What exactly does a "weak early game" mean to you Riot?
I guess I have some confusion on this, so I'm wondering if there can be some clarification on what Riot's expectations are
Personally, I don't really see how
All-inning me at level 2/3 from 100-0 off a single stun
Clobbering trades on my face with a corrupting potion
Shoving the wave harder than me while applying nonstop bounce pressure
in general
To name a few, are "weak early game champs". Unless the definition of "weak early" means "they don't try to kill you on every CD" (which some of those try do do anyway).
Now, saltiness in the post aside, I'm not saying these champions are overpowered or even that I can't win against them. I just don't understand their power curves. Shouldn't someone who's win condition is more or less "reach 3 items" struggle to do anything in lane rather than have good kill potential, presence, and wave control? When I ask this, the two responses I usually get are along the lines of:
"You just have to pick someone who can bully them". My problem with this is that if someone is properly weak in lane, most of the roster should bully them. I shouldn't have to pick hyper aggro early game bullies just to apply pressure. Just because they lose to Jayce, Kennen, and Renekton doesn't mean they're actually a weak laner. It just means it's Jayce and Kennen and Renekton
"Have your jungler gank them out of lane" Again, if someone's biggest downside is an exploitable early game, why does exploiting said early game contain so many steps. If I need my jungler to stop someone from farming their laning isn't very weak. To me this is just another iteration of the argument "the counterplay is to focus them" which Riot has stated isn't really a valid form of counterplay.
Now I don't mind laners with tools to be safe but not a lot of pressure. Veigar for instance can keep himself fairly safe under his tower if he's smart with W and farm up. But he's not really threatening. He doesn't just come at you cold and try to kill you solo. Many other champions with great scaling feel like they have far too much room to be aggressive in lane.
Again, I don't have a problem with their kits fundamentally, even Yasuo. Windwall can exist all it wants. I just personally don't feel like I'm laning against someone who's particularly weak before they get the item.