Current Champion Design Team
I just want to start by saying this is going to be a long read, so thank you in advance if you spend the time to go through it.
There’s a problem with the current design team, and while many players may not realize it yet, they eventually will if things continue this way. The approach to defensive champions is flawed and unfair. I’ve described it as "bullying by the designers." It feels like they’re putting you in a cage to fight a bear with your bare hands, and when they’re feeling generous, they give you a wooden sword. They continue to introduce mechanics and interactions that are extremely punishing, while giving attackers no reasonable way to effectively deal with or manage them. There’s a clear intent to force damage at all costs, with VERY LITTLE to NO options for damage mitigation. Defenders like Photon, Bullseye, Onslaught, Serpent, and Enchantress have abilities that either shouldn’t exist in their current form or need to be toned down. These defenders are going to be difficult to handle in end-game content that fully explores their defensive potential. Either we’ll have nodes that assist attackers in countering their kits, or nodes that disable those kits entirely.
I started noticing this trend when Photon was released, or maybe it started with her. If you take Photon as an example – I want players to realize this – she has hard counters like Crossbones, Mantis, and Falcon. But is that truly how we should judge if a defender is fair? Keep in mind that these hard counters often shut her down completely from the root, preventing her abilities from ever activating.
So what happens when the hard counters don’t work? Is there any chance at all of beating the defender? Can skillful play at least make a difference? Or do you have to nuke them down before their abilities activate? What if it’s an Abyss or Necropolis-level health pool? Is there any balance or reasonableness in their kit?
Consider Photon’s defensive abilities:
- Her specials eventually become undexable, partly unblockable, and some fully unblockable.
- The parts you can block require a skill ask – a “well-timed” block can mitigate the damage. Fair enough.
- However, she reduces your block proficiency by a sizable amount. With her increased attack and the block proficiency reduction, it’s almost as bad as taking the full special damage. So, here’s your “wooden sword.”
- So, how do you avoid this inevitable damage if you can’t shut her down at the root? Is this fair or reasonable?
I won’t even start with Serpent; he deserves his own write-up, which I’ve already prepared. I’m still contemplating whether it’s even worth posting. We’re fortunate Bullseye was updated, etc.
If there were ever boundaries, the designers have started encroaching on our space, leaving attackers with very little room to maneuver. Our tools for tackling challenges are being reduced. Special attacks are becoming more difficult to evade, blocking them is becoming more costly, we can’t dex them, they’re becoming unblockable, and masteries are being nullified. What’s next? This is happening far too frequently. There’s no information on whether we’re receiving new tools or masteries to help us deal with these changes. New champions don’t seem to have mechanics or abilities that help either.
When enough people justify Photon, we get Serpent. When enough people justify Serpent, we’ll get something worse than Serpent.
I can’t help but imagine how this current design team, especially if DLL is involved, would have designed some of our old favorite defenders in 2023/2024.
Doom:
- While his aura is active, special attacks cannot be avoided with the Dexterity mastery.
- While his aura is active, nullified buffs deal an instant burst of Shock damage for X amount.
- While stunned, his aura is paused for 2 seconds.
Void:
- Intimidating Presence debuffs, once applied, can never be removed. Or, if they’re feeling generous:
- When Intimidating Presence debuffs are removed, they apply a combo deficit of 10 to the attacker.
I could go on about how many champions’ defensive abilities can easily be rendered unfair and unbalanced.
Anyway, thank you for reading. I hope Kabam reevaluates what they’ve been doing with regard to recent champions' defensive abilities. And I hope they reconsider Serpent’s rebalance decision.
