The power budgeting of autonomy and it’s effect on perception of power. The ADC and Tank dilemma

Hi, my name’s Evan, I’m a three season Master’s player on the North American server who enjoys discussing game design as well as analytical writing I try to keep these brief but also provide enough explanation so that the idea can be presented to those of all skill rather than just those who are already acquainted with concepts or problems I will address.

Todays Topic: THe power budgeting of autonomy and it’s effect on perception of power. There’s quite a history of adc and tank players crying foul play at the design and balance team every time their champions aren’t over-represented in competitive play. Personally, I heard a non-zero number of adc players talking about how useless adc was in the ardent meta which was perhaps the single strongest iteration of adc in the game’s history. Tank players, with as few of them as there are, are similar in the sense that as soon as their champions aren’t 100% pick/ban in competitive, tanks are “unplayable”.

But there’s a reason for this, and for those who don’t consider the factors at play, it may seem as if their on-par or strong roles and champions feel weak. The reason is a lack of agency and self-sufficiency. Tanks and adcs have similar power budgeting in that their champions have an almost guaranteed impact in whatever situation they find themselves in. Tanks will always be tanky, provide a frontline, and absorb cooldowns while spamming their own cc, adc’s will always be able to auto attack and do damage so long as they are alive. There is no dodging, no flashing, no outplaying these forms of impact on the game. Vanguards, bruisers, assassins, and slayers by nature of being melee must put themselves directly in harm’s way to make an impact, while most mages have skills that can be missed and can be taken care of during their cooldown window. Tanks and marksmen forego these obstacles in favor of giving up two forms of agency: Marksmen give up the ability to set up their success condition, while tanks give up the ability to follow through on such a setup. In both situations, someone can play perfectly and feel unrewarded if their weaknesses aren’t compensated for. (this is also the reason why you see amumu malphite, and gragas building full ap despite it being measurably weaker than their tankier builds) If a tank gets a 5 man engage and everyone fails the follow up, the tank feels “weak”, and an adc can space and kite perfectly but can be killed without room for counterplay by an assassin flank. In both of these situations, the player feels as if their impact was too weak to dictate the outcome of the game, leading them to the feeling that their champion or role isn’t strong enough.

The power budgeting of tanks and ADC’s are such that there will always be times in which they feel insufficient too reliant on others, and in turn, too weak. Assassins, mages and bruisers also have this problem, but to a lesser extent. In a game where your team is significantly behind, assassins can still find picks, bruisers can still find duels, and mages can still waveclear and get a burst or two off. These windows of potential give the impression of increased power, rather than what it really is, agency. Tanks can find their engages when behind but if they're engaging 5v5 teamfights, they're going to lose them, so great engages can still feel like your class is weak. ADC's dont have any such luxury, if they're behind, it feels like they have a pea shooter. Reliability can not coexist with autonomy because it would render champions with a higher potential for failure obsolete. in simple terms, if a champion can create a situation where they have a 99% chance of getting a kill, why would you play a champion who has that same ability to set up a play , but with only a 70% chance to get the kills.

This is not something Riot isn’t aware of, as almost every released adc in the past years has been a lower power, higher agency champion. Every ADC champion released to date from pre-season 4 on (except jinx): Lucian, Kai’sa, Xayah, (not jinx  ) kindred, graves rework, Kalista (before w changes) Quinn, and Jhin have trended significantly more self-sufficient over time than their earlier conceived brethren like Kog Maw, Caitlyn, twitch, mf, ashe, varus, etc.

And this is a good thing! Agency is something that players, and people in general, desire. There’s a reason that when the meta is up in the air during preseason people ALWAYS trend towards assassins and battlemages. Agency, even when it comes at a lack in power, is enjoyable, because agency is people’s perception of power when pros aren’t around to tell them what is powerful. Variance in gameplay (aka interactions between players and champions where outcomes are less reliable) are inherently fun. And when it is also perceived to be the strongest way to play the game, assassins, mages, and fighters will always see an increase in playrate during the preseason. Mages always see a massive increase in playrate during preseason for this very reason. When the LCS isn’t around to define what is powerful, people gravitate towards agency.

My next post is going to focus on champion homogeneity vs uniqueness and how it influences balance decisions. I also plan on doing more in depth discussions on tanks in the future. please share your comments and questions!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the comments and on my next post.