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How Hard Is It To Follow the Meta?

Roll in Grass·11/30/2014, 5:18:04 AM·3 votes·903 views

I see these select few people complaining about people complaining about them not playing the meta. There are 122 champions in this game. That means if you are going to break the meta, think about where you're going and what you're going to build, then think about what champion in the meta can actually do that role and follow that build.

For example, if you're going to toplane AP Blitz: Blitzcrank has a silence, a knockup, and a pull. He's tanky, but he has high AP Ratios. So far, this matches Cho'gath perfectly. Cho'gath may not be in the competitive meta, but he's a toplaner, and that's meta enough. Cho'gath has a silence and a knockup, he's tanky, and has high AP Ratios. So go AP Cho'gath instead of AP Blitzcrank.

Are you about to Thresh jungle? Thresh has a hook, two slows, a shield, and lots of tankyness. Nautilus has a hook, a slow, a snare, a knockup, a shield, lots of damage, and lots of tankyness. Looks like Nautilus fits this better than Thresh, so you should play Nautilus.

Seriously, it's not hard to follow the meta, and you can still have fun while following the meta. Even Riot is enforcing the meta. They made jungle items only purchasable on people with smite, they nerfed Alistar's AP Ratios and buffed his tankyess a tad so he'd stop being a midlaner/jungler and back to a support, they nerfed Annie from being a support back to being a midlaner, Riot clearly wants us to follow the meta. That Dark Horse Brand thread? That's Riot recognizing a new possibly viable support, not enforcing new meta. So seriously, just follow the meta, it's not hard.

14 Comments

Cozarkian11/30/2014, 8:49:18 PM4 votes

How do you propose to reconcile your examples with your argument regarding Dark Horse Brand? Maybe blitz is a new possibly viable toplaner and Tresh is a new possibly viable jungler. The only way to determine that is for people to play them in those roles in normal games and then, if successfull, to try it in ranked.

FFirebrandd11/30/2014, 7:28:12 PM4 votes

I am having trouble marshalling my thoughts for this... anyway...

League of Legends is a Game, and games are supposed to be fun.

Say there's a player who plays a lot of support, and he enjoys Blitzcrank's play style immensely. This player has also played Cho'gath once or twice and absolutely hated it for whatever reason. Now he queues up and someone else wants to support and our player ends up with top. By your logic this player should pick Cho'gath anyway just because Cho is a meta pick for top and Blitz isn't... even though doing so will probably frustrate said player and he won't play nearly as well.

Alternatively, there are some champs that are not in the meta AT ALL. By your logic no one should play them ever, even if someone absolutely loves their kit/personality/lore.

Also there is one champion that I know of that her meta build, in my opinion, doesn't fit with her kit. I seriously do not understand why you would buy Crit on Sivir instead of AD and CDR. Should I not be able to do that despite having some truly epic games with that build?

Basically what I'm getting at is this... if someone picks an off meta champion they probably have a good reason and you should not flame them for doing so.

disclaimer: there is a big difference between breaking the meta and trolling, and people who are breaking the meta ARE still trying to win.

Rivini11/30/2014, 11:29:10 AM3 votes

You must not be aware that Blitzcrank was originally intended to be a bruiser, not a support. It's just the nature of his kit that made him a support after the 1-1-1-2 meta cemented itself. Anyway, solo lane Blitzcrank can work if you know what you're doing and he doesn't have to be played pure AP.

In regards to the balance changes made to mages like Annie and Zyra, they were done to lessen their overbearing dominance in lane while keeping their power as a mage intact. Same principle applies to Alistar. It's also why Lulu has been nerfed so much as well, except they didn't take the proper care to preserve her ability to support.

Brand support isn't exactly new, but why he's now being showcased is because Riot has recognized him as a viable support who doesn't provide an unhealthy gameplay experience for the enemy team. They even go over his weaknesses to express that Brand has clearly defined counter-play.

Jubbinaut11/30/2014, 7:54:17 PM2 votes

They made jungle items only purchasable with Smite because that's a better option than making the items actually cost what they're worth (which takes them away from junglers who are commonly gold-starved) or nerfing them into worthlessness (which makes them useless to junglers who need some kind of assistance).

They messed with Alistar to keep him out of the jungle, and make his non-support play more healthy. Not to remove him from it altogether.

They nerfed Annie's base damages to make her support play less overbearing. Not to remove her as a support entirely.

Honestly, I see no problem with meta-breaking. Doing odd-ball things is how a meta gets built. Slavishly sticking to a pre-defined set of rules for how a champion "should" be played is a recipe for failure. To my mind, one of the strongest benefits of meta-breaking is learning how to adjust your play and build to what's going on around you.

Fury and Emperor11/30/2014, 12:25:20 PM2 votes

I agree with the gist of what you're saying, but for a different reason.

This is a competitive game. The point is to win. If you think losing with a "fun" build is more fun than winning, then you do not belong in a competitive team game with 4 other people who do want to win. Remember, the only one having fun with your character is you.

Renaille12/1/2014, 1:18:49 PM1 votes

He's tanky, but he has high AP Ratios.

Blitz has 200% Ap scaling. that isn't very high considering Leona has 190% and lower cooldowns on her rotation.

Leblancs Boob11/30/2014, 8:43:46 PM1 votes

I'm not saying that you should play AP blitz top over someone like Cho'Gath but EVERY champion is different and there will always be a reason to play one champion over another. AP blitz top may not be as "viable" as cho'gath top but certainly can be valued for the few strengths he has that cho'gath doesn't. That being said i believe people should play what they enjoy because at the end of the day it is just a game.

DrCyanide12/1/2014, 7:00:46 AM1 votes

As an AP Ezreal main, I'd say you don't understand off meta builds at all.

Take AP Ezreal for example. He is a mage with extreme mobility, ranged poke, very high damage. He handles like a cross between Ziggs and LeBlanc, able to poke fun safety in a team fight and burst squishy champions in a single combo. I've played several AP mids, and I have yet to come across another champion with the combination he has.

I've played AP Blitz in ARAM, and from what I've seen of Cho'gath, the two are nothing alike. You need to try playing it before you make an unfounded comparison like that.