Kindred now sits at 52.07% winrate in an EARLY GAME META/Understanding Ghostcrawler Logic
With popular requests to make an extensive argument about my views and my understanding of League of Legends. It is something that I noticed for a long time about the way Ghostcrawler balance the game and how everything relates back to business. This is something that I very much hate because the balancer does not play the game and will not understand what is the fruit of the game. It is not something you can just attain with experience as every game is unique and has concepts that you just cannot grasp unless you work hard for it. The ghostcrawler logic is something that anybody can think of and apply. That is the flaw of his game design. There is just no creativity in it. How can you be creative with something that you never made yourself like?
https://lolalytics.com/ranked/worldwide/platinum/plus/champion/Kindred/
So, guys, someone asked me why I consider Kindred strong, well this is it. Kindred is supposed to be a monster lategame champ but her winrate is crazy high in the early game meta.
Like, people need to calm down before they clearly know how the game works. Certainly Riot does not buff a champ because the champ is weak, but rather buffs a champ that is not popular to make it popular so that it will bring new experience into overall gaming.
Ghostcrawler, I look at him more as a buisness man rather than a League designer. He works to bring champs that are not popular, even if strong, to popularity by giving excess buffs. This is for players to try new champs rather than to stay with the same champ all the time(Ahri is popular, thus no need to buff because she is already popular).
He said himself that he doesnt even play League of Legends. Surely as lead game designer he has his view of what makes a game fun. Constant update of meta IS fun for people who only play the game without particularly maining anyone. However, he fail to realize that many League players are quite attached to certain champs and feel extremely bad when their mains are changed up to be more "healthy" for the game.
He thinks like this, this is a 5v5 game so lets maximize that potential! This way of thinking is great. It means every individual has to work together and in order to create victory. However, this overlooks the fact that nobody wants to be locked into a specific role when they are doing quite well. For late game, it is required to have an ADC if you look to win the game. Other champs cannot replace an ADC for lategame because other champs are designed to only shine during midgame and disappear lategame.
This also makes ADC so that they are the only role that can 1v5 late game. Riot balances League around ADC, even now. Even after the ADC item update, yes, they are less popular, this is because the game is more about winning early/mid game, but they still retained, or even have a stronger lategame than before. Why?
Riot wants to balance the game so that ADC is STILL the primary carry role when it comes to lategame. Bruisers are severely weakened by late game(riven, and some others, though there are some exception like Jax), as well as many Mages who only shines in midgame and disappear late/ turn into supports(ahri and some others).
Why is ADC the strongest lategame role? Constant right clicking ranged dps is the reason. Think about it, ranged Master Yi. This is what ADCs are. Their autos destroy tanks, and even squishies even after the IE update(before Mages couldve build hourglass for armor, but now since adc does true damage they dont need to get Last Whisper to do even more. This makes ADC even more flexible against Mages and even be better against Mages who are supposed to be stronger than ADC if circumstances are met). The amount of AD they get arent changed as much, so the damage they do are still around the same, but now better against tanks. ADC also have a ton of itemization for ANY situation. This is mostly because both bruiser and adc items relate to each other allowing adc to pick up items that arent quite designed for them but perform really well with it.
The concept of 5v5 cannot be achieved by countless rework and nerfs to many champs that had the potential to carry games and perhaps had the ability to replace ADC. This was not good.
However, many of you will argue that ADCs are not required today. Sure, maybe sometimes, but it is the safest choice to make: https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/general-discussion/EfMaTjoR-caitlyn-has-6322-winrate-played-by-their-mains?comment=00050000
^above is the winrate understanding of ADC by mains vs non adc mains in botlane
Into any lane you can choose an adc and know you will be a lane bully lvl 1, then you also scale late game. You arent going to fall off as much as other role. This makes the ADC role quite unfair towards other role. Players voiced that ADC should be as strong midgame as Mages or bruisers. They want to do damage at that point of the game where they should not. Though riot listens because League of Legend is business and many ADC players are whiners so they will quickly get many compensation to help them out.
Ghostcrawler does not play the game and thus does not know how League of Legends work. He argues that if the person is used to doing it all the time then he will know how just by not doing the work. This is labeling League of Legends as any game he has played. There are many many champs in this game that his knowledge from previous games will not help make balance. Even with the help of playtesters who try to feel the champs kit out, they are simply feeling for it, ultimately those who do not even play the game design the reworks(ahri by ricklessabandon).
Below is Ahri analysis. If you want to read go ahead*************************
He did try many different forms of Ahri playstyle with the rework, but in the end he resorted to perhaps the worst version of them all. Here is a quote by a mid Diamond Ahri player speaking about Ahri's rework:
" AND what tilts me more is that Riot is giving us the old no fun, no counter play, brain dead gameplay for LEBLANC, BUT AHRI CANT HAVE MORE DMG even though Ahri is a SKILLSHOT based champion, everyone should be rewarded for landing their skill shots, BUT CURRENT AHRI lands everything on Mr. ADC and he/she does not die or even get hurt cuz of the *** ratios Ahri have." - ILord IDragon (words have been censored) Link:
^ above is a very well made analysis of Ahri's kit. The version was not quite the one today(better than the one today) and expresses major complaints of his rework to Ahri's kit.
Clearly there were many people who were against the rework from those who PLAYED the champ. Shiphtur was never invited to test the new Ahri out. He is one of the iconic Ahri player who played her with great accomplishments. He also successfully played her in competitive multiple times and was known for his Ahri. Though, even with all this, he was not invited.
When discussing Ahri's kit to the playtest team, they did not seem to understand her kit at all. They constantly said her kit has many strong points, but then they fail to understand that she also has many horrible points. They kept on mentioning her strengths and ignoring her weakness. This is something anybody can do and can make any champ seem broken. This made me understand that the playtest team has no clue what to do with Ahri's kit and only going along with what the game designer produces. Ricklessabandon did have some cool design, but he ultimately ignored them all and resorted the the worst version that he tested in PBE.
Okay from below returns to the Kindred idea****
How does this all connect back to Kindred? Kindred is a very niche type of ADC who specializes in the jungler. She constantly received many changes but her popularity never quite go up. What does Riot do about this? Buff her extremely hard so that players will notice her and start banning her in ranked. This will make many individuals wanting to try the champ so that they can rank up. Kindred is a unique playstyle adc and never was quite meta. Right now Riot is looking to make her meta by buffing her, nerfing crit adc, and buffing bruisers.
What buffing bruisers!?! Yes! Kindred has an ultimate that makes any bruisers hate themselves of targetting her! She can wear them down quite hard while they dont have the opportunity to finish her off. She also has significant kiting power on her Q and W that allows her to kite bruisers better than most adcs while also having the range higher than Vayne making her better at surviving than even Vayne who is known as tank killers.
Back to Understanding Ghostcrawler Logic and relationship of reworks*****
When Ahri nerf took place in season 7, it was not because her winrate was crazy high, but because she had a high popularity that overshadowed other reworks from being played. Especially Malzahar. Malzahar's rework took place around the time Ahri was buffed. This was to bring the mass population towards playing Malzahar more than Ahri. In fact, Malzahar actually does really well against Ahri because his entire kit is designed to suppress anyone who dares to come in range to burst. Ahri with her nerf + new midlaners who counters her kit even harder emerged, she became double, or even triple nerfed.
Riot acknowledges about giving champ multiple nerfs to remove them from meta. One example is Fiora. When she was nerfed, it was before tank meta started and thorn mail started giving grevious wound. That made her get a ton of direct and indirect nerf to remove her from the meta.
Though, Riot quickly found that she was nerfed too much and even said that they "double nerfed her too hard" and buffed some part of her kit. Now, Riot does these kind of buffs and nerfs ALL THE TIME since Ghostcrawler joined. He is a game balance designer who looks at playrates and judge who should be played or not. Ahri is a relatively popular champ, so HE DOES NOT WANT AHRI to be META or even be popular as much as those he wants to let more popular. She will get nerfs upon nerfs until she is less popular than the meta champs. Which was easily achieved by ruining her kit.
Why Ghostcrawler dont want popular champ meta*******
Think about it, Ahri becoming popular wont be any different from a typical game due to his popularity(though i guess her playrate decreased a lot but she was known to be popular a lot before), and thus Ghostcrawler really does not want to see some champs from being played, he will even remove them from viability if he can in order to bring new blood into the game. All in order to keep the game fresh. Then if a champ is nerfed too much in which no one can play, he may buff them back a bit so that players wont just quit the game.
This style of balance has been very popular in Riot ever since Ghostcrawler joined in. He will consistently nerf a champ until its winrate and popularity becomes reasonable to his eye to make champs he wants to make popular, to become popular.
The response of when Riot talked about Ahri was that, "she was strong for a long time" around these lines and which resorted in them nerfing her. It was not because she was broken, it was only because she was strong and popular which made her get a gigantic nerf to her kit. It was taken into account that nerfing her in any way but her mobility would have made her horrible to play. By nerfing her damage significantly, that will make many players move on to other champs. Who wants to play a support midlaner who cannot carry? This was what Riot made her become. She cannot do anything by herself while other midlaners can do massive AOE damage and even have reliable burst. Enemy wont even build MR against an Ahri only because she did not do much damage, even less than supports would do.
This was enough to remove her from meta, but due to her popularity because of her fanbase, she still sees plays even if her kit was destroyed completely. This is what Ghostcrawler wanted to see. He did not want to see her still played, but to make her a sometimes/rarely played champ who is not that good right now. This will make the reworked champs flourish in the midlane and do their thing.
I can go on and on through this discussion, but I feel this thread will just disappear like my many other threads(since season 3). If Ghostcrawler and game balancing people dont even play League of Legends, what makes you think they will read this? I only made this post because of what some people told me, that I was blind and refuses to listen to anyone, which is just completely wrong. If i refuse or blind, I wont even try so hard commenting at every single one of the posts that the individual did not seem to put ANY thought into and just saying instantly what comes into their mind.
In the end, Ghostcrawler Logic is a very simple one whose mindset is that of a business man. He does not look at the game for it to be fun for everyone, but for select individuals who likes trying out every new champs. The victims are those who used to use that champ even when she/he wasnt strong. Ahri is just one of many victims Ghostcrawler targetted. Which is QUITE amazing how he uses Ahri, a fan service popular champ, make her strong so that many people will play her. Then this will also draw in many players to play her as well because of her nice features.
After good amount of players come and Ahri wont seem to be bringing any one, instantly gut her kit and make her dumb to play. This is Ghostcrawler Logic. Which is just very messed up. He does not view champs as characters who players just like playing. He destroys that feeling, change them up completely, and make them appeal for different audiences. This is just a way to remove people from playing the game. The only people who will remain after countless number of changes likeso are only people who will follow whatever big online game that comes aboard. Once League loses its fame, those people will quickly go away. They only played the game because it is updated often, and to play whatever is popular for past time, perhaps to gain elo.
So im done for now, thanks for reading my very lengthly post. I dont expect Rioter to read this because many are just... i guess no power. I hope Ahri will get updated. I really do. I try so hard, but none of my effort is showing in this game. Instead of making Ahri better, she became worse after her rework! My effort is not working... maybe I just don't got any voice. People will comment below here probably without even reading the whole thing. Which is fine, I do that to sometimes.
