Greetings! Today I've got a short article for you, but one that may yield some insight into League's design principles and give you some food for thought. Without further ado, let's jump right into it.

Riot assigns difficulty ratings to every champion in the game - these ratings can be viewed on each champion's personal page in the game client, or online at websites like leagueoflegends.wikia.com. In blunt terms, the purple bars signifying the champion's difficulty are somewhat arbitrary - but Riot has done a great job in using this rating system to designate uniqueness and the presence of steeper learning curves for use of the general player base. Champions that have intricate mechanical demands, unique or unusual ability effects, or non-intuitive play patterns all are more likely to receive a higher difficulty rating.

The biggest takeaway from this article is that the difficulty rating does not indicate strength! That's right, Riot has intended that champion difficulty should not be correlated with power level - otherwise the only champions that would see professional play are the most difficult ones, as pros would invest the time into mastering the more difficult (more powerful) heroes, and leave the 'easier' (weaker) choices by the wayside.

Over the years that I've played League of Legends, I've come to the conclusion that rather than power, a higher difficulty correlates with higher flexibility in a given champion's kit (and often greater mechanical demands on the player). Broadly, flexibility is the ability to perform at an-above average level in a diverse array of situations; In practice, flexibility often manifests as mobility options (engage/disengage tools) and skills that provide ostensible 'outplay' potential. However, while flexibility itself is a certain type of strength, it does not determine how strong a champion is.

Xin Zhao's stats on his in-client profile. A rather low difficulty rating...but the rating can be deceiving; Xin's decision-making requirements are not easy!

More concretely, a champion can be inflexible and still be strong - this is most often the case when that champion performs so well (and often so reliably well) in a particular situation that weaknesses in other situations can be overlooked (perhaps because circumstances can be manipulated to set up the desired 'strong' situation often). My favorite example of this dynamic lies in Xin Zhao's play pattern. Xin Zhao can only go in one direction - into the fight! He has little to no disengage potential after he dives onto his target, so as a Xin Zhao player, you must be decisive in your choices as there's often no looking back! But once you are into the thick of things, Xin Zhao performs his role so well (single target damage/dueling/CC) and so reliably that he can sometimes seem overpowered. There's very little room to outplay a Xin that just jumps on you with a targeted dash!

So, we can see that linear champions (that do one thing particularly well) can also be quite strong. Xin Zhao's champion difficulty rating is low, but there have been periods in the game's history where he was highly picked and scary to play against (these kinds of champions can, on occasion, be difficult to balance, but that's another discussion entirely!). Coming back to where we started, Riot is striving to keep all champions close in power level where possible, each fulfilling their own niche. From a design perspective, adding difficulty to a champion (i.e. more complex mechanics, flexibility, different types of tools and options in a kit) where needed can help create niches for each character - we can think of it as a game design tool.

Yasuo's stats on his in-client character profile are typical of high-skill cap, flexible champions. Flexibility, to me, is often reflected in the difficulty rating.

So, I hope champion difficulty ratings/the purple bars are clearer now for you! The takeaway from this primer is that champion difficulty does not indicate strength, but more often indicates flexibility, the availability of multiple options, and a higher floor in terms of mechanical requirements. Finally, a lower difficulty rating may not even mean that a champion is easier to play...the decision making required for some of the 'linear' champions can be quite intensive and even game-deciding! Returning to our Xin Zhao example, knowing when to dive in and when to hold back is a far more serious decision than whether to dive in as Leblanc, who has a clean escape and can blink away if things are looking dicey. Give the champions that look interesting to you a try! Don't be intimidated or put off by difficulty ratings; find what fits your playstyle, practice, and reap the rewards.

That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed the article. If you'd like to discuss anything League, have comments/feedback on this article, or just want to say hi, feel free to tweet me @k0nduit (with a zero instead of an 'o') and I'll get back to you.

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