5 Changes We Don't Want in League of Legends Patch 9.10
League of Legends Patch 9.10 won't change what has been a wild year for Riot Games. Between the Kotaku report on the company's culture, constant discontent with the Garena partnership and the most recent employee walkout, the organization behind League of Legends has plenty of headaches.
Five changes players don't want to see in Patch 9.10 are unlikely to alleviate the discomfort, but the lesson here is that sometimes nobody gets what they want.
5. The Ever-Increasing Economy of Different Currencies
As it stands, League of Legends' in-game currencies include but are not limited to: experience, blue essence, orange essence, skin shards, key fragments, gemstones, RP, Trials 2019 tokens, and Prestige Points. Each addition only succeeds in making the game's internal economies ever-more convoluted and inefficient. At some point, there needs to be an overall rework to address how prices and unlocking rewards is managed.
4. Gutting More Champions
Rakan and Tahm Kench are the latest champions on the chopping block who face the usual treatment of receiving repeated nerfs/changes over several patches before the balance team throws up their hands and just takes an ax to the champion. Balance that treats champions in isolation instead of by buffing counters as an additional option results in an increasingly-gimped pool of champions.
3. The Balance Rollercoaster
Related to the above, while it's unquestioningly difficult to balance champions for both professional and ladder play, the inevitable response to the aforementioned gutting tends to be an eventual response that launches the champion straight back into overpowered and then they are instantly slapped down once more. It would perhaps be better if the overall philosophy was clearer or what particular pool of champions were the focus for a phase, instead of what feels like a madhouse of constant adjustments.
2. Playable Teemo
Teemo can be adjusted and changed and buffed and nerfed as much as the balance team wants, but at the end of the die a champion whose core identity is stealth, traps and blinding opponents will always be an unenjoyable, anti-fun experience.
So please no.
1. More ******* Prestige Edition Skins
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a writer argued that the video game League of Legends should stop trying to force a cynical marketing strategy with mildly-adjusted champion skins that require exorbitant amounts of investment.
The writer repeated it ad nauseum in protest of an industry that is increasingly becoming an excuse for microtransactions rather than artistic vision.
League of Legends responded by metaphorically farting in the writer's face and released Battle Academy Lux Prestige Edition. The end.
Cover image courtesy of Riot Games