I’ve made a ton of videos about champions and in all of them I get a lot of comments that go along the lines of “power creep ruined the game”. So I decided to make a video addressing that. Is Power Creep destroying League of Legends?
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#LoL #Champions #PowerCreep
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what are the chances vars is going to mention about yugioh power creep in this video…
The Stridebreaker example highlights precisely why "Feature Creep" is in fact a form of Power Creep, which is more insidious and harder to deal with on the balance side of things. It was overpowered on Darius precisely because it allowed him to ignore his only real weakness. Or in other cases like Goredrinker or Duskblade of Drakthar it made already obnoxious things to deal with worse by a factor of magnitude.
You really need to look up and old April Fools Champion Spotlight of Lee Sin, which has since then kind of become reality unfortunately. What once was enough to attain over 95% banrate(Kassadin) would in today's landscape be considered at best middle of the pack. And speaking in a more broad game sense Riot has limitted the ways to paly the strategic macro oriented style, while increasing the snowball potential in games.
My problem is just some champion like Akali, Irelia, Yasuo, Katarina, Camille have too much of an easy time executing their gap closing abilities and delivering their damages, plus, having the benefit of not having an actual penalty (in their own kits) to their gap closers is just infuriating. If anything, there isn't much penalty in Assassin/Fighters or a combination of these classes since 2-3 years now, as well as having high damage, easy to execute gap closers, no prerequisites and indicators for their gap closers to activate, it's just too much to deal with sometimes and it feels helpless most of the time honestly. Even worse, when the fact that most melee champions have higher movement speed as well as having items that boost movement speed or just straight up add another gap-close, there just isn't enough cc-abilities going around dealing with these mobilities.
Champion like Fizz, for example, is at least more tolerable than the ones above, because at least they don't usually have a definite gap closer, and his E is a choice between dealing damage and running away, so he is a more pure Assassin, while the ones above just have too much of both Assassin and Fighters, which are survivability, damage and mobilities. Other examples of simply assassins are Le Blance and Zed, where both of their abilities have some sort of indicators to where they might be (Le Blanc's W, Zed's W and R), there are limitations to these champions mobilities where they could realistically be recognized and deal with.
Overall, assassins and fighters/slayers champions with high mobilities have way easier time, even if they are melees. Since their mobilities have way too much utilities of both dodging and dealing damage in their kits, which just completely make up for the fact that they have short-range, which was supposed to be a weakness that made it so that it's hard to deliver their damage, but it just so easy nowadays for no reason, it's stupid as hell.
One thing to add, the new items are not only giving champions too many options, it's a pain in the ass for the balancing team.
Game design is also horrible… Back then Junglers were Junglers becouse they could handle the jungle not becouse they were forcefully made into junglers. Now not only one ability has metric fuckton of effects, it also does different amount of damage/crowd control to champions, monsters, big minsters and minions. They are lazy and out of ideas for mechanics and balancing.
"Just about everyone has a dash"
Enchanters have entered the chat
but can we talk about seraphine vs sona though.
I feel there is definite power creep in the game. When you have mana dependent mids like Ahri or Annie going up against Yasuo, Yone, and Akali its no wonder the mana dependent champions ARE lack luster. Katarina was at least VERY VERY abusable pre 6 so you had a shot but the rest are never really ever weak.
Ahri, Annie, and the lot have limited threat. Use up your mana and you can't do anything until you back and get more. Champions that have no mana are always going to be a threat, always be able to kill you, and NEVER be as weak as a champion with mana. If that's not power creep in the most in your face form then what is?
I don't mind if a new character brings a new mechanic, for example Ornn introduced brittle and with that extra cc, but that didn't make malphite worse. Ornn has more CC but malphite has a faster one with his ult. New mechanics can bring new life to a game. The problem is when a character brings a new mechanic and yet has most of the old ones. Akali wouldn't have been such a monster diving you while stealthed from the turret if she didn't have clearwave, 4 dashes, bonus move speed when she procs pasive, missing health damage… You get me. If each champion is a dish and the new champion not only brings a new flavor, but also has EVERY FLAVOR that ever existed before, why would you play anything else?
My issue with lol's feature creep is less about the actual feature creep and more about the overall quantity of patches. LoL is a game where riot pushes a balance update every 2 weeks. As a result, the meta is mostly the same as it was back in season 1 and 2 in a general sense. When people have figured out other ways to play the game, riot quickly squashes them.
Contrast this to Dota 2, a game that has been around way longer if you consider that it's not a true sequel, so much as an extension of the original game. When ice frog or valve makes a patch they do it very carefully and they apply said patch every 3-4 months. In competitive play, almost every single hero is viable because there is a huge variety of ways to play the game effectively even at that highest level. And many of the meta shifts happen not because the patch forced the game into that direction but because the players found out the best ways to play. Riot never really let's their community figure out their game and as a result, you get a game that "feels" very similar to how it was back in the day even if it isn't anymore. The general meta and the champion roles are the same as they were back in season 1 and now that they are blending the roles together in these new ways, it causes people to get upset. If I pick vayne then i get a straight forward set of things that I can do as an adc. On the other hand, if I pick kai'sa or senna, I have many more options and builds to pick from. This creates a dichotomy of preserved unfairness/imbalance even if both champions are balanced.
Another problem comes from the speed of patches. For example, say I start playing kai'sa because she's strong in the meta and 2 weeks later she's nerfed into the ground, I have little incentive to play her anymore. Maybe she's my favorite champions and now I have to ditch her or play better than everyone else in the game to compensate.
This also results in champions like ivern or aurelion sol who have been broken and/or mostly useless because of the feature creep. Aurelion sol for example was a champion who was outdated when he was released. He would have been pretty powerful before riot started giving every diver and assassin a dash. But by the time he was released, you already had plenty of viable Midlaners with mobility which could nullify his stars. Now he's basically in this limbo where riot could buff his damage to insane levels and he would still feel clunky to play with.
Then there are champion reworks. Some of the reworks have completely deleted the identity of their original champion. Soraka and aatrox come to mind. Op soraka could be played as a jingler, a mid laner, and a support. She had a very unique play style outside of being a support, being an aoe mage that shreds magic resistance and can silence/imbue mana and health. Now, she simply can't be played as a mid laner anymore because her damage just isn't as direct as it used to be. You have no wave clear anymore and really only exist to be a heal bot/cc machine.
Back in the day soraka was one of my favorite Midlaners. I've barely touched her since her rework because of the drastic gameplay change. Dota does have the occasional hero reworks but generally they are less extreme when compared to league. If you liked the original riki, you are likely to enjoy the new one. Anyhow, it's pretty obvious why some of the older players are nostalgic for the old days given that some play styles and characters simply don't exist anymore.
One more thing, lol nerds voice chat. This stupid argument that the game would be more toxic with it is not really cutting it anymore. The game is becoming more complex and having the ability to shot call on the fly is a must at this point. Pings can only really get you so far.
9:32 where did the ekko go?
Vars: It's not that champions are doing more damage
Also Vars: shows Qiyana disappearing someone with 2 abilities
I normally agree with your videos but this one feels slightly… disingenuous? As others have mentioned, damage has objectively risen, especially up-front burst damage. Is that not powercreep by definition? Secondly, the argument that "league hasn't suffered from powercreep, but rather 'feature creep'" is so… arbitrary. Look at next patch, they're specifically addressing mobility creep in the game, which could be considered to be a type of powercreep because mobility is ABSOLUTELY a source of power.
Yes
Basically the down fall of live service games. Look at MMORPGs, you deals hundred dmg to a thousand HP boss, and later then you have to deal millions of dmg to a trillions of HP bosses.
I want talents and aganim scepter like in dota
tomato tomato… not all power creep is feature creep, but all feature creep is power creep. Any champion with equal or better damage output as another with more options to use their kit, is by definition, more efficient and thus more powerful.
What bothers me the most is that older champs are sometimes not enough. I'm an Ashe main and I can play my champion as good as I possibly can but at the same time I can just pick Samira with 50 dashes insane life steal and mobility. I just feel like the older champions aren't as worth to pick as the new ones because they have so much less. For sure Ashe is a good champion but sometimes being good doesn't mean you're good enough
I think “feature creep” in a game like league is fundamentally the same as power creep. A character with more options has more tools to solve problems. A person with a dash can escape an ability where as a character without one dies to it. That’s just one example but my point is that a character having more tools makes them more versatile giving them more ways out of every situation. Of course in league it doesn’t seem that way sometimes because even the most versatile characters can just have their number made so low they can’t do anything, but I digress,
i think everyone is overreacting. people simply just aren’t smart enough to learn how to counter new mechanics lol
Best way to fix league of legends is to just PUT IT DOWN!
Jungling honestly now feels like
> Skill based and lose
> Auto Abusers who can snowball no matter how early, late, underfarmed, or killed.
None of this would be a problem if you changed the actual stat numbers and fixed the stupid items
If assassins can burst 3 or 4 people instead of get in delete the carry get out… then give me a champion that can lock down 2 or 3 assassins simultaneously. I'm glad one of my favorite champions Nautilus who I have been playing since season 2 is still relevant. At that time he was relatively newish and I thought it was amazing he had soooooo much cc in his kit compared to other champions at that time. Now it feels like sure I can Q… ult E aa and that adc is still going to have some tool to get away from me, or that assassin is just going to clense the shit and still delete my carry(s). I'm fine with people having a thousand dashes, a thousand ways to get into and start fights. But there is no defensive side to that … they added all these pct dmg items yet removed the only item that stopped those pct DOT's They add all this true damage to the game, but add nothing to mitigate some of it so tanks are paper. I agree it's not power creep so much via numbers. But if a champion has too many options that is a form of power. An assassin in S1 or S2 had to position and time correctly to dive into a fight to "assassinate" a carry and they usually died in the process. Now they can legit just walk past 200 pieces of CC shrug off the damage get the kill, walk out… then go in again 3 seconds later. It's ALL Offense and flashy garbage and no balanced position to that. There is no tank that can survive 1 v 5 and walk out late game… yet there are carries and assassins that can 100 to 0 entire teams with a single combo. As for your final argument… they could add thematic champions, they could add maps, they could add other modes… it doesn't have to be overloaded champions. They do it because it generates revenue…
Looked for this after the Akshan reveal.
Akshan with a revive as a basic ability passive 😊
This aged well
My biggest issue with league isn't even power creep. It's just how much damage is in the game. Everything now 1 shots past level 6 and its just so frustrating that they keep increase damage just to keep people interested in the pro scene. I remember when assassins had to hit a full combo with their ult to fully 1 shot even a squishy target. Now they do it in 2 spells and an auto. I feel like it has taken so much skill expression out of the game and is what is going to kill the game
As someone who has come from for honor…..power creep dosnt exist in this game
"Any time riot introduces something new, it can't be so much better than old stuff" shows Sett next to Garen
“Power creep isn’t real”
Akshan: “Heroes never die.”
Honestly if the game would have teamfights that last longer than 5 seconds it would be much more enjoyable, everyones one shotting and getting one shot, even tanks at this point, the items need to be toned down, I want to win a 5v5 after like 30 seconds of fighting, it would be much more engaging.
"lol would be stuck on a single meta if they balanced it perfectly"
chess with 1500 years of existence and meta shifts without any major rule changes: allow me to introduce myself
fuck off has it not been power crept try to reach chalanger playing some one like garen or yi
League of Legends changed most of the items in season 11 to keep people interested in the game. Even if they were mad at the game, that’s a better emotion than boredom or apathy. Similarly, new champs are overloaded to keep us feeling emotions toward the game (similar to football), even if they are emotions of anger. Because anger is still interesting.
4:20 LOL
one passive ? yasuo would like a word
Does this video feature music from the Dead Cells OST?
dude, in this season every adc can have true damage or a dash, zed can burst a tank, tanks now have the ability to burst too. The base stats of things now are worthless, all that matter is if the item have a special broken effect
2:15 This video is only 2 months old and it has already aged poorly. :X
Power Creep is the biggest myth in the gaming industry, perpetuated by developers and players who have written themselves into a corner, or are ignorant enough to believe you can't build hype without it. With the right mindset and design philosophy towards your games you can avoid power creep damn near indefinitely. Is it easy? Obviously not, but if you actually care about your game you'll be willing to put in the effort.
I think what a lot of people are missing about feature creep is that having more options doesn't necessarily make you stronger. Sometimes a straightforward approach, backed by a good statline and simple, efficient abilities, is the best. One of the top contenders in solo queue right now is Xin Zhao, and for all the complexity and options his kit provides, Akshan is sitting at a pitiful winrate of 46%.
One thing that always stuck in my mind is a comment from an EVE Online developer, who said something to the effect of "If we left it up to the player base, every ship would end up with a million hit points and 99% resistance to everything."
Feature creep=power creep more utility/movement/whatever and not being any weaker damage wise = stronger. And what people miss from old league is long but in general, buying wards when you want to not when you've been good enough to earn the right to use them, building items that allowed you to play your champ differently (ie AP YI etc) playing a tank and surviving long enough to lead people on chases through the jg while your team pushed or ganked, mana potions and other options that would allow you to make plays that you couldn't without them but weren't flashy, basically we miss playing the game we were playing, not the unbalanced braindead mess it's turned into
"yone, samira and viego are fair and not power crept compared to other champions"
The people who make league don't play the game, I think that's the biggest problem, If they knew how stupid, overloaded and hard to play against new champs are they would'nt add it (I know that players test the champs before they come out, but it still doesn't get to me how some people looked at Samira and said "yeah that's a fair and balanced champ")
Just bring back 3v3 :c
too many dashes, poorly implemented and too many immune/block. requiring to add new gimmicks should not come at the cost of the game. it is ok to make the game more complicated, but the level they took it went from like a 2 with old sion to like a 9 with akshan. there is a quote that goes, "if i would have had more time, i would have written a shorter letter". I think the same applies to league. These champions feel power creeped AND feature creaped because why would you ever play sona when you can literally play yuumi or seraphine. The amount of dashes is feature creep af. I personally hate dashes that aren't tied to ults or aren't the main source of damage because it is too much a get out jail free card. Gank an ezreal? Good luck. Gank a leblanc haha as if. These were challenging, but reasonable because they were the exception and not the rule. Try to hard cc samira? jk jk. Gwen? As if. It's a combination of things. I'm a veteran player since season 2 and I would NEVER pick this game up if I was a new player.
My suggestion to improve, because criticism without answers or solutions is just whining, is to do a rotation system. In ranked, you can only play with A-M. This forces you to learn the competitive roster if you want to go pro or get high rated. Then when that ends, you pick up something new. There are just too many champions and too little bans. That on top of addressing with the toxicity in the game with core system changes like reducing healing across the board, adding new ways to win like split pushing that doesn't really happen anymore – basically, a few things you've touched on before.
I disagree. The overloaded kits cause newer champions to have a response to every single situation, effectively making them more powerful. I.E. power creep
minecaft update is shit, it same boring play style
Yes