Balance Thoughts: Talking 'bout some Damage
It’s too high and could afford to be toned down by 10-20%, dependent on champion, with a little bit more for some of the “tanks”.
But just saying that doesn’t really help us, now does it? So let’s try and take a look at why it’s a problem and more fully examine it as a problem. Now I would propose ways to fix it, but this is where I must admit my shortcomings; I’m not a game designer, I don’t have brilliant ideas for all the problems considered, and while interested, I am not interested enough to spend hours trying to work out a solution. Besides, this issue, I find, is a larger one that should be handled at first in broad strokes and then fine-tuned. Further, I hold to the idea that the community is great for finding flaws, terrible at actually fixing them The only step I will really suggest is to remove most if not all damage that scales with that’s champions health (looking at you, Cho’gath)
#DISCLAIMERS AND FOREWARD:
- I don’t post on the boards or talk about balance all that much. But, I've been playing since season three and I've put together enough thoughts on balance and the current state to make a substantial post(s) out of it
- I will partially be looking at aggregate trends I have seen on the boards for a long time. For example, Lee Sin was strong and probably needed nerfs and the boards called for nerfs like crazy; now he’s fine and no one even mentions him. That’s the type of thing I will try to ignore.
- I am Gold V. If that makes you think my opinion on balance is invalid, then good, you’re probably not the type of person I wanted to have a discussion with anyway. But that’s not to say rank is unimportant and not something be taken into consideration. Personally, I think I do a good job of separating problems at/with my rank and ELO from my thoughts on the game. For example, Master Yi wrecks lower ELOs and while I personally don’t like facing him (mostly because the team effort to shut him down and keep him down is difficult at lower ELO), I have no problem with him as a whole.
- NUMBERS DO NOT MATTER. Balance is a much more inherent thing. A balanced champ with slightly overtuned numbers is still beatable by playing better. Now, of course,being overtuned needs to be addressed and there are instances where it’s too overtuned, but that’s not what I’m going for. I am looking at general damage trends, not champion specifics. Further, an ability being under or overtuned can provide insight into what Riot had intended for the thing.
- I don’t really want to look things up for this post, especially since it’s more supposed to be from my general knowledge and experience over the past like 5 years, so forgive me if I misspeak.
#So let’s talk history and how damage got to where it is. Looking back at those 5 years, in that time, nothing of real significant defense power has been added while offense has received quite a few substantial buffs. Now let's break it down.
The first point (and the only one without a specific header) is the continual nerfing of defensive items. I don’t remember when, but it happened. And I know it happened because Riot had to reduce the amount of health required for Warmogs passive because no one was effectively reaching that health point.
#Dragon: Let’s start back with the 4.20 (Weedwick, and I said I didn’t want to look stuff up, not that I wouldn’t) and the changes to dragon. Now, Weedwick I’m not actually going to talk about. AS/On-Hit Farming junglers were a problem before and this wasn’t a new thing, just the next evolution of an existing path. No, the big takeaway from patch 4.20 in regards to damage is the changes to dragon. Let’s look at the buffs the new dragon gave
Killing the Dragon nows grants a permanent stacking buff called Dragon Slayer: DRAGON'S MIGHT (1 stack): +8% total attack damage and ability power. DRAGON'S DOMINANCE (2 stacks): +15% damage to minions and monsters. DRAGON'S FLIGHT (3 stacks): +5% movement speed. DRAGON'S WRATH (4 stacks): +15% damage to turrets and buildings. ASPECT OF THE DRAGON (5 stacks, repeatable): Doubles all other bonuses and your attacks burn enemies for 150 true damage over 5 seconds. Lasts 180 seconds.
Counting, that’s 2 offensive boosts, 1 neutral/utility boost, and 1 offensive/defensive (extra damage to minions) boost.
Going further, it was again changed in patch 6.3 to Dragon's Wrath / Dragon buff (second stack) Basic attacks burn turrets for 10 - 180 over 2 seconds. Dragon's Dominance / Dragon buff (fourth stack) You take 20% less damage from turrets.
Ok, switching offensive/defensive for a slightly different and purely offensive, that’s cool. But it’s the second part (new 4th stack) that sticks out to me. It looks like a defensive buff, but it’s only a defensive buff for people who are diving and being offensive.
And then there’s the new dragons with patch 6.9 Ocean-Neutral/utility Mountain-Offensive (will talk about turrets in relation to all of this later) Infernal-Offensive Cloud-Neutral/utility
Now, if I recall correctly, Rito admitted that making a passive defensive buff from dragon was a difficult design challenge. But they’ve had 4 YEARS and nothing, JUST DAMAGE, DAMAGE, AND MORE DAMAGE .
#Cinderhulk and Jungling: Cinderhulk is kind of a moot point for what I’m getting at, but it’s worth mentioning. Tank junglers were struggling. So what does Riot do? Give them damage. Their solution for tanks struggling was to give them damage. Now, I admit, it was a good choice because it helped their clear speed and I’m not going to rail on it too much, but it’s worth noting.
Following up, let’s talk about the jungle in general. Do you want to know what the Jungle meta has been for the past ~4 years now? Barring the release of Cindehulk, it’s been Early game jungling. Seriously. Now who that applies to and how may have changed, but it's true. Whichever champions cleared the fastest and healthiest and could also/then either gank or pressure the enemy jungler better were meta. And over those past 4 years, earlier game jungling has been damage focused. Can you farm fast? Can you kill laners? Can you kill the enemy jungler? Etc.
These are less points about increases in damage, but more about how damage is so prevalent in the game, even in a more passive sense.
#Iceborn Gauntlet and Sunfire Cape Now, just saying those, you probably remember when I’m talking about. People claim this was a tank meta; I claim it was not. It was an Iceborn Gauntlet and Sunfire Cape meta. Any tank who could not effectively use these items was not overpowered. And I contend that the only reason those items came to prominence was because they provided enough damage to kill squishies. If they had not, nothing about the meta would have drastically shifted.
#Rift Herald: Not much to say, really. Top lane needed a neutral objective before baron spawned and while I like the rift herald, it is just another instance of more offensive power that could’ve potentially been defensive. But no.
#Runes, Masteries, and Classes: Again, not much to say, especially since this falls under the “I don’t feel like looking it up category.” But old masteries and new runes added a ton of damage to the game.
And let’s take a look at the current masteries/runes, and segue into another related issue (tanks, bruisers, and supports)
Basically, the new masteries suck from a defensive sense. Grasp is highly offensive, as is aftershock. Look at Leona. She takes aftershock because the damage it provides is enough to kill the enemy ADC.
##Looking at the rest of the tree:
Tier 2: Unflinching—because tenacity means anything anymore Demolish—Offensive pushing rune for tanks Font of Life—Healing based on your max health; pretty good
Tier 3: Iron Skin and Mirror Shell—+5 resistance and extra effectiveness on pots. Good early game, no qualms Conditioning—Also no qualms, good tank mastery BUT these are in the same tier, so you’re being forced into choosing early or late tank stats and effectiveness, which I don’t like
Tier 4: Overgrowth—the numbers are generally just pathetic; good idea though Revitalize—Support Rune, will talk about this issue in a second Second Wind—Healing for trading; highly offensive in nature
Now looking at and thinking on it, it needs to be understood that there is a distinction between defensive and passive. For example, Font of Life I would argue is a good active defensive rune. Overgrowth is as well (again, numbers issues though)
And then stuff Grasp of Undying is also very good; it has healing but requires active use. BUT it’s also offensive. And it’s just this big pile of mess where any time Rito tries to make anything active, it ends up being inherently offensive; see Aftershock and the prior discussion on changes to dragon.
But the final problem with these masteries, which I partially alluded too, is that they shoved runes for full tanks, tank supports, and tankier fighters into one tree. Damage dealers got three trees. Now, damage is AP and AD, and assassins are kind of their own thing, so three trees is acceptable. But not giving the same consideration to the different types of tanks is absurd.
Grasp is an inherently fighter keystone Guardian for supports Aftershock for CC tanks (RIP Garen and Mundo, who I suppose could take the other two but still feels bad man and reduces their options)
And so on scattered throughout the tree where a rune screams support or fighter or pure tank but is useless on others. Really it just limits the options.
##TL;DR of all of this. Damage has been going up for a while in a very passive sense. Rito can say that increasing damage was not their intention. You can point them to this post to say they are either lying or generally failed at achieving their goal.
Now three last damage related things that people have been screaming about for a while now: lethality, Crit, and Towers
#Lethality: Not much to say. Rito made lethality and it turned into a balance nightmare. The reworked it and it was still a balance nightmare. At this point, I say they should start over and try again Why did the even start on the lethality train anyway? Why did they remove The Brutalizer?
#Crit: I personally don’t have as much of a problem with Crit. It’s RNG, but’s it’s predictable(ish) RNG, especially with the removal of 1% Crit Rune. Most Crit ADCs will end up with over 50% crit, so, assuming the system runs right, you can anticipate and plan around them critting near every time. Of course, this is a bit trickier before they exceed that 50% Crit margin. But still, assuming the system works correctly, it’s 20% Crit1/5 shots is a crit.
Now what they could do to really solidify this is ensure that ratio of 1/5 or ½ attacks crit and then provide some poke protection for the opponent. What I mean by that is if the person has 20% crit and crits on the first attack and then backs off, the counter attack would theoretically reset, meaning they have a chance to crit poke you really soon after. They could make it so a crit in the first half of that count ensures the next crit occurs in the back half of the count next time they’re in combat. It sound complex behind the scenes, but should be fine from a player perspective and could smooth out how crit works without having to completely throw it out the window.
#Towers: Yes, towers. They are too weak. You can shove to tower botlane and b at ~7 minutes, your towers already 50-75% HP from being pushed in. There is a definitive chance that you have just lost your tower and that is absurd. You see videos of tanks taking upwards of 30 tower shots and that is absurd. Context is important, obviously, but if they’re weak enough that putting a tank under it renders it completely ineffective, their too weak. I’ve always seen a tower as like 75% of a champion. Same(ish) or more damage, but they can’t move or follow a fight. But right now, they fail that. It’s just absurd
Now, I admit this is one point where I will not be using metrics and examples and focusing mainly on what I’ve seen and experience, but towers are mostly just hot garbage at this point.
Of final note on towers is that they’re slow and stupid. I think that if dropping turret agro was harder and there were less misfires/times when that champion should eat a tower shot but doesn’t, it would work out a lot better. A decent example would be Zoe. If she Rs in and hits you, she should eat a tower shot, regardless of minions. Period. A relatively small buff in principle, but the amount of cheeky crap it would remove from the game would greatly help, I think.
#Final, Personal Note: In seasons past, there was a difference in losing and not winning. If you left lane 1-2 kill, 30 CS down and having lost turret, you could still maybe do something, dependent on champion. Now it feels like lose turret, die once, be down 10 CS and you’re basically out for the next 5-10 minutes.
These are probably bad numbers, but the extent to which I can lose and still feel like I have a solid chance and can contribute to the game is a lot lower. Personally speaking, I’m a shit laner but pretty decent at teamfights and rotations, so this really hits me hard.
I think Riot forgets that League is more a strategy game than a mechanics game; if I wanted a mechanics game, I would play a fighter, not League.
