Ban Rate shows something is unhealthy for the game/champ, not how powerful they are.

Jaspers·11/5/2018, 1:25:38 PM·164 votes·25,640 views

Do you agree with the statement in my title?

I've seen a lot of threads recently about certain champs asking for nerfs/changes and in many of them people post figures stating they are balanced or even weak. Yet these champs still maintain an absurdly high ban rate. Any champ with a ban rate of 20% or more should surely be looked into as to why they are banned so much and how to fix this issue and it's not just their power.

Let's look at some cases. Akali - Has a win rate of 46% but ban rate of 65%. Will receive more nerfs next patch. The thing complained about is her shroud but nerfing the cooldowns and lowering her damage won't fix the shroud. Irelia - 49% win rate, -5MS apparently balanced her out a little and made her main role Top again (much to Yorick's dismay). 55% plus ban rate. People just don't want to deal with her, her damage, her movement, her safety. Same issues Yasuo has. Morgana - Pretty balanced champ, in both power and role. Yet 30% ban rate (up from the last 2 years of 5-10%). This is change in the meta, nerfs to Enchanter supports have left the most picked supports are CC vanguards and catchers, who better to stop them? What is unhealthy? The change in support meta meaning CC dominates. People ban Morgana because they want to pick a catcher and she stops you doing your job. Nami - Received a nerf because her win rate was 53% while pick rate 16%. Ban rate hit 3% at one time, most the time it's less than 2%. This was a case of 'too much power' as after the support starting items cost change as she could heal herself. So Riot nerfed the heal, her win rate went down. She was never unhealthy for the game. Jhin - High ban rate while the Rageblade bug existed, ban rate has dropped after it was fixed. High ban rate during Hail of Blades bug, ban rate dropped since.

Many of the champs who are banned most are (based on pick rate and win rate together) mostly balanced but in order for not only people to enjoy playing against them but for people to actually be able to play them, their gameplay or the game itself has to change.

In the case that a champ is banned because they are too powerful, this in itself is what is unhealthy and therefore should be look into (aka Jax, Lucian, Kai'Sa).

222 Comments

Step Sis Lux11/5/2018, 2:07:12 PM94 votes

And zed/yasuo are one of the most banned champions that are basically always banned no matter what is going on in game, tank meta, enchanter meta, adc meta, they are the most constantly banned midlaners and still riot is not doing anything about them beside buffing

Big ol Nom11/5/2018, 2:58:52 PM23 votes

yasuo is by far the biggest offender, usually the highest ban rate in the game at some points even reaching over 100% hes just in dire need of a pretty high scale rework, but sadly hes never gonna get it due to his giant rabid fanbase

LordRedStone Nr111/5/2018, 3:01:55 PM23 votes

I agree with the conclusion: High Banrate shows that a champion is not favored to play against, because they are unhealthy, either due to their mechanics, their strength or simply because of the meta. Regarding Morgana / "Champions that counter something which is dominant in the meta" : Don't you think people have the right to ban what counters their desired pick, what they do not want to play against? After all, that's what bans are for. It's not really an issue with Morgana herself, she is healthy and balanced as you pointed out, she is just really strong against CC, one of her well-defined strengths. If you play against Morgana as a CC-support, she might feel unbalanced simply because she counters your greatest strength. So, a high banrate can indicate something about the meta, but I don't think it is right to say "the meta is unhealthy". That is a possibility, sure, but not always the right conclusion.

D4M2X011/5/2018, 3:11:19 PM16 votes

people hate laning vs Leblanc Darius <<< i love darius but ban him. and then there's champs likeYasuo Akali that youd ban no matter what cause they either shit on you in lane or they hit their 0-10 powerspike AND THEY ARE FUCKING MANALESS. <<<< THERES TOO MUCH OF THIS SHIT

Moody P11/5/2018, 2:07:56 PM15 votes

frustrating to play against does not mean unhealthy