There are 4 types of champions

JavelinJoe·Jun 8, 2017·2 votes·787 views

Those who only see significant game play in high elo and competitive pro play (ex: ).
Those who are generally played by all elo and competitive pro play (ex: ).
Those who are only played by low-mid elo (ex: ).
Those who can't be played anywhere unless under specific conditions (ex: ).

I would really like to see RIOT work on champions that can only be played in high elo/competitive play and those who cant be played really to bring them into the game. Maybe making some of the low-mid elo only champions a bit better, but really the champions in the other 2 groups should get the most focus. Why have a champion even exist if no one besides a select few can play them successfully and there has been no sign of a significant buff / rework to allow for more game play? I feel that the goal should be to have every champion fall into the second group.

19 Comments

Big LincolnJun 8, 20173 votes

good luck getting boards to agree with reworking a "Beginner champ" lol

Garen Volibear are too brain dead to ever be able to be good in elos that matter. even for stat-check characters they're stupidly simple

Azir is on the other extreme, he takes a lot of skill but people who master him basically shut down anyone else for free. he's not particularly high counterplay, either, thanks to his safety, range, speed and mobility. tbh I would say Aurelion falls in this group too but he has the issue of having some of the hardest counters in the game

both should be brought into line

MetalGearTeemuJun 8, 20171 votes

are too brain dead to ever be able to be good in elos that matter. even for stat-check characters they're stupidly simple

An argument can be made thats its actually harder to be effective with these "simple" champs compared to characters with more loaded kits and mobility due to the limitations of your binary kits.

Part of the reason this game's character selection is so limited is that characters are not balanced in a vacuum. Something that they need to just nick wholesale from Dota. Riot is not smarter then valve/chilltoad no matter how much they want to pat themselves on the back for being the george lucas to this accidental star wars. Every revision they make just makes it worse.

Vapor Wave VibesJun 8, 20172 votes

Champions like rumble are played in high elo because with skill the champion they can carry games. Buffing champions like garen Garen that don't a large amount of skill through balance changes would only make him broken, and a kit rework would only make them require more skill so he'd be worse in lower elos. Really not every champion needs to be seen in every elo or been viable in competitive play, but ones that are never seen like urgot Urgot and azir Azir need attention.

sit kidJun 10, 20171 votes

Urgot is getting a full VGU and Azir will get a Rek'Sai level rework in the upcoming months

sit kidJun 8, 20171 votes

I think Azir (and Kalista, old reksai) falls into a 5th "Only LCS" group rather than situational. He isnt situational right now, just bad.

Other than that, I really agree with your post.

VęrtęxJun 8, 20171 votes

Feels bad man

JavelinJoeJun 8, 20171 votes

Well, I think Azir can only be played decently by a select few LCS players too. And don't forget the latest potential addition to the group, Camille lol

sit kidJun 9, 20171 votes

Don't know about camille. Just op like kassadin back in s3 and where people just didnt stop playing him until he was gutted.

And they've been buffing him slowly, and now i actually think he is pretty decent for both lcs and solo

It's probably too early to tell that state of camille imo

JavelinJoeJun 9, 20171 votes

Camille is on the very borderline of being unplayable. And RIOT thinks buffing her Q's damage is the right step towards a solution. All I know is that she really only needs her last nerf revoked and she should be fine, maybe still a bit underpowered, but more or less ok.

sit kidJun 10, 20171 votes

Still don't deny the Hydra buffs that gave her 5 more AD to work with, and made her way better in the midseason update.

I think the upcoming buff should be more than enough to make her playable.

Lucian WaifuJun 8, 20171 votes

Current Ryze as well.

sit kidJun 9, 20171 votes

yep

ElindiirJun 8, 20171 votes

I think Riot tries to balance champions to go into category 2 but its hard to make every champion fit in such a category AND maintain its identity. A lot of champions CAN be brought to be 'not weak' in low solo-queue, but doing so would make competitive play monotonous and whatever team has Kalista and Azir flat out wins. If rumble was actually strong enough to be effective with an untrained hand and no coordination, he would be in pick/ban status. Also, champions like Elise are just so complex that an unskilled player would not be able to make much use of her.

CannonLordFreedJun 8, 20171 votes

I'm not super fond of category 4, but the rest are all necessary to good game design. We need easy champs who aren't necessarily as good but can still win with players who aren't as good at the game for lower skill levels, and we need high skillcap champs to make competitive play interesting and to balance the easier champs. Champs like Thresh who can perform well everywhere are obviously the best but they're hard to pull off.

MetalGearTeemuJun 8, 20171 votes

I have a particular dislike for rumble because he was the first resource lesschampion that was rewarded for mashing out his low cooldown manaless skills in lane.

With the "penalty" of turning into an all in right clicker for capping, which didn't even cancel the flamespitter use.

TimX24968BJun 8, 20171 votes

riot wrote an article on this:

http://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/2017/02/ask-riot-malzahar-kills-the-lady/

the first question shows alot of their philosophy about this subject.

but the TL:DR of it is:

"TLDR we do value pro champion diversity, but not at the expense of everything else."

JavelinJoeJun 8, 20171 votes

That is not a very promising post at all. In other words, they ideally would love all champions to be viable. However, because of how they want to "force" a common starting point, and fear that balancing champions might make them too simple or too complex, means that nothing will really ever be changed to get them closer to their ideal champion states. I guess they think it is more worth their time to think up new concepts than to fix and tune old ones that really need it.

TimX24968BJun 8, 20171 votes

I don't think you are taking into account some of their other values or are aware of the issues they would face going to those extents that you would like them to, in that case.

JavelinJoeJun 9, 20171 votes

I am aware. I was saying that because of the amount of work and their values, they would not make the changes. Basically their values and ideals contradict in some parts, but are the same in others. But because of those contradictions, they wont make many changes that may be "needed".