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Controversial opinion: Marksmen are the most balanced class

JoeAnarchy·12/1/2018, 11:44:07 PM·2 votes·906 views

wait wait wait, before you downvote, just read my post and try to understand my view.

~ i realize some marksmen have been geared in a more assassiny route lately (looking at you Kaisa ) and the front loaded burst damage route (coughJhin MissFortune cough) but i don't think those marksmen kits/builds are healthy anyway, and are the exceptions, not the rules. ~

Marksmen fit a OTP role, of being "glass canons" high damage, low defenses, sustained damage, etc. they're meant to be objective takers, tank busters, and siege engines. they're sort of the long term investment. you're playing league as usual, trying to get farm and objectives, all the while trying to get bot lane ahead, so when it comes time for sieging your canons are at their highest and most potent power. whether that be, taking turrets, or just spreading lots of damage over their team the fact is, most marksmen fit this role, with little diversity. i think the best example of this is Jinx her Q's passive ramps up attack speed, and she can switch to rockets for more damage with the trade off of speed and mana. great at sieging and teamfighting when she has the proper protection, but if she gets caught out will absolutely die. Jinx doesn't feel like she has a bunch of heavy front loaded damage, she isn't a burst champion in any way.

people heavily hate marksmen having front loaded burst damage, and rightfully so, marksmen should be heavy sustain damage from the backline not jumping in and assassinating people.

but for the most part, all marksmen do the same thing, farm until they're useful, if you shut them down early, they stop being useful. i know most of you will say "well if you shut anyone down early they won't be useful" but it's not on the same level as marksmen, because marksmen don't have the tools other classes have. but that's what makes them balanced. these "glass canon" attributes are why support goes with marksmen, it's why marksmen+support need to be in bot lane, so they only have one side to worry about jungle from and keep them as far from top as possible, so they have less to deal with, and the reason they go bot, is because there are two of them, so you have more support at dragon. honestly, laning, and the laning meta as we know it, was built around marksmen, it was the European laning meta, before that, marksmen went mid.

Marksmen have always been the same, because as a class, they don't need many changes, and if you give marksmen too many tools, they become issues, like Kaisa Kalista Vayne Kindred Quinn Kallista got nerfed to near unplayablility, Kai'sa is still WAY too dominant, kindred isn't even played bot, she's played jungle because she has too many tools to be wasted in bot lane, and Quinn and Vayne see play in other lanes because of their versatility. all these champions are generally unhealthy when they're too strong.

Marksmen in the bot lane, are just so generic and balanced, that when they are shooken up too much, it completely changes the foundation of the game. and i agree, it isn't fair to the other lanes and classes, because they constantly deal with shifting metas. do supports need to play poke? do they need to play tanks? do they need to play enchanters? does mid play fighters? do they play assassins? do they play mages? does top play tanks? do they play duelist? wtf is jungle even doing?

ADC doesn't worry about this, ADC just grabs it's marksmen and is ready to go.

alot of people say this is unbalanced, that marksmen are just too strong and dominate, but that's not true. they're just so perfectly balanced and tuned for the role, that there's no reason not to just keep them there.

the argument "well marksmen are the most picked class in bot lane still, so clearly they're the most powerful" no, they're just the most picked, because it's the best fit, even post 8.11, marksmen still got picked for bot lane, because it was STILL the best fit for them, even if they're the weaker overall choice people still understand that marksmen are just so perfectly tuned for that role in that lane.

the round peg goes in the round hole, even if you can shove the square peg into the round hole, the round peg is still whats supposed to go there.

and i know people are gonna argue, people that just like the meta to get shaken up, people that just don't wanna deal with it, etc etc. but my question is, what does it matter? if bot lane players want to keep marksmen as the dominant choice bot, who cares? post 8.11 top lane mains were still in top lane, mid laners were still in mid, support mains were still being the hero being willing to main support. and bot laners still kept trying to play their marksmen.

TLDR - Marksmen are the most balanced class for the role, simply because of how basic they are. round peg round hole.

4 Comments

vgamedude12/1/2018, 11:54:43 PM2 votes

To me by very nature of being the only required, consistently so mind you, class in the game for years and years means they are not well balanced in comparison to everything else in the game.

Mordepool12/2/2018, 12:56:08 AM2 votes

Thats the Thing about Opinions They Dont need to be Based on Facts.

As you will see ##Exibit A: This Thread

mack911212/1/2018, 11:46:33 PM1 votes

The problem with marksmen is it feels for them to be viable every player on the team has to play around them which can be frustrating in games were the adc is less than appreciative .

haaaaaaalp12/2/2018, 4:34:22 AM1 votes

We can’t use the “it has always been this way” for every balance problem. Traditionally, riot has heavily undervalued range (and mobility) which had lead to ranged champions always being better than their melee counterparts. For the longest time, immobile ranged add outclassed immobile melee add, mobile ranged adc outclassed mobile melee adc, etc. Recently, riot has strived to close the gap between melee and ranged champions.

The main reason marksmen appear weaker now is because players are so use to when marksmen were overpowered. On top of that, riot still hasn’t addressed mobility so even though immobile marksmen are now closer in power to immobile melee champions, there are some mobile champions (such as Akali or Irelia) who are still busted and making every else look weaker in comparison.

Lastly, you have to remember that a balanced champion often feels weak in games because people overwhelmingly pick stronger and overpowered champions. The power of a balanced champion and the power of the average champion you see in your games are two very different power levels. If you are playing a balanced champion, you should feel weaker than a top pick/ban champion because those champions need to be nerfed. This is a new concept to many marksmen mains because heir champions have traditionally been above average.