Do you think Riot is too rework-happy?

ReelBigDan·4/8/2014, 1:07:44 AM·1 votes·378 views

I try to think of myself as someone who keeps up on League of Legends news. I check daily on the two most popular news sites (S@20 and RoG) for red posts and other things regarding the upcoming changes to the game. Over the past month or so, I've noticed something: almost every recent champion change that isn't a numbers tweak has been a kit rework.

I can't speak for Riot, but it seems like the new solution to unhealthy ability or playstyle is to do a full pass over the champion's full kit. Now I know that no one champion or ability exists in a vacuum, but it still seems a little suspect for two reasons.

The first is a little personal. In my opinion, I think reworking anything should be a last resort move, unhealthy play patterns or not. A couple of months back, I proposed some changes to Tryndamere to help his power curve and make it a little less dependent on the enemy skill (and the purchase of item 3075 ). I just did mostly numbers tweaks, and did not change the fundamental effects of any abilities.

The second concern about Riot's love for reworks is their recent history. Compared to older gameplay reworks, the latest ones have not been so well received by the community. Rengar is currently seen as a little weak at the moment (mostly due to mechanical failings), and most players were vocal about being against the proposed changes as previewed from red posts. Gragas and Kassadin are also taking some time to grow on people. This has a lot to do with subtle shifts in their champion niches and fantasies. Gragas used to be a fat guy barrel sniper, but is now a CC-heavy off-tank that actually gets into melee. And Kassadin used to be a high mobility burst anti-mage, but now he's more of a hit and run anti-mage. The worst offender of all is obviously Skarner . There's no doubt that he needed help, but his whole power curved was shifted so much that he has no real use on a team even when powerful (other popular champs do it better). Fiora is also up for a kit rework. Riot cites her problems as having a frustrating ult and a very binary strategy (press all the buttons or don't). I don't think any of her basic abilities have any fundamental problems, so Riot could tweak her R and passive steroids alone to help her decision-making and snowballing.

These are just my opinions though. What do you guys think? Does Riot do ability reworks too often? Do you think the problems they try to solve could be done without changing full kits? Will people warm up to the recent reworks?

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