User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Rework) Graves, the Outlaw/@comment-1920550-20150215080204/@comment-1920550-20150215212337

Because balance is a central point to a champion design...period...you can have the best champ designs, but if the numbers don't back that up, the champion does not work. Elise is perhaps one of the best designed, unique champions on the game, Kog'Maw too, Zac aswell...even Urgot, who should function as an anti-carry...and yet none of those work outside of very rare games because their numbers were overnerfed...champions who sacrifice so much power for their niche do not work...

You asked by what standarts is the AOE overpowered? The simple fact that it's never ending...you can argue that it does not hit the primary target, does not have much range or damage as Jinx Q, but the fact that you'll have a continuous AOE AA with that degree of damage with no cooldown or mana cost to it on top of an empowered burst is the OP...You can also argue the range reduction and passive will counter balance it, while what would probably happen is that you'll see Graves dealing great AOE but being blown up over and over in teamfights...if your not a tank or a semi-tanky champion and you get into that kind of close range, you simply deserve to lose...overdone niches can sometimes screw champions...