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RIOT's balance as of late seems.. very poorly tested.

PentaJump·2/20/2015, 8:54:09 PM·30 votes·2,417 views

Personally, I am of the belief that winrates do a good job in showing a champion's strength. Now, let's examine how winrates have changed after champions have been touched in recent patches.

Cass- buffed to being one of the highest win rates in the game, both top lane and mid. (I forget the exact number.) But now is nerfed to a proper state. Ahri- Buffed to the highest win rate in the game, at 58.5%. Subsequently nerfed to a proper state.

These two are.. sort of okay, I guess? They were broken for a patch but got fixed.

Syndra- Nerfed to what was the lowest win rate in the game. She is still below 43% win rate. Akali- Nerfed to one of the lowest win rates in the game. She is still below 43% win rate. Azir- Nerfed to the lowest win rate in the game. He is below a 38% win rate.

Tristana- Nerfed to have the lowest win rate out of any ADC. (below 46%).

Fizz- Nerfed so that AP Fizz has below a 45% win rate. His AD/bruiser build is balanced now, but was that really RIOT's goal?

I'm just wondering.. how do so many champions end up in either the top 3 or bottom 5 champions for win rate, within 4 patches? This seems to indicate that you aren't capable of accurately predicting the strength of a champion/how much changes will impact them.

28 Comments

SmokingPuffin2/20/2015, 9:15:00 PM16 votes

Personally, I am of the belief that winrates do a good job in showing a champion's strength.

Win rates mostly show whether a champion is easy to play. It shouldn't surprise when we see Heimerdinger in the top win rates, or Lee Sin in the lowest win rates. Remember that the top level win rate number includes a ton of really bad players, so ease of use is a paramount virtue.

Win rates become interesting when you see champions that are low skill and low winrate (e.g. Zilean) or high skill and high winrate (e.g. Janna). These are good candidates for balance changes.

Cass- buffed to being one of the highest win rates in the game, both top lane and mid. (I forget the exact number.) But now is nerfed to a proper state. Ahri- Buffed to the highest win rate in the game, at 58.5%. Subsequently nerfed to a proper state. Tristana- Nerfed to have the lowest win rate out of any ADC. (below 46%).

It's really, really hard to get rework tuning right. So many things change at once, you lose touch with the balance point. These results are acceptable.

Syndra- Nerfed to what was the lowest win rate in the game. She is still below 43% win rate. Azir- Nerfed to the lowest win rate in the game. He is below a 38% win rate.

These are pretty annoying. Both these champs were overnerfed, and it should have been knowable by the balance team. Someone fell asleep at the switch.

Akali- Nerfed to one of the lowest win rates in the game. She is still below 43% win rate.

Akali is probably just in purgatory -- being intentionally nerfed out of viability because her play patterns are too reliable.

Fizz- Nerfed so that AP Fizz has below a 45% win rate. His AD/bruiser build is balanced now, but was that really RIOT's goal?

He's probably fine. High skill champions shouldn't be expected to have a 50% win rate in average games.

Trídent2/21/2015, 2:08:22 AM4 votes

They need to actually listen to their PBE testers.

UdoIkOSc4u2/20/2015, 9:04:19 PM4 votes

there are so many variables for a champion winrate just look at lee always win and by the way akali is gutted intenzionally

Grashnim2/20/2015, 9:44:38 PM3 votes

Ghostcrawler, WoW = LoL now. Balance was never poor for ages.

Playgroundlgnd892/21/2015, 2:15:13 AM2 votes

Im a new player.. so my input may not be valid to many of you..

But maybe the problem isnt the Champions.. maybe its the players and the way they play them?

Everyone is so focused on "THE META" that creativity and trying new ways to build/use/play champions goes out the window.

How about after a champ is Nerfed.. you figure out what their adjustments makes them good at, and maybe switch their lane/build/ play style?

The game gets stale when everyone is set in their ways

Theres so many "you just dont do ____"

Rinky Dinky2/21/2015, 3:39:19 AM2 votes

Interesting that Tristana's winrate is so low, considering how powerful she still is.

All of the pro's I watch have also said that they like the rework, and see alot of potential with it.

Kowe The Ewok2/21/2015, 3:40:17 AM2 votes

I have to agree.

Underpowered champion get gutted Veigar Mordekaiser

Overpowered champions remain as such Zed LeeSin #LCSBigPlays

Top notch champions get buffed further

Jungle balance is being worsened each patch.

Long time offenders (underpowered) are being completely ignored Skarner Olaf Urgot Elise Evelynn

MrBuffington2/20/2015, 10:06:12 PM1 votes

My personal thinking (or hopes) are that Riot is just taking this time to make some really aggressive changes to the game to shake things up a bit, and then make measured changes/corrections later. All I remember Riot adding to S4 were trinkets; they seem to be adding a lot more new stuff in this early part of this season; thus everything is going to be sort of messy for a while. I'm hoping that this might result in larger systematic changes (rather than small balance tweaks) in the future, and also correction of problems that have been building up over the years, and then they'll return to measured changes and tweaks after the dust has settled. That's at least what I'm thinking (or hoping) for.

Narog2/21/2015, 3:10:00 AM1 votes

what do you mean? the Ahri buff was totally smart and necessary xD

Done252/21/2015, 3:50:24 PM1 votes

Win rate is actually a bit of a tricky thing. There are FOUR possible states.

Weak - Low win rate - This champion is just outright undertuned.

Hard to play - Low win rate - The people who know what to do, do well. Those who don't, don't do well. Can't be buffed without the first party breaking the champion.

Balanced - Good win rate - Perfect. Don't touch them.

OP - High win rate - Picking this champion makes you flat out more likely to win. Needs a nerf.

Sirsir2/21/2015, 4:04:49 PM1 votes

Using winrate the week after something is released/changed is a bad thing. Yasuo was cried underpowered after release and buffed into a monster until he was re-nerfed.

But after a month of a 54% winrate something needs to change.

Nausicäa 2/21/2015, 6:01:01 AM1 votes

Yup recent balance changes have been total trash.

Overnerfing for no reason and then backpedaling on the changes.

Learn 2 Swim2/20/2015, 10:47:41 PM1 votes

Riot is replacing 20% of the champion roster with each new released champ and leaving big money makers with OP mobility like Ahri Zed Nid Lee in the game.

Malix Farwin2/20/2015, 10:17:13 PM1 votes

Lol its not tested at all.

A side note, AP fizz has less then a 45% win rate, his winrate is just inflated by AD Fizz. AD fizz does everything AP Fizz does at the moment but better and doesn't heavily rely on his ult to get kills so there is really no point in going AP on fizz.