User blog comment:Shigfugjum/On My Arrow - But Do I Need a New One?/@comment-1330314-20141028033352

As someone who has suggested kit changes to both Ashe and Lee Sin, I feel a little targeted. :P

While I agree that some abilities feel overpowered because they're oppressive and not actually overtuned, I think the above arguments are missing the issue of counterplay: counterplay is the ability to react to the plays your opponents make in a manner that is meaningful to both parties. A mechanic is toxic when it does not offer enough counterplay when it should, or when the counterplay it offers is not meaningful. In the case of permaslows, the answer to that tends to be "blow a gapcloser": if you have one, then you're good, but if you're one of those champions without an inbuilt gapcloser or an available then there's nothing you can really do to evade the permaslow. In those situations, there is little counterplay, if none at all. In fact, Ashe is one of the reasons behind the League of Gapclosers, since champions needed a way to avoid getting slowed ad infinitum and the easiest answer was to add a dash or a blink to their kit. Conversely, it's one of the reasons why Ashe has fallen out of favor: a lot of power lies in her permaslow, but with so many hyper-mobile champions out there who can jump in and out of a fight instantly, there are very few situations where she can put it to full use. Permaslows are binary, on top of being unhealthy, which is why they're being reworked.

As a big fan of the Skarner reworks (once he ended up turning into a full-on freight train), I feel like the reasoning behind his CC should also apply to Ashe: small, strong crowd control tends to be a lot better than weaker, longer-duration CC, because it creates a stronger of window of opportunity for the one laying down the CC, as well as a clear window of danger for the target to try and evade, with much clearer success and failure cases immediately after. It's flashier, but also generally more fun, since even if you do get hit you won't be CCed for too long. I think a snare would be an adequate replacement for Ashe's Q slow, not just because it would help her handle gapcloser champions better, but also because it would no longer overlap with her readily available W slow. Ashe is not meant to be the best damage-dealer around, nor is she meant to be a lane bully or a top-tier duelist, but I feel she needs to be a lot less passive in lane, and should get to have more high moments when making plays with her crowd control. Ashe is the playmaking marksman, and deserves to have every ability she lays down have a clear and significant moment of impact, which I think a permaslow dilutes.

I also disagree with your opinion on Lee Sin: the issue with him isn't that he's unhealthy, per se, but rather that he gets to do too much without having any clear weakness. He has a high skill ceiling, sure, but that just means that there's no clear way of dealing with a master of Lee Sin. He's known for outplaying his opponents, but that outplay potential is not as meaningful when your kit can let you do practically everything against any situation. He's overloaded with effects, many of which he doesn't need to be awesome, and which are actually harmful to him by forcing him to have poor late-game scalings. The sheer amount of on-demand mechanics at his disposal makes him oppressive early on (he's the main reason why competitive jungle picks have very poor diversity: if they can't hold up to his early game, they're not viable), but also end up dragging him down. It would be better for him to have fewer mechanics, along with a clear weakness, but better scaling into the late game, and a stronger focus on what makes him amazing and fun to play (and watch).