User blog comment:BIA-Kaboose/The Problem Behind Balance/@comment-5605969-20131211161837/@comment-5605969-20131212153958

People always see the game with this point: player mains champ A, for god knows what reason. Champ A is a regular pick. Suddently, pros start using him, and everyone starts using champ A. Riot sees that champ A has some balancing issues andproceeds to nerfing him. Now the player rages that his champ was nerfed because pros picked him. But barely anyone stops to think of 1 thing: what changed after the patch? Is he really that useless? Or was that change absolutely needed, or else some radical changes should be used?

The Nida case for example. Many people who play vs nida are pissed that her spear does so much damage. Nida players always repplied that it was the only damage ability she had, while other champions had more abilities. But did they stop to think: "Well, with 40% CDR I have spear every 3.6 seconds. If I hit at long range I can deal a lot of burst. Also, chances are that they won't catch me, as I have more range than even Lux or Xerath. And even if they do, unless they have stuns, I will just Pounce away." Put it like this, and you see why her kit is so strong and toxic. Even if her spears can be dodged, 1 WILL EVENTUALLY HIT. So her nerf was, well, tough, but since it preserves the previous gameplay and reducing toxicity, she is now more balanced. She is not UP now, as some QQ say. She just requires a little more skill now.

And that brings me to the main topic: why is a champ abused or left in the shelf? This is actually a bit complex. To narrow it down, it actually depends on kit, items and meta. Kit is a core fundament of a character. If other characters can do what that character does, but better, then the first character is useless. Items depend on the meta as well. If you are in a HP stacking meta, then HP stackers will be favoured vs others. Same with HP shredders. The Meta is basically a control of these 2, in a way Riot envisions, and involving other components (like game duration and gold flow).

Also, people tend to forget, Riot doesn't always nerf champions to an extent, merely sometimes just making them a bit harder to play(like ahri, and in this case benefitted her should she charm an enemy). And they also buff champions, even if only slightly (Nasus popularity was due to current meta and his Q stack buff. Similar to Jayce, where both his R stopped stacking tear, and tear stacking was nerfed. In core, Jayce is the same.)

As for Jax, Kayle and Akali(though she tends to go full AP and GBlade) their problem isn't the itemisation, rather they're kit. Jax gets a lot from building almost cannon, his sinergy with Tri is ridiculous, and dodge is an epic item. Also he's hard to peal. A good comparison is to Irelia. She gets tenacity, and has a great kit, but she's not as rewarding as Jax, so she's used a LOT less. As for Kayle, go teemo and kill her.) Their kits are WAY too balanced and simple to use.

Which leads me to skill balance. This is a "fake balance" that works on ranked. The theory behind this balance is that champion A is very hard to use, but once mastered, he's a very strong champion. By doing this, they can boost his strengths, since not everyone will get to that level. In Ranked, a players elo normally reflects their skill, meaning lower elo players will play low skill champions better than they play high skill champions, leaving champ A UP in low elo, and balanced in high elo (since in high elo, most know how to counter play and all). But in draft, a newb vs a pro has little to no chance of victory, where using champions with less skill or mechanics (like jax) will make them very similar (obviously pro wins, but the difference won't be so astonishing).

In the end, we all hate it if our champions are nerfed (I main Irelia, and i still hope for some buffs tbh, but mayble thats skill) but we must understand that if a champion was nerfed, then he/she/it must have an unhealthy component on his/hers/its kit. As for Rengar and Shaco, their kits are so powerful that a buff would make them OP. There is no balance, and so Riot decides to leave them under the radar, so that they can more easily rework or tweak them.