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The Fighter / Bruiser Conundrum, aka "Nerf Irelia"

Mindworm Jim·1/22/2014, 6:38:03 AM·4 votes·727 views

Several times now I've seen some Rioters (and Morello specifically) mention that they want to rework the entire Fighter class. They've referred to Fighters as a "ball of stats" and that they want to move away from this and towards each champion having their own niche.

So let's see what we have to work with. The following 34 champions consider Fighter their primary trait according to the LoL Wiki (with 23 additional champions flagged as fighters for their secondary trait).

Aatrox Darius Diana DrMundo Fiora Gangplank Garen Hecarim Irelia Jax Jayce Kayle LeeSin Mordekaiser Nasus Olaf Pantheon Poppy Renekton Riven Rumble Shyvana Sion Skarner Trundle Tryndamere Udyr Vi Volibear Warwick MonkeyKing XinZhao Yasuo Yorick

(Of these champions, Yasuo, Aatrox, and Vi are the most recently released.) So what kind of patterns do we have here? Which of these champions already have a good niche? More importantly, what does a Fighter actually do? What is their role on a team?

We are offered this description: "Fighters are champions that blend the attributes of a damager and tank, combining moderate to heavy survivability with a portion of the damage of an assassin or marksman (essentially half tank, half DPS). They lack the front-loaded, destructive damage of their pure DPS counterparts, but usually have abilities which increase their damage output or abilities with high damage bases, making them deadlier in the early game. Fighters can build to be extremely survivable, but the key distinction between tanky fighters and true tanks is that tanks are designed to draw damage and disrupt enemies, while fighters deal damage. In a team fight, fighter champions can surrogate the role of a tank or assassin, and many have powerful fight-initiation abilities. With their special blend of defense, damage, and mobility, fighters can pierce through enemy lines to reach and destroy squishier targets while withstanding moderate damage."

This seems to suggest that Fighters are a flexible role and can build either durability or damage based on what the team requires, which only partially matches my own observations. Generally a given champion will favor one or the other, which is interesting because I recall seeing a red post that divided fighters between those who wanted to dive the enemy back line and those who fought on the front line, and I think there are some parallels there.

That said, I think this is a large part of the problem. Fighters are so vague of a category that individual fighters are defined by how they resemble a different category (read: tank, assassin, 'marksman', etc.).

3 Comments

LiarLyre1/22/2014, 3:49:46 PM3 votes

A lot of the fighters you have on that list up there already have niche roll.

Jax and Nasus are tower destroyers

Vi is diver and anti tank

Fiora is a melee adc who not many champions can match 1v1

Kayle is a squishy hyper carry that if can manage to farm and feed can just lay down insane amounts of damage in teamfights.

Warwick provides fantastic sustain and therefore can be tanky. he also excells at shutting down a champion in a teamfight.

I could go on. Each of those champions already have a niche. They have a role that they excel at. Unfortunately a lot of them just arent viable in the current meta. That doesn't mean they are bad. You just have to know when it is appropriate to play them.

That being said, I do not disagree with you when you say that fighter champions either lean to one side or the other. They do, but in my opinion that is just part of the game. A jack of all trades is not nearly as powerful as a specialst when it comes to that one situation. Part of the game is learning each champions individual strengths and weaknesses and playing/building them to those strengths as opposed to trying to cover all the weaknesses. For example, I can't remember the last time I saw an Arhi build any tank items or a Zac build a deathcap. Though I do kind of want to try those now.

This is just my opinion.

Tobasco da Gama1/27/2014, 6:02:26 AM2 votes

Fighters are so vague of a category that individual fighters are defined by how they resemble a different category (read: tank, assassin, 'marksman', etc.).

Indeed, I think that's ultimately the core of the problem. Fighters are trying to be a jack of all trades class, and attempts to build a jack of all trades can only ever end up in one of two ways: totally useless or stupidly OP. Among the Fighters, we see good examples of both of those cases, depending on individual kits and the ever-fickle flow of the metagame.

Fixing the Fighter Problem will have to be, among other things, a matter of nudging specific champions toward other roles. At the very least, it'll result in limiting, to varying degrees either the ability of very damaging Fighters to soak damage or the ability of very tanky Fighters to deal damage. This would obviously result in the usual round of bitching and moaning, but I think it'd be good for the game in the long run.