What I Think the Biggest Problem with League is
Many people here on the boards believe that the Riot balance team is a group of unqualified assholes that keep making changes that are slowly ruining this game for many people. Now before I get into the meat of what I want to say, I believe that this game is defiantly straying away from what made me enjoy it so much. When I first started playing in season 5 (I know not that long) it was really interesting playing a game that felt like 2 goliaths were fighting. A game where fights were drawn out and everything you did mattered, and one mistake wouldn't result in you dying instantly. Now it's a game of "who can burst who first." Its extremely unsatisfying for one party and sometimes both. When I play assassins (and let's be honest some other champion classes too) and I one shot someone, I sometimes feel like shit cause I feel I did nothing special to get the kill and there was little they could do to counter it. It also reminds me of how much damage is in this game. But before when I assassinated people it felt like my kill was worth the effort I put in. For example seeing a Blue Kayn kill someone is the most disturbing thing I've seen. The fact that he can come out of a wall W Q and AA and kill and not use his ult half the time is just not fun to play against or see. On the other end playing someone like a Zed before felt like a task and when you got ahead it wasn't because you could W E Q in lane and go all in, it was because you played smart and truly outplayed the other person and deserved the kill (unless you were dumb fed which is always the case).
Now lets talk about what I came here to talk about:
WHY DOES RIOT MAKE THESE UNWANTED CHANGES
This is what I honestly think. Riot changes the game in ways they honestly and sincerely believe will have a positive impact on the game and positive feedback from the community. But again and again they fail, and the outspoken people of league time and again rise up and bash Riot for what they do (which I don't in any way think is wrong for people to do if they care). The problem is people and myself included feel that the changes Riot makes are in no way what we want. For instance, we have been complaining and urging riot to buff towers and make them stronger both in defense and in offense, but instead they weaken them and add a little more regen. A change that Riot probably thought would benefit the game, but a change no one wanted. It feels like Riot, while I believe they try to listen, they just don't care what we have to say, and the things we want changed.
I've been on the boards consistly for the past few days and I mostly see people talking about:
- how bad turrets feel
- how inconstant games are
- how much damage is in the game
- how little impact individuals have on their games
- poor patches that have accompanied season 8
Now understand people are going to talk more about problems than things that are good, because they want to see the problems changed. But what bothers me, are these are a lot of the same problems that we have been seeing and asking Riot to address for what seems like an unbelievably long time. What I don't understand is why Riot doesn't just make the changes we want, see how they feel and if people are happy, leave them, and in the chance they ruin the game more than Riot already is, then take them out. It's not like we haven't seen Riot fail and revert something that didn't work (Rengar and LeBlanc). It's just really sad, because I love this game, I love seeing new champs and reworks, I love seeing new items and runes, but I can't play SR without a friend because it's just miserable. I've become an ARAM player because it's not as serious and when someone feeds or ins't good, it doesn't ruin the game for me as much as it would have in SR.
At the end of the day, I believe Riot has the ability to bring the game back to a state where everyone can be really happy, but in order for that to happen, they need to start doing changes that we really want. I mean it took them forever to fix Ardent, and I don't understand why they didn't learn from that. I'm not going to say they haven't done some things right, but I see so many posts of people confused and upset by changes they honestly feel are so forced and unnecessary that it hurts to be someone that really wants Riot to succeed. I rarely stand up for them, but I have hope and I want to trust that what they plan to do with League is the right thing, but time and again it's hard to stand by them and not ask yourself, "What the fuck are they doing?"