User blog comment:ClariS/Why Not Buff Instead of Nerf?/@comment-4636093-20120830181319

Buffing characters makes them a lot harder to balance later on.

Imagine if everyone could gib another in a second, the slightest amount of UP in a character would make them worthless, because they'd just die instantly.

Imagine if tanks in LoL were balanced to have 500 armor and magic resist, and the damage dealers were balanced to deal with these ultra tanky tanks. Having 499 armor and MR would make the tank die instantly and 501 would make him never die at all. (Not only that, but if the game was balanced around 500 defence tanks then the people not supposed to do any damage in the first place would stand no chance trying to attack them, only reinforce counters and make the game over at champion select).