no one posted this but i think it's pretty interesting:
http://nexus.leagueoflegends.com/2017/02/dev-on-the-champs-of-2016/
thoughts:
jhin - i think they nailed it with jhin, even if he has issues (which from the article it seems they're agreeing on). he's a really great addition to the roster when they find the way to fine tune him so he doesn't crowd every other adc out
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aurelion sol - i think it's very telling that the jhin part was all about how the community received him, while asol's has no mention of the community whatsoever. i don't think they have the greatest of reads with aurelion sol, imo it's not the passive that's boring about him, it's everything else. every spell in his kit is a complete turn off for me as a mage player, there's nothing that feels 'fun' about him. the concept of his passive is really cool to me and i like champions that feel unique, i wish the rest of his kit was worthy of that passive
i also find his visuals and personality didn't resonate with the community (it certainly didn't with me) nearly as much as the original concept. overall a big let down
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taliyah - here i think riot really downplayed their own role in taliyah's rise and demise in pro play. i mean, they buffed pretty much everything about her only to nerf pretty much everything about her in the next patch lol. like 50% damage on minions on her q in one patch, then removed like two patches later. that's not really an issue with her being stronger in competitive, that's just very knee jerk balancing. i think the nerfs were understandable cos it's better for her not to be permaban at worlds than being picked at all, but lol those buffs were dumb. right now she feels fairly ok tho she probably could use some small solo q oriented buffs, but i think they were quick to change from the terrible original w casting paradigm to the much improved new one, and i don't see her kit being impossible to balance
overall taliyah was my favorite champion of 2016, i like her visual design and personality and themes, i really like her abilities and her kit overall and i like how her kit has so many different applications while being relatively simple and easy to understand. like, big wall, don't get shoved into rocks, don't get rocks in your face. no lame three hit passive or strange movement speed boosts or anything, just a fun, fair combo to execute and a great roaming ability to do lots of awesome stuff
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kled - i kind of like kled, i think his ult is really funny to have in your team and i think he's generally just funny to see running around murdering everyone, but his passive feels kind of gimmicky for me and not really something that's super easy and clear to play around like gnar's passive. he has a really high winrate while no one ever plays him, so it doesn't feel like he was a big hit with the community. imo his kit lacks a basic ability that just feels good to use, the way taliyah has q or we combo, or jhin has w, or just his basic attacks. this is an issue with aurelion sol, also, i think
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inven - i like his design and i like the goofy abilities they went for. i wish his ganking pattern had more counterplay tho, for all his uniqueness he kind of does the lee sin thing of just walking at you, applying an aoe slow and then shooting his skillshot pointblank when you can't dodge it. i wonder if he'll be viable once he stops being op, right now his winrate is absurd for a kit as weird as his
i do approve rito going batshit crazy with visuals and kits, and exploring new types of champions in the jungle (or wherever), and i think inven is way more successful at it than kindred
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camille - i think camille is like the extreme opposite to aurelion sol, she feels great to play and looks slick af and is definitely targeted at those 1v1 me bro kinds of people, but i think they've done this to a fault. they set out to make another irelia and they succeeded, but i don't know why anyone would do that in the first place. i dislike champions that feel like they have all of the control of every engage and that's exactly what she is, she has tools for everything and a crazy long range dash to make everything happen whenever she wants and not any other time. she's banned like every game so basically nobody wants to play against a champion like this. she's op but it's not just a strength thing, her kit is just frustrating by design and i feel that was really misguided and strange to see, which is a shame considering she's really fun to play and i really like the idea of her ult even if instead of being "a pretty sharp counter to those dashy champs that will never sit still", it's just another kind of cc to make the life of squishies more miserable. every spell tooltip is like 3 paragraphs long, every ability has two uses and even still his kit is really basic and uninteresting. it's satisfying to use, but so is taliyah's and her kit is much simpler and transparent
overall i'm really disappointed that camille was released in the state she did. definitely the worst champion in the year and one that's gonna be hard for people to get over. she's just a jerk and the game has more than enough of those already. the reception to camille should be a big hint for riot that people just don't like these kinds of champions. it's weird, cos kled is also kind of a jerk and imo shares many issues with camille, but i guess riot reigned it in just enough that people were ok with it. probably a good case study in how to design jerk champions
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overall i think this kind of post is pretty good even if i don't agree with everything they say. i think 2016 kind of lost to 2015 in community darlings (jhin vs ekko, kindred and bard), but it probably did better for niche players (inven, asol, kled and taliyah vs illaoi and bard, kinda). i got two mages in 2016 so i'm expecting none in 2017 (rip), and one of them was great, so i can't complain much. i'm mostly disappointed by how lame aurelion sol is and with camille, just kind of everything about her lol
good post tho, very glad riot's doing these