My feelings on the recent changes, and the good and bad sides of them:

So I've given myself a chance to kind of let these changes sink in before really sitting down to make any kind of post on them, and as a disclaimer these are pretty much my opinions on them at this point, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. I'm always up for discussing these things more in-depth, but I'm not going to be getting into arguments over what's "right" or "wrong".

In this post, I'll be covering the following:

• Champion diversity since the update
• The new strategies that have arisen as a result
• The death of a champion class
• The long road ahead in balancing this out
• What caused this kind of an update to be taken so badly
• How other big-shifts in the meta up to this point have worked out, and what sets this one apart from them.

So with that laundry list set up, I'd like to get on with addressing these points one at a time!

Champion diversity since the marksman item/champion updates So with this recent update, we saw an entire class of champions get weakened early on. In a season where the games are already so short on average, a change like this was bound to not only heavily weaken the champion class of champions, but almost remove their viability entirely. I'll go into detail on that more though in a while.

The biggest thing that this patch has brought to League that I've been kind of wanting for a while now is an opportunity for strategic changes in gameplay, as well as different ways to win the game. I've never expected to see so many crazy and zany combinations work, but they have. Hell, I supported an Aatrox as Brand and won, and lost to a Nami + Pyke lane.

The game is in a weird limbo right now, but I'm kind of warming up to the idea of new ways of getting to a "Win Condition" rather than getting a marksman farmed and fed and ultimately playing around them more than half the time.

---

The new strategies that have arisen as a result

Karthus with Smite getting gold funneled into them, Taliyah Jungle, rock-paper-scissors meta bottom lane, there's so much new strategy that's come up as a result of this, and we still have yet to see what this new meta holds in its hidden potential. It's really opened up the possibility for champion diversity to shine again. Though there is still a couple of problem champions (*cough *) that I think need to really be looked at, I'm enjoying seeing more and more diversity in my games than ever before, both in Normal and in Ranked queues. Especially in the pro scene, this opens up a world of possibilities for the game to be won, but we'll have to see what happens in the upcoming patches, and what Riot decides to do.

---

The death of a champion class

For a while now, Marksman have been the target of a lot of changes, both buffs and nerfs. But nothing hit them nearly as hard as this mid-season patch did. With several years' worth of development focused on crit-based marksman, the harshness of this patch really hit hard across a good chunk of the marksman pool. The only really viable marksman right now are the ones that can actively rely on 1-item power spikes, but the others are left weaker than before, with "training wheels" being taken off and having to get even more gold just to be able to productively participate in fights. Not to mention, towers are still extremely weak, and provide no safety against champions in this meta where every champion has enough damage off of one item to half-health any squishy target.

The value of a crit-based marksman has drastically diminished, but it's not just because of the item changes. Bottom-lane marksmen were always designed with a lane-partner in mind, so they usually are not only less safe to play solo, but almost always a big target to abuse because of their lack of mobility. And most marksman lack the damage to outright duel other champions alone (with a few exceptions,) so now we're looking at a meta where only a few marksman are really viable in comparison to who was viable before. Not to mention, with the support items being weakened for marksman interaction, it was only a matter of time before marksman champions fell out of favor for champions with a higher base damage, and a quicker spike in power.

---

The long road to balancing this out

While I'm happy to see this, I also don't want to see having a crit-based marksman be a liability. At the same time however, I don't want to see them be the domineering factor over every game in LoL. It's a weird line to be walking for Riot right now, as these changes weren't intended to eliminate the viability of crit-based marksman, it was intended to just slow them down.

Not to mention if crit items get buffed too much, we could see marksman melting down tanks and squishy targets even faster than before with the new effect on the Infinity Edge. True damage is something that's not only frustrating to play against, but it feels cheap to play with since it mitigates all damage reduction from items and stats.

Furthermore, if these items and champions are buffed or even reverted, then all of this diversity that we're seeing now will be all but lost. And that's something I don't want to lose, especially since it offers a new way to play a stale and stagnating game.

---

What caused this update to be taken so badly?

Contrary to 's quote, change isn't always good. And these changes left a good chunk of players feeling really alienated by them. It isn't just about adapting to a new style of play, it's about adapting to an entirely different game altogether.

I quit playing marksman a while ago because it felt bad to be the target of so much pressure throughout a game, and especially with champions getting more and more damage in their kits and runes relying on snowballing, it felt like a role that really just wasn't fun to play anymore. One small slip-up, and your entire game could become a living hell. And now more than ever that's the case with crit items costing a fortune more.

Getting less time to ramp up as well also has a big factor in it. Weaker turrets, stronger options besides trying to crawl to a 2-item power spike and significantly shorter game times on average make it so much harder to justify playing any marksman that can't ramp-up in one item.

As someone who used to main the role, and someone with several friends who quit as a result of these changes I can definitely feel the pain in this update. I hope there's some way Riot can balance this out to kind of meet everyone's needs on it.

---

How other big-shifts in the meta up to this point have worked out, and what sets this one apart from them

Let's face it: meta shifts happen. There's been so many metas that have happened since I first joined, but this shift has definitely been the largest I've experienced by far.

The support reworks that changed them from ward-mules into a much more powerful class had a big impact on the meta, and brought in a lot more offensive options for the support role. Champions that didn't typically take up that role started to flood in quickly.

The juggernaut rework had some unforeseen consequences with items that were designed for tanks being taken on marksman, but that was quickly sussed out while a new classification of brawlers came about.

The jungle item rework(s) allowed for new niches of jungle-champions to be able to exist, and even brought in some pretty unique champions into the role, such as and .

Yet none of these reworks changed how an entire game played out until this mid-season patch. Like it or not, this game is all about adapting, but this patch will definitely take a lot more adapting than some of these prior reworks have for sure.

---

Some of my last thoughts on this: I really hope that this is something that helps Riot look more at the potential for adding in a lot more items and runes in to the game. I understand the need to remove and replace items / item effects a lot, but for every item they remove or change, they change the opportunity for an entire playstyle and strategic choice. The more choices there are, the more variety there is in a game, and the more that a player has to think critically about what they need next. I don't see why items like were essentially reworked and changed into something entirely different altogether, but I would've loved to see it stay as well as a new item be added for more strategic variety for marksman. It took out an entire crit option for the marksman class for an item that has an entirely different purpose to it.

That's my biggest gripe about how these patches have gone. More items. More variety. More strategic options. Taking out items only eliminates potential for new strategies to happen, and ultimately leaves one dominant, stagnant choice that will be the most powerful way to go. Allowing for more items makes it to where players can be presented with many more choices in approaching how they plan to win a game rather than being left with one build path that's the only way to go.

If a Rioter happens to read by this: What's your thoughts on adding more items and runes? I feel as though those would be the biggest point in champion diversity, especially in allowing other champions to go bottom lane. Maybe items that start up strong defensively against auto-attacks and scale down as time goes on? This would allow for some kind of middle ground between marksman being viable bottom lane and other champions being viable there as well, without just outright chasing out all marksman.

Anyways, that's the end of my post. I look forward to discussing about this patch with other players, and see what others' thoughts are on this patch.

Cheers!