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About Balance, League and Riot (Thank you)

StoryDuck·1/21/2017, 6:37:55 PM·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

Terozu1/21/2017, 6:54:47 PM8 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.

Wrath KO1/21/2017, 9:14:03 PM2 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.

GaryFreakinnnOak1/22/2017, 4:12:39 AM1 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.