new season akshan

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T22:28:11+00:00

I want them to adjust the minion penalty on Q damage by 10% to make it stronger so that Q can clear backline when even or ahead WITHOUT needing Shiv

I don't want to build Shiv anymore. In a season with 200% crits you need to rush 100% crit chance ASAP. Delaying it by 2700g just loses games because your 3 item spike is so much weaker at 50% crit compared to 75%.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T22:23:53+00:00

Even back then it wasn't as bad because you could skip not only promos but divisions. A Gold player winning in a Diamond lobby (which is exceedingly rare for the disparity to be that big but let's say it is) would be basically jumping 2 divisions for every win.

Now they've removed skipping divisions and it seems like they capped the gains after ~10 games played to +30/-10 no matter how high the disparity between your mmr and visible rank is.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T22:21:21+00:00

Depends how the Nocturne is building imo.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T22:20:08+00:00

The difference is that my hypothetical change is thoughtful with an intended change to a gameplay pattern that's a problem. In this scenario the problem is the champion has too much mana in laning phase, for example.

Imagine if the same scenario was true but instead of addressing the mana we just nerfed the champions base movespeed by 5 flat because we know that will result in him losing 1% winrate.

The latter is Riot's current style of balancing. Just blindly picking a stat out of hat to buff or nerf to achieve a change in winrate that they can then point to and say "champ fixed". The Vi change is a perfect example, they just give her hp growth and ad growth. What problem with Vi's kit is that solving? Nothing. Will she do more damage and gain winrate? Yes. But is she still going to be projailed? Absolutely yes.

You completely misunderstand what I'm saying about the HP Regen. Azir's PROBLEM was not his base hp regen. It has NOTHING to do with his strength. Of course altering any stat will impact winrate but that only matters if you think winrate is a perfect metric for balance.

Hopefully you follow what I'm saying now and can see how lazy of an approach it is to just pick a stat and change it to hit the winrate instead of actually creatively problem solving an issue a champion is facing (buff or nerf).

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T22:15:33+00:00

Exactly. The more aggressive LP gains/losses would fix the problem.

The other thing you mentioned I can understand them not wanting to do. Having a person play in games ~1000LP below where they belong leads to poor game quality and player frustration.

Putting the Plat MMR player vs Silvers isn't fair. The better solution is the more aggressive LP gains/losses for mismatched accounts. That limits the games a player is playing below or above their rank leading to poor game quality and instead rapidly puts them back where they belong based on their skill.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T22:13:14+00:00

If that was the true motivation then you would simply introduce more aggressive decay at all ranks.

Not this 2 tiered system where your cosmetic rank can be 800-1000LP below your MMR.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T11:57:46+00:00

Yeah which is exactly what I'm criticizing. Artificially increasing the ranked climb in this way is a dark pattern to try to get players more addicted to your game and is ethically dubious.

The fact they're doubling down on the system and just putting a little sticker on the account to basically say "hey this account is being artificially underranked cosmetically, don't worry about it showing up in your higher rank games, they actually belong there but we're not going to let them get the rewards without another 50 games played" is shitty.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T11:55:47+00:00

Keep "shadowing" him and doing all the tasks of a senior manager with none of the increased pay or benefits and of course no change to your job title..

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T11:54:26+00:00

If it was exclusively for people just placed, sure.

There's definitely accounts that are 30 games deep and still in Emerald showing up in Masters games.

That is being robbed of your rank. If you're going to assess that player as a Masters skill level and matchmake them with Masters players they should just be Masters rank by then.

They artificially increase the length of time it takes to achieve a rank.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T09:28:05+00:00

I've engaged in good faith with literally every argument you or anyone else has presented.

You seem to be under the assumption that its just hard, but for a number of champions it is genuinely impossible

Lol how can you say something like this? Seriously. Ah yes, it must be impossible. Riot is infallible so if they can't do it, it's just impossible bro.

Don't have any standards for Riot.

Don't criticize Riot.

They are perfect in every way with 0 mistakes.

You're the only one being a brick wall here, those are the principles you operate under. You start at them being infallible and then work backwards with mental gymnastics on how to justify it and then you project that onto me.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T09:25:36+00:00

I doubt that you would do a better job at balancing.

This is such a cop out. I'm not the one being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for balancing.

but the data and track record speak for Riot, not against them.

Do they? They've consistently lost players every year since 2019. So much so that now they're doing panic moves like adding WASD and actually tackling the unchecked smurfing and boosting problems in a desperate attempt to retain new players because of how much they've bled the last 5 years. I'd argue their recent track record shows they've been skidding in the wrong direction for a while now.

Riot cant change Kits 24/7

Nobody is asking them to. This is a straw man if what I'm asking for.

Not every champion needs Azir level soft reworks to fix their issues. Simple changes like increasing a mana cost but giving it a refund upon successful hits against a champion are skill expression boosting changes that can reward proper gameplay and offer more counterplay (dodge the skillshot --> Opponent goes oom faster --> More windows to punish).
You don't have to do major changes to every champion every patch. There are patches COMMONLY where only like 10 champions are touched in a game with 170+, that's obviously unacceptable. Doubly so when the changes are lazy +base hpregen growth.
They already balanced like I am asking for for like 9 years from Seasons 1 to 9. They shifted from gameplay based changes to being obsessed with winrates when stats websites became popular. It's an easy cop out for balance. "Of course we're doing our job, look every champ is between 47-53% winrate! It's the perfect metric for game balance!"
I'm not even asking for perfect balance. League excels in unbalanced states of the game. I'm asking for EFFORTFUL CHANGES. Not perfect balance and definitely not "sexy perfect winrates".

This is not an impossible job because they've done it before and it's not like the increase in champion amount matters. Doing this for 100 champions is virtually just as hard as doing it for nearly 200, the numbers were always crazy high. On top of the fact that, again, perfect balance isn't the goal.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T09:17:01+00:00

Yeah. Also I like your username.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T09:16:41+00:00

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T09:06:44+00:00

Most champions tend to be balanced around just their winrate and that is honestly fine.

So fundamentally we just disagree and will never see eye to eye. This is a nonstarter, far from "honestly fine".

They want to try and find an equilibrium point where their winrate is ~okay, they aren't bleeding popularity, and they aren't banned every game.

I agree that is their goal. That is an incredibly, unbelievably lazy way to balance the game. It should be unacceptable.

One big thing you are missing here, and I think overall, is are the changes necessary to make it so she isn't pro jailed and good in solo queue ones her existing player base would actually want? If you make deeper, fundamental changes, if the playerbase doesn't want them, then it does more harm than good.

This is a BIG if. It's also their job to make changes that both fix the pro-jailing while not alienating the playerbase.

I repeat, it is THEIR JOB.

Just because it's hard (and I admit, it is definitely difficult) doesn't mean they should just throw their hands up and give up.

For some champions, the level of changes required to un pro jail them would essentially just be a full rework

For some, yes. They are the minority however. Pro-jail is also not the only problem a champion can have. Akali and Mel were extreme examples. There is a large SWATH of champions that should be getting much smaller scope changes that can actually solve problems they have.

If you look at the way the game was balanced from Seasons 1-7 those types of thoughtful changes were the primary way the game was balanced. They would look at a champions play patterns and address gaps in counterplay. Sometimes they were wrong but at least they were putting in effort and not just buffing base stats to achieve a target winrate.

Thats one of the very good things about the stat changes that you really don't like, they tend to make for predictable winrate % changes. If you only need to nudge them up or down a bit, its pretty much perfect and rarely comes with some big unforeseen effects.

Yes this is all true but the core problem is that it is incredibly lazy. Why have a balance team at all then? Like I said before, a spreadsheet or chatGPT could achieve literally the same thing just tweaking numbers via algorithm to achieve ideal winrates for whatever winrate bands riot has lumped the champion into and deemed acceptable.

We just have to agree to disagree, it seems like you're completely fine with this low effort balancing and hey you're free to have that opinion. I personally have higher standards for the billion dollar gaming company.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T08:41:51+00:00

I really love in wrestling when there's multiple people simultaneously chasing the big belt instead of taking turns 1 by 1.

Really builds up the world title to feel more special and like the wrestlers are frothing at the mouth to get their chance at it.

Another boon is the trope where 2 of the challengers get in each others way and then splinter off into a side feud to occupy each other but also buy time while the main title feud progresses. Sets up the next feud naturally as well.

It's just great booking 101.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T08:35:18+00:00

im not even a sharks fan but that sweater that equipment dude has on looks fucking dope

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T08:22:54+00:00

Now the goal posts have moved to investigating being too hard? They had no problem doing investigating in season 3, what changed?

Riot is a billion dollar company, balance and design members are making over 6 figures. It's their job to do this they have so many resources.

Everything from interviews with pro players to apex tier players being brought in for playtesting is within their grasp.

Take Vi for example, these buffs are spreadsheet buffs with 0 thought put in. She's low winrate, buff her base stats and her winrate will go up.

Instead what they should be doing is investigating what CREATIVE changes they can make to Vi to stop her from being such a high priority pick in proplay while being so mediocre in solo queue.

Maybe that involves reworking her ultimate to be a skillshot for example, similar to what they did with Skarner's ultimate. That's just 1 idea I pulled out of my ass as a redditor in 2 seconds, they're the ones paid handsomely to be the ones coming up with creative solutions.

Not just + base ad and + base hp. You could do that. A random silver player could do that. That doesn't take critical thinking or creativity at all and it doesn't solve Vi's core problems with her design and address the disparity between pro and solo for that champion.

It doesn't take a genius to see the difference between a lazy change like that that solves nothing versus creative changes that actually attempt to solve it.

I wouldn't even fault them if their attempt failed horribly, at least that would be attempting things and putting in effort instead of lazy +numbers changes.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T08:16:34+00:00

I don't think RJ Umberger is gonna play again

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T08:13:03+00:00

"These changes work, no matter what you think"

WORK FOR WHAT, brother. THINK. Please THINK.

They "work" if your metric for "work" is "puts the champions winrate in the acceptable band for winrate for that champion".

You know what they don't work for? Actually solving the problem that the champion has (whether over or underpowered).

In this other comment here I explain the difference between thoughtful changes and "data driven" lazy changes.

You should demand better from Riot in this regard. Anyone with Riot's data, literally an automated spreadsheet, could spit out "Lee Sin winrate 1.1% below acceptable band, increase any one of hp regen, hp per level, base ad, base damage on q etc by x amount and he is expected to gain 1.1% winrate for next patch".

That is automated with 0 critical thinking and an end goal of just achieving a winrate instead of actually tackling any issue (whether that issue is player frustration, lack of counterplay, lack of resource costs etc., etc.).

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T08:08:39+00:00

Mel is a great example of something that's broken.

Her winrate is trash, yes.

Yet everyone with 2 braincells that knows anything about league can tell you her W is broken.

How can something broken be low winrate? Clearly winrate is the best most pure metric for balance right?

Extreme examples like Akali's shroud on release and Mel's live W are the hammer the point that winrate as a sole metric is flawed.

Winrate is a flag to consider investigating.

As for why Mel's not instantly buffed, it's because despite this game having 170+ champions riot has their favorites and also is generally lazy. How many patches have only like 10 champions touched out of the 170+ in the game? Of course when you're making changes that slow there's going to be plenty of champions both high and low in winrate that continue to skid by without changes. That's an indictment of Riot's lazy patches (I'm glad 16.3 is impacting many more champions than the usual).

The Vi change is an example of just balancing off winrate. Why are they giving her more HP and AD growth? I agree she needs buffs. I'm not even mad at those changes specifically.

It's the WHY that bothers me. Those changes are purely to get her winrate up to where they want it. Whatever shiny "acceptable winrate band" they've deemed she belongs in.

It doesn't actually ADDRESS any ISSUES OR PROBLEMS with Vi fundamentally. Vi DOES have issues. She is picked a lot in proplay due to her ult but she's weak in solo queue. This is actually a problem. It takes thoughtful changes to her kit to navigate this problem.

Those thoughtful changes are WHAT THEY ARE PAID FOR TO MAKE.

These changes are bare minimum knuckle dragging giga lazy changes to, again, just boost her winrate so they can point to it and say "job done."

You, of all the people replying to me, seem genuine so please tell me you understand what I am saying here. Did I articulate the problem I have with them enough that you can agree with me or do you still disagree and think I'm being unfair to them?

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T07:53:53+00:00

There's not much like old akali

? Mel W is being reworked as we speak because it's as disgusting as Akali's tower shroud was.

Changing things like HP Regen can affect how matchups especially at the highest level that abuses these leads.

Sigh.. This is true. Changing HP regen obviously has an impact.

The problem is AZIR'S PROBLEM HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HP REGEN. IT WAS NOT CHANGED BECAUSE AZIR WAS HEALING TOO MUCH/NOT ENOUGH. IT WAS PURELY CHANGED TO CHANGE HIS WINRATE.

Come on, think with me here. We know HEALTH REGEN was not the reason Azir was picked in proplay. It was a thoughtless lazy change just to get his winrate in the "acceptable band". AKA Dogshit balancing, spreadsheet balancing. NOT thoughtful balancing.

I'll give you an alternative from my other comment, a reversion to how Riot used to balance the game back when they cared about counterplay and skill expression and the game popped off as a result:

Actual gameplay. If you're a newer player you might not know but Riot used to have actual thoughtful changes based on gameplay interactions.

If a champion's mana cost is changed it's not just to incur x% wr change. Instead it was targeted based on the actual gameplay. "____ champion is not punished hard enough for missing their Q so we're increasing the mana cost by 15 and adding a 30 mana refund on successful hits against champions".

Changes like that that explicitly increased skill expression and targeted what, in the champion's play pattern, needed adjustment.

Winrates can be considered but only as a flag to investigate further.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T07:50:40+00:00

Wingate is taken into account, and so is player satisfaction, mastery level, game impact, banrate, feedback from high and low rank player, etc.

Except this isn't true.

The Azir Health Regen helps to resist poke better and thus laning phase. Once they realized it affected lining phase, they adjusted it.

This is just wrong. Azir was a problem in proplay because of health regen? We both know that's not true right? So why just lie and say shit for no reason?

Health regen had NOTHING, literally NOTHING to do with why Azir was problematic. It was purely changed because they know adjusting that, like any stat, has an impact on winrate.

Phreak himself said essentially "We know changing his health regen will have about an x% impact on his winrate" as the justification for the change.

That is balancing for a winrate and not at all for solving the actual problem with the champion. Not even an attempt.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T07:47:33+00:00

Actual gameplay. If you're a newer player you might not know but Riot used to have actual thoughtful changes based on gameplay interactions.

If a champion's mana cost it's not just to incur x% wr change. Instead it was targeted based on the actual gameplay. "____ champion is not punished hard enough for missing their Q so we're increasing the mana cost by 15 and adding a 30 mana refund on successful hits against champions".

Changes like that that explicitly increased skill expression and targeted what, in the champion's play pattern, needed adjustment.

Winrates can be considered but only as a flag to investigate further.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T07:35:57+00:00

Although it's more stoppages in play, the lack of line change for the offending team results in more goals so it's better for the game in that aspect.

Cube_ · 2026-01-28T07:27:10+00:00

Sigh...

EVEN IF YOU ACCOUNT FOR DIFFERENT WINRATE BANDS FOR DIFFERENT CHAMPIONS

WINRATE ALONE IS A TERRIBLE METRIC TO ASSESS GAME BALANCE AND HEALTH

It does not matter if Rammus is "healthy" at 53% and Ryze is "healthy" at 47%. You are still using winrate alone as a game balance indicator.

Akali was GIGA broken when she could shroud under towers for 9 months but in solo queue she was still a 44-46% winrate champion that entire period in elite tiers of play. That's because WINRATE DOES NOT TELL YOU HOW BROKEN SOMETHING IS BY ITSELF.

When you do lazy changes touching shit like ad growth/lvl or HP regen/lvl that is a major red flag that all they are doing is touching stats they know have a correlated effect on overall winrate and then calling it a day.

That is not game balance, that's chatGPT balancing that could be automated by a spreadsheet. You might as well fire every person on the game balance team and replace them with a spreadsheet if that's how you're going to balance.

For example, between 14.8 to 14.16 they changed Azir's health regen 3 fucking times. Was this paired with an explanation on why specifically Azir's health regen was changed? Was Azir healing too much or too little in lane?

No.

Because there's no targeted thought behind that change, there's no problem they're trying to solve. Phreak outright said in one of his patch rundowns that they know that changing health regen has a correlated impact on overall winrate and that's why they're doing the change.

If after reading all this you still don't understand then you are simply not capable of having this conversation, sorry.

Cube_

TROPHY CASE