The Problem With Constant Balance Changes | League of Legends 

i think it's all about keep players engaged with new matchups and new fresh metas but many times they go beyond shaking meta

I think the problem isn't necessarily the frequency of changes they do, but how patternized they have become. Like, the whole idea behind the 2 week patch cycle is to shake up metas, so that every champion can, at some point, be viable to play. And so that no single champion remains at the top for too long. However, that doesn't work out the way it should, simply because of Riot's seemingly favoritism towards certain sets of champion. Example being the likes of Hecarim or Kha'Zix, who have been absolute S tier champions for several consecutive years now. I think this stems partially from Riot's philosophy that they only want showmaker and highlight champions in comptetive. That fact get's pretty obvious when you look at how Lee Sin gets buffed every year at the same time, only to be nerfed again a few patches later. They deliberately keep the "exciting to look at" champion in the meta for a good E-sports eperience, leaving a lot of the older and less exciting champions (most control mages, for example) in the dust. So instead of *actually* "shaking up the meta", what they do is just cycle the same metas, sometimes maybe with different flavors of champions, on repeat, while keeping their favorit children viable and strong all year around. I haven't felt an actual "meta shift" in, like, 3 years. Only the occasional outlier becoming a tier 0 champion due to being overbuffed, but those are usually not meta warping. The closest to a "meta shift" we had in the past few years was this one patch we just had with the likes of LB and Kai'Sa rushing Statikk. And then again, Kai'Sa was a very popular champion before that already. Meaning the only impact on the meta it really had was bringing LB back.

+1000 range on q and +500 range on w is something they should try giving veigar. It would be funny.

As a midlander, the matchup is usually that 3-7 champions which is incredibly broken right now, and there isn’t anything else. It changes about 3 patches but I know half of the time what I am facing before even queueing up. when I get something I don’t see it’s usually OTP like 1 million mastery Anivia or 2 million mastery Azir. Hell even laning against Sion mid feels like breathing fresh air

Think best of 3s in pro play should ban all champions picked and banned from the previous games in the match, i feel like we’d see some wacky shit after 30 champs are banned

Not me thinking I left Star Rail running in the background...

the problem is some champs are always meta and others never are meta and almost never get changes ever

To add on what you said towards the end of the video, similar to the Zyra meta, there was the ardent censer meta where it was only soraka janna lulu, but then Ignar from Misfits pulled out the fervor of battle Leona vs Lulu against the reigning champions and it made an otherwise stale series which I assume would just be a 3/0 sweep turn into one of the most exciting series I still remember.

The other hand that was not mentioned was that sometimes the constant change can inspire a reaction of "it doesn't matter what I pick to play since it will likely change soon anyway" which does encourage people to pick the champion they like, not the kit and number set that's the most powerful at the moment.

I think a once a month patch schedule would be the most effective. It wouldn't be so long that the player base feels it's too long from biweekly, but just long enough for things to be played, tested, and retested. And would allow for those changes to settle better

Because I, Draven, think it is funny when we buff, and nerf them simultaneously.

It is worth noting that game devs, Riot included, already know what they're gonna do if needed when they release content. Naafiri isn't out yet but I guarantee you that they already have several, very detailed plans on what to do if she proves unbalanced.

I hate to say it because I know it's no fun to think this way, but I really do think that the biggest problem league has right now is that there are just too many champions. The only way Riot can realistically gauge the power of each champion is through raw data. The sheer amount of time it would take to cycle ideas and REALLY playtest every buff/nerf idea for each champion is just unrealistic. The bigger a team gets, the more of that team has to be relegated to just the logistics of holding the team together and keeping everyone on track. At this point the buff/nerf cycle for riot is less to achieve perfect balance and more to keep their game from getting stagnant, like pumping air into an artifical lake.

While in uni I legit picked up and dropped league like 4 times every year. Every exam/ project season I just knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with the changes and it always felt so bad getting into a game again and feeding in part because things were just that bit different. This was a lot more impactful for tft though. Given how a missed update can cause you to miss game winning plays just because you didn't know a specific comp got just the buffs it needed to work.

I think it's alot because they like to buff the just under meta champs instead of nerfing the meta so its very easy for them to overshoot on buffs. Also I would prefer small patches of buffs and nerfs every 2 weeks but once every 3 months have a huge meta shake up patch.

The irony is that Riot is trying to avoid making the game feel stale but inadvertently doing so with these constant changes as players get tired of it. It's basically a balancing act between; player annoyance at constant changes - player enjoyment/acceptance overall - player annoyance at little to no response.

vars with the star rail ost? 👀

The biggest source of frustration on a gameplay level is that league’s strategy is all about preventing your opponent from playing the game, and therefore the reason you lose is because your agency is less (whether that’s because you make mistakes due to being less skilled is irrelevant here because everyone starts out unskilled). So learning the ropes often feels like banging your head against the wall for this and the reason you mentioned; this is the main source of frustration on a long-term level. Any game that has disabling effects applying to players will have this problem, but it’s particularly awful in league where pve-style disables are being flung around in a PvP environment.

While the idea is riddled with flaws and issues that may or may not be possible to overcome, a part of me yearns to go back to old game versions, let's say, Season 5. The issues with it are countless, but I often wonder if there would be ways to make it work in some way. "Rotating old seasons/patches game mode", which would rotate every 1st of the month, sounds like so much fun to me, with all the flaws of the idea ignored.

Winrate also depends on pickrate, for example a champion with over 10% pickrate should not have over 50% wr because that would mean anybody can first time the champ and be good with it. In opposition a champion with very low pickrate should have above 50%wr because if even the few otps can't get the champ to work then that means the champ actually sucks. And at last the champs considered skillful to play should not have over 50% wr because that would mean that the champ is just overtuned and anybody can pick it up, fiora for example may have a hight skill ceiling, but her skill floor is low hence why she's so popular and overperforming since her rework (not to mention the toxic aspects of her kit), also divine sunderer was a mistake.

To be honest i've been playing league for 10 years and never cared about the meta. I just play what I want to play , what feels fun to play. It's not like fictive "league points" are worth anything.. And playing that way I out rank all of my friends and 97% of EUW. There is no meta in soloQ , just you and your keyboard. It's just that new League players are soooo focused on numbers and meta for some reason.. As if playing a 50+% WR champ will make up for your lack of micro and macro knowledge and skill.

Stats and tier lists are an easy way to present information and get people's attention. Whilst also beiing attractive to players because they seem to provide quick information. In truth they serve nearly no purpose and often hurt how we percieve the champions; turning our focus from who we enjoy/perform well with to who has better WR. Stats/Tier list provide no concetre information, stop putting so much thought behind them and play whoever tf you want. This applies to any game

My current favorite system is the one Omega Strikers is currently using. A patch every month/few months, along with added content per patch, BUT They make a few "micropatches", to prevent something too strong for being that strong the whole time. Micropatches can come just a few days after a patch, up to a few weeks! It makes the game *feel* balanced because they don't need to nerf/buff everything and anything all the time, while still adding a lot of change from time to time. Really cool!

Remember when they duffed jungle morg a few seasons ago and it was broken so they nerfed it only to bring it back a few a couple season later? Or when they buffed mao passive bc he wasn't doing good in top but then reverted it bc they "didn't know" it would buff sup mao? Or that one time....

I was feeling a sort of frustrated feeling with balance changes but I wasn't able to put it into words until watching this vid. I realized that I would often simply play or ban the most meta thing of the current patch and wait until the inevitable nerf rather than formulate a way to properly beat it. It worked, but it wasn't satisfying and then I wondered why I was getting so bored. but that's because I wasn't trying new strategies and planning around what was strong, I was just stubbornly refusing to participate and holding out until Riot changed things. I'd really gotten caught up in following a meta and out of fear of getting flamed I never wanted to try or even formulate my own strats anymore, even though that was what I found fun in the first place. And like, no wonder I was finding the game less satisfying! I wasn't engaging with it anymore! I was literally just following statistical trends! Really good vid Vars, I like how you handled the discussion of this nuanced topic.

the biggest problem is that every two weeks you basically have to re-learn the game which makes becoming better at the game much harder than in a game like CSGO where you had only a couple of meta changes during the last 10 years

The difference about riots changes for league is their intent. Most of the time its not about enhancing gameplay, instilling a new meta or freshen up the game with new mechanics. Its about putting bandaids on problems that already grew for a long time. And the playerbase can feel that. Compare that to TFT; the big changes they make feel like a complete overhaul. Weak units suddenly get fun and viable to use, there are new augments, units and items to play around with, and each change guides you towards their intended fun gamedesign. What is the intended gamedesign for season 13? There is none.

Well simple, League is not designed to be balance, League is designed to be addictive.

Honestly, I think the size of the changes is as significant as the frequency. Look at your Veigar example... instead of a small increase to one ability, Riot greatly extended the range or two abilities at once! This makes no sense -- especially if you're frequently balancing anyway. The other factor champion interactions, which I don't think you addressed enough. Which so many champions, it's likely that any new champion will have strong synergy with AT LEAST one of the existing champions. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to nerf the old champions just because of that. And, similarly, it doesn't make much sense to nerf the new champions because of that. The problem is that it's simply very difficult to introduce new champions in a balanced way. Or, for example, you could have a situation where one champion is regularly banned that has a strong interaction with another champion. Ok, fine, whatever. But when a new champion is introduced that has a similar synergy with an existing champion... it can become difficult to ban or counter the combination. And this will keep getting more difficult as more champions are introduced.

Let's just say that every meta, it will tick off at least 2 percent of the player base, no matter what it is. So, if there are relatively rapid changes that clamp down on abuses, then the hot new thing is a thing of interest rather than a stale meta...even if it takes over, it won't for long. Those that it piss off can just use their free time in other ways and come back to the game they otherwise love. If the patches only came once a month... Well, by that point, especially in the internet sphere, the game's basically on maintenance mode. If something pisses you off, you know it's going to be there for a while. Like tank meta. Or enchanter meta. And you're just going to stop playing all together. Then next month comes around, and you lose another 2 percent. And another. Truly stale metas aren't a generally good thing.

I do see a lot bigger champion variety than I used to see before. I would say ADC is currently the only role filled with meta slaves and statistics say it too, out of top 5 champions with highest pick rate, 3-4 of them are always marksmans

I wish they would do less balance changes but bigger ones. For example a balance patch where they try to nerf dmg a lot more. I remember when they did the dmg reduction patch 1 year ago, it wasn´t enough and with all the fast buffs to champion dmg in the following patches it was gone pretty fast and we are yet again in a dmg meta

Its honestly just a culture thing. DOTA 2, the next most popular MOBA, updates WAY slower, but has fewer balance issues, however, as the comments show, no League player wants LESS updates. At this point, I think its too late to go back on the system that's been established. This is just how League is and for some us, like myself, it just isn't that fun after awhile. (The game made me VERY angry VERY often, so I stopped playing it. It just wasn't good for mental health. I reinstalled a couple of times and I've spent well over $100 on it, but NO MORE, I simply can't bring myself to play a game that I'm just not having consistent fun in)

my mmr is so low im stuck in iron with 67% winrate ( 120games played) LLMAO, I one trick poppy and I can say, she was never op, so she nevers gets picked/banned, I found one poppy payer on the enemy team and now were very good friends sharing poppy tips and trying new builds/items... League is a great game, but it needs to have things that are impossible to get so, we just gotta aaccept our fate in fighting darius in top lane 20% of the time

I think i should say again(in "always weak champion". Riot should build League into 2 Offside Meta. Because Riot always changes toward the Pro Play and Pro Play will never be like 99% of true most of game we play. So if we have 2 Meta for Pro Play and for SQ, we will have a way better Meta. Ex: Aphelios is having 55% winrate make him a overperforming in the Proplay, so is ez to nerf Aphelios down in The Proplay Meta but doesn't affect Aphelios is having 50% winrate in SQ.

Do people actually care about buff and nerf? Honestly I play with what i like and enjoy playing and that's it, I don't even read the patches cause it won't change the fact that I'll solely play with what i like, that being Ahri, Kassadin, Lux and Ori (mainly and in that order of preference), then Ez, Lucian, Ashe, Veigar, Ziggs, Diana, Morg, Ekko and Nasus, probably forgetting someone, but that's what i usually play

I disagree with the idea that having a constantly changing “no meta” is worse than a stagnant one. Using Melee as an example, something like 50/60 out of the top 100 players main Fox because he’s one of the strongest champions. Playing Pichu or Bowser in a tournament of Fox players *might* pull a victory, but that doesn’t mean that they’re viable or good. Take Brawl, a fixed meta where Metaknight is objectively the best, and playing something else is just throwing away odds at winning. With League and constant updates, outside of a few champions, you very rarely see a literally unviable champion, and that’s from the devs pushing things more often. My hot take is people like DL getting burnt out is moreso “I’ve been playing the same thing for hours a day for years” but that’s projected as “it’s a flaw in the game, no getting burnt out on a hobby”

You're missing a HUGE factor too. Whenever someone comes along and pioneers an unusual champ or playstyle, especially if it completely ignores the meta or invalidates Riot's precious golden children like Ezreal or Lee Sin, they murder it then buff one of their babies. LeBlanc is one of the worst designed champs ever and she always is buffed just enough to stay pro while Aurelion is nuked from orbit the second he hits 50% winrate. It's disgusting how biased they can be.

Phreak has said that the balance intentionally left the ADC meta pretty untouched up to MSI as people were requesting pros have time to adapt. Annoyingly though, they didn't and that's kinda the problem. As it stands given 4 months of play, pros never adapted. So yeah idk if I agree with the theory that players will find counter and adapt. They will just focus on being the best at the specific thing and if you dont like that specific thing then they stop playing

TLDR: Riot needs to constantly chang the game because people would just meta slave and there'd be no diversity in solo queue. and pro play wouldnt be fun to watch. in the end, its always meta slaves fault, always.

6:52 then there's dota 2 the international(dotas world's version) where only 4 heroes didn't get touched.

The thing is, metas go though stages and mature, sure, some of the stages may be less desirable, but I'd argue after the early rush of experimentation, the second stage of "everyone trying to get free wins abusing what's busted" it's the absolute worst of them all. League is most of the time on that second stage, and the guarantee that it will go away incentivises people to abuse it even more.

dota 2 has a logic of less patchs , but when finally something comes out, BOOM, all heroes, half of itens are changed, with a new jungle camp , etc. Some real changes to really shake everything. Lol shakes a little everyday . But all these models, of too much balance changes, and 1 balance every 2/3 months like dota 2, have problems. Its a never ending discussion I think

You really went out of your way to use trailblazing, I can appriciate that

Being a player since 2014, I stopped playing on the rift because I felt punished for not being a one-trick in 50 different champion skill sets

The "fix" is they simply have to accept a loss of some players if they slow things down. Your reluctance to say that is as telling as their unwillingness to wait for organic player innovation. Loss is not always a bad thing, it can be strategic. But short-attention spans fail at this constantly.

i think the 2 week thing doesnt have to be a bad thing. but it stops "countering" to an extend. one pick shows up. its broken. but before we find a counter it gets nerfed. wich is ok. it gives the abuser of them less time to exploit it. the meta fanboys that follow will fall down again

was i the only one that noticed the fact that star rail music is in the background and at a certain point he says " *trailblazing* ambitions"? i dont know if it's a coincidence or not and i'm debating with my brain over it

yeah as a yorick main it was nice to get a buff a year and a half ago but yorick getting a nerfed the following patch to the point he was worse than he was before the initial buff really sucked

love the video but this new editing style is a little too busy and cliche. It doesnt feel like vars, it feels like someone elses video with vars talking.

Not a perfect solution, but I would like to see an increase in the number of bans in pro play (just pro play). This way pro players will need to be ready to play with a larger champion pool, and viewers will see more diversity and want to try other champs out.

league was most fun when the meta would significantly change! it made the game feel super fresh!

Its refreshing to come back to TF2 after a half a year away and everything is the exact same

Yay, another Vars video!!!

I didn’t expect Honkai Star Rail music in the background lol

Btw, Riot buffed Sylas like 3 times before giving him a prestige skin while having a positive winrate and NEVER reverted those changes. He was sooooo strong for months. Same with fiddle, they buffed his ult a lot before his Nemesis skin and now he can completely one shot with one his ult at lvl 6 with two items.

this is not tecnically a buff/nerf but i remember when riot "fix" a bug with shacos q smoke not been visible in fog of war . they fix it so you can see the smoke of shacos q in fog of war . that patch shaco wr go sooo low . like 47/46 % the next patch riot reverted this . sooo yes shaco current state is so fck up that even fixing a but its bad for him

A lot of reasons, I suggest you watch Phreak's channel since you'll get a lot of reasoning for the constant changes, especially in the last 2-3 videos. They balance around three groups, low elo, high elo and pro. A lot of changes usually are meant for high elo and pro play, so it won't always affect everyone, since players that aren't skilled enough won't be able to capitulate on the changes. Bottom line is, it's done for variety's sake and keeping players engaged. Pro players also almost never change what they play, and if you'd let them play the same 10 damn champions for 20 years, you can be sure they freaking will; hence why it's the balance team's job to force pro players off of certain champions and give them more options. They also have a design philosophy if one champions is buffed or nerfed in a role, another has to receive the opposite treatment. They follow statistics across all ranks and since they also enjoy the game a lot, they see what people post on Reddit for example too, it's not just shots in the dark. They generally know what to hit add or shave off a 1% win rate and sometimes it's experimental. As for why what champion you're playing isn't getting any attention, is mostly because they consider it in a good spot (for the players that know what they're doing) or they aren't high priority enough. The balance team is definitely not as out of this world as people claim they are, it's just that perceptions and loud voices matter a lot on what others perceive.

I think it’s less about how frequent the patches are, and more about how much they do in each patch. Some things need to get fixed ASAP, because let’s be honest, Riot releases shit that completely destroys that game. But that doesn’t mean that they have to change 15+ champions every other week. They need to be more judicious with their game changes

There should be way more bans and people who love their permabanned champs will BEG FOR NERFS on their champs so they can play them. Also playing S+ champs (High pick rate + winrate) should get you a bit less rewards.

One issue with the idea that players adapt is that even when a winning strategy is found, like MF vs zyra as you mentioned, counterpick is not counterplay, especially in soloque. So if malphite is meta, your only real counrerplay is drafting specific champs/comps and you have to endure that for months, while with the current system you at least know (or can consider it likely) that the malphite sufferinf will only last for 2 weeks.

Not Vars using Star Rail music :o ❤❤

They recently gave veigar a small buff and then gutted his ap ratios 1 patch later.

Gaddamn space walk really calming

Samira video when 😢?

Mage players be like: wait the game changes for you guys? All we got was 2 items 3 years ago and the same most expensive 3 item core that often requires deviation for pen/defence

I'm thinking a solution might be to specifically announce who's getting worked on a month in advance, or to make a point of ensuring that the free-to-play champions are always whoever has been buffed in the last patch and trying to keep to that number. It's not much of a solution, but it could help new players get into the game while a champ has a buff, but also it gives the long-term players advance notice before a nerf drops. Not the best solution, probably the best solution would be to just reduce the total number of buffs/nerfs in any given patch overall so that change is still frequent, it just isn't hitting everyone all the time.

1 month patch at latest. Feeling an op champion fighting you for 3 weeks would feel so bad only for Them to not get nerfed

short answer: they are fk stupid long answer: they are damage creeping and you can see that from S11 we had so much DMG and literaly everyone had that INSANE dmg: botrk was always nr1 but there was for short time gore drinker and eclips then sunfire oneshitng baron and other things then everyone was using lethality items(mostly prawler) most adc would just go lethality and mages were oneshoting and literaly dealing true dmg to anyone because of void staff(and they got buffed week ago) so now they are dealing even more dmg cuz why not and they nerfed or nearly remove most resist items ppl were ONLY buying force of nature cuz it was the only item that gave you good amount of survivability because of % dmg reduction but now we dont have any item that help with survive INSANE amount of dmg from AP champs because they got even more powerfull rabadon and they still have 40% resist remove + boots +shadowflame+luden and mages can survive a lot more now 600 hp rod of ages+AP tear 200 hp+ something about 400-600 shield or some champs even more while still gives 120+ ap demonic something about 110-130 ap+burn% hp morello 200 hp 90ap+10 magic pen horizon 100 ap 150 hp so normal build for mage have something about 600-1350 bonus hp yupppppppppp make fk sens btw all of those items are DMG ITEMS they should not give more survivability cuz they gave INSANE amount of DMG imagine if youmu gave you 200 hp... adc have true dmg if they will go guinso+ldr and all of the changes they are making look soooooo fk random srsly like buffing lategamie on fizz and ekko while their LATE GAME IS FK INSANE they were always oneshoting everyone in late game so why they are buffing their late game if its already broken as fk they should nerf lategame and then gave them something in early so ppl can survive their lategame if someone buy 2 resist items and they can buff early in those champs not to the point where they are OP but they a bit less efective in early then most champs (ofc in mid) thats how they should do it not some fk random buffs they are doing things like that: for example we have now 3-4 broken jgler (they got nerfed buf its just example) so they are getting nerfed but champions that had like 50% winrate IN THIS META WHERE THOSE 3-4 SUPER BROKEN CHAMPS IN JGL so what will happen? 50% champ getting buffed while his winrate IS COMPLETELY FINE in meta where they should be below 50% winrate because of those 3-4 champs that dominate you know so if this champ with 50% wr gettes buffed now this will have 52-54% winrate because they were doing GOOD when they shouldnt do that so they were close to be broken and now they are getting buffed and they are doing things like you said they are buffing champ and then month later it gets nerf and they are even worse then they were before buffs thats because they dont know WHAT IS THE PROBLEM IN THOSE CHAMPS most of the time they are only changing some stats like AD HP and BASE DMG and % scaling DMG there is a lot of stupid thing that they are doing they dont even know how their game looks like srsly

Do you think it would be better if Riot decided to remove the API they have to show champion data and winrates, and to make fewer changes per patch for champions? Not saying it should or shouldn't-just wanted a thought on the idea

Its interesting how you play 2 games with wildly different balancing aproaches. League where balance changes every 2 weeks and genshin where balance never changes

I'm really curious how the game would look if they didn't update it for a year, like in Team fortress 2 it's always interesting when people find out how strong something actually is that's previously viewed as bad. Same with Smash

The problem Riot has when nerf/buff champions is they try to balance around ITEMSIZATION and not the actual champion. Many of the buffs or nerfs has been based around WHAT a player builds. Same for the item balance as well, that an item (prowler claw) on Sett is broken as fuck, but was fine on Assassins like Talon, a class the item was intended for. Also, a REAL PRO PLAYER is someone who DOES know how to play EVERY champion. Nothing wrong with having a favorite or two and roles you prefer, but you should KNOW how to play EVERYTHING. If you play just 1 champ, ya your will be perfect on them, but you also can easily be picked on with a ban or counterpick, forcing you to play something else or dodge or feed.

I seriously feel like this game would be so much more healthy and balanced if riot would just apply the status of ALL items/summoner spells/runes, with the range vs melee stat buffs/debuffs. Riot constantly finds themselves backed into a corner trying to fix something without hitting unintended users, only to buff them and break something else. In my opinion, this is where all the champion buffs and nerfs come from. Think about it: goredrinker meta, assassin meta, changes to prowlers claw because of unintended users, I rest my case. I know it’s infeasible for riot to add any code to their game without breaking the game and creating more bugs than content, but it’s a nice thought considering THEY ALREADY HAVE THIS STATUS ON SOME ITEMS!

6:49 did quick check 109 (~67%) champs were contested in Worlds 2022, . In comparison to Dota 2, 2022 where 9/126 were NOT contested it seems pale. Started LoL around the time of Riven's release and played couple seasons, left because Riot was killing the all the creativity and off-meta plays streamlining the game more and more. They are the only ones to blame for lack of diversity. Instead of giving players more ways to express their playstyle they curbed or straight up killed it. It's limiting their design space way too much.

The term "balance" isn't even right honestly.. It's just meta updates. I wish they just released new champions , game modes , and most importantly UPDATE OLD ASS CHAMPIONS.

Vars do you like frogs?

There is too much change, yet if they stop changing things, the game will remain in its horrible state. "The damage has been done" is the best statement available for the game's current state. Horribly overtuned and overpowered champions and items dominate while there are other champions collecting dust because they don't have the same overtuned crap in their kits. To me the game is in its worst state ever since I started playing in S10. No-skill champs are way too strong. It's really fun and engaging to play an ability focused champion, only to just get auto'd to death by a Jax or Irelia because they've now bought Bork. Oh, I'm 5-0? Surely I'll beat the Mundo now. Oh no, nevermind, the 0-5 Mundo with boots stat-checked me to death. Great game state, mind-boggling. I can name plenty of examples, but as a top main those were the first instances I could think of. EDIT: I'm not saying I lose these matchups all the time. Instead I have problems with the fact that I have to put 10 times more effort into winning fights while one misplay means I get auto'd to death, no matter what. It needs to stop. But it won't because we have a clueless balance team.

I had about a week of enjoyment where my champion (LeBlanc) was not at the bottom of every tier list, and RIOT just went and nerfed the crap out of the Stattik Shiv build. One frigging week. Dantes made a really weird comparison whilst streaming this one time... He was asked why he was abusing Hecarim (back in the beginning of S13 when Hecarim was super strong with the new Ravenous), and he compared it to m*sturbating with a grater - ridiculously painful, but every once in a while the grater changes into the most perfect fl*shlight possible, before being turned back into a grater a week later.

I wonder if it's possible to minimize the scale of such thing as meta. Like let's look at all this from the very basics - the point of changes? We are not a Tzeentch cult, nor (I hope) is Riot, so there is a meaning of changes. Exactly - to make fresh feelings and making you to analize stuff and not repeating yourself, something like that. And, _in my opinion_ , that's just where Riot are, as a true dwarfs, digging a hole for themselves. Since to be simply competent at game, player should know stuff about it. But while pretty big array of info one should keep in mind, part of this array - large or not so - can become obsolete because of patch. And while it creates necessity to learn, here is a catch - one need to learn not exactly new stuff, but learn pretty much the same stuff with differences. That's what eventually strains players, be it casual or competetive ones. Because essentially it is "artifical" difficulty, since such approach prioritizes stuffing your mind with as much info, as possible. And straining player for sake of actual straining hiim straightly contradicts the aim of games - having fun. Of course, adding the problem of "everything everywhere" doesn't help. Blurred state of these or those things in game simply leads to its high unpredictability. And if only you can't define, what's normal and what's not, but it's usually also devs who don't understand, how to simply stabilise all this. Is Fiora support is normal? Should actually Yummi top work? Does Urgot needs synergy with AP items? What's trolling and what's just situational... But okay, that's mere bonus, rather than a revealing point. Though, there is also the reason of necessity to make player learn - people love new stuff and they "love it, when the plan comes together"... If not meta was a thing. Since it's playerbase, who learns stuff, revealing effective champs, combos, items, etc. And it launches the machine of changes for Riot, who have to change simply for keeping the game out of stale state. But... What if we try to scale down meta? Usually it's from patch to season(s) in terms of continueing. Meta of tanks, meta of oneshots, ADC meta, etc. But is it possible to make meta for a match? Through environment, like the same objects - drakes, heralds, heck, even red/blue buffs(?). We can't spawn a new map, like in Civilization or smth, with set of rules, but let other elements of environment define probabilties.

I don't think your analogy for Smash Ultimate flies... here's the thing. Most people who aren't aiming to go pro will generally gravitate to "this character is cool" or "this character is fun to play" (and yes, sometimes just being strong is good enough for people to say they're fun). The reason it's like this in Smash but not in League is because Smash has a different social contract. If you pick a character who is bottom tier in Smash, the only person who loses the game is you. If you pick a bottom tier in League, you risk your entire team's time and they will ABSOLUTELY let you know, even if it's not you're fault your team is losing. Players are actively discouraged from doing anything but the absolute highest percent win chance play based on available data.

You should make a video about abilities that create structures such as trundles W or Azir's Ult. The only abilities that I can rememebr off yhe top of my head are Trundles Pillar, Azir's Wall, Anivia's Wall, Ornn's pillar, and probably a few more? And by structures, I don't mean a Yasuo's windwall. That may seem obvious to some, and to most it is, but you'd honestly be quite surprised.

The most fun I've had watching Vars's videos is trying to recgonize the background music. So far I think I've recognized Persona 4 and 5, Genshin, Honkai Star Rail, Danganronpa, and a couple others I'm probably forgetting.

I love it when there is a new tank meta, so people start playing AP Varus to counter tanks, then assassins to counter AP Varus, and so. But it's sickening seeing AP Varus 3 games out of 4 just because there is NOTHING ELSE to counter tanks. atm, it's great seeing new builds with Statikk but bro is it broken. And with every new things its always the same : great seeing somethning new, sad that this thing is beyond broken.

On the player side, there's also the *ehem* economic side of it. The VAST majority of players aren't spending several hours a day grinding league games, and I'm not even talking about the casual one-time players. Due to external commitments and circumstances, most people don't have enough time and energy to put into mastering one champ, let alone several, so why bother branching out if you find something you like? Not to mention that so much new-player/low-rank advice literally says "pick 2-3 champs, master them". Riot's design decisions are not the root cause of the issue, but I think more of a stopgap, a poor (hopefully temporary) solution I think 1-month waits between patches while keeping each patch fairly large is the better approach though. It gives everything time to settle down after the rustling and the people who do play a lot (streamers and hard grinders) can still experiment if they do get bored. There can be more in-game incentives to trying different champs (i.e. more essence/capsules to get people to unlock more champs so they have more to try :DDD hint hint riottttt)

I've been a big fan of LEC for years now, I'd usually tune in to watch most if not all of the games in a day, this year however, I've been so bored with it, because there's no flavor, it's always: K'sante top, Zeri Aphelios bot, with Yuumi and Milio, if they're not banned otherwise falling back to Rakan or some other "second tier" support and then we have Vi in summer, 28 out of 30 games banned, 2 games played, 0 wins, why is this champion pick or ban again? like there's just so little flavor in both top and bottom, and mid has only 1 exciting player and he's on a meh team. the champions are boring, the meta is boring, like you can say that the meta is changing constantly but realistically, it's the same champions only and then getting a new flavor of the month once in a while, I hate it.

On this same note, eventually riot will have to think about more ban options than one per player. There are so many champs, that you cannot reasonably ban the champs you can counter. On top of that there is cross banning, in other words some champs are so busted both teams ban it resulting in, essentially, a wasted ban. I do think 20 bans is too much, so maybe 7 each team with 2 voted on, plus no overlapping. I don't think it will ever happen, and honestly I would rather just get rid of bans all together. Removing, on average, 7 champs from a pool of 160+ champs is negligible in the grand scheme of things. To some this feel impactful, but you don't have one counter you have MANY counters. No champ only has one, and you only think one champ counters you because it is a counter and the people you play against with it are probably maining it. This doesn't mean another champ that counters you ALSO isn't a problem in the hands of a person who mains it. This is why banning before meant something, now it is less so. Riot will not do this, and even has been asked about it and said they would most likely never increase the ban number. They could be at 300 champs (give it 12 years and it will almost be there) and results in less than .5% of the roster is banned (it is roughly. 03% banned if all 10 are different.

These problems are why I tell people to play aram. It forces you to experience an off meta characters kit and potentially realise you really enjoy it. My wife only played ADC until I dragged her into Aram, where she discovered she REALLY enjoys playing tanks and divers.

I've honestly never noticed this occurence. Mostly because it isn't really a thing.... Best example is the recent rumble changes (which are pretty much a big buff). Chances are he won't be nerfed until he becomes a problem. So this occurence is really an occurence only because people pay attention to the champions that get nerfed, which in turn means there ISNT an issue. There are patches where certain champions get 55% winrate simply because the meta turned to be in their favor, and there are patches where even if a champion got buffed, their winrate actually drops simply because the meta currently ISNT in their favour. I believe this is what drives riot to make seemingly random changes, that is to say, riot WANTS a different meta every few patches, and for the last 2 years, they've been achieving that exact goal (even if we, the players, really hate some of them)

So why can't Riot and the players meet halfway and work toward a steady increase in time between patches? Start with every 3 weeks for one season (say, Spring 2024 to MSI), then to 1 month (Summer to Worlds), then 2 months, then to whatever amount of months is the goal. That's small enough increments that it shouldn't upset the majority of the playerbase, and is rolled out over enough time for players to get used enough to it that the next increase in time won't feel so jarring.

There's another issue... Riot rolls out changes when they're scheduled, not when they're needed. If a new champ is broken, or a recent buff rocketed a champ's performance... You'll need to wait exactly the same time as when you do for a routine meta shake up.... That's just impractical

big issue with your way of thinking, they do it sometimes and somehow everyone complains. A big example was when malphite was meta, he still sucked against sylas, rumble and most tanks, he was very easy to counter but players didn't want to adapt in like 3 patches so they "had" to nerf him. League is not dota and it's not smash, their playerbase is different too. Now, for pro play that could be an arguments, where riot doesn't balance for pro and it changes naturally, the thing is that it's will probably get stale for months until something actually happens

pick the inoffensive mid-tier, if you pick a top tier, they will get nerf the next patch and become unplayable. if you pick a bottom tier they will get buff then get nerf, that mean you get 2 patches. The inoffensive mid-tier will never be touch.

the meta will always exist, aint no escapin it. my major issue with riot is the massive swings and overcorrections changed prowlers to nullify a very toxic meta? buff those champs that abused it and overbuff duskblade(imo the missing health damage was a great change for DB but overdid it with untargetability) adc item changes and tweaks? buff yasuo and yone (for some reason, still scratching my head on that one) i think once a month patches would be good

Been enjoying Janna a TON for a month or so now. Shelving her because, she's to good with moonstone right now and that means she probably going to get smacked. She'll be fine, she's Janna, her kit keeps her somewhat relevant at all times, but just feeling nerfs always sucks, even when they're fair.

They just want to give themselves an infinite job. They have no goal beyond shaking things up until the end of time. So for the "balance" patches, balance is not the goal. Change is. A pretty stupid philosophy which they somehow believe they HAVE to stick to

When league of legends is "figured out" the game is so horrible to play. Frequent changes also reward the active players, which as league is free and skin purchases are optional, riot need people to spend more time in the game to increase the odds of people buying things. Imagine if for 2 months certain statikk shiv mages and khazix, kindred, reksai, were still the best things to play. It would be horrible for everyone else who doesn't play those champions, and then should you even start? It's going to be nerfed.

And then there is also the "profitable" aspect of league, you bet that ballance can also be influenced by popullarity of that champion and thus by how many skins the given champ has. Why would they do anything with lux when its a popullar champs that has tons of skins. Sometimes i feel like they make new champs for this same reason, a lot of people would agree that reworking old champs would be 100times better than releasing a new one every single week.

My main problem with this whole thing is that we will never get to see the true meta of any given patch. Even in proplay where they are stuck with a single patch for more time their meta is not really optimal. It's a shame but we'll never get to see League really pushed to it's full potential. Also this is unrelated but I wonder why Riot hasn't partnered with DeepMind to develop a league AI just like they did wth Dota2, I really want to know what it would consider optimal play

I think they should stop patching the game (for the sake of change, just balance it once and be done) and implement a champion rotation, like a card game standard. That way it will stay fresh. This whole 200 champions, constant buffs and nerfs, it sucks.