R0gueFool

I'm curious to know why you feel that Conditioning is a weak rune? Its slow stacking nature is definitely a bit harder to feel than other runes that have a clear on/off state. This would explain it feeling a bit weaker than other defensive runes.

Because this rune is something that all champions have access to it actually wouldn't help tanks more than other classes. It's actually a bit worse for tanks, vs other classes. This is because they end up buying extra Armor/MR so the bonus you gain from Conditioning ends up not being worth as much for tanks, because Armor and MR values have diminishing returns, when compared to other classes who don't purchase as much.

That looks like a great list. And I think you got most of them covered here.

My first thought for the jungle was Amumu because he is really easy to pick up and have an impact with. But jungle is also a complex role that isn't the most newb friendly anyway.

For support I'm inclined to say Soraka, but with a caveat. Her playstyle isn't the most exciting and isn't for everyone so while she is newb friendly in that she isn't very complex to play it likely won't be the best experience if you are trying to get a friend into the game. Obviously though if this is a playstyle they enjoy than Soraka might be good for them to check out.

Brand was way overpowered on his release. So much that literally all of his abilities received a nerf.

I agree Brand was released too strong, and am sorry about that, but it hardly points to a trend. Nunu as we'll was a bit stronger, but it took most players a little time to catch up to it and really get a feel for him.

These are the point I'm interested in here:

It just feels like whenever a champion is released, they're on the broken spectrum, in terms of damage mostly.....

And even after that, he's still on the strong side, picked or banned in nearly 70% of my games.

And the criteria you use to define this. Because I'd argue that he is in a fine spot now and have seen that (as the team has defined champions strength) the vast majority of our champion releases have been under power (in some cases critically). Funny enough this is part of what led to Brand's OP release. We had been ...

I'm speaking from my own opinions here, and not for the rest of my team.
1. I agree this is annoying and a pain point I have felt too. I don't know if we currently have any plans here in the short term but I'll bring it up to people to see how they feel.
2. I actually think the issue with Wit's End comes from it giving too much. At a glance, the item seems to be doing just fine, if not a little strong. But it isn't something you should be buying every game.
Exactly like you said certain aspects can be hard to feel, but adding some AD to that would just exacerbate the problem because we would need to reduce its other effects to compensate for it, or increase its cost.

1. I agree Maw feels a bit weak. Part of the issue here is that it is a very narrow item (MR items always will be). But also that it competes with Sterak's Gage, which has great synergy with Triforce.

2. I haven't personally noticed this as an issue, especially with IBG as its...

I highly recommend going FoN>Winter's Approach on Nasus for ARAMs. It's tricky to get stacked, but you provide a lot of utility.

No worries. Basically, this is a case of reddit player perception not matching with our data.

If your interested you can read a bit more about the teams balance framework here: https://wildrift.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-balance-framework-update/

This was written before bans were introduced, so it's a tad out of date, but it has all the same core info.

Basically Asol has been very strong, at any elo. And if you were to look at an Asol one trick you would likely see some crazy high winrates, far higher than what we typically worry about in the linked framework.

He isn't a popular champion, though he has a theme that players are really interested in, but h...

It's possible, but I expect this is low priority, given the low impact this info has on the game. Really any feature comes down to prioritization. Even if it seems small, any feature means other features that team could be working on take longer or be pushed back.

I'm not on the teams that would handle something like this, so I don't know what the plans are. It's a possibility, but I expect this is low priority, though again I could be wrong. Really it's all about prioritizing, and adding something like this, even if it seems small, means other features would take longer or be pushed back.

Thanks, for the kind words!

Those are some interesting questions with some potentially lengthy answers.

I don't believe we have done a deep dive into "is there too much shielding in the game?" But, speaking for myself anecdotally I think there might be a tad too much shielding. But we have been hesitant to pull power from enchanters, who are typically seen as weak. Despite this games are still very lethal so it isn't at a point where people aren't dying.

As for your second question about the power of the support role. It really comes down to how you are defining power. If you mean winrate of support champions than things are doing fine. But I suspect you are asking more about the agency of the support role (how much control does a role have over the outcome of a game). We think support agency is too low, while the jungle role is too high.

With that said many players are still learning how different the role is from what they are familiar with in Lo...

Thanks! I gotta say when I got the alert I went to show more of the team your kind words. :)

I am very interested to see how the 2nd Rift Herald plays out, and it has been hard not talking about the Tryndamere changes =P.

Did someone call for a simple Rioter?!

There are two primary reasons that we don't put a high priority on showing these kinds of things.

1. It doesn't change how you behave when fighting these champions. Sure a Nasus with a lot of stacks is scary, but it doesn't really change how you approach fighting him. Either way, you want to keep your distance. And you can tell from other methods if he is doing well or not, Gold, K/D/A, has he split pushed 3+ towers this game? These are all ways to tell how well he is doing without the need to directly see how many stacks he has.As an example, while Kha'zix doesn't have stacks, it is important to see where he has spent his evolution points because it does shape his play pattern, this is why his model changes depending on what points are spent.
2. The second thing is the UI, both in terms of space/location but also how you would access the info. If we felt that this information was critical enough to show then we would ...

We added it with the intention that melee AA focused champions (Jax, Shyvana, etc) can use this to survive and deal damage. But also as a tool for marksmen looking for some MR.

Obviously some MM will like the item if they are looking for attack speed or an on-hit build, but it should be an option for either group.

I haven't looked at the item recently to know if it is being purchased too frequently or not, but it isn't something I would expect to be a frequent pick for MM unless they need to survive magic damage, or are going the AS/On-hit route.

Ya a big reason we pushed for bringing over Grudge was so that anti-healing wasn't always the only open when you wanted ARpen.

Mundo has always been juggernaut, he lacks the CC, protection, or initiation power to reliably be called a tank. Though I'll give you he can be tankier than most. This is why he is better at clearing camps than tanks, because he is much more focused on damage than tanking.

As for junglers, he has been preforming well, but no better than actual tank junglers that are critically undervalued by this subreddit. The big reason here is that clearing camps after your first clear doesn't have much value. But powerful ganks, like many tanks bring, is game winning.

What is it about his identity that you are worried about losing? Don't worry he still goes where he pleases, he still has massive healing, and a cleaver.

Apparently High and Elite players need to be reminded of Grievous Wounds from time to time too.

We do plan on shipping Dr. Mundo's rework this year.

This is something we also spent some time on but decided against because it would bloat the shop without adding much. If you are someone looking for Wit's End you should have a good idea of where it is, and at worst you click though 2-3 tabs to find it. But if we started adding items to multiple tabs it makes them all harder to find.

GA is another good example of an item that has a good argument to fit into more than one tab.

Not forgotten, this is something we have talked about a few times. Basically, we didn't feel this was core to his identity or play patterns, combined with the added controls complexity it would bring made this something we didn't feel was necessary for his success.

There are currently no plans to change the item. Wit's End already has a lot going on and adding more would likely mean we need to pull power from other areas.

Fun story, when we were bringing over Wit's End we weren't sure what the best tab to put it in would be. It deals magic damage so you could make a case for the Magic tab, but it also has MR so defense feels like it could work, a large focus of the item is AS so we felt like the physical tab would be the best fit. Given that the champions who would be buying this item tend to be basic attack focused we felt physical would be the best place for it.

As for the item's power, my understanding is that it is doing its job of being a great MR choice for basic attack-focused champions. It's not something you should see every game, but if you need a bit of survivability or care a lot about attack speed it's a fine item.