Originally posted on the LoL boards. But I might as well post this here.
This is just a thought about how Riot does some of its Balance Changes. This isn't an angry rant or anything, I want to be thoughtful and hopefully interesting, I am however, frustrated with some things that Riot does.
Recently, I read that Phreak or another one of the other Red Posters on these boards said that Nunu was getting nerfed. Thinking about it, this makes 100% sense and I will not complain if Nunu gets nerfed, despite being a jungler and having greatly enjoyed Nunu.
However, let's think about this. Last year at WCG was when I realized that Jungling was really important. During the NA semi-finals Epik Gaming ran jungle Nunu and I was surprised because I thought Nunu sucked. Now, EG lost that series and no one really jungled with Nunu for a long time because “nunu sucks.” (I think one of the Asian teams, China hero, IIRC, did run Jungle Nunu at WCG proper, but nobody really took notice). It took a while, until counter-jungling became popular and properly understood, for Nunu to really gain dominance. Before that, Warwick, Trundle, Olaf and Amumu were all higher priority picks in the jungle. But then suddenly, TSM started playing him and people began to actually BAN nunu against this team. Sure, at the time TSM wasn't nearly as good as they are now, but I remember several games where Nunu was banned just as TSM began their journey to being what they are now, probably the best team in North America (and let's be honest: the odd one is probably the best jungler in the game). However, nobody really cared. They just let Nunu be strong and went on with it.
However, at the Dreamhack qualifiers and now at Dreamhack proper, as far as I can tell, there have only been five jungling champions: Warwick, Jarvan, Amumu, Nunu and Nocturne. Nocturne has already been nerfed heavily, Warwick is balanced for certain, Jarvan has been constantly declared OP since his release and really does need to be nerfed in some regards, Amumu, while strong, has his weaknesses in the jungle, primarily due to him getting very low and being countered easily enough by strong junglers. However, this isn't about them, this is about Nunu.
Riot has finally decided that Nunu, now that he is, apparently, the #1 contested jungle pick in the game, that he is too strong of a jungler. I understand. His slow is insane, his ability to counterjungle is unrivaled. Sure, he sucks late game and basically turns into a buff/aura bot like most supports, but his early game is unrivaled.
Now, in the meantime, Riot has buffed Alistair then nerfed him. This is despite the fact that he recently reentered the game as a 100% viable support/tank. Meanwhile, riot created the monster that is currently Annie. Meanwhile Riot released Jarvan and the entire community pretty much said, “Wtf was riot smoking?!” (Not that I'm complaining about Jarvan, because, hey, I like having OP champions on my team :D). No offense to Riot, but it seems to me that often times you guys don't balance your champions properly and then let a select few champions such as Vlad and Nunu remain in the game at what is apparently an “OP” stage for much longer than they should. Vlad is OP and everyone knows it. Vlad has been OP since his release despite being nerfed to hell, and his story is rather different than Nunu. But nonetheless, Nunu is similar in that his has been essentially unchanged in role and power since his release, yet, suddenly, a shift in meta and a shift in picking priority makes him “OP.”
I think what I'm trying to say is that I'm frustrated with Riot's Design team and their efforts at balancing this game. I LOVE League of Legends. I love this game so much you wouldn't believe. But I am constantly frustrated at Riot's heavy-handed and seemingly stupid approach to balance. Often times balance changes are made that do little to change the game (Vayne's recent nerfs, Alistairs nerfs after his remake). Often times attempts to “balance” champions instead make them completely useless (Galio, Twitch), turning them from fun, interesting picks into heroes that no one seriously plays. I wish that Riot would try harder to balance their champions. I love the new champions that they're releasing and I think Riot has done a great job at creating innovative and interesting champions, the ninjas with energy, morde with his shield, Rumble with Heat, Orianna with her ball, Jarvan's ult is a very well thought of ability, if extremely powerful, but I'm frustrated that these champions often end up being stupidly strong and that Riot compensates by nerfing them to hell and back; how many nerfs did Shen receive? He went from “OP must pick” to “never picked again, ever.” The same with Kennen, the same with Twitch, the same with numerous champions.
I don't know what exactly I want from Riot except maybe for them to think harder about how they design their champions. I'd like a response from Morello (in fact I'd be honored if Morello read this thread and posted), but I don't know exactly what I want. A commitment to quality? An answer as to why Nunu is being nerfed but no one has mentioned Annie or Alistair (who are just as contested picks at high elo right now)? I don't know. I'd like answers.
Final note: yeah, I know, I'm unranked and I suck, but I feel like I can at least observe the meta and understand what's going on. I'm just frustrated, like a lot of player, low, mid and high elo are, at the way that Riot seems to fumble around and say, “lets nerf him!” only to screw things up more, while leaving obviously over powered champions in their stupid states for far too long.
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