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About Balance, League and Riot (Thank you)

StoryDuck··16 votes·1,334 views

League is probably one of the most difficultly complicated games to balance ever created. This is because there are over 130 different champions each with radically different abilities. These 130+ champions can use over 100 different items. There are millions of players that play everyday all playing different styles for many different reasons and at different levels of skill involving all 130+ champions and 100+ items. The fact that this game exists with any balance at all is nothing short of amazing. The mathematics involved in balancing all the items, champions, and play styles is so complex you could probably spend your life studying it and not figure out a perfect way to balance everything. Small changes, even +3 base AD can have huge unexpected consequences if added to the wrong champion.

I know that League can feel frustrating and it always seems to feel the most frustrating right after a major update to the game. There are often 1 to 3 champions that find themselves in the limelight of being over powered after every major update. People often struggle with new changes and blame Riot for having X or Y champion being unbalanced. People rage that nothing is being done about it or that it isn't being fix quickly enough. People become upset at nerfs or buffs almost constantly for many reason. New champions are often too powerful or too weak.

I myself have shared in this rage but when I sit back and think about it I realize...THAT'S AMAZING! To enact any changes at all can be a crazy balancing act of 130 champions and 100 items with hundreds of play styles that can all threaten to unbalance the game yet riot enacts 10-30 (sometimes more) changes (often major changes) almost every patch! If we find only 1-3 champions are a bit over powered then WOW! Think about the amount of testing, research, calculations, and innovation it takes to accomplish this. Riot goes even further and they manage to create new and unique champions very frequently and they often only need one or two patches to balance them in this environment? Riot has kept League of Legends fresh for 7 season now with their tireless efforts in improving and changing this game. If I have to put up with a few minor points of unbalance then I will gladly do so, perhaps not in the moment but at the end of the day i will come back to League of Legends because no one puts more effort into their game then Riot.

For all that: Thank you Riot. Thank you for the amazing work you put in every day.

14 Comments

Terozu8 votes

132 x 175 x 174 x 173 x 172 x 171 x 170 = 3.4768088e+15... That's the number of different champ and item builds(not counting GP and Viktor or their unique items because I don't know how to work that in...) in this game. That's a HUGE number. And that's not counting rune or mastery combinations for god's sake. Balancing this game is fucking hard, probably impossible,. Give them a break lol. Oh and for those who can't do Scientific notation that's 3,476,808,800,000,000 different combinations, or Three quadrillion, four hundred seventy six trillion, eight hundred and eight billion, eight hundred million different possible combinations.

StoryDuck2 votes

Well said, and that doesn't count types of play styles either. I didn't even think about the complexity of adding runes and masteries.

00B6 votes

You mean three quadrillion not one All that math makes you forget the english language

50000000000000001 votes

I know that's quadrillion. I had to look it up multiple times.

Terozu1 votes

*fixed it thnks.

Weathered3 votes

My shitty AP Alistar build is one in over 3 quadrillion.

I so special ^.^

DHBGrimReaper2 votes

{quoted}

132 x 175 x 174 x 173 x 172 x 171 x 170 = 3.4768088e+15... That's the number of different champ and item builds(not counting GP and Viktor or their unique items because I don't know how to work that in...) in this game. That's a HUGE number. And that's not counting rune or mastery combinations for god's sake. Balancing this game is fucking hard, probably impossible,. Give them a break lol. Oh and for those who can't do Scientific notation that's 3,476,808,800,000,000 different combinations, or One quadrillion, four hundred seventy six trillion, eight hundred and eight billion, eight hundred million different possible combinations.

Actually since the set of how many diff champ and item builds would be 3.4768088e+15, then the number of ways to arrange them is 3.4768088e+15! or 3.4768088e+15 factorial. This means that you have to do 3.4768088e+15 x n where n= any number less than 3.4768088e+15. That number would be too large to even write..

Terozu2 votes

? It's just scientific notation E = 10 it would be in proper form, 3.4768088 x 10 ^ 15 aka move the decimal point to the right 15 times, 3,476,808,800,000,000, and it'd be the number of champs times the factorial of the number of items, which excluding gp and viktor and their respective uniwgue items, would be 132 champs * 175! (the factorial of 175) which then equals 3.4768088e+15, or 3,476,808,800,000,000. If this is wrong please explain to me my error in detail please!

Wrath KO2 votes

I'm sure you have seen some of their "nerfs/buffs" and like me, knew that it was a stupid move and would overpower the champion. I'm not like one of them people who complain about them nerfing op champs, but when they buff already op champs.

StoryDuck4 votes

I've seen some nerf/buffs I questions but I never assume it was a stupid move or that it would automatically make a champion overpowered. I do not work at Riot. I do not have access to the massive amount of inside information they have nor do I understand the details behind how they keep a game balanced for both new players and LCS players at the same time. Trying to comprehend balance of that level is beyond me and it is fair to say that it is beyond some of the Rioter too. They may make mistake but if you are being honest to yourself, could you really say you would do better then the team at Riot? If you can, what makes you qualified? What makes you better then the thousand employees that work at Riot? So cut them some slack and be amazed at the job they already do. League of Legends is amazing because of their work.

Wrath KO1 votes

You say they "balance the game" and yet here they are working on a new client, and they've created how many of these stupid games that are played on the weekend. They release a bunch of unnecessary shit instead of working on what they already need to work on. Tell me this then, if you go into a ranked game, why is it that all of the same champs are banned? Why is it that all of the same champs are picked for ranked? It must be because the game is so balanced and those champs are just cool looking.

GaryFreakinnnOak1 votes

TLDR: The patch before the Juggernaut patch wasn't perfect, but it was hands down, 100% a better game and a more strategic game than the crap we deal with now. The game can be balanced, Riot just needs to stop making changes for the sake of change.

I think the main gripe with Riot right now is they make too many changes while the game is still in a state of imbalance. This creates situations where roles feel like they have no agency (ADC right now), it makes large portions of the roster basically inferior picks, and all of the changes make it so your game knowledge gets stale very quickly from patch to patch. Honestly the keystone masteries have messed with the balance of the game really badly and Riot has been reeling to try to keep the game in a somewhat playable state. You are better off learning a champion that is strong right now than sticking with your main if it is out of favor.

Lets compare the pre-juggernaut patch (5.15) to now.

In S5 ADCs had access to proper anti-tank itemisation. These days I don't even see Vayne building bork (bork was nerfed and LW was changed from total armor to bonus armor pen).

In S5 Lee Sin could not kill you with R > Q > Q > AA > E unless he was fed but now he can do that very easily with zero kills or assits.

Junglers in S5 were generally a similar level to the bot lane players and now the Jungle hits lvl 6 when bot is lvl 4 and its not uncommon for the jungler to be the same level or a higher level than the solo laners.

In S5 mid lane wasn't a three hit thunderlords minigame.

In S5 and S6 support didn't need to ward blast cone positions in addition to river.

In S5 you could recover from a bad early game, in S6 and S7 they are much shorter snowball fests where evenly matched games happen less frequently.

Honestly I could go on. There have been some good moves by Riot since 5.15, but generally there has been a lot of needless bullshit that has muddied the game and made most of my friends stop playing.

Papa Andrei1 votes

I joined literally at the Juggernaut patch, so I don't know how the game was before then and never seen videos of it. BUT, as someone who has only played the game after Jugg patch, its not that bad. Yes its wonky as shit, some things are like "Why, just why is this a thing?" But other than that, 95% of the game is balanced, LIKE GODAMN, thats pretty damn good job imo.

Still cuck Camille though, (Salty Tank main is salty)

Terozu1 votes

They rebuffed Bork, Lee sin has always been broken like that, as said by Riot themselves(The only champ riot admits isn't balanced!) Jg were always lagging a couple of levels behind I don't know why you theought they were a similar level to bot. The plants are fine and add new strategic depth, as well as giving some previously immobile champs much needed mobility, that last complaint is however valid and the games need to be less one sided during a win imo.

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