User blog comment:Willbachbakal/Classes & Subclasses My Way/@comment-3974211-20160426170954/@comment-1330314-20160426234723


 * I feel Janna does function as a traditional support/Cleric, since most of her kit focuses on peeling for an protecting her allies. Under Riot's definition, Disruptors focus heavily on area denial, and Janna doesn't really create danger zones for that, or generally deal that much damage. * The issue I take with for the classification on Karma/Orianna/Morgana/etc. is that, for most players, they pretty much instinctively fall under the "utility mage" banner, but under Riot's system it's much more complicated to sort them out, which is why I think the structure they came up with needs more tinkering.
 * I agree, Jailor and Harbinger are not pretty terms, and I should probably look for better alternatives to some of these names, or just not bother and stick to the more standard formulations (i.e. burst mage, lockdown tank, etc.). I also agree that I went for a prettier six-by-three structure at some cost in intuitiveness, though I mentioned that both the Warden and Sage/Utility Mage subclasses fit under two archetypes at a time in a pretty equal split, and that they could easily be repeated under both sections as a result.
 * I disagree on your classification for Taric and Thresh, mainly because one of the core criteria for being a tank, imo, is that a tank operates mainly by diverting attention towards themselves, whereas neither Taric nor Thresh really do that. Taric probably has Cleric elements, but he plays like a fighter (i.e. he sets up kills instead of just going for disruption), and so does Thresh.
 * At no point did I mention supports being tied to marksmen, and I personally also want to dissociate the two classes: a support will inevitably work by supporting their allies, and will usually start the game out alongside one (most also lack the power to function alone, which includes Thresh and Taric), but I'd like to see a world where supports get to lane alongside any class, and not just a marksman.
 * I agree that damage types are not what sends a champion into a class or subclass, but I think League's class system is complex enough in both theory and practice that it needs a larger structure. You bring up the DPS/Tank/Healer trinity of WoW, but I also think that doesn't really encompass the DPS/Tank/Burst cycle that also defines gameplay in League, or the warrior/mage/rogue triad of many fantasy settings that applies here, or even the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock that defines the advantages different League champions tend to have over each other, which I listed above.
 * The core difference between a Warlock and a Juggernaut is effective range, and even though Warlocks are essentially the Juggernauts of mages, they play very differently. Vladimir has a lot less trouble getting into a fight than, say, Nasus or even, but he's also going to have to put more effort into staying alive while in combat than the latter two. is probably a good example of a Juggernaut/Warlock hybrid, since he has a bit more instances of ranged influence than his other melee counterparts, and has to try harder to stay alive as well, while still ultimately having very short reach.
 * I don't see why mage subclasses need to be separated into super-classes, since they describe the main workings of each of their members fairly well. If you want to expand them just to have sub-sub-classes, why not just mention how each member brings their own contributions? Just because Ziggs plays differently from Xerath doesn't mean they have to be their own subclass, for example, and I can bet you any Bombard you create will fit under that subclass, and at most take elements from another one.
 * I'm not trying to omit hybrids, and I specifically chose the above champions as examples for each subclass because I think they're the closest to being "pure" examples (and even then, the examples for the general classes aren't usually perfect fits for any subclass, mostly because they're probably hybrids of multiple subclasses within the same archetype). Most of League's champions are hybrids of some kind ( and are clear mage-assassin hybrids, for example, and probably fall under Sorcerer-Hunter more specifically), and I think one of the goals of the above system, as with Riot's, is to determine how each of those hybrids makes tradeoffs that let them borrow the strength and gameplay of multiple classes or subclasses.
 * Regarding Kha'Zix as being a Hunter or a Reaper, there are legitimate grounds for him being either. The main distinction I make between Reapers and Hunters is that Reapers aren't forced to commit to single targets in order to work (e.g. ), whereas Reapers can be much more opportunistic in picking off targets and can generally switch targets mid-fight better, or move from kill to kill. In this respect, I think Kha is a Reaper, because his damage is on a low enough cooldown for him to apply it constantly, and isn't target-bound (at least, not in the sense that he chose which target to bind to), so he can throw Qs and Ws pretty much where he can find a victim, and his resets allow him to jump from kill to kill. On the flipside, his target selection is notoriously poor, whereas Hunters like Zed or Rengar can jump pretty much anyone and 100-0 them.

Re: your system, I like that it tries to take a simpler base approach to sorting out champions via damage, tankiness, etc., but I feel it doesn't really apply to League. People aren't really going to be associating, say, Azir and Fiora under the same archetype, because aside from damage-dealing they are nothing alike, whereas champions like Malzahar, Sivir, etc. have pretty much the same core gameplay and goals as other mages and marksmen, respectively, and aren't really going to be picked as "specialists" even if they do unique stuff on their own. A classification like this fits a game like Heroes of the Storm well because the latter runs along different core gameplay, but there are so many systems in League, both official and unofficial, that clash with the above taxonomy that it doesn't look like it would mesh beyond a very abstract level. If you come up to a player and ask them what a utility mage or even a cleric-type support is, they'll probably have a clear enough picture to describe those classes and list off a few examples, but if you ask the what a tracker-type specialist champion is and how that integrates to League, there's not much they're going to be able to immediately draw from until you explain your system to them first.