[2021] State of the Mid Lane

What do you think of Wild Rift's balance regarding the midlane, especially the champion pool and the items they build ?

I personally think the lane is not really balanced. There are champions like Akali that completely get demolished in lane, especially against poke champions and control mages. She cannot really trade anyone due to her only being able to do S1+AA once, and twice if she uses her shroud. Meanwhile there is Fizz, who plays the same role as Akali (oneshot ap assassin), except he is safer to play (enormous range on his Ult, his 3 which is fine on itself but on that champion it feels like it is a bit too good) and doesn't fall off late game, unlike Akali (because against other midlaners she cannot get to her R2 without instantly getting bursted down).

And then there are champions like Ziggs, that, I feel like, is getting nerfed but not properly. The last nerf he recieved was pretty useless imo. The nerf on his ultimate is good, but nerfing the mana costs and his mana pool isn't how he should be dealt with. The champion is too safe, which is good on its own, but there are basically no way to play around that. His S1 range is too big basically allowing him to farm even when the ennemy laner freezes the lane, can poke too often and too hard. Nerfing his mana pool and consumption is not a good way to deal with a champion that builds a lot of mana early on as well.

Champions that were pretty strong against Ziggs were Galio, TF and Diana, as they could either soak a good amount of damage or gapclose him really efficiently allowing to have longer trades (where ziggs is at a disadvantage). However, with Rod of Ages's nerf, I feel like these champions are too risky to play as they need to have a good early start or else they will struggle finding their place in the game.

So yeah, this is my insight on the midlane. What's yours?

Ps- I'd like to have u/R0guefool 's PoV on this too, I like it :) (Could you also share with us, if possible, how Akali performs in the midlane ? I feel like she has been struggling.)

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Sorry for the very late response, these last 2 weeks have been very busy and I missed a few things.

I think in general the mid-lane is in a good spot. There are some call-outs like you mentioned that I would love for us to get into a better place.

Ziggs has always been a pain in high-level/competitive play while being rather middle of the pack for the rest of us.

Akali is statistically weak but is very frustrating to play against, especially in a skilled Akali player's hands. Ideally, we bring her frustration down, without destroying the fantasy/identity of the character. A big difference between her and Fizz is Akali's ability to kill multiple people in a fight whereas Fizz is more about picking of a single target or starting a fight with his Shark. Fizz is also hard countered by Zonya's enchanter. Though I agree both can be slippery and frustrating at times. That is very common with assassins.

As for TF, these nerfs landed a bit harder than we expected and we are looking to give him some power back.

I'm curious to hear more of what you mean by it not really being balanced? Champions are going to be weaker in different aspects of the game (laning phase, team fights, split pushing, taking objectives, etc) this helps them feel more unique and also gives them some strategic differences for when you should be picking them. There is a fair argument to be made about how drastic these strengths/weaknesses are/should be though. Kayle is a great example of this, her early game is intended to be very bad, but the payoff is a powerful late-game hypercarry. (In her current state she is too strong though, and you can expect a tap down in the next balance patch)

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