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Lets talk about utility creep.

Plat Ap Malphite·12/31/2019, 1:21:37 AM·9 votes·6,466 views

With every new champ riot ruins the game further. Senna, aphelios, kaisa, Qiyana, sylas, kayn. Every new champ since like season 6 has never been a simple but effective design. We get a few good designs, but riot keeps thinking complex design is good design. its not. utlility creep is ruining the game when it comes to having fun versing them. These champs have so much ulitlity because every champ now has to be a little more complex and be given 20 dashes, a heal, sheild, percent health damage, hybrid damage. These champs are in every other game and I am sick of it, I see senna every other game and its never, NEVER fun to verse. These champs have so many ways to get around being caught, snowball hard, be annoying. Riot never cares about being fun to verse and They should. Make more then 1 simple fun design every year. We need to remove all of these champs utility, We need to remove this idea that complex design makes the game better when it doesnt. IT make the game worse. If they are complex dont give them utility. you should not be rewarded for playing a champ 5 times with ruining the game for everyone. Just because outplay potential on the lcs looks cool doesnt mean it makes the game better. If riot were to see a design like xerath today, his q would have 20 sweatspots, his would stun in the middle, his e would zig zag and his r would do percenth health damage and give you bonus damage every time you hit one. Instead of seeing a simple design that works riot needs to give every little aspect of it some outplay potential and rewarding you constantly for doing little things. This xerath would be even worse to verse, but it rewards you for playing like 3 games as him so its okay and justified. Complex design is not good design. Complex design makes riot add 200 extra bullshit utility spells that make versing them a horrible experience. We dont need to reward players like each champ is a gatcha game.
"but you can learn to counterplay" Counterplay should be broad strokes. I should not be forced to essentially have to play the character just to not have a shit time versing them. This thinking pattern ruins the game for anyone who isnt diamond. People in norms should be able to have fun and not get destoryed by 200 dashes, 20 heals, and high damage, because the player learned some basic combos after playing 20 games.

15 Comments

Noraver12/31/2019, 1:33:42 PM7 votes

Every time I face Senna (Or player her) I learn something new about her kit. She has so much garbage jam-packed in, I literally learn something new about her or her kit every single time she's in a game.

Senna, Pyke, and Yuumi are the worst designed Supports (Arguably, the worst designed champions in general) Riot has ever created, and they've severely altered the game, and not in a good way. Pyke alone has forced Riot to buff Blitzcrank's hook range to absolutely fucked levels of strong reach, and in return they nerfed his armor, continuing their oh so brilliant plan of "Buff damage, nerf resists!" to make games faster. 10 years of doing this and everyone fights like balloons with pins trying to pop each other.

Not to mention, Pyke and Senna have two items created specifically just for them; Umbral Glaive is so fucking broken it blows my mind. You seriously allow these two assassins "Supports" to have not just Lethality, but the ability to spot wards on a 45 second cooldown for free, and destroy every single ward in 1 shot?

Yuumi on the other hand, promotes the most disgusting gameplay loop I've ever seen in a competitive PvP game. Literally just sit on an ally and do nothing all game.

Aphelios will always be strong, no matter what Riot does to him because he has far too many combinations of things he can do, while getting free stats at the same time. It's impossible as an opponent to understand how quickly he gains power, because he has an impossible amount of variations of it.

But you're right OP. Why play Xerath with a kit full of weak skillshots when I can play something like Zoe, only needing to land a single gigantic range CC skillshot and follow it up with Q to instantly two-shot someone?

Riot's balance team is shit now. Remove my comment if you need to mods, I don't care, but it has to be said. It all started with CertainlyT, and it's gone downhill since then. He's introduced stupidly powerful and ridiculously overpacked champions, and now it's turned into a dick-showing contest with the Devs to see who can create the most fucked up champions.

Sett is a refreshing, simple design with a simple gameplay loop. And that's precisely why nobody's been talking about him on the forums. Because he's not over the top, extra bullshit like their usual champions.

2gudaiya12/31/2019, 2:54:38 PM2 votes

the game is infinitely better for having champions that contain actual depth in their kits instead of one hit wonder Annie's and xin's.

Tyermaillin12/31/2019, 7:42:25 PM1 votes

Senna, aphelios, kaisa, Qiyana, sylas, kayn

Out of these champions only Senna and situationally Sylas have utility. Let me define utility (Riot's definition):

"The champion's ability to apply beneficial effects like shields, healing, or movement speed to allied champions."

These champs have so much ulitlity because every champ now has to be a little more complex and be given 20 dashes, a heal, sheild, percent health damage, hybrid damage.

None of these are utility. Dashes are not a utility. Self-healing and self-shielding are not utility. Percent and hybrid damage are not utility. Stop misusing the word.

Wolfalisk31812/31/2019, 8:39:30 PM1 votes

As you touched on in the original post, I have to imagine the balance teams of old would cringe at the fact that you have to be a regular player of xyz new Champion in order to fight them at a base level. When you have tons of convolutedly conditional micro-mobility and a bunch of hidden, untelegraphed passives going on all at once, the opponent is not being given enough information at face value to play against said new Champion. They're losing not to a player, but a kit.

LordGeovanni1/1/2020, 12:17:06 AM1 votes

Riot needs to make sure the best utility is on Tanks and supports and scale down utility for damage carries Apropriately compared to whats on supports and tanks. Mage supports too need to have less utility or they need to lose their damage one or the other.

Nyarlathοtep12/31/2019, 5:24:08 PM

Yuumi on the other hand, promotes the most disgusting gameplay loop I've ever seen in a competitive PvP game. Literally just sit on an ally and do nothing all game.

Thats riot's fault for refusing to give her a reason to out. And even then, chances are that a yuumi STILL wont go out thanks to that stupid punishment for getting hit by a cc. Like, by late game a yuumi is always one hard cc away from death. Unless riot takes away that shit yuumi just cant go out.