User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Elise, the Spider Queen/@comment-10958553-20141218094236/@comment-1330314-20141219010829

Thank you! Generally, I think reworks are fundamentally about tradeoffs: if the current champion isn't in the best state but can't be buffed or nerfed adequately (which would just amount to a balancing problem), that usually means there's something about them that needs to go if they want to be better: For example, prior to his amazing rework, wasn't in good shape because he fell off hard, but he also gained a power spike on his item that was absolutely massive early on, on top of being super cheap (he also had other problems, such as the silence on his ult or the all-in-one DoT on his E). By trading off some of his early game strength and other parts of his kit that made him difficult to play against, Viktor gained huge amounts of much more visible and enjoyable power on his item and his abilities.

Another thing that helps is to have a strong idea of what gameplay and thematic hook you want to end up with, and not just a desire to "fix" a champion: if you set out to just fix something you think is broken about a champion, without looking at the larger impact it might have on their kit, playstyle and theme, the result is going to be sub-par. I tried doing just that to, and failed miserably on the first try. It took me another go, and a more comprehensive look at what I wanted to do with her, to get a better result. This doesn't mean you have to revamp a champion completely once you set out to change them, but it does mean you need to start out with a strong idea of what thematic and gameplay fantasy you're shooting for.