My issues with Spiderwoman nerf and broader issue with Rebalancing and Attributes
I know there's already a lot of discussion going on about the Spiderwoman rebalancing and I probably shouldn't start another discussion on the same issue. But the point of this post is to analyze not only Spiderwoman but the Rebalance program and champion attributes in general, and hopefully give some ideas and feedback to the devs.
My Issues with Spiderwoman's Rebalance
For full disclosure, I have a rank4 Spiderwoman so offcourse I don't like seeing her get nerfed. But I knew this was a possibility when I ranked her up. I'm not gonna call it a scam or demand compensation. It is what it is. My real issue is with the changes made and the way they were presented.
First, they acknowledge she does not need retuning offensively, only defensively. There's some ways to do this without nerfing her on offense, 1. Remove/reduce duration of fumble 2. Don't trigger power stings through block, etc. Instead, they remove her ensnare which is also an offensive utility.
Personally, I rarely used her as an evade counter and preferred okoye, fury, medusa etc. This mostly lines up with the rebalance post saying "We haven’t seen Spider-Woman need a solution to Evade across her matchup spread." But, if some player used her as an evade counter and ranked her up for that utility, their matchup spread for spiderwoman suffered. Just because I didn't use her one way doesn't mean it's true for everyone else. Removing ensnare completely feels excessive and definitely nerfs her BOTH offensively and defensively.
My issues with Champion Attributes
According to the rebalance post she is overperforming for a 3.5/5 defender. But look at Jean or Lumatrix which are both listed at 3/5 defense, lower than spiderwoman and recently went unadjusted through rebalance. Most people would agree these are annoying defenders too but the rebalance team found no issues with them.
The big issue with attributes is that they can be very inconsistent and sometimes lack context. Simplest example is corvus and aegon both 5/5 in damage perform vastly differently depending on long form or short form content. Onslaught is a 5/5 defender but dark phoenix is 4.5 who i'd argue is tougher. Similarly, Spiderwoman could be outperforming a 4/5 defender but it would not automatically result in a nerf. They might use attributes to support their argument or ignore them completely. Nico is a 4/5 defender but I doubt she will get a defensive buff that makes her harder than jean or lumatrix. Ultimately, I dont think these attributes made the desired impact of giving players a rough idea about a champ's rebalancing if this was the original idea.
My issues with Rebalancing Program
There was a concern among the playerbase when the program first started that it will make new champion releases unreliable and susceptible to frequent nerfs or changes later on. Thankfully, most champions remained unchanged and few got some much needed buffs. Sometimes, players even wanted nerfs like the serpent situation. Whatever nerfs were made were pretty reasonable and minor like abs man not regening beyond his current health, bullseye's bleed nerf. This spiderwoman change was the first weird change. If the goal was to nerf her defensively only then I've already discussed better ways to do that. If the actual reason is that ensnare is a powerful offensive utility for her and they wanted it removed, then say it as is. This misdirection only fuels the fire, if they backed up the action with the real reason, it would still be taken negatively but atleast it would be understandable. That's my only hope for rebalance team, if they wanna take unpopular decisions, just be upfront about the reasoning. Either way, you're not avoiding pissing off players about a nerf.
Sorry for the long rant
tl;dr - Spiderwoman's nerf wasn't only defensive but offensive too
Champ attributes are inconsistent and shouldn't be used to justify changes.
Rebalance team should be more upfront about why they make changes instead of potentially misdirecting.
