Talk:Braum/@comment-24054340-20140606155927/@comment-4068613-20140613185729

Separating items into archtypes has similar problems in how it cements how you're required to adhere to the meta. While it does not force you to play a specific champion in a specific role every time, it still requires you to play a specific archtype every time, quashing any hopes of something resembling innovation or ingenuity based on the circumstances.

The "illusion of choice", while present, does not comprise the entireity of apparent choice. Some of it's just regular choice. The fact that some items are better than others purely from a win rate perspective does not mean I always pick them. Applying my own metric of "item value" to the available items is one of the appeals this game has. Self-expression has been an important part of playing games for a long time.

It does seem like less of a handicap when the same standards are applied to all champions and players, but it also seems kind of ridiculous to prevent players from assembling effective items because they're "too effective". It seems like there are better ways to fix items that are "too good" than to just keep players from using them. Showing the player items that would work well for their champion and then not letting them buy them because they're too good is infuriating to the player, in addition to highlighting design flaws that  restrict player choice.

I don't really understand your reference to chess? Chess is a (mostly) balanced game, but it doesn't keep you from playing the way you want to because it would be too effective. It establishes the rules and abides by them without further intervention.

It's worth noting that not only does udyr not start at level 18, but triforce has a minimum cooldown of 2 seconds, +reaction time, +attack duration.

I would like to reiterate again that making a blog post that actually spells our your ideas so they can be examined might work better than this partial and wavering glimpse into your inscrutable thought processes. (disclaimer: this was hyperbole)