Originally Posted by BeeGod

Not just that. We can compare to other MOBAs, like Dota2. I'm not saying one or other is better, but more balanced, and LoL is.

On Dota, you always have that super-hyper-carry that can, in fact, 1v5 the other team. On LoL you will NEVER be able to do that, you need more teamwork. This is what balance does too, and that's why I like to play this game.

Originally Posted by PSI Starstorm

What do hypercarries have to do with balance?
Hypercarries are balanced in dota.

Originally Posted by AlphariusRising

For all the QQ and hate league's balance receives, especially recently with the big changes to many aspects of balance in the pre-S3 patches, I think the balance team does a good job.

There is currently only one champion with a win rate more than 10% away from 50%, and that is Karma.

There are 21 champions with a greater than 5% variation from 50%.
That leaves 88 champions that are within 5% of an ideal win rate.

Now, win rate is not by any means the only indicator of balance.
But of the 110 champions in the league, which ones are almost universally agreed upon to be overpowered?
Well, we can gauge community dislike of a champion by ban rate.
Only 4 have a ban rate about 50%
Only 7 have above 40%
"But there are only 6 bans."

Alright, what about champions the community QQs about?
Darius
Katarina
Blitzcrank.
Evelynn
Teemo

There are the only 5 champions that consistently get QQ threads on the forums which get upvoted. (Recently all but Blitz have fallen off)
Malphite, Lee Sin, Twisted Fate, Even Amumu with his 66% ban rate, the part of the league community that cares enough to follow the forums do not dislike these champions enough to QQ about their balance.

Even if we take every champion with a >10% Ban rate, and every champion the community QQs about, you get 15 champions that the community is displeased with as far as thinking they're OP or annoying goes

Then there's the champions that the community thinks are underpowered.
Karma
Heimerdinger
Urgot
Trondomore
Sion

Recently, Yi, Nasus, and Trundle have been taken off the list or something. Very few threads about them (except asking for Trundle skins) and they saw tourney play. Could they be stronger? Yeah, but they're not troll picks. (except trundle)

That's 20 champions that the community thinks are bad as far as balance goes.
If you count AD Yi it's 21.
That's 88-89 champions that the community seems to be fine with as far as balance goes.

And that is not an easy feat.

Could it be better?
Yes. Which is why Riot continues to make balance changes with every patch, and is currently doing a Karma rework.

So yeah, while you may see a lot of threads whining about imbalance, remember.

There's 88 champions that you never hear anything about. Because they're in a good place. They could be in a better place by a few % points, but if you want to play them, you are going to have a good champion and fun games.

Keep up the good work, Riot balance team.

Originally Posted by Melancholy Exile

This was my thought exactly.

DotA is also balanced, it just has a different design paradigm to LoL.

Originally Posted by LamboPeter

I'm glad about the balance, too.

Think about it, they have like 100 champions. You nerf/buff an item, or a champion, and that could push a ton of different things our of alignment.

The people who QQ about one champion or about the meta clearly don't understand what riot has to go through.

Originally Posted by TheFailBus

Icefrog takes an easier approach, using hard counters to things. When the meta got stale because wards and supports made it too easy for farm champions to just CS to victory, he added in the invis potion thing, which is a heavy counter to teams like that. When BKB became the go-to item for any carry because of it's ability to ignore spells, he added a late game item that could stun through it.

It's a fair enough way of balancing, but it runs into issues from bloating (lots and lots of extra items or champs just as counters to other items/champs), power creep and rock-paper-scissors gameplay ("you tried to do this, but I bought this counter, but you bought this counter to my counter" etc.). LoL's method is more soft-counter focused, where things will give you advantages but not be almost impossible to get over, and doesn't add items as specific meta-breaking tools.

No disrespect to Icefrog at all, he balanced the father of MOBA's pretty much by himself for many years, but I think Riot's approach is more professional and makes the game more accessible to people who aren't obsessed with complexity for the sake of it.