single moment and to secure every possible advantage they can just to keep up. It's a constant race, you don't get to slow down. (Sometimes just because it's so important for me to be absolutely everywhere just to keep the team afloat, I won't get to return to base for 5+ minutes at a time, accumulating 3k+ gold between backs). His inability to hop through walls by himself is an extremely limiting factor in the JG.

Winrates don't say everything, that's really all there is to it. Udyr isn't strong right now. He's a solid pick, but he can't take advantage of his strong level 2 1v1 in the JG anymore. And junglers that he'll struggle against come mid game are more popular now. (Slower JG means more tank junglers who have better teamfights). It's much riskier to invade early, and before the scuttle changes, you could invade nearly every game. Going from taking an enemy buff, getting his flash or first blood off him, and both scuttle crabs to probably 1 scuttle and no victorious skirmish in the JG is a pretty huge hit.

I ramble a lot, and you probably didn't care for any context on the Udyr changes though. Udyr does need changes, not buffs, just changes.

I agree with everything else you said, and yeah, those items changes are very reasonable.

CrazyMonkeyCZJun 26, 20194 votes

What exectly is wrong with 9.13? Everything seems reasonable.

PhieldworkerJun 26, 20194 votes

What was a random buff or change?

EnigmaticMachineJun 26, 20194 votes

{quoted}

They finally nerfed sej and pyke and sona, but they start showing their true colors with random buffs and unnecessary item changes. I swear Riot uses the excuse it’s a meta game to cover up the many flaws they make while having all the info they need to just fix the game. I’m going to new games or mostly older games that don’t involve loot boxes or some monkey constantly changing the state of a game just for revenue purposes. Games are meant to be fun and a form of art style. Not a freemium trash heap that most games have become today.

The fact this thread got downvoted more than upvoted means you were stupid enough to pay money to this company.

HotarµJun 26, 20193 votes

"The fact that everyone disagreed with my claims means you're all sheep"

ZephyrDrakeJun 26, 20192 votes

ok... just because you don't like the changes doesn't mean anything. Every change was warranted. If you don't like a change then actually discuss the change and explain why you don't like it instead of saying really broad and useless statements like "random buffs" what random buffs? "unnecessary item changes" why are they unnecessary? love how you also say "freemium" without having any idea what it even means. You literally get nothing but COSMETIC stuff that has ZERO impact on the game. You can get literally EVERYTHING by just playing the game. How about you instead learn what a term actually means before randomly spewing it out like some 2 year old that learned a new word?

ApollogyJun 26, 20193 votes

{quoted}

ok... just because you don't like the changes doesn't mean anything. Every change was warranted. If you don't like a change then actually discuss the change and explain why you don't like it instead of saying really broad and useless statements like "random buffs" what random buffs? "unnecessary item changes" why are they unnecessary? love how you also say "freemium" without having any idea what it even means. You literally get nothing but COSMETIC stuff that has ZERO impact on the game. You can get literally EVERYTHING by just playing the game. How about you instead learn what a term actually means before randomly spewing it out like some 2 year old that learned a new word?

I agree about the freemium stuff and that it's all cosmetic, but there are a few skins that are known to give you an advantage. I don't remember any of them, but it's probably not too impactful and makes no difference for most people who are in low elo.

Just something to be aware of. I know for me personally, project Ashe's R is very difficult to see, but I don't think that's one of the skins that's normally quoted as giving and advantage. (I don't know if all of those skins are available for purchase, though, since some could be Legacy skins, and regardless, you can get nearly every single skin via hextech crafting anyway... so you still don't need to pay).

For a long time, since I've developed games in the past, when it comes to monetization, I've always argued against selling anything that would affect gameplay, and that anything you'd use in game should be purely cosmetic. (Different colored guns and whatnot). It's important to preserve the competitive integrity of the game. I'm glad that League has followed this same philosophy from the start. :)

preternaturalJun 26, 20194 votes

{quoted}

I agree about the freemium stuff and that it's all cosmetic, but there are a few skins that are known to give you an advantage. I don't remember any of them, but it's probably not too impactful and makes no difference for most people who are in low elo.

Just something to be aware of. I know for me personally, project Ashe's R is very difficult to see, but I don't think that's one of the skins that's normally quoted as giving and advantage. (I don't know if all of those skins are available for purchase, though, since some could be Legacy skins, and regardless, you can get nearly every single skin via hextech crafting anyway... so you still don't need to pay).

For a long time, since I've developed games in the past, when it comes to monetization, I've always argued against selling anything that would affect gameplay, and that anything you'd use in game should be purely cosmetic. (Different colored guns and whatnot). It's important to preserve the competitive integrity of the game. I'm glad that League has followed this same philosophy from the start. :)

infernal alistar has a larger hitbox than the other ali skins. darius animation on his W is faster on his god-king skin than any of his others. not sure on the accuracy of this one but the iblitzcrank skin allegedly has a thinner hookshot.

it's all very fine margins as you can imagine. pretty sure that any skins that do offer some type of advantage like this are banned from the pro-scene? at least that's what i heard way back when i still used to watch LCS and infernal ali was never selected and one of the shoutcasters mentioned why.

ApollogyJun 26, 20193 votes

{quoted}

infernal alistar has a larger hitbox than the other ali skins. darius animation on his W is faster on his god-king skin than any of his others. not sure on the accuracy of this one but the iblitzcrank skin allegedly has a thinner hookshot.

it's all very fine margins as you can imagine. pretty sure that any skins that do offer some type of advantage like this are banned from the pro-scene? at least that's what i heard way back when i still used to watch LCS and infernal ali was never selected and one of the shoutcasters mentioned why.

Thanks for pointing some of them out.

I know people prefer Spirit Guard Udyr because the animations are better. Idk if there's any true functional difference though.

But yeah, skins impacting the gameplay isn't really common knowledge.

preternaturalJun 26, 20193 votes

{quoted}

Thanks for pointing some of them out.

I know people prefer Spirit Guard Udyr because the animations are better. Idk if there's any true functional difference though.

But yeah, skins impacting the gameplay isn't really common knowledge.

oooo the SGU skin is a fascinating case study because the animations have much more clarity than udyr's other skins, makes animation cancelling easier supposedly but i don't play udyr so i have to go on observations from udyr players. the same thing goes for super galaxy rumble, he has much smoother animations which the koreans used to make a show of abusing when rumble was still sufficient for pro play, or maybe he still is, i doubt any pro player that picks rumble would use anything other than his super galaxy skin.

but these are like edge cases for skins impacting gameplay, the type of impact on gameplay we get nowadays is akin to twisted fate's pulsefire skin where most of the community can't see his ulti symbol because it's so unintrusive.