Some new balance changes have arrived, and as usual I'll give them the old analysis once over.
The changes to Akali will have a semi-significant impact on her laning. While technically speaking she'll do more damage part 300 Ability Power, most games are decided before Akali could reasonably acquire that much power. You basically need a 3-4 item build finished before you cross that threshold.
Corki hasn't seen much play as of late. These changes help him a little, as missiles have been a limiting factor for him for some time. His lack of play is really an oddity in any case, so if you were on the rocks about playing him before now is as good a time as ever to pick him up.
Karma sees a few adjustments to her abilities. These are almost entirely quality of life buffs. Beyond making her Mantra easier to access through buffs to her passive and its activation, her most important change is to her Focused Resolve. Now that using Mantra charges automatically gives the 60% speed boost she no longer has any abilities who gain Mantra benefits for being skilled up.
The cast range reductions on Kayle's abilities are steep. Dropping her utility to 900 range forces her to stay much closer to a fight in order to ensure she can save or aid allies in need. However, this primarily affects Support Kayle, as any other form of Kayle is already going to be in the thick of it or near a needy ally.
Lux will no longer be able to instantly clear a creep wave every 24 seconds. Instead, she'll be able to clear a creep wave every 30 seconds. Ultimately (har har) she hasn't been significantly hurt, save for those foolish enough to consistently overextend while laning.
Morgana, Nami, Nautilus, and Nunu all got minor tweaks to make them more competitive. I'm of the opinion that it's largely unnecessary in Nami's case. Nami is good, but before anyone could get used to her Thresh (who is clearly amazing) arrived. Morgana and Nautilus' changes are mostly friendly bumps to remind you these champions exist and are good. Nunu, however, is still on the edge of competitiveness.
Quinn had a few significant playability issues which have now been addressed. Valor's mark timing was such that it was extremely common that you would start to attack a target, and before you finished Valor would have started to mark it. However, because your attack was in the air before he finished marking you'd fail to get the proc, resulting in no benefits and a 10 second wait for the next mark. This is a little more rare now, and along with her Vault change should improve her popularity slightly.
Volibear got a slight nerf. He's still extremely strong, especially when ganking, so don't freak out if you love jungling as a bear.
Jungling is now different, thanks to changes to the items which build out of Spirit Stone. They now all cost 2000 gold. In order to effect this change, Spirit of the Elder Lizard received a slight nerf, and Spirit of the Ancient Golem traded its Armor for Cooldown Reduction, with a slight change in recipe. This will incidentally also make it easier for jungle tanks to get the Cooldown Reduction they need to spam their utility.
Overall there were any crippling nerfs or incredible buffs, nor was there anything out of the ordinary. However, there were significantly more buffs and quality of life changes than nerfs this patch, which reverses the previous, concerning trend where almost everything was a nerf. Good show.
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Thought: Syndra and Malzahar
Yesterday I talked about winrates and how they do not necessarily indicate a champion is overpowered or underpowered. While that is correct, large deviations from the average typically indicate a problem.
Today Syndra's winrate has risen to 30%, up from 25%. This is 20% below the average. To an extent one expects technically challenging champions to start out below-average and work their way upwards. However, even Rengar had a 37% winrate at worst, and that included a bugged, unreliable snare. You could argue Syndra is more technical than Rengar, but to that large an extent? Not likely.
There isn't one problem which defines Syndra, but a plethora of small issues. Aiming her E to push her spheres into targets isn't easy, and is a critical skill for asserting lane control and sieging turrets. The substantial delay between the command to throw a sphere or minion to a location and its arrival is also an issue. Her mana costs across the board are hefty, with players claiming even Chalice is insufficient to solve her mana problems. To cap it off the range on Syndra's ultimate is dramatically shorter than all of her other abilities, a mismatch which cripples her. Taken all together, Syndra is a difficult champion to play for very little reward (aside from buff grabbing hijinks).
Yet, if LolKing or Elobuff's data went back two years one could find a champion who was even worse than Syndra. Malzahar, everyone's favorite prophet of doom, had the most underwhelming skillset of any champion ever launched.
The issues affecting Malzahar were many. His Voidlings moved significantly slower and attacked whatever they pleased, which was rarely anything useful. His mana costs were higher, making him even more reliant on his Malefic Visions to maintain his mana pool. His ultimate's range was pathetic, an amazingly bad 475. To add insult to injury his ultimate's duration, and by proxy damage, were shortened by Mercury's Treads and completely countered by Cleanse. Malzahar was utterly horrible.
Malzahar was so bad that in the patches that followed he received a total of fifteen buffs, with one small nerf reducing the effect of a previous buff. It was half a year after those buffs, and a substantial shift in the meta, that he saw any further changes. Since then he's received as many buffs as he has nerfs, making it clear just how underpowered he was initially.
Syndra reminds me of Malzahar because her issues are similar in nature, though not as severe. I expect to see changes to the responsiveness of her abilities, the range of her ultimate, and her mana costs in the near future, mirroring many of Malzahar's early buffs. She's also very fun despite her issues, which was the case for Malzahar as well.
Today Syndra's winrate has risen to 30%, up from 25%. This is 20% below the average. To an extent one expects technically challenging champions to start out below-average and work their way upwards. However, even Rengar had a 37% winrate at worst, and that included a bugged, unreliable snare. You could argue Syndra is more technical than Rengar, but to that large an extent? Not likely.
There isn't one problem which defines Syndra, but a plethora of small issues. Aiming her E to push her spheres into targets isn't easy, and is a critical skill for asserting lane control and sieging turrets. The substantial delay between the command to throw a sphere or minion to a location and its arrival is also an issue. Her mana costs across the board are hefty, with players claiming even Chalice is insufficient to solve her mana problems. To cap it off the range on Syndra's ultimate is dramatically shorter than all of her other abilities, a mismatch which cripples her. Taken all together, Syndra is a difficult champion to play for very little reward (aside from buff grabbing hijinks).
Yet, if LolKing or Elobuff's data went back two years one could find a champion who was even worse than Syndra. Malzahar, everyone's favorite prophet of doom, had the most underwhelming skillset of any champion ever launched.
The issues affecting Malzahar were many. His Voidlings moved significantly slower and attacked whatever they pleased, which was rarely anything useful. His mana costs were higher, making him even more reliant on his Malefic Visions to maintain his mana pool. His ultimate's range was pathetic, an amazingly bad 475. To add insult to injury his ultimate's duration, and by proxy damage, were shortened by Mercury's Treads and completely countered by Cleanse. Malzahar was utterly horrible.
Malzahar was so bad that in the patches that followed he received a total of fifteen buffs, with one small nerf reducing the effect of a previous buff. It was half a year after those buffs, and a substantial shift in the meta, that he saw any further changes. Since then he's received as many buffs as he has nerfs, making it clear just how underpowered he was initially.
Syndra reminds me of Malzahar because her issues are similar in nature, though not as severe. I expect to see changes to the responsiveness of her abilities, the range of her ultimate, and her mana costs in the near future, mirroring many of Malzahar's early buffs. She's also very fun despite her issues, which was the case for Malzahar as well.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Thought: Winrates and Balance
It's becoming extremely popular to judge the value of a champion by their winrates (as recorded by LolKing or Elobuff). Champions with winrates below 50% are judged to be underpowered, while those above must be overpowered. This idea seems logical enough, but it has a few flaws.
The primary problem is that the League of Legends community is both stubborn and fickle. The community is quick to label flavor of the month champions as overpowered, underplayed champions as underpowered, and throws new champions into either category based on initial impressions alone. It generally takes months for the community to changes its mind, and even then the process is slow and begrudging. Only in extreme cases, such as the abusive Nunu top build pioneered by SmashGizmo, is there a sudden flip in perceptions.
As a result, champions or meta-shifts that might counter those with high winrates often go unnoticed. When Nautilus was released he was considered a subpar jungler, unable to keep up with Shyvana, Mundo, and Udyr, the titans of farming. It took three months for him to slowly shift from being underpowered and ignored to a first-ban meta-breaking ganking machine. Nautilus almost single-handedly shifted the jungle meta toward tanky, gank-heavy initiators, where it has remained ever since.
Before Nautilus everyone had simply assumed that Shyvana, Mundo, and Udyr were overpowered farmers with no counters. While LolKing and Elobuff weren't around in those days, it's very likely we would have seen all three with above-average winrates. Today, long after Nautilus received nerfs and faded from the spotlight, those three champions still sport below-average winrates. Defeating them only required a simple shift in community awareness and the meta.
This sort of obliviousness is pervasive, and means we cannot take winrates at face value. There is a correlation between winrates and a champion's strength, but that isn't the only possible cause. It is necessary to account for the community's blindspot and carefully the role the meta, typical champion picks, and playstyles play in determining a champion's strength. Winrates, like all data, are at their most useful when appraised carefully.
The primary problem is that the League of Legends community is both stubborn and fickle. The community is quick to label flavor of the month champions as overpowered, underplayed champions as underpowered, and throws new champions into either category based on initial impressions alone. It generally takes months for the community to changes its mind, and even then the process is slow and begrudging. Only in extreme cases, such as the abusive Nunu top build pioneered by SmashGizmo, is there a sudden flip in perceptions.
As a result, champions or meta-shifts that might counter those with high winrates often go unnoticed. When Nautilus was released he was considered a subpar jungler, unable to keep up with Shyvana, Mundo, and Udyr, the titans of farming. It took three months for him to slowly shift from being underpowered and ignored to a first-ban meta-breaking ganking machine. Nautilus almost single-handedly shifted the jungle meta toward tanky, gank-heavy initiators, where it has remained ever since.
Before Nautilus everyone had simply assumed that Shyvana, Mundo, and Udyr were overpowered farmers with no counters. While LolKing and Elobuff weren't around in those days, it's very likely we would have seen all three with above-average winrates. Today, long after Nautilus received nerfs and faded from the spotlight, those three champions still sport below-average winrates. Defeating them only required a simple shift in community awareness and the meta.
This sort of obliviousness is pervasive, and means we cannot take winrates at face value. There is a correlation between winrates and a champion's strength, but that isn't the only possible cause. It is necessary to account for the community's blindspot and carefully the role the meta, typical champion picks, and playstyles play in determining a champion's strength. Winrates, like all data, are at their most useful when appraised carefully.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Thought: Clarity
Clarity is the ultimate trap, the honeypot to which all inexperienced summoners are drawn. There is no role for which this spell is a good option. It isn't even close, Clarity is by far the worst summoner spell in the game.
The problem with Clarity is that additional mana is not as effective a tool for winning lanes or games as other mechanics. An AP mid champion with Blue buff, which returns over five times Clarity's mana and gives 20% CDR, can still lose a fight or the lane if they're down one summoner spell. Taking Clarity is a sure way to put yourself at a disadvantage; it's essentially the same as sacrificing a summoner spell for an inferior version of Blue buff.
Clarity is in many ways the last vestigial remnant of the days before the mastery remake. The other pariah summoner spells, Fortify and Rally, have been removed and replaced. Clarity alone remains an afterthought, largely undisturbed by otherwise sweeping changes. Of all the current summoner spells Clarity is ripe for a remake.
To brainstorm, a process where any and all ideas should be entertained, here are a few suggestions:
Obviously each of these ideas has a host of problems. The first potentially reduces the value of counter-jungling by making the Ancient Golem camp less important. The second is simply asking for a return to double-WotA shenanigans. The third will hard counter certain burst champions (e.g. Leblanc, Veigar). However, this is brainstorming; never let practicality get in the way of ideas when your goal is to come up with as many ideas as possible.
I highly doubt anything in my bulleted list will ever be implemented, but the bottom line is Clarity needs to be replaced. It is a terrible summoner spell, useful only in ARAM/ARAB games for laughs, as a tool for trolling, or for low-level summoners who simply don't have other options.
The problem with Clarity is that additional mana is not as effective a tool for winning lanes or games as other mechanics. An AP mid champion with Blue buff, which returns over five times Clarity's mana and gives 20% CDR, can still lose a fight or the lane if they're down one summoner spell. Taking Clarity is a sure way to put yourself at a disadvantage; it's essentially the same as sacrificing a summoner spell for an inferior version of Blue buff.
Clarity is in many ways the last vestigial remnant of the days before the mastery remake. The other pariah summoner spells, Fortify and Rally, have been removed and replaced. Clarity alone remains an afterthought, largely undisturbed by otherwise sweeping changes. Of all the current summoner spells Clarity is ripe for a remake.
To brainstorm, a process where any and all ideas should be entertained, here are a few suggestions:
- Make Clarity grant blue buff instead of provide an instant mana return. Possibly make it ally-targetable.
- Make Clarity temporarily apply a Spell Vamp buff to affected targets.
- Make Clarity apply the Zhonya's untargetable effect.
Obviously each of these ideas has a host of problems. The first potentially reduces the value of counter-jungling by making the Ancient Golem camp less important. The second is simply asking for a return to double-WotA shenanigans. The third will hard counter certain burst champions (e.g. Leblanc, Veigar). However, this is brainstorming; never let practicality get in the way of ideas when your goal is to come up with as many ideas as possible.
I highly doubt anything in my bulleted list will ever be implemented, but the bottom line is Clarity needs to be replaced. It is a terrible summoner spell, useful only in ARAM/ARAB games for laughs, as a tool for trolling, or for low-level summoners who simply don't have other options.
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