This is a follow up article to another one written by myself on the changing nature of League of Legends game balance that can be found here.

In short, the previous article outlines a theory on why Riot Games has changed the game of League of Legends so much over the years, under the guise of game balance. The reason is that they do this in order to keep the game feeling new and exciting. But, there is also another aspect of balance that needs to be brought up, and that is the frequency with which the game changes. There is a time and a place for drastic changes to the game, especially when they are absolutely necessary to maintain a healthy and competitive game. The problem is that when these changes, whether they be changes to the game as a whole or champion specific, are made so frequently, they have unintended effects.

Change By Force

As of now, Riot changes its game on a weekly or biweekly basis. The upside to this is that gameplay bugs are constantly being fixed and the game is being updated visually on a regular basis. The downside is that it often does not give both the everyday and professional player time to develop counter strategies to the dominant champions and strategies at the time. Instead of allowing the game to naturally evolve, Riot forcibly changes the game without giving players the chance to find counters. That is not to say that balance changes are never needed, as there are some cases where a strategy or champion is so powerful it shuts down all other options unless banned out. The problem lies in identifying when this is the case.

There have been a few recent examples that can be highlighted to make this point. Kassadin was a very common pick in certain regions because of his safe laning phase after level 6 and his late game mobility and damage. But, that does not mean he was without weaknesses, one of them being the fact that he is extremely weak in lane swap scenarios and is even weaker than other champions when denied gold and experience. To make it even worse, Kassadin rarely wants to join team fights before his Zhonya's Hourglass due to how fast he can be locked down and blown up without it. Despite his late game strength, he has glaring weaknesses that can be exploited at specific points in the game. Kassadin had already been nerfed substantially in prior patches, even as recent as 5.3, only to be nerfed two weeks later. This was despite his less than stellar competitive win-loss record in Korea.

"Balance above all el-- no wait Riot....please...NOT LIKE THIS!"

Internal vs External Influence

This brings up another problem in Riot's balance philosophy, and that is the way in which it is almost always reactive to what is going on in the competitive scene. Veigar has been unchanged for years and his ability, Event Horizon, has always been a very powerful spell in its own right. Yet, two weeks after GorillA of the GE Tigers debut it in Champions Korea, Riot rolls out a patch removing the ability to instantly stun someone with Event Horizon. To be fair to Riot though, they were planning to change Veigar's kit regardless of whether or not they saw the power of Veigar's stun in competitive play, and I will give them the benefit of the doubt that it lined up with Veigar's rework after the removal of Deathfire Grasp. I can argue against that but I will resist for the sake of focusing on my main point.

"I will swallow your souuuuuuuuul!"

Regardless of whether or not the timing of the nerf was a coincidence or not, the problem still exists where Riot consistently jumps the gun on changes without giving players the chance to figure things out for themselves. It has gotten so bad that players now expect champions that they don't know how to counter, simply because it is a new concept to them, to be nerfed. The same can be said about champions that are new to the game. Whenever a new champion is released, the League of Legends community calls them “trash” or “useless” within a few days of release, unless they are painfully easy to play. They do this without even giving the champion a reasonable chance when it is obvious they just have not built up enough experience. As a result of this “popular” opinion, Riot reactively buffs said champion. It is comparable to giving candy to a child every time he or she complains; it encourages them to keep doing it and thus getting more candy. Not only is this a problem because it creates a bad precedent to follow in the future, but it also creates imbalances as a result when the original purpose was to remove such imbalances.

The Long Haul

These problems can be avoided relatively easily by simply giving your players more time to solve certain problems. Do not default to treating your players as children, because as history has shown, if there is a solution to a problem, people will find it. If it turns out after a month that players simply can not find a solution, then make changes where necessary. As of now, players complain because they assume that Riot will eventually nerf said strong champions and strategies, and because of this assumption, they wait for the changes to be made instead of being creative and finding their own solution. Again, that is not to say that you as a company should never step in and make changes to your game to guide it in a healthy direction, but give the game more time to naturally evolve and your players more time to work out their own strategies. This will also give you more time to identify the true problems and get them right the first time instead of overshooting like has happened on many occasions in the past.

I find it encouraging that Riot has addressed issues similar to this in their recent Patch Rundown shown below. They see that there is a struggle between buffing or nerfing a champion little by little or having one huge buff or nerf. While this does touch on the subject of which method is better, it does not completely address the underlying issue. I believe that regardless of either of these methods, Riot does not allow enough time even in between these small buffs or nerfs for players to try things out. Examples of this include Ahri in recent times with the consistent buffs she has received this season. First it was the nerf to Athene's Unholy Grail that buffed all burst mages, then the Q AP ratio buff, and now the huge buffs to her kit after the removal of Deathfire Grasp.

What is this!? Riot actually having a sincere discussion!?

On the flip side, they hammered away at champions like Elise and Evelyn last season until they were some of the worst champions in the game. I believe that part of the problem is the culture, so to speak, of the League of Legends community as a whole. A large majority of people are not willing to experiment with different champions, builds, or strategies simply because they do not see them executed in professional play and therefore, believe them to be bad. There is one of two things that can be going on: either Riot knows that these said champions no longer need more nerfing or buffing to be in a balanced state but they do so to change the minds of players and provide diversity. The second, and more likely possibility is that they actually buy into this group mentality of this champion is still too strong or weak and believe they are doing the right thing when they over nerf and over buff champions and strategies. When all is said an done, champions get buffed to become extremely strong, and nerfed when they become too powerful only to be reworked or buffed the next time. It is a very chaotic way of going about game balance and though League of Legends is more balanced and interesting now than it was before, it can do with some tweaking of the method.

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