In League of Legends, players die too quickly. This is what many pros see as the main balancing problem in LoL. The lead gameplay designer of LoL said now on Saturday, the 30.4.: One had probably really overdone it there. In the next few weeks, they want to talk about how to reduce the speed in combat again.

What is the biggest problem in LoL? As the biggest problem in LoL, many experts and players see for years a kind of “ping-pong” in the life bars:

• The damage in League of Legends is so high that players go from full health to 0 health and die in an instant – There is no way to react
• To compensate for the high damage and for “healing” to do anything in LoL, healing is also extremely powerful: people can just heal themselves back up from “almost dead” to full health in seconds via “life drain” in LoL

Doublelift already voiced this criticism a year ago: “In general, this is a view that many people share: League of Legends has, in their eyes, generally “become too fast.”

Riot wants to slow down “fights” in LoL

This is what the developers are saying now: In a recent discussion on reddit about whether to increase the “time to kill”, Bryan “CatchesAxes” Salvatore, the lead gameplay designer, speaks out. He is exactly the man who is responsible for something like this.

We believe in League of Legends being at its best when it’s fast and exciting on average, but yes, we think it’s fair to say we’ve shifted the balance too much towards damage: It depresses visibility (“I can’t tell what just killed me/I can’t tell what I should have done differently”) and it depresses how you can show off your skill (“The mage/assassin used all his kit, so he deserves the kill.”).

Bryan “CatchesAxes” Salvatore, Lead Gameplay Designer of LoL, Riot Games

Glass cannons must kill in 2 seconds or they are useless

What is the problem? The lead game designer explains why it’s so tricky with damage. You can’t just say, “Well, now everyone’s doing half as much damage.”

There would be some “Glass Cannon” champions that need to kill quickly or they are just useless. This is true of Kai’Sa, for example, who has to be able to knock out backline champions in 2 seconds or she’s “worthless” because she falls over without doing anything.

The problem, however, is champions like Nocturne, Veigar, Kayn, Cassiopeia, Vayne, and others who can build tank items and still one-shot or “one-combo” ADCs.

Anyone who can kill a character with one combo would also have to be “Glass Cannon” and basically just wear paper for the “risk vs. reward” formula to fit, Salvatore said.

So you’ll be targeting mostly “Tank Bruisers” and mages that you consider too tanky.

Riot wants to emphasize “risk vs. reward” more in balancing

Here’s what’s behind it: The statement of the lead gameplay designer now causes uncertainty for many, whether it will hit their champion and how exactly the changes affect the gameplay.

Here Riot did not yet want to look into the cards, how to change the balance well.

However, the designer made it clear once again how he envisions the balance: You can deal out an extreme amount of damage with a champion, but then you also have to live with the fact that you can’t take anything yourself.

The lead gameplay designer sees the problem in the champions who deal too much damage and are still too stable.

In the last few months, Riot has repeatedly tried to tinker with the balance:

LoL announces systemic changes to the meta to solve a major problem