If Riot resetted League of Legends...
... to redo their champion and item creation paths and balancing so you could only keep 40 champions of the 135 (?) we have now, which would be among the 40 you'd like to keep?
15 Comments
definitely not 
at least
I'mma break my answer down by the specific roles, and ensuring at least 6 of each main class (tank, fighter, mage, etc) and hopefully splitting up evenly between the different subclasses.
Vanguards: 
Leona because redhead. But seriously to be the botlane pick for a Vanguard. She's also able to provide both group disruption and single target lockdown depending how she uses her ult. Won't be as strong as other champs, but if you need that flexibility it's there.
Nautilus for single target lockdown. Sure, his ult can affect multiple targets but that can be rather situational. Main point is once he anchors someone, they're aren't going anywhere fast.
Sejuani for the big group AoE lockdown pick.
Wardens: 
Braum because his kit plays with the highly overlooked mechanic of body-blocking. His kit says "Hey, learn how to be a real meatshield" - something that can be helpful on a lot of tankier champions, even fighters. It's a universal skill that he specializes in. His kit doesn't add superficial mechanics, but rather enhances a base mechanic of the game and rewards you for it. I think that is the right sort of direction to include.
Poppy mostly due to how badly mobility creep damaged this game. Also compliments the roster - where you pick Braum to block ranged attacks, Poppy denies diving champs. Each keep their own niches for protecting a squishy teammate.
Shen because of energy. Whereas Braum's kit enhances a specific mechanic, Shen's energy changes the existing mechanic of mana. Also provides a "balance" pick by providing universal damage mitigation through his ult and taunt.
Juggernauts: 
Dr. Mundo because he was the first juggernaut. Became insanely beefy and the battle was to kite him while dodging cleavers. This is what a juggernaut should be. Maybe once Riot fixes Grevious Wounds on how it works and its available, they may be able to really solidify Mundo in a healthy place. Even if he is being kited, his cleavers make sure he isn't entirely useless if the Mundo is able to land them.
Garen to be more of a higher risk higher reward than Mundo. Would make sure he could capitalize on critical strike more through itemization and have the choice of becoming the "focused juggernaut" - where he picks one enemy champ and puts them in the dust if the enemy team doesn't respond correctly when Garen builds crit.
Mordekaiser because juggernauts should be AP and be magic damage threats too.
Divers: 
Diana because I feel she has the right sort of flexibility when it comes to her mobility. She needs to land a skillshot to get a double dash, which clearly paints where she will be in a few seconds - or risk getting CC'd and lose her target. Also magic damage diversity.
Warwick because bias. Also because of the many ways he can be built. On hit, AP, just plain tank. Also enforces a "let's get this one guy" team comps by providing the opportunity to get picks with his ults in certain situations. Just gotta wait for that champ update.
Xin Zhao to exmplify what divers do. They go in like men: swift as a river, force of a typhoon, strength of a raging fire, and mysterious as the dark side of the moon. Get in, get down to business, and AA til you drop. If they don't stop you, your CD's will cycle and the battle will be yours.
Assassins: 
Katarina because she's always been risk/reward. And I like her new rework as it provides more visibility to what she's likely to do next instead of having practically free reign as long as she got a kill.
Talon because I really like the roaming direction they went with him. More biased on this pick too though.
Zed because I feel like I can really ruin his day as a tank/support. When he ults, it makes me feel empowered when I have a CC ability up and he's gonna be in range once his ult finishes the animation. One of the few moments that really make me feel like "Yeah, I just saved your butt" with my teammates. Energy is also a nice way to give Zed poke and waveclear without letting him go overboard with it.
I know a lot of people think Zed is poorly designed, but I highly disagree. It's easy to burn energy as Zed and it leaves him highly vulnerable in lane for a while, especially if he uses his W. That thing has a monster CD early game.
Skirmishers: 
Fiora just because I like the positioning mechanic her kit adds to gameplay. I think her kit, as well as the other skirmishers, need more fine tuning and additional support in itemization to shine in a healthy manner though.
Master Yi since he is the dunkmaster. Focus his kit more on the "On-hits" though and less crit to control the burst he has.
Riven because there needed to be a 3rd champ to fit the mold. Would definitely rebalance to make her mobility cost her more in terms of damage.
Burst Mages: No longer exist. That's why we have Assassins.
Battle Mages: Call them what they are. AP Fighters. Why bother limiting the fighter tag to melee only when they share the aspect of deal damage and sustain yourself over time?
Sages: 
Magi are the ability equivilent of Marksmen. High sustained damage in the form of spells/abilities instead of auto attacks. Need to be kept safe by their team (would adjust their kits according to lower utility as needed).
Azir to focus more around his soldier gameplay for sustained damage. Definitely lower his burst and give him a different ult (make him fit in with Nasus and Renekton by giving him a "Power up" ult).
Brand because burning the world to a crisp requires high DPS. The best way to do a DoT mage is to allow them to really stack up the DoTs overtime, each stack giving exponential damage growth.
Twisted Fate to be a more direct cousin to the Marksmen class.
Artillery: 
Lux to be a more supportive choice. May need to tweak her to make her more suited to be an artillery pick (since she isn't actually classified as one).
Xerath, because nothing says artillery like becoming a magical mortar cannon with his ult. Should make sure he stays highly vulnerable to heavy dive comps though.
Ziggs to be a middle range pick between damage and utility between Lux and Xerath.
Enchanters: 
Janna as the defacto peeling support.
Nami for pure flexibility. Can fit into every situation, though other picks would be better in their own niche.
Soraka, as once grevious wounds gets more normalized - healing may not be the worst thing ever in this game. Would look to see if an exponential mana cost on her basic heal would to keep Soraka in check, such as Kassadin's/Koggles' ults.
Disruptors: 
Anivia can stay the way she is. High area control and situational damage potential, all constrained by mana. Love it.
Morgana, having an ult that makes an entire team run away from you is a pretty cool thing. High risk high reward too.
Orianna adding to gameplay in a rather non-invasive way with her ball. I like the way a new mechanic was introduced without feeling forced.
Marksmen: Now split between Sharpshooters and Rangers.
Sharpshooters: 
Sharpshooters are the classic AA based champions. High attack speed and high crit are a must. The champ's kit doesn't have much in the way of direct damage, but help ensure they are able to auto attack consistently and hard.
C'mon, it's Draaaaven. I like his damage potential and the vulnerability his axes give him. Even if you don't kill him with CC, if he misses an axe his damage suffers.
Graves to be a special marksmen you pick when you want one that can stand up a bit to a heavy diving team. Should be on the bulkier side, but run into issues with getting kited himself.
Twitch for the value his kit puts on positioning. A properly positioned Twitch doesn't just win games, he ends them. If he bungles his ult, he should have a really bad time though.
Ranger: 
Another new definition I would put in. Where as Marksmen want high AS/high Crit - Rangers will want high CDR/high armor pen and will rely more on using their abilities than flat out attacking.
Ezreal, but only after he can no longer use Iceborne Gauntlet. It's a miracle that thing even fits his dainty hands. Other than that I think he's fine.
Lucian because there should be a shorter range, riskier but higher damage, version of Ezreal.
Miss Fortune to provide a risk in the form of immobility for the reward of cleaning up an entire enemy team.
So after listing 3 champs for 12 different subtypes (as well as editting the subtypes for Mages/Marksmen), I've listed 36 champions. Now I'm going to through in 4 wild cards to round it out to 40.
-
. What can I say? He's the milkman. -
but prerework. Back when Taric was likable, and not an actual joke. Gem reference don't mean anything anymore. Re-theming him as the Aspect of Earth to be a Sun/Moon/Earth trio with Leona and Diana - which keeps Targon and his gems relevant. Too bad salt isn't a gem. -
as a Skirmisher. I think she needs a lot more work, but the game doesn't feel right without a really stealth reliant champion. -
FOUR. (The 4th Sharpshoot listed, 4th wildcard listed, 40th champ listed, and 4th champion with 4 letters in the name in this post. You're welcome, boards).
I love these kind of big list threads. Too bad there aren't more
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(hes funny and decently balanced)
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While there are some problem champions left, Riot can assign more people to them on them. are pretty hard to balance but are incredibly cool, so i feel like them and allocating more resources to make them healthy is a better call than just deleting them.
If i had 3 more spots 
would be allowed to stay also but they just missed it. Would have put up there too because he's only terrible when he's in all of your games, and with there only being 40 champions he would end up in every game.
However it's at the cost of 
so worth
hum let's be the first legit answer !
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(the rework team needs some work too lol)
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I'm board ^^
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