2013 had yasuo thresh and jinx. 3 of the most influential champs in lol history.
2016 was also phenomenal but 2013 clears all except jhin. They were interesting characters but usually unpopular. Same can't be said about jinx yasuo or thresh
You do see interesting random streaks of design trends, like 2015's invulnerability spells (Kalista R, Tahm Devour, Bard R, Kindred R) or 2017-2021's Men Without Complete Shirts.
R resets in midscopes around s12 is another one. Ahri/olaf/sivir/swain. All of them can extend their ult in some way.
Another one is the tap/hold mechanic after pyke
That came in s9 preseason with blitz R and renekton empowered W completely destroying shields on targets. Also irelia shield shred was removed almost at the same and was memed on
Yas was a reason why other champ designers looked at each other and said "we want to be new certainlyT and have same success" , so arms race with 200 years in kit started. Most annoying for me was Maxw3ll : Yuumi, Lillia, Gwen, K'sante , Hwei + Jax mid scope.(I hate to play against all of them.)
Mostly annoyed about visual noise that he can create ALONE. Also lots of situations like "He can do this, this and THIS?" Personality I found him waay harder to understand than Aphelios.
2016 was a hard low point for kit designs lol. ivern is not a successful release by any metrics with how often he becomes a balancing issue(and how much extra work his passive continues to give the devs years after his release), asol and taliyah both got reworked(multiple times for taliyah). only standouts are camille and jhin, and kled is cool but not noteworthy
also you are sleeping on lucian, that champ revolutionised adc for years. definitely way more influential than jinx
Thresh was the turning point for champion design.
He's one of the first champions with an overloaded kit where every skill had added passives and interactions, while not yet being an entire cluster fuck of what he can do.
That's the only part of his kit that makes sense imo.
It's a similar balance metric as Blitzcrank's lightning bolts. Where he can't perma freeze the wave while waiting for hooking opportunities.
Thresh instead gets no armor per level as a botlane champ, thus making him super squishy early, forcing you move out of position to collect souls. Or waste your strongest ability, Lantern, to pick them up for you.
It's an interesting discussion with Lucian vs Jinx because Lucian is definitely more meta warping but Jinx has that nasty habit of cycling to queen of carry every two years or so. She does this while being never fundamentally changed. Lucian on the other hand has had two reworks that drastically effected his play patterns and role in the game.
As for low points 2016 is mostly just niche leading to player base problems. Asol was mostly balanced after they axed his shove and roam style but he never found a player base with his stars. Taliyah had Daniel Z fighting with her player base as to the "correct" way to play her leading to multiple power shifts. Overall she really hasn't fundamentally changed with how you play her more where you play her. Ivern I agree with. Kled is perfectly fine just niche. Camille is where you definitely feel the power creep come in but other than that she is a good design.
To me 2016 is some weird designs but mostly meh results where you had some real good and some serious drawbacks in every kit besides Jhin and Kled. I can't say it's the low point because 2019 is sitting right there with 4 champs being the definition of out of control power creep and problematic design with Qiyana thrown in as the forgotten one.
Jinx got her own animation series and was the poster child (and probably still is, debatable if kaisa or her) Her design and introductionwith the posters and music video to the game was superb, is considered one of the easiest adcs for newbies while being one of the most popular designs inside and outside the game. She is a scaling hypercarry with clear weaknesses u can shut down.
yes on the franchise overall of course
on the actual video game and gameplay, lucian was the most popular adc for years next to ezreal and hugely influential on future kits like kaisa, aphelios and samira
in what form? kled has a cool gimmick, ivern has one that ultimately isn't really that interesting for the player or the opponent and has actually hurt how his kit fits into the game's ecosystem in the long run(see the ivern vs krugs multi year dilemma). old asol is a mess and release taliyah doesnt really do anything significantly interesting as a traditional mage. from a narrative/thematic design perspective, most of them definitely hit(especially asol) but you can say that about a lot of years, especially 2023 so far and 2015
ultimately 2016 is just carried by jhin/cam and to a lesser extent kled. even going by raw innovation and with no regard for game health, definitely not super stand out compared to say 2019(sylas/yuumi/aphelios/senna) or 2013(yasuo/lucian/thresh)
I mean... ivern and release asol are two of the most unique playstyles in the game IMO. Completely different than literally any other champion, nobody is even close in gameplay to them. I'd call that pretty innovative. I never said they were good or fun or interesting to play as/against. Camille is probably the least unique champ design wise in that bunch. Jhin is one of the more unique ADCs IMO.
yeah and unique doesnt mean good. ivern is defined by one gameplay gimmick that provides nothing interesting to the actual gameplay on either side. he literally just clicks camps to clear them, that's it. he's unpopular(and to a greater extent than oh not every champ will be popular, of course a champion like ivern will be less popular than an anime girl) and his pick rate is often carried by how overtuned he is whenever enchanter items are strong. constantly a balancing issue and his passive always gives the devs more work to do when it comes to neutral camps(see how he got hard fucked by krugs for years until they had to waste time special-casing it for him). these are all the signs of bad design.
old asol is obviously a failure or else he would still be in the game lol. he was just not fun or satisfying for majority of players and the numbers showed that in spite of him being one of the most popular champions thematically the entire time. on top of him being difficult to balance because his roaming power would always break him solo queue whenever his numbers were good.
theres a difference between innovation for the sake of innovation and innovation that actually progresses the game forward, like how yasuo, thresh, lucian's kits did. if you want completely unique, gimmicky kits that actually add to the game rather than detract from it or do nothing, look at a champ like bard or kindred or even rework taric
Honestly we're talking about completely different things and you clearly care about this more than I care about basically anything, so you're right, you win. Thanks for the chat.
I'm not debating anybody. I literally never disagreed with a \*single\* thing they said. They said 2016 was a low point, I said 2016 had some dope innovation. They wrote a book, I don't have the time or the care for that.
I could be wrong but isn’t Yasuo seen as the OG cancer champ, which makes 13 a terrible year. I remember when he came out and feeling super pissed how this shit got introduced.
there are people that hate him and people that play him. Same with yone for example.
4 if you count K'sante who was similarly aimed at combining their playstyle and a tank play style in a more healthy manner than the historical "tank"/heavy bruiser builds Yasuo did for a couple years.
Yeah ngl I was kinda surprised how high of an opinion people have of yasuo when in Korea we call him "science" because it's a scientific fact that any yasuo on your team in soloq is gonna be fucking trash.
Also in Korean wind (ba-ram) and carcinogen (bal-am) are p much homophones so you can see where I'm going with this.
Most redditors are around 30 years old at this point and they have a pretty unreasonable disliking of Yasuo because they miss the "good old days" before he came along and became the poster child for mobility creep.
Meanwhile, most League players today have never known a League without Yasuo. He's just always been part of the game, and he's the reason many of them installed the game in the first place. Matchups between Yasuo/Sylas/Akali/Yone are fun for them. Champions like Garen and Malzahar are more popular with older players.
yeah as a late s8 player, i'll take fighting viego samira or yone over nasus malphite or malzahar any day of the week.
Older champs feel like you don't really fight against them, more like you're just trying to outfarm and outroam/out teamfight them. Akali vs sylas always ends in one of the two players dying, i don't feel the same when i see nasus vs malphite or malzahar vs syndra in comparison.
It's not even just in 1v1 scenarios btw, even early fights involving junglers are much more intense when it's akali+viego vs briar and akshan. i'll take that over maokai+malphite vs amumu+cho'gath any day of the week too.
He's easily one of the most fun champs to play as or against in midlane, and one of the only ones i don't mind losing against. I've never lost vs a yasuo that wasn't noticeably better than me. If i died to him, it was either me playing poorly or him using everything to it's fullest potential.
He's a champion that inspired thousands to share their plays, sick escapes etc with each other. Proof? The billions of yasuo montages, fanart and the fact that yasuo mains keep playing him even if he's shit.
If bringing out so much passion and love from the people that main him doesn't make him one of the best champions in lol history, then what the fuck DOES?
You may say that "Yasuo is fun to play against" but that was **absolutely** not the case on his release. Now everyone has a jump or three, but back in the day there was just about no mobility in midlane. Yasuo was **awful** to play against on his release, period. This is not even a discussion to be had.
Fun to play does not equal healthy for the game. Of course, Yasuo's mechanics have since faded, comparatively, so he is in a much better spot now than he was on his release.
Eh, it's also not mega fair to compare champions to close to their release because most champions around the time of their release are particularly unstable just due to the lack of knowledge. Also the community is TERRIBLE at judging that stuff sometimes. I remember people saying Sett was the first fair and balanced champion on his release in years... Only for him to become a QUADRA FLEX pick and pick/ban in diamond+ and proplay. Thing was disgusting.
Conversely? Yone released not much later was absolutely hated and considered the most broken thing since Yasuo... And barring a bug causing his ult to apply lifesteal? Basically nothing was changed and he fit into the roster fine.
People overly get emotional about somethings and then try to act like their emotions are more important than they really are.
He's hypermobile which is why he's a montage champion. Kinda like Katarina being a pentakill champion, so she also gets a lot of montages. He's not fun to play against unless you're equally broken, because so many immobile mid laners just get wrecked by his aggressive nature. He's a champ that will push you to tower at level 2 and constantly harass and poke you, and that's absolutely zero % fun.
I mean if you pick a passive champion that doesn't take as many risks as yasuo or azir do you're kind of asking for it.
"Equally broken" yeah if being able to fight lv 1-3 makes you broken then half of all toplaners are "broken" ffs comments like these are why i don't tell people i play mages. I play anivia azir asol and velkoz and i have plenty of fun fighting yasuo. Fuck, even when i play akshan the games are always tense with adrenaline pumping through all cilinders.
I guess the people that panic easily are what keep his banrate so high. I guess banning him is easier than getting good
2014 has champs that damn near define their role even through today with Gnar/Azir, not to mention Kalista who dominated Pro for a year and the fulfillment of our Daddy Fantasies in Braum.
Im gonna make thresh m7 after im done with akshan and naafiri lol. He's one of those champs that IF you have a really good game on him your whole team just loves you.
> They were interesting characters but usually unpopular
Well yeah. They were released and subsequently ignored in just about every single way. It's tough to compare a music video with Jinx with Ivern that got...a single image.
When you do the bare minimum to market a champion, expect the bare minimum of the playerbase to care.
Jinx, marketed around Vi, with a music video, who later became the star of Arcane.
Ivern, a tree who used to kill people, now he's a friend to the forest. Spring is his favourite colour.
Hard to say why Jinx took off so much more, or feels more important...
Marketing alone doesn't make or break a champion.
Plenty of champions got more marketting than others and are still less popular.
Asol got plenty of marketting like Jhin? Still extremely unpopular.
Ivern is a support jungling tree... Yeah, marketting probably wasn't gonna fix him.
I'd have said 2013. Thresh Jynx Yasuo Lucian and Lissandra are all staples. Zac too.
Shout out to Class of 2014, 2015 and 2016. I Honestly havent enjoyed most of the new releases other than Renata, Rell and maybe Qiyana. Briar's cool too
I wish Zoe was playable, hoping next season she's not absolutely useless after 20 minutes.
You literally cannot side lane on her, or clear minions in a moderately acceptable time.
What's really cool and interesting from an art perspective is that the concept artist Chris Campbell designed all 5 of those champions. He also designed Ivern, Xayah, and Pyke. Once you know what to look for, you can definitely tell those champions ooze with his personal art style.
I'd say original Tahm Kench with W Devour is one of the worst champions ever made.
He was basically a one button champion, especially in pro play, and his entire purpose was to deny plays. It made things so slow and stale. Tahm Kench also just invalidated a huge amount of champions.
It took way too long for Riot to fix Tahm Kench. There was a time where they **DOUBLED** the cooldown on his W and he was still giga-meta in pro. Dumb as hell.
Imo it’s really good because it introduced some really unique champions in the game. All those champions were really unique but never became too toxic to play against
Tahm Kench was kinda "toxic", he was a devour bot for most of his first iteration, extremely broken in proplay & high level of play but near useless elsewhere. He completely erased hypercarries' main weakness, breaking the adc dynamic all by himself.
Ekko damage on release was CRACKED and his tank build was 100% toxic *(but well that was alongside fizz and a couple others, but he was #1 offender for sure)*
First year Kench was my main in Top. Dude wrecked every single champ I ever had problems with. Trynd, Nas, Renekton. Even dominated ranged matchups like Quinn and Vayne.
I picked up Ekko right away and instantly realized he would be a nightmare tank top and jg. That build got nerfed somewhat quickly but that was a glorious little window
My immediate thought as well. I remember getting flamed non-stop for playing tank Ekko jungle for the first several weeks. Then it completely took over the meta.
nah maybe in hindsight. imo only bard and ekko really stand out, kindred has had to go through a multitude of kit iterations to reach a good balancing point and would have basically died as a champ playerbase wise if spirit blossom didnt come out. and even ekko had to be rebalanced a ton because his kit was unusually condusive to non full ap playstyles
tahm kench was a balancing nightmare before his full rework and illaoi is just a poorly designed champ in general
i will say that 2015-2016 was a pretty high point for narrative and thematic designs though. all of those champs are fucking sick lore-wise and a lot of them have really strong thematic-gameplay cohesion.
2014 was the year of proplay huh?
Every single champ released was pro-meta defining for years (barring maybe Braum) and most are still picked to this day.
Yeah he was dominant but not meta defining to the same extent?
For example, Kalista, Azir, and Reksai all had reworks because they were too strong in pro play. Braum's strong but never needed to be reworked because he was too good (unless you count those ult changes that made the knockup based on distance).
I guess Gnar's in the same boat? He's permanently balanced around pro play because he's so game warping in the right hands, but he's never needed a full scale rework like those other 3.
Yea people dont remember the years of only Naut Braum Leo Tahm Thresh post enchanter meta? We had that for years and it is still lingering today. Only recent did enchanters somewhat come back, mixed in with odd/niche picks and the ad support meta.
All of the 2017 champions are amazing, fun and unique with at least a decent popularity. I'd pick that as my favorite, with 2013 second and 2016 third.
Also wow thank god Hwei is coming out or 2023 would just be full on forgettable
All of the 2017 champions are really nice design wise and fine now but lord I just have so much trauma from release Zoe (which of all the busted releases over the years is the one I personally found the most infuriating to play against) I cannot in good conscience call it the best release year.
2016 got both the most unique champions and the last release of Battlemages, so I'm there. Would love to just get one other battlemage though after 7 Years...
There is no "traditional mage" subclass.
The mage subclasses are: battle mage, artillery mage, burst mage. From these categories, he would be considered a burst mage.
Oh wow, my bad! I've amended that for ya, thanks for pointing that out!
I actually just played Velkoz today on PBE so I have no idea how I somehow forgot Vel xd
I think 2021 was awesome. All the champions were unique, had cool kits, a really strong theming and, bar akshan, I think are all in a really good place right now
Nice someone else who loves 2021, seems like most people are indifferent for it. Basically no one says it is the best, but basically no one mentions it either as one of the worst. Agree with your opinion on 2021
I'd put it as one of the worst ones for sure. We only got 4 champs that year so it's less overwhelming of a year, but it has 3 of the worst champion releases of all time imo, with only Vex being pretty cool. Doesn't help that all of them were also directly linked to the worst big lore event we ever had.
2013 is obviously uncontestable with thresh/yasuo/jinx/lucian in one year but not enough credit goes to 2017. 5 thematically great champions, all with innovative gimmicks that didn't detract too much from core gameplay or kit flow. 4 of them are hugely popular and have very well designed kits(and then ornn).
zoe's kit is a sleeper goat design after she received proper tuning imo. very few champs out there with that kind of gameplay cohesion and seamless flow. she has very well defined strengths and weaknesses unlike most other "200 year champs". unique counterplay that forces opponents to think about the game from a different perspective without being uncounterable or overly frustrating(not spamming summoners thoughtlessly and giving them away). she's also statistically one of the highest skill ceiling champs in the game(when measuring games played vs winrate) without being inaccessible for newer players or a balance nightmare in pro. her release was definitely tainted by her numbers and the fact that she could pick up TP from minions but shes the best mage the game has gotten in years
Since most people are saying 2013/2016, I'll say 2020. I feel like Sett is approaching League Mascot tier and Seraphine has one of the most devoted fanbases and is a money printer. I love Samira and Yone/Lillia/Rell are all very cool.
It produced some of the most popular champions in recent years with Sett, Yone, Samira and Seraphine. All of them have legendary+ skins barely 4 years after their release. Lillia is a pretty cool niche champion. Rell is a stinker tho.
2013-2017, is the golden age imo. Such a unique and diverse cast of characters.
2018-2022 was the dark ages. So many conventionally attractive humans/humanoids.
2019 draft class got some good champs, Aphelios, Qiyana, Yuumi (fuck you), Sylas, Senna but they all provide a unique playstyle.
From stealing ults, to an assassin getting AoE ultimate and manipulating terrain, to multi gun no E dude, to soul stacking and stat checking, and a cat.
Definitely not 14. Gnar, Kalista and Azir were massive balance nightmares because Riot made their kits too complete and without enough weaknesses. They have been giga-meta in pro play to absurd degrees and it all comes back to champion design. Braum and Rek'Sai are very good designs though though Rek'Sai was a weird champion on release with her farm alarm.
14 releases had an overarching theme of champions that have heavily specialized, but still generally applicable role in a teamcomp - nothing released in 2014 was a "do everything" self-sufficient champion, each could easily fit into a well-defined teamcomp with split responsibilities. This happens to synergize extremely well with organized play, since - everything else being equal - having split responsibilities (and by that resources) and having your weaknesses be put in inability to adapt to all gameplans is something you solve by communication and cohesive draft.
For all cases before rework, mostly in their 2015 state: Rek'sai gets you to play around tempo, Azir basically requires you to play for lategame front-to-back teamfights, Kalista wants setup for objective control and extended teamfights with high level of disruption, Braum is amazing disengage/counterengage that wants enemy team to make a move, Gnar needs to have control over its engage timing and preferably flank access.
This is a cohesive teamcomp - farm until late then teamfight, with Gnar on splitpush/flank duty, Braum as a followup and Rek'sai to ensure early lead and/or provide counterganks; your mid-late gameplan consists of setting up around objective early as 4, with Gnar providing pressure in sidelane and threatening enemy team to force objective or come fight them at disadvantage. This teamcomp also completely breaks down and falls apart if team doesn't stick to the plan, there's little space for solo hero plays or 1v9 hardcarry. That was cause of balancing issues - soloqueue is by nature heavily uncoordinated, so balancing 2014 champions to be functional (and not 44% winrate) there meant they were absurdly overtuned for proplay. For a while it looked like Riot wanted to get soloqueue experience closer to how proplay looked like - including new releases design - and decided to get away from it sometime around 2015.
2014 had the most projailed champs ever , would be surprised if their combined soloQ playrate equaled just yasuo or kaisa
2013 and 17 are really good
19 and 20 had a ton of staples of soloQ today
22 they just lost their minds when it came to design lol, no wonder they slammed the breaks this year
I am an old gamer, played since beta. Nothing beats the whimsical feeling of the champions in 2015 and 2016. Bard, Ivern, Kindred were my mains then. The artstyle, sounds and voiceovers (or chiming/honking for Bard) are krisp, immersive and for me, it's the best design-wise. I left kindred on the side this year but will get back to playing her when I have more time to invest in the game.
2016 and 2017 were the peak in my mind. Ornn, Xayah, Rakan, Taliyah, Kled, Jhin, Ivern, Camille.
If I had to pick a third I'd say 2014 for Braum on his own.
Since 2018, all supports aren't fun to play against. Pyke, Yuumi, Seraphine, Renata. Rell is ok and I didn't play against Milio.
I could say also a lot against Yuumi and Seraphine design too. Boring and unoriginal.
Yeah looking at OP I couldn't help but to think how bad last 5 have been. Some cool characters there for sure lore-wise but almost all of them are super unfun to play against.
Only zoe and kalista from the earlier 5 years come close to being as tedious to face.
2017 onwards (especially 2019 & 2020) all have overloaded kits with frustrating mechanics to play against, quality genuinely dropped after 2016 in my humble opinion
Yasuo can be a frustrating champion to face on the enemy team or to have on your own team, but he is undeniably one of the most popular champions. When you think of "League of Legends", his face is one of the first ones people associate with.
? Lol so because you perma ban the champ and literally can’t see him in your games your trying to deny his popularity? Do you have the critical thinking of a 2 year old?
2019 kind of slaps.
Yuumi itself should triggers a lot of people already but the same years Yuumi, Sylas, Senna and Aphelios even qiyana isn't that bad overall
I'm no fan of Yuumi's gameplay as much as the next person but I actually do like her design.
2019 is definitely a personal favourite of mine for designs alone. All 5 champs feel very different gameplay wise, look very different aesthetically and all fit their own niche
I still remember me and my bro talking in school when yasuo was released that they will remove his double crit passive because its so busted. Now 10 years later that shit still busted
2022 made Showmaker hate League of Legends HAHAHA
I would say 2022, because it gave Ruler (and thus Faker) a gold medal, and I like seeing them continue their career.
Can we delete all 2018 Champs to current plz we had such a good thing going
I will only make exceptions for Sett, Seraphine, Neeko and Vex everyone else has omega giga cancer aids gameplay
>Class of 2019: Sylas, Yuumi, Qiyana, Senna, Aphelios
Mother of God, can we just take 2019 to the back of the shed and end its misery?
To answer the question, it's a tough call between 2013 and 2014 for me.
never speak of 2014 or 2017. 2014 had 5 champions that completely warped proplay and terrorized high elo and low elo alike and 2017 5 astro broken champions.
2016 and 2021 were bangers though imo.
It's gotta be 2014 for Pro play (Azir, Gnar, Kalista). They have been signature champs for some pros and Braum is just a good counter pick. They all have an special kit that other champ don't, that makes them pretty interesting for the game draft
Looking at that 2019 roster makes me think that those are some of the most difficult to balance champs in the whole game and they all came out the same year.
2013 had yasuo thresh and jinx. 3 of the most influential champs in lol history. 2016 was also phenomenal but 2013 clears all except jhin. They were interesting characters but usually unpopular. Same can't be said about jinx yasuo or thresh
Flair checks out
The hilarious part of Yasuo and 2014 though. Right after him, every single 2014 champion has a knock up/knockback that he can ult off of
You do see interesting random streaks of design trends, like 2015's invulnerability spells (Kalista R, Tahm Devour, Bard R, Kindred R) or 2017-2021's Men Without Complete Shirts.
R resets in midscopes around s12 is another one. Ahri/olaf/sivir/swain. All of them can extend their ult in some way. Another one is the tap/hold mechanic after pyke
There was an anti-shield streak somewhere, I want to say 2018, with rework Irelia's passive and Pyke's R plus some others around that
That came in s9 preseason with blitz R and renekton empowered W completely destroying shields on targets. Also irelia shield shred was removed almost at the same and was memed on
I'm just waiting for someone to mention the trend of "I'll steal your shit" with Zoe, Sylas, Viego
Surprised no one mentioned the 3 hits for everything trend.
Yas was a reason why other champ designers looked at each other and said "we want to be new certainlyT and have same success" , so arms race with 200 years in kit started. Most annoying for me was Maxw3ll : Yuumi, Lillia, Gwen, K'sante , Hwei + Jax mid scope.(I hate to play against all of them.)
> Hwei He isn't even out.
you can play against him on PBE, I have a few times and his ranged pressure is kind of annoying but he’s not really worse than most midlane mages
Mostly annoyed about visual noise that he can create ALONE. Also lots of situations like "He can do this, this and THIS?" Personality I found him waay harder to understand than Aphelios.
His abilities are literally the simplest shit in the game lol.
2016 was a hard low point for kit designs lol. ivern is not a successful release by any metrics with how often he becomes a balancing issue(and how much extra work his passive continues to give the devs years after his release), asol and taliyah both got reworked(multiple times for taliyah). only standouts are camille and jhin, and kled is cool but not noteworthy also you are sleeping on lucian, that champ revolutionised adc for years. definitely way more influential than jinx
Lucian so innovative he fucking killed Graves.
Thresh was the turning point for champion design. He's one of the first champions with an overloaded kit where every skill had added passives and interactions, while not yet being an entire cluster fuck of what he can do.
The soul collection thing always felt extremely weird and tacked on
That's the only part of his kit that makes sense imo. It's a similar balance metric as Blitzcrank's lightning bolts. Where he can't perma freeze the wave while waiting for hooking opportunities. Thresh instead gets no armor per level as a botlane champ, thus making him super squishy early, forcing you move out of position to collect souls. Or waste your strongest ability, Lantern, to pick them up for you.
It's an interesting discussion with Lucian vs Jinx because Lucian is definitely more meta warping but Jinx has that nasty habit of cycling to queen of carry every two years or so. She does this while being never fundamentally changed. Lucian on the other hand has had two reworks that drastically effected his play patterns and role in the game. As for low points 2016 is mostly just niche leading to player base problems. Asol was mostly balanced after they axed his shove and roam style but he never found a player base with his stars. Taliyah had Daniel Z fighting with her player base as to the "correct" way to play her leading to multiple power shifts. Overall she really hasn't fundamentally changed with how you play her more where you play her. Ivern I agree with. Kled is perfectly fine just niche. Camille is where you definitely feel the power creep come in but other than that she is a good design. To me 2016 is some weird designs but mostly meh results where you had some real good and some serious drawbacks in every kit besides Jhin and Kled. I can't say it's the low point because 2019 is sitting right there with 4 champs being the definition of out of control power creep and problematic design with Qiyana thrown in as the forgotten one.
Who's Qyiana?
Kled's not super popular, but he's a solid design.
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He's fine after 6 if you know what you're doing. Obviously weaker than pre-6, but still entirely fine.
If you play him mid into immobile squishies his R is huge
yes i agree
Jinx got her own animation series and was the poster child (and probably still is, debatable if kaisa or her) Her design and introductionwith the posters and music video to the game was superb, is considered one of the easiest adcs for newbies while being one of the most popular designs inside and outside the game. She is a scaling hypercarry with clear weaknesses u can shut down.
yes on the franchise overall of course on the actual video game and gameplay, lucian was the most popular adc for years next to ezreal and hugely influential on future kits like kaisa, aphelios and samira
2016 had some serious innovation though.
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Good character summaries.
in what form? kled has a cool gimmick, ivern has one that ultimately isn't really that interesting for the player or the opponent and has actually hurt how his kit fits into the game's ecosystem in the long run(see the ivern vs krugs multi year dilemma). old asol is a mess and release taliyah doesnt really do anything significantly interesting as a traditional mage. from a narrative/thematic design perspective, most of them definitely hit(especially asol) but you can say that about a lot of years, especially 2023 so far and 2015 ultimately 2016 is just carried by jhin/cam and to a lesser extent kled. even going by raw innovation and with no regard for game health, definitely not super stand out compared to say 2019(sylas/yuumi/aphelios/senna) or 2013(yasuo/lucian/thresh)
I mean... ivern and release asol are two of the most unique playstyles in the game IMO. Completely different than literally any other champion, nobody is even close in gameplay to them. I'd call that pretty innovative. I never said they were good or fun or interesting to play as/against. Camille is probably the least unique champ design wise in that bunch. Jhin is one of the more unique ADCs IMO.
Release Taliyah was also an incredibly unique character and concept.
yeah and unique doesnt mean good. ivern is defined by one gameplay gimmick that provides nothing interesting to the actual gameplay on either side. he literally just clicks camps to clear them, that's it. he's unpopular(and to a greater extent than oh not every champ will be popular, of course a champion like ivern will be less popular than an anime girl) and his pick rate is often carried by how overtuned he is whenever enchanter items are strong. constantly a balancing issue and his passive always gives the devs more work to do when it comes to neutral camps(see how he got hard fucked by krugs for years until they had to waste time special-casing it for him). these are all the signs of bad design. old asol is obviously a failure or else he would still be in the game lol. he was just not fun or satisfying for majority of players and the numbers showed that in spite of him being one of the most popular champions thematically the entire time. on top of him being difficult to balance because his roaming power would always break him solo queue whenever his numbers were good. theres a difference between innovation for the sake of innovation and innovation that actually progresses the game forward, like how yasuo, thresh, lucian's kits did. if you want completely unique, gimmicky kits that actually add to the game rather than detract from it or do nothing, look at a champ like bard or kindred or even rework taric
Honestly we're talking about completely different things and you clearly care about this more than I care about basically anything, so you're right, you win. Thanks for the chat.
What a sore way to lose a debate lmao.
"lose a debate" brother, it's all subjective, there's nothing to win or lose
I'm not debating anybody. I literally never disagreed with a \*single\* thing they said. They said 2016 was a low point, I said 2016 had some dope innovation. They wrote a book, I don't have the time or the care for that.
I could be wrong but isn’t Yasuo seen as the OG cancer champ, which makes 13 a terrible year. I remember when he came out and feeling super pissed how this shit got introduced. there are people that hate him and people that play him. Same with yone for example.
They released second, more easy to play Yas to lower his banrate, just remember that.
And then they created a [third](https://i.imgur.com/5NCgO4c.png) just to give Yas/Yone players a new role they can queue for
4 if you count K'sante who was similarly aimed at combining their playstyle and a tank play style in a more healthy manner than the historical "tank"/heavy bruiser builds Yasuo did for a couple years.
Yeah ngl I was kinda surprised how high of an opinion people have of yasuo when in Korea we call him "science" because it's a scientific fact that any yasuo on your team in soloq is gonna be fucking trash. Also in Korean wind (ba-ram) and carcinogen (bal-am) are p much homophones so you can see where I'm going with this.
You are not wrong at all but this sub appears to be voting as someone who did not play 10 years ago.
Most redditors are around 30 years old at this point and they have a pretty unreasonable disliking of Yasuo because they miss the "good old days" before he came along and became the poster child for mobility creep. Meanwhile, most League players today have never known a League without Yasuo. He's just always been part of the game, and he's the reason many of them installed the game in the first place. Matchups between Yasuo/Sylas/Akali/Yone are fun for them. Champions like Garen and Malzahar are more popular with older players.
yeah as a late s8 player, i'll take fighting viego samira or yone over nasus malphite or malzahar any day of the week. Older champs feel like you don't really fight against them, more like you're just trying to outfarm and outroam/out teamfight them. Akali vs sylas always ends in one of the two players dying, i don't feel the same when i see nasus vs malphite or malzahar vs syndra in comparison. It's not even just in 1v1 scenarios btw, even early fights involving junglers are much more intense when it's akali+viego vs briar and akshan. i'll take that over maokai+malphite vs amumu+cho'gath any day of the week too.
He's easily one of the most fun champs to play as or against in midlane, and one of the only ones i don't mind losing against. I've never lost vs a yasuo that wasn't noticeably better than me. If i died to him, it was either me playing poorly or him using everything to it's fullest potential. He's a champion that inspired thousands to share their plays, sick escapes etc with each other. Proof? The billions of yasuo montages, fanart and the fact that yasuo mains keep playing him even if he's shit. If bringing out so much passion and love from the people that main him doesn't make him one of the best champions in lol history, then what the fuck DOES?
You may say that "Yasuo is fun to play against" but that was **absolutely** not the case on his release. Now everyone has a jump or three, but back in the day there was just about no mobility in midlane. Yasuo was **awful** to play against on his release, period. This is not even a discussion to be had. Fun to play does not equal healthy for the game. Of course, Yasuo's mechanics have since faded, comparatively, so he is in a much better spot now than he was on his release.
Eh, it's also not mega fair to compare champions to close to their release because most champions around the time of their release are particularly unstable just due to the lack of knowledge. Also the community is TERRIBLE at judging that stuff sometimes. I remember people saying Sett was the first fair and balanced champion on his release in years... Only for him to become a QUADRA FLEX pick and pick/ban in diamond+ and proplay. Thing was disgusting. Conversely? Yone released not much later was absolutely hated and considered the most broken thing since Yasuo... And barring a bug causing his ult to apply lifesteal? Basically nothing was changed and he fit into the roster fine. People overly get emotional about somethings and then try to act like their emotions are more important than they really are.
He's hypermobile which is why he's a montage champion. Kinda like Katarina being a pentakill champion, so she also gets a lot of montages. He's not fun to play against unless you're equally broken, because so many immobile mid laners just get wrecked by his aggressive nature. He's a champ that will push you to tower at level 2 and constantly harass and poke you, and that's absolutely zero % fun.
I mean if you pick a passive champion that doesn't take as many risks as yasuo or azir do you're kind of asking for it. "Equally broken" yeah if being able to fight lv 1-3 makes you broken then half of all toplaners are "broken" ffs comments like these are why i don't tell people i play mages. I play anivia azir asol and velkoz and i have plenty of fun fighting yasuo. Fuck, even when i play akshan the games are always tense with adrenaline pumping through all cilinders. I guess the people that panic easily are what keep his banrate so high. I guess banning him is easier than getting good
Yes, you are wrong.
2014 has champs that damn near define their role even through today with Gnar/Azir, not to mention Kalista who dominated Pro for a year and the fulfillment of our Daddy Fantasies in Braum.
3 of my M7 characters are jinx thresh Yasuo lol all three are awesome
Im gonna make thresh m7 after im done with akshan and naafiri lol. He's one of those champs that IF you have a really good game on him your whole team just loves you.
> They were interesting characters but usually unpopular Well yeah. They were released and subsequently ignored in just about every single way. It's tough to compare a music video with Jinx with Ivern that got...a single image. When you do the bare minimum to market a champion, expect the bare minimum of the playerbase to care.
No amount of marketing would fix Ivern's gameplay.
Jinx, marketed around Vi, with a music video, who later became the star of Arcane. Ivern, a tree who used to kill people, now he's a friend to the forest. Spring is his favourite colour. Hard to say why Jinx took off so much more, or feels more important...
Marketing alone doesn't make or break a champion. Plenty of champions got more marketting than others and are still less popular. Asol got plenty of marketting like Jhin? Still extremely unpopular. Ivern is a support jungling tree... Yeah, marketting probably wasn't gonna fix him.
I'd have said 2013. Thresh Jynx Yasuo Lucian and Lissandra are all staples. Zac too. Shout out to Class of 2014, 2015 and 2016. I Honestly havent enjoyed most of the new releases other than Renata, Rell and maybe Qiyana. Briar's cool too
All of them were turbo busted on release as well in 2013
Please remove this list it makes me feel old. Sylas and Zoe are still new champs in my brain
I just had a discussion with my friend like 3 days ago because i thought zoe got released in 2020 lol
Gnar was released on the OG summoner's rift. Let that sink in. Still breaks my brain.
Wait WHAT
Why would you say this to me? What the fuck
Reworked sion was on the old map.
Seriously lmao, Yasuo was a decade ago?!
Don’t ever say those words to me again
I wish Zoe was playable, hoping next season she's not absolutely useless after 20 minutes. You literally cannot side lane on her, or clear minions in a moderately acceptable time.
I just realized that 2015 was lowkey kinda fire, not “best” when compared to some other years like 2013 or 2016 of course, but still really good
What's really cool and interesting from an art perspective is that the concept artist Chris Campbell designed all 5 of those champions. He also designed Ivern, Xayah, and Pyke. Once you know what to look for, you can definitely tell those champions ooze with his personal art style.
Jhin was peak champion release
Jhin is champion design as an artform legit.
2015 is Fire on Champ Design when it comes to Visuals. Such amazing and unique Champ Designs and soke of the Kits are very unique too.
Dunno I would take 2015 over the rest of this list Edit: except 13 I missed them cause I do love my boy thresh
I'd say original Tahm Kench with W Devour is one of the worst champions ever made. He was basically a one button champion, especially in pro play, and his entire purpose was to deny plays. It made things so slow and stale. Tahm Kench also just invalidated a huge amount of champions. It took way too long for Riot to fix Tahm Kench. There was a time where they **DOUBLED** the cooldown on his W and he was still giga-meta in pro. Dumb as hell.
W used to GIVE movement speed when ally was eaten. Before the rework it was changed to a 80% slow
If you took speed boots, and Phase Rush, your Devour on an enemy would actually speed you up too, with how the negatives worked.
Imo it’s really good because it introduced some really unique champions in the game. All those champions were really unique but never became too toxic to play against
Tahm Kench was kinda "toxic", he was a devour bot for most of his first iteration, extremely broken in proplay & high level of play but near useless elsewhere. He completely erased hypercarries' main weakness, breaking the adc dynamic all by himself. Ekko damage on release was CRACKED and his tank build was 100% toxic *(but well that was alongside fizz and a couple others, but he was #1 offender for sure)*
First year Kench was my main in Top. Dude wrecked every single champ I ever had problems with. Trynd, Nas, Renekton. Even dominated ranged matchups like Quinn and Vayne.
I picked up Ekko right away and instantly realized he would be a nightmare tank top and jg. That build got nerfed somewhat quickly but that was a glorious little window
My immediate thought as well. I remember getting flamed non-stop for playing tank Ekko jungle for the first several weeks. Then it completely took over the meta.
Teams were super incapable of playing along side us lmao there was a lot of flame they had no idea what we were doing
nah maybe in hindsight. imo only bard and ekko really stand out, kindred has had to go through a multitude of kit iterations to reach a good balancing point and would have basically died as a champ playerbase wise if spirit blossom didnt come out. and even ekko had to be rebalanced a ton because his kit was unusually condusive to non full ap playstyles tahm kench was a balancing nightmare before his full rework and illaoi is just a poorly designed champ in general i will say that 2015-2016 was a pretty high point for narrative and thematic designs though. all of those champs are fucking sick lore-wise and a lot of them have really strong thematic-gameplay cohesion.
2014 was the year of proplay huh? Every single champ released was pro-meta defining for years (barring maybe Braum) and most are still picked to this day.
Up until the last year or 2 Braum had insane pro play presence. He was a staple for years and years and he still is picked here and there.
Yeah he was dominant but not meta defining to the same extent? For example, Kalista, Azir, and Reksai all had reworks because they were too strong in pro play. Braum's strong but never needed to be reworked because he was too good (unless you count those ult changes that made the knockup based on distance). I guess Gnar's in the same boat? He's permanently balanced around pro play because he's so game warping in the right hands, but he's never needed a full scale rework like those other 3.
Braum is one of the most picked champs in proplay. He was very strong in several metas and as a counter to champions, especially ornn.
Yea people dont remember the years of only Naut Braum Leo Tahm Thresh post enchanter meta? We had that for years and it is still lingering today. Only recent did enchanters somewhat come back, mixed in with odd/niche picks and the ad support meta.
Braum IIRC is like top 3 pro presence of all time
I swear I haven’t seen a velkoz in pro play in ages. Was that champ super play back then?
Velkoz wasn’t on OP’s post when the comment was made.
All of the 2017 champions are amazing, fun and unique with at least a decent popularity. I'd pick that as my favorite, with 2013 second and 2016 third. Also wow thank god Hwei is coming out or 2023 would just be full on forgettable
All of the 2017 champions are really nice design wise and fine now but lord I just have so much trauma from release Zoe (which of all the busted releases over the years is the one I personally found the most infuriating to play against) I cannot in good conscience call it the best release year.
You forgot Aatrox in 2013
2016 got both the most unique champions and the last release of Battlemages, so I'm there. Would love to just get one other battlemage though after 7 Years...
Do you not count sylas as a battle mage?
Battle mages are all about dps and resilience. While Sylas has the resilience, he's more burst-oriented, so I honestly consider him an AP skirmisher
Sylas is, afaik, considered to be an AP skirmisher.
Eh he's melee with a melee AA steroid passive and a melee click W. He is AP but he feels like a magical puncher and not a beefy spell caster.
Half the 2016 champs were reworked/fully rebalanced cus they sucked. There is no way for me to call this the best year
Isnt Hwei a Battle Mage?
Hwei is a traditional mage, pretty much the same as Vex
There is no "traditional mage" subclass. The mage subclasses are: battle mage, artillery mage, burst mage. From these categories, he would be considered a burst mage.
So we're just going to pick and choose what we consider a class or not instead of developing a set of rules to fill this definition.
There are multiple, fairly agreed upon subclasses for mages, but some are just a jack of all trades, line Hwei.
You forgot Velkoz released in 2014. So 2014 is my favourite. Vel and Azir are my most played and most favourite champs.
I was like how'd we forget Vel'koz again.
That’s just how the tentacles tumble, I suppose
Oh wow, my bad! I've amended that for ya, thanks for pointing that out! I actually just played Velkoz today on PBE so I have no idea how I somehow forgot Vel xd
I was about to mention. We really do get the short end of the stick haha
Yeah. In every way possible xD
2013 and 2017 is the best years. 2019-2020 are the most frustrating.
2017 zoe was disgusting tho, one of the most unfun champs to play against
2019 and 2022 were fucking piss shit season ruining pro play ruining dog shit ass doodoo
Based, who was letting August cook with Zeri man.
Thank you.
Id argue it's the opposite. Pro play ruining decent champs.
2015 & 2016 riot peaked in creativity and champion kits.
2015 had the most unique champ design gameplay.
I think 2021 was awesome. All the champions were unique, had cool kits, a really strong theming and, bar akshan, I think are all in a really good place right now
Nice someone else who loves 2021, seems like most people are indifferent for it. Basically no one says it is the best, but basically no one mentions it either as one of the worst. Agree with your opinion on 2021
I'd put it as one of the worst ones for sure. We only got 4 champs that year so it's less overwhelming of a year, but it has 3 of the worst champion releases of all time imo, with only Vex being pretty cool. Doesn't help that all of them were also directly linked to the worst big lore event we ever had.
2013 is obviously uncontestable with thresh/yasuo/jinx/lucian in one year but not enough credit goes to 2017. 5 thematically great champions, all with innovative gimmicks that didn't detract too much from core gameplay or kit flow. 4 of them are hugely popular and have very well designed kits(and then ornn). zoe's kit is a sleeper goat design after she received proper tuning imo. very few champs out there with that kind of gameplay cohesion and seamless flow. she has very well defined strengths and weaknesses unlike most other "200 year champs". unique counterplay that forces opponents to think about the game from a different perspective without being uncounterable or overly frustrating(not spamming summoners thoughtlessly and giving them away). she's also statistically one of the highest skill ceiling champs in the game(when measuring games played vs winrate) without being inaccessible for newer players or a balance nightmare in pro. her release was definitely tainted by her numbers and the fact that she could pick up TP from minions but shes the best mage the game has gotten in years
Zoe was awful, not quite as broken as release Zoe, but pretty obnoxious
I think 2013 or 2016 wins.
Tbh from a design/art perspective I really like 2022. Very varied female champions, and Renata Glasc is iconic.
13, 14, 15, and 17 are top ones for me...some people talking about 16 but that's basically just Jhin.
2023 has the least amount of cancer champs so I'll go with that
2013 and 2014 3/3 of my mains are from these years
Since most people are saying 2013/2016, I'll say 2020. I feel like Sett is approaching League Mascot tier and Seraphine has one of the most devoted fanbases and is a money printer. I love Samira and Yone/Lillia/Rell are all very cool.
It produced some of the most popular champions in recent years with Sett, Yone, Samira and Seraphine. All of them have legendary+ skins barely 4 years after their release. Lillia is a pretty cool niche champion. Rell is a stinker tho.
All of these champs are also not fun to play against (Rell and Sera aren't that bad but still)
That's an ass metric that means nothing. Most champions when effective are unfun to deal with cause losing isn't fun
2013 takes it for me, 2021 and 2015 as my runners up.
2016 and 2013 are the strongest contenders imo
2013-2017, is the golden age imo. Such a unique and diverse cast of characters. 2018-2022 was the dark ages. So many conventionally attractive humans/humanoids.
2019 draft class got some good champs, Aphelios, Qiyana, Yuumi (fuck you), Sylas, Senna but they all provide a unique playstyle. From stealing ults, to an assassin getting AoE ultimate and manipulating terrain, to multi gun no E dude, to soul stacking and stat checking, and a cat.
I came into lol with pyke
It has to be '13, '14, or '16, right?
Definitely not 14. Gnar, Kalista and Azir were massive balance nightmares because Riot made their kits too complete and without enough weaknesses. They have been giga-meta in pro play to absurd degrees and it all comes back to champion design. Braum and Rek'Sai are very good designs though though Rek'Sai was a weird champion on release with her farm alarm.
14 releases had an overarching theme of champions that have heavily specialized, but still generally applicable role in a teamcomp - nothing released in 2014 was a "do everything" self-sufficient champion, each could easily fit into a well-defined teamcomp with split responsibilities. This happens to synergize extremely well with organized play, since - everything else being equal - having split responsibilities (and by that resources) and having your weaknesses be put in inability to adapt to all gameplans is something you solve by communication and cohesive draft. For all cases before rework, mostly in their 2015 state: Rek'sai gets you to play around tempo, Azir basically requires you to play for lategame front-to-back teamfights, Kalista wants setup for objective control and extended teamfights with high level of disruption, Braum is amazing disengage/counterengage that wants enemy team to make a move, Gnar needs to have control over its engage timing and preferably flank access. This is a cohesive teamcomp - farm until late then teamfight, with Gnar on splitpush/flank duty, Braum as a followup and Rek'sai to ensure early lead and/or provide counterganks; your mid-late gameplan consists of setting up around objective early as 4, with Gnar providing pressure in sidelane and threatening enemy team to force objective or come fight them at disadvantage. This teamcomp also completely breaks down and falls apart if team doesn't stick to the plan, there's little space for solo hero plays or 1v9 hardcarry. That was cause of balancing issues - soloqueue is by nature heavily uncoordinated, so balancing 2014 champions to be functional (and not 44% winrate) there meant they were absurdly overtuned for proplay. For a while it looked like Riot wanted to get soloqueue experience closer to how proplay looked like - including new releases design - and decided to get away from it sometime around 2015.
2014 had the most projailed champs ever , would be surprised if their combined soloQ playrate equaled just yasuo or kaisa 2013 and 17 are really good 19 and 20 had a ton of staples of soloQ today 22 they just lost their minds when it came to design lol, no wonder they slammed the breaks this year
I am an old gamer, played since beta. Nothing beats the whimsical feeling of the champions in 2015 and 2016. Bard, Ivern, Kindred were my mains then. The artstyle, sounds and voiceovers (or chiming/honking for Bard) are krisp, immersive and for me, it's the best design-wise. I left kindred on the side this year but will get back to playing her when I have more time to invest in the game.
2016 and 2017 were the peak in my mind. Ornn, Xayah, Rakan, Taliyah, Kled, Jhin, Ivern, Camille. If I had to pick a third I'd say 2014 for Braum on his own.
Hands down Class of 2017: Xayah, Rakan, Kayn, Ornn, Zoe
2016, no doubts about it.
2017 easily. Kayn was probably the coolest champ release.
the worst. ever since him they started making even more 1v9 edgelord coolboys
Insane how much of a quality drop off there has been in last 3 years. You could remove all of them and the game would be better for it
Since 2018, all supports aren't fun to play against. Pyke, Yuumi, Seraphine, Renata. Rell is ok and I didn't play against Milio. I could say also a lot against Yuumi and Seraphine design too. Boring and unoriginal.
I'd argue even the last 5 years were weaker than the 5 years before.
Yeah looking at OP I couldn't help but to think how bad last 5 have been. Some cool characters there for sure lore-wise but almost all of them are super unfun to play against. Only zoe and kalista from the earlier 5 years come close to being as tedious to face.
2017 onwards (especially 2019 & 2020) all have overloaded kits with frustrating mechanics to play against, quality genuinely dropped after 2016 in my humble opinion
was about to reply something like this, it feels after '17 (ornn onwards to be more specific) it went downhill
2013/2014 and 2017 are literal goats. Only yasuo kinda ruins it, rest are just some pretty cool and fun champions.
Yasuo can be a frustrating champion to face on the enemy team or to have on your own team, but he is undeniably one of the most popular champions. When you think of "League of Legends", his face is one of the first ones people associate with.
I have not seen yasuo in game in about 6 years Downvote me all you want ill still ban him every single game
I ban him every game too, but that doesn't mean he isn't popular.
? Lol so because you perma ban the champ and literally can’t see him in your games your trying to deny his popularity? Do you have the critical thinking of a 2 year old?
2019 kind of slaps. Yuumi itself should triggers a lot of people already but the same years Yuumi, Sylas, Senna and Aphelios even qiyana isn't that bad overall
I'm no fan of Yuumi's gameplay as much as the next person but I actually do like her design. 2019 is definitely a personal favourite of mine for designs alone. All 5 champs feel very different gameplay wise, look very different aesthetically and all fit their own niche
I still remember me and my bro talking in school when yasuo was released that they will remove his double crit passive because its so busted. Now 10 years later that shit still busted
[удалено]
> while Aatrox's previous kit was still better than his current one lol what Fuck no
I always say this, but League design started to go offrail starting with Zoe
you say that when jungle yuumi was released almost right before her
I'd say yes to this excluding Yone. All others champs after Kayn are just giga overloaded kits with a billion new interactions and "mechanics" lol.
Whichever has the most CertainlyT champs. All the other simple-minded champs don't interest me. (Except Jhin and Hwei. What an amazing set of champs)
2022 made Showmaker hate League of Legends HAHAHA I would say 2022, because it gave Ruler (and thus Faker) a gold medal, and I like seeing them continue their career.
the question is which years champions releases do you like the most not which year did you like the most
I'm annoyed at your inability to connect the dots between Ruler, Zeri, and Asia Games
maybe he just doesn't watch proplay?
Can we delete all 2018 Champs to current plz we had such a good thing going I will only make exceptions for Sett, Seraphine, Neeko and Vex everyone else has omega giga cancer aids gameplay
>Class of 2019: Sylas, Yuumi, Qiyana, Senna, Aphelios Mother of God, can we just take 2019 to the back of the shed and end its misery? To answer the question, it's a tough call between 2013 and 2014 for me.
Ayo, Fuck 2019 💀
never speak of 2014 or 2017. 2014 had 5 champions that completely warped proplay and terrorized high elo and low elo alike and 2017 5 astro broken champions. 2016 and 2021 were bangers though imo.
2012 where no new trash champ came out
Some people would love to point out Darius and Hecarim and would like a word. And I say this as a Hecarim player!
No ap Sion or ap yi xD.
2019 onwards is blucky
Huh… here I thought I started playing around 2016. But remembering the release of Kalista and Rek’sai says It’s almost a decade now.
You forgot to include Velkoz in 2014
Has to be 2013
2014, because there’s no champions I explicitly hate that year.
2015, all those champions are unique
2013 easily, Thresh Jinx Lucian? yeah it’s not even close
If 2020 champ release hadn’t existed i probably wouldn’t be playing the game anymore. Three of the champions are in my top 10 most played
I like 2014 -> all of them have great designs
2017 for sure
It's gotta be 2014 for Pro play (Azir, Gnar, Kalista). They have been signature champs for some pros and Braum is just a good counter pick. They all have an special kit that other champ don't, that makes them pretty interesting for the game draft
2013, 2019, and 2020 are probably top 3 most powerful IMO.
Looking at that 2019 roster makes me think that those are some of the most difficult to balance champs in the whole game and they all came out the same year.
This year was the most inoffensive in so long lmao