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A problem with Variety in League (Long-ish post)

DaddyDomSenpai·8/30/2019, 3:26:56 AM·14 votes·8,926 views

Recently, Ive been starting to question the effect of what I believe is the lack of variety in League, and how in this season and meta, a reintroduction of variety could help the game in the current state that it is now.

What I mean by this is that if you look at build paths, and/or champions picked in soloq and so on, you start to see a pattern which might be a core issue of league - Lack of variety in champion picks, and lack of variety in build paths

For example, if you look at melee assassins in midlane, you can see that they're all building the same items - item 3147 item 3142 item 3814 item 3071 item 1001 item 3035. Generally these items seem to be the most popular for them. Obviously, its not always the same, and most of the time you see some variation on 1-2 items, depending on the situation of the game, mainly you'll also see things like item 3026 item 3812 item 3156 item 3053. Now as you can see, there is slight variation on ad assassin builds, but you'll never see a Zed or Qiyana ever NOT build lethality. And thats the issue. I understand that most champions have core items, but when a specific set of 3-4 items becomes the main build for the entire class, thats when you know theres issue in balance, as they are proven to be the superior items over others. I am also aware that certain items are made to fit towards a certain class, but when the exact same build is meta for ALL the assassins show that its just a one-size fits all kind of idea. Why have hundreds of items in league, why have over 20 ad items, when only 5 are used in every assassin build.

Perhaps a good solution would be to add more imput into choosing items, like some items only give x, while others y. At the moment however, it just seems that every item gives both x and y, and then throws in z as well. Im looking at lethality items, giving both penetration, damage, as well as their own separate passives. Also looking at items such as black cleaver, which gives damage, health, cooldown reduction, up to 30% armor pen, and to top it all of a movement speed passive. Im not saying these items are necessarily broken, but they all give good enough stats for ANY situation, they can insta-kill squishies, they can insta kill tanks and with item 3071 and item 3814 they have much increased survivability. I think the items are simply just overloaded with stats, and now other items are just not as good anymore. This good solution I mentioned it kind of reverting the game slightly, and make items an actual choice rather than 'pick x items and win' kind of deal. Make Lethality and damage two separate options, similar to how last whisper items are. They still could give a fair amount of ad, but you can go with relatively low ad with lethality, OR add an item that increases ad by a relatively high amount, but give it little or no lethality.. Similar to how item 3089 Just grants pure ap, make an item that grants a lot of ad but with little else. And not just one item, make a more diverse pool for assasins to pick from, so that they can actually build situationaly rather than the same every time. I know this is just kind of a 'just make the game better' solution, but I believe that these could be seen as guidelines to improving the gamestate that we have today.

In comparison to assassin items, lets look at tank items - There isnt necessarily a go-to tank build this meta. I remember the times when item 3025 and item 3065 were a thing, and everyone loathed the tank meta. Although with the now penetration builds with assassins and bruisers, these kind of tanks would have much less impact on the game as it did before, simply due to the high damage meta which makes tanks much less effective.

If the enemy team is full ad, you stack armor and only armor, if the enemy team is full ap, you stack high magic resist, if the enemy team is a mix of both, you also do a mix of both. Every game as a tank, is different due to the variety of tank items. And thats why I believe that tanks are so weak right now, simply because they dont have a go-to build which works best in every situation. You HAVE to build situationally as a tank if you want to be useful, whereas an assasin or adc just has to build the same stuff over and over again, with only slight variations, in order to have the most potential on their champions.

Many people now think that the super-high damage meta is unfun and just downright toxic to play in, and I agree. Being oneshot as a tank simply because your situational items arent worth much against the go-to items of ad champions. With more item variation, and items actually causing players to make conscious decisions on what they want from their build in order to be effective against their opponents. Make more items with more variety, and/or make decision making on itemization more impactful on the game's situation.

Notice how i havent mentioned much about AP items. Thats because I believe that AP items are in an OK spot right now - They have decent variation as well as defined weaknesses and choice making, they aren't perfect by any means (but then again what is), but they're in an OK spot and with some minor tweaking around some items, there would be little to no more issues.

Now I could be completely wrong and stupid for writing something like this, I could be missing some or a lot of things, but i think that a solution that i proposed maybe could help the game get back to its former glory, instead of the garbage can that Riot seems to be trying to steer League towards. I know that what I write here wont change anything in reality, and probably not a single Rioter will see this, which is why Im asking the community on their thoughts and opinions on this matter, cause i love discussion and hearing about others opinions on whether they agree or not.

Note - I wrote this at 3am until 4am to please excuse any incomprehensible sentences or spelling mistakes, as well as if im just blabbering nonsense throughout this entire post

Note 2 - Please dont just check my rank and assume I dont know what im talking about, not only is this not my main account, I've also played for 7 years as well as reached as high as masters once, so I believe that I have at least SOME credit or value in what I say.

9 Comments

Z3SIeeper8/30/2019, 7:59:08 AM5 votes

The tank problem is 2 issues

  1. Tank items suck right now outside Spirit Visage and Randuins.
  2. Tank itemization has a weird split where a lot of the time you want a certain item effect but can't get it cuz the resistance type doesn't match up with the enemy's main damage threats.
  • Facing a mostly AD team while your team has a ton of magic damage? Guess you can't build Abyssal.
  • Want increased healing cuz you're playing a more sustain-based tank but the enemy is mostly AD? Guess you can't build Spirit Visage.
  • Want Grievous Wounds but the enemy is mostly AP/magic damage? Guess you can't build Thornmail for it.
  • Want more movement speed to engage with but the enemy is mostly AP/magic damage? Guess Deadmans and Righteous Glory are out of the question.

As for Assassins, that's more just because Assassins lack proper itemization in the first place. There are simply no good items for Assassins to build outside the ones you listed.

Here's all the AD items Assassins can/will build:

  • item 3147 item 3814 item 3142 item 3035 item 3071 item 3026 item 3053 item 3139 item 3156 item 3812 item 3074

And here's the rest of the AD items that Assassins simply have no reason to build in 99-100% of games:

  • item 3153 item 3508 item 3022 item 3124 item 3146 item 3031 item 3004 item 3080 item 3161 item 3095 item 3748 item 3078

And looking at the first list, it's obvious that the latter half are all much more situational items. Given that, the only items left that aren't extremely situational are the ones on the left: the penetration items. There's really no fix to this other than more items being added or them being separated into other more specialized items like you suggested.

musixxal8/30/2019, 10:18:59 AM1 votes

assassin items aren't the problem lol. also buff base hp across the board ffs.

BlackOnyxAltear8/30/2019, 11:02:51 AM1 votes

Maybe reintroduce multiple types of scaling to champs. If zed had some ap scaling he could make use of mage items.

No clue if this would be balanced, but it would sure help.

church arson8/30/2019, 12:41:17 PM1 votes

make an ad rabadon and jhins op again lmao

mrmeddyman8/30/2019, 2:17:17 PM1 votes

I'm worried that in preseason Riot will remove more items and streamline others to the point where creativity is even more stifled due to an always present "best build".

I don't think having niche items or experimental items that you only build in one out of twenty games is a bad thing. I think it's massively rewarding to the players who have the game sense to recognize those options when they come up in games. Making those decisions like buying adaptive against teemo and Cassiopeia. Factoring executioners into your build against lifesteal champs and shutting them down. Recognizing your trigger happy jugglers tendency to dive and building that one in a million Ohmwrecker

Don't enforce a game state where building core items over adapting to the game and keeping your options open is the only way to succeed. Might as well remove items from the game and put those stats directly into the kit when that's the case__

Josh Sand8/30/2019, 7:15:57 PM1 votes

The solution to this is to have two pools of items available to buy:

  • Common Items
  • Class specific items

One of the reason that assassin items are so insanely good is that they dont have to worry about other classes picking them up, so they can be finely tuned to give an Assassin literally everything they need.

Then you look at support items, and there are all these conditional rules built around them, just so they cant be abused by solo laners.

A generic item list means that every item has to be balanced within the restrictive framework of being available for use by Nami or LeBlanc.

If added some class-specific items that could only be bought by champs like AP Bruisers, Enchanters, Marksman, etc. not only would we see a ton of build diversity, the champions would be easier to balance.

If Lulu didnt have access to high powered AP items, you could balance her base stats and spells without having to worry about her abusing a solo lane. You could actually make her a stronger support without worrying about her upsetting top and mid lane meta.

So many games have restrictions around what things you can use with what, because its part and parcel to creating strategic diversity. It's what makes classic games like D&D and Magic the Gathering so good.

PlsRitoRepairS108/30/2019, 7:43:11 PM1 votes

Well... Basically I agree but item 3135 and item 3285 are imho overloaded examples of ap items.

Modl Ryden l8/31/2019, 2:23:45 AM1 votes

I've noticed similar happenings to champion builds.

It's all due to reworks in each champion role. With each of those reworks containing an itemization rework as well. Basically, heeding to the players idea of need to maximize each stat for their class of champion.

"Assassins do well with max CDR and as much defense negation as possible!" So Riot rebuilt the class and items to revolve around that, no longer could you build something like full crit Rengar or Talon without having significant fall off. due to marksmen items (like crit) being tailored to them!

So if you build crit assassins, you lose out on the CDR and defense negation your abilities would have benefited from since assassins abilities, unless stated otherwise, can't critically strike or become available faster with attack speed.

And this holds true for other classes as well.

Some supports cannot opt out for AP builds (effectively) since the AP ratios on heals and shields have been drastically reduced in favor of having to build items that scale the efficacy of heals and shields along with minimal AP. And also the fact that AP (although a stat that can boost healing/shield stats) is ultimately a combat stat that requires magic penetration towards later stages of the game to prevent fall off. Magic penetration being a stat that supports can't utilize fully since heals/shields don't benefit from it.

And so on and so forth.

It doesn't help the fact that items like Tiamat/Hydras, Sterak's, and Runaan's are locked away from ranged/melee champs respectively thus furthering the divide of itemization and streamlining the builds champions can build.

It doesn't mean you can't build those items. You may certainly playing AD on-hit Katarina if you wish, just understand there isn't much benefit to doing so.

But you know, that's never stopped players from finding ways to make janky builds that just work and those builds are some the funnest I've ever played.

Lethality Jhin/MF/Quinn, Crit Garen, Sej and Olaf with Redemption / Locket, on-hit Varus, PTA Leona.