Boards›Gameplay

What do YOU think makes a champion frustrating to play against?

HaugheyPuck99·8/12/2016, 4:34:59 PM·3 votes·1,020 views

So the latest thing that Riot has been working on lately is the big assassin update, and part of that is where they want to make it so that a bunch of the most popular assassins don't burst people down from 100-to-0 quite as fast, and try to build a bigger window of counterplay in for their opponents. Overall just generally try and make assassins much less frustrating to play against.

So this got me thinking a bit, what exactly is it that makes a champion frustrating to play against? Is it the lack of counterplay? Is it just generally how much their kit annoys you? Is it caused by being unfamiliar with that particular champion's mechanics, so you're not quite sure what you can and cannot get away with when playing against them? Is it the feeling that you absolutely HAVE TO counterpick them as the only way of being able to deal with them?

Personally, the two champions in this game that I absolutely cannot stand more than anyone else are LeBlanc and Shaco. Now I'm not gonna explain why I hate LeBlanc because I think hating playing against her is pretty well understood within the community, but I will explain why for Shaco. Whenever I'm playing against a Shaco player that really knows what they're doing, I often feel like my own jungle is just as dangerous to walk into as the enemy's jungle because of how well he can control the map between his boxes and his mobility, and I absolutely despise how he has an ability that is both a flash and an instant stealth because it makes him obnoxiously difficult to catch when he's running away. But does that make him impossible to deal with? No, and I know this. But that doesn't stop me from hating his existence.

Now a friend of mine on the other hand absolutely hates playing against both Caitlyn and Zed. He thinks that Caitlyn traps are absolute bull**** and he despises every aspect of Zed's entire kit. Personally, neither of these two champions are frustrating to me at all (Although I do understand why so many people find Zed frustrating, I don't blame anyone for that). I find Caitlyn traps pretty easy to deal with, and as someone who used to play Zed a lot I know exactly how long his ability cooldowns are and how much damage he can output in a single combo. But I've practiced Zed, I've played enough of him to where I know exactly how to take advantages of the weaknesses in his kit during the laning phase. So is it just lack of understanding a champion that makes them really frustrating? Maybe, but I think there's a bit more to it than just that. Let's look at Teemo, another well known for example.

Now, does Teemo have a kit that's pretty flashy or difficult to understand the "in-depth mechanics" of? I don't think so. I mean, I know I can't speak for everybody here, but I think that Teemo's kit is really easy to understand actually. He has a blind, a small speed boost, poison on his auto-attacks, and his invisible mushroom traps. Nothing flashy, just some fairly strong and reliable abilities that are pretty easy to combo. But we all know its not that simple. We all know that behind that cute and fuzzy Yordle exterior lies the twisted soul of a spawn of satan that relishes in the slaughter of his enemies that fall pray to his traps as he laughs manically while dancing over the corpses of those that have fallen victim to his deadly poison. ...Ahem... Yeah... So Teemo's kit isn't that difficult, but he's still pretty frustrating... Let's go back to talking about LeBlanc for a bit, shall we?

One of the biggest points in the topic of frustration is when someone has a lack of counterplay in their kit. Now we all know how we feel about LeBlanc's "counterplay", but whether we like or not, we can't deny that back when LB was the #1 ban for a while, she was considered a terrible ban at really high elos. Why? Because pros know how to handle her. Now does that make the rest of us stupid for not being able to understand how to play against her? Of course not, it'd be absolutely absurd for Riot to expect us all to be able to play as well as the pros. But it does prove that it is possible to beat someone that really knows what they're doing with her. Now "What exactly do you have to do to beat her then?" you may ask? Hell if I know, I'm in silver.

But yeah, that's where I'm gonna end off my little rant here. If you made it this far then thanks for taking the time to read my rantings. Now I just wanna open up a discussion in the comments here, what exactly is it that YOU guys think makes a champion frustrating to play against? Is it something I listed above? Is it something I completely missed? Do you just wanna call bull**** on any of the points I talked about? I'd love to hear what you all think. Who do you absolutely despise playing against and why?

Thanks again for reading this, and have a nice day everyone!

15 Comments

warpenguin5558/12/2016, 6:16:43 PM6 votes

i had a longer post on some of these reasons but accidentally left the page. I really dont want to retype some of that either so those points will stay shorter. things that Frustrate me:

Not having a clear or meaningful weakness A champion like Orianna has this. Keep track of her ball, move around it. Make her run oom or overextend to make the ball hit you. LeBlanc is not a good example. She goes QW takes a good chunk of your health, and even though her W has a decently long CD that missing health is enough to scare you into not doing anything to retaliate.

Not being able to punish a mistake If Vel'Koz flashs and fucks up his combo, hes a goner. If Ms Fortune pushes too far up alone and get collapsed on shes dead. If Yasuo or LeBlanc do either, they can still get out almost with no cost.

Champions who only splitpush. Nothing else This is mostly an older champion thing, and the ones who do it piss me off to no end. Nasus and Tryndamere are the main offenders of this here but there are others. When laning against a Tryndamere or Nasus, there are only 2 ways it will go, either he wins lane and split pushes the rest of the game, or he loses lane and split pushes the rest of the game. Either way champions like Nasus and Tryndamere are only going to splitpush because they literally cant do anything else and be useful. This problem is almost exclusive to top lane fighters too. Atleast newer fighters tend to come down after a little bit, because champions like Gangplank and Fiora are useful splitpushers but also are not being used to the highest quality when they afk split push. As a player who shines as best as a shiny bronze player can in teamfights, nothing is worse than killing the other 4 and being force to send 2-3 people back because that Trundle just sits there in that top lane pushing away like hes done the last 30 minutes. Or even worse, not being able to even join in the teamfight because im babysitting his ass and if i even go near the river the entire lane is in pieces.

**You should never be doomed or forced into a bad decision ** A bad examples of this would be Caitlyn, Rengar, Fizz, Vayne and Jinx. Vayne or Jinx got 2 kills in lane? might as well just stop playing now because this is game over. Rengar or Fizz got ahead? Carries can just go sit in base now because once Rengar jumps on them they are about as useful as an afk 9/10 times (id say about 8 times for Fizz). Once Caitlyns trap line is set up you have 3 choices. A) Go around another route and fight, but if her trap line is set up that far where shes sieging you probably cant win that fight which is why she was able to set the trap line that far up in the 1st place. B) Set off the traps and lose 1/3 of your health because she sniped you and also risk being engaged on in some cases, or C) watch your turret die. None of these options do anything but feel demoralizing for the enemy.

The champion has a toxic playerbase Self explanatory.

So those are the things that make champions frustrating to me. I feel like they are all very valid complaints and Riot has been doing a good job for the most part in keeping champions who do things like this from being too common.

Aptest8/12/2016, 6:10:53 PM4 votes

champions that are not frustrating to deal with have distinct and **exploitable ** low points where they are weak and can be attacked and don't have "an escape" to trump themselves out of the situation, or their high points have easily reached limits like "does not work late game" or "only good in team fights".

Champions who's high points are too accessible and require a specific kit or an un-enjoyable play style (hug the support). are frustrating.

Athenes Lulu8/12/2016, 4:48:21 PM3 votes

Having to play "the reaction game". Or in other words, play the game of "whoever blindly lands your combo first wins", regardless of positioning or any form of thought.

Yes, I know I'm bad, slow, and that I just need to git gud, but it's frustrating nevertheless.

Deathspasm848/12/2016, 5:44:59 PM3 votes

any champ that can tower dive early and get out is annoying. Leblanc, Vlad, zed and fizz come to mind.

cinomenapplebae8/12/2016, 4:37:42 PM3 votes

CC and Movement, champions like Yasuo Riven Fizz Fiora

GULAG 4 U8/13/2016, 12:24:29 AM3 votes

The feeling of lack of counter play.

zlumpy8/12/2016, 4:54:08 PM3 votes

Resourcless champions get pretty annoying to play against. Same for near resourceless like energy.

DeathBurst8/16/2016, 1:32:29 PM2 votes

There are a few different things I find frustrating.

Playing in a bad match-up (or simply against a player better than you), where you are forced to just farm under tower because anything else would just result in your death, it's pretty annoying, but it's not champion specific, it's really the match-up, the pair of champions combined. Stuff like Garen vs (a good) Darius, whereas neither Darius or Garen are frustrating in absolute. Champs without resources when you are playing a Mana champ are also a bit similar, they can just get you in the end through attrition, even if their kit isn't actually frustrating.

Then there are some champs that have something irritating in their kit, like Illaoi Test of Spirit, or Blitz grab, where this single ability completely distort how you have to play. Playing a melee champ without an ability to CS from afar against Illaoi is horrible.

Then, there are the "non-interactive" champs. Stuff like Nasus, Mundo, Trundle, etc. Who can basically ignore you and just farm and can get away with it thanks to their innate sustain. Or Warwick Top, it's overall kinda weak, but it's soooo annoying to play against him during the early game.

Finally, I personally hate the champs with a lot of movement/untargetability like Yasuo or Fizz.

YJRBqwXJcS8/12/2016, 4:38:40 PM2 votes

item 2009 item 2033 riot specifically took crystaline flask out of the game because champions with shitty early game but godlike late games were running rampant.

they then introduce these items and buffed either corruption potion or both of them

to the point they function just as well as crystaline flask.

FUCK THIS SEASON

Leeerzeichen8/12/2016, 4:57:37 PM2 votes

Poke, CC and passive play

Caítlyn8/12/2016, 6:25:07 PM2 votes

Ridiculous mobility, gap closers and cc

Way too many champions have all of these things combined with burst damage

Im fine with burst damage if a mage has to land some skillshots, but if you combine it with ridiculous mobility and cc (hello Kled ) its retarded to play against

Also, tanks that deal way too much damage. Tanks should not be able to 1 shot me. Period.

Maximum Morde8/12/2016, 5:49:33 PM1 votes

TLDR. But to answer the title, the most frustrating thing for me is weeb noises. Champions like Yasuo, Ahri, Lee Sin, Xin, Riven, etc. They all make annoying ass noises. I don't even care about their balance state, it just want them reworked to have noises that don't cause me to want to strangle a small furry animal.