I have a legitimate question about your fundamental nerf philosophies.

How do you prioritize which aspects of a Kit get nerfed. AP Rengar used to be legitimate, for example, but now is completely non-functional being slowly less and less fundamental. Do you just target leverage points that can have the largest change in gameplay with the smallest numbers changes?

I would contend that you lose out on alot of interesting builds because you seek to balance champions holistically rather than the implications of each ability separately. One approach to bringing Rengar in-line would be to ensure that each ability actually has a desired niche. Right now they might have a situational niche tactically, but they are not very defining strategically. Every ability reduces cooldown at the same rate per rank, and the Empowering bonus is mostly consistent between all ability ranks.

I am not going to get into details here, because details can detract from the larger point. My point is that wouldn't focusing on differentiating abilities in your nerfs make it easier to target them without affecting alternate playstyles?

Very interesting thread to read.



I'm curious how you feel about Riven?
She's a strong top laner, there is no doubt. But she lacks any sort of competitive showing. I mean she has super escape ability, but she is similar to lee (in terms of assassin kind of nature and the mobility) while lacking the playmaking ability I'd say? Do you think she is in a good position, at least solo queue-wise? I doubt her mechanics will allow for much competitive play (it's either win lane or become worthless generally) however, would there by any change to that?


How about Shaco?
He is clearly a very strong champion, are you happy with how he is though?
He can easily pubstomp, but is actually surprisingly strong in high ELO (~55% in plat) so he has potential. However he has a hard role in team fights, he is insanely squishy so must rely on stealth mechanics and assassinating the ADC/APC and suiciding pretty much.

I should say that i find Darius as one of the MOST OP champs in game. Darius is actually fine, yes, but his ult is all wrong, it's over powered. This is why Darius always get banned from Drafted and Ranked games. Also, everytime i play a random match, he's always there, and he always gets a high score. Riot don't you think you must do something with this? so people can use him in drafted games and also stop spamming him in random that much? i just want the game to be balanced. Thanks !