Super fun to be on the show! One thing I forgot to mention during the champ diversity discussion is that Flex Picks are incredibly valuable for regular play, just in terms of being able to play your champions where you want them. But these are diametrically opposed to Pro play by making that pick instantly high presence by being a strong flex pick. So the current draft format does hurt overall player value there.
holy shit, are you the guy who made this leaguecraft 101 videos? glad to see you’re doing well.
Yep :)
So the current draft format does hurt overall player value there.
Could you elaborate what you mean with that? Whose player value?
Regular player value in being able to play the champions you love, but in different roles.
To just ask a quick question, what are the arguments that Gangplank is balanced/weak? It feels like the pick has a strong laning phase and then scales harder than almost every champ in the game
Good question. We have a lot of debates internally about the power of gangplank. We think a lot of the current complaints about Gangplank are to do with "frustration", which doesn't necessarily track to "power". This isn't to say he isn't powerful, but he definitely has weaknesses. Pros are generally mixed on Tri Force build (which is more consistent, but lower damage) and the ER -> Prowlers (higher damage, but very squishy). "Strong laning phase" is insufficiently specific of a statement, though I agree in certain situations, he is strong for the entirety of laning phase.
He has a strong laning phase 1-3 for sure, but he has a very noticeable power trough and is susceptible to be snowballed against, especially in the Level 6-11 area in matchups where he has to use ult defensively. He also has a good number of decent counterpicks, is quite lacking when behind (cannot utilize vision differentials to get barrels off), especially with the squishy build .
He is one of the most unique champions in that if a Pro played 1000 games of Gangplank, he would theoretically always be overpowered if he's even remotely close to being playable for regular players due to his skillcap. (there aren't many champions in the game like this) So in this sense, the arguments for Gangplank being overpowered are more about "what is your definition for overpowered". Hopefully that helps.
Could you share more about how the team approaches nudge buffs in pro play like what I assume the recent Vlad armor buffs were, it seems like a common sore point that people do not generally like them for "fine" champs, even if the changes themselves aren't huge
If they have room to be buffed per the champion balance framework and we think they have a chance to see pro play (eg. in a counterpick matchup or otherwise), then we may buff them. We generally try and limit this tactic to large pro play oriented patches (MSI, Worlds), or we run afoul of player sensibilities and have power creep, like you noted.
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