With the end of 2021 inching ever closer, the League of Legends community is already looking forward to what Season 12 will bring in the coming year. Several exciting changes have already been teased. For example, players are looking forward to he new Chemtech dragon, nerfs to Teleport, and some balance changes to champions like Rengar.
Now, in a new Developer's blog posted on Friday, Riot's Bryan “Axes” Salvatore has revealed more plans from the dev team on how to shake up League Season 12 further, including broad meta and gameplay changes through modifying burst damage and healing and sustain.
“We're thinking about these spaces very broadly and do not have specific directions for them yet,” Axes wrote as a disclaimer. “We are not promising any particular outcomes.”
League of Legends Season 12: Potential changes to meta, gameplay
Burst damage is too high
Whether you're the one dishing out tons of damage or you're on the receiving end of it, high burst champions have established themselves in the League of Legends meta since time immemorial—and especially so in recent seasons. Overhauls to runes as well as buffs to damage items have definitely helped make the case for damage-centric team comps. These have greatly benefitted the likes of assassins such as Viego and Zed as well as burst mages like Zoe and Syndra.
In Season 12, however, League of Legends developers could change the game state to shift away from that burst damage. Ideally, this could encourage more responsive and adaptive plays to increase survivability.
“We want to keep the game exciting with high stakes decision-making, but we also want to ensure that fights are reasonably understandable and counterplay is still possible,” explained Riot Axes.
Doing so may allow squishy targets, especially AD Carries and supports, to survive for longer. Or at least, players will feel like they can actually play the game and not just get deleted in an instant. According to the Riot developer, what they want to avoid is a game state where the actions and decisions made in that moment essentially do not matter and cannot change the outcome. When burst damage is too high, players will just shy away from engaging altogether, making it a game of cat-and-mouse as the squishy champs try to avoid the damage threats at all costs.
No longer virtually unplayable: How Riot might deal with burst damage
Of course, Axes reassured the community that reducing burst does not mean that League will shift to a tank-based meta.
Developers are approaching this issue very carefully and methodically. They are analyzing how high burst damage unfolds and the consequences on gameplay. Since burst kills “happen too quickly and too often”, the dev team may consider dialing down on the damage output for certain mid-late game conditions, especially for champions with low defense stats.
Any nerfs, however, cannot be too drastic. Axes emphasized that they do not want to remove one-shots completely. Instead, Riot will expectedly try to find the right balance to help assassins still be viable while also giving their targets the option to hit back. This could help reduce the instances where players might feel like they just can't do anything on the map or in a fight once it reaches a certain game state.
Healing and sustain are too powerful and accessible
A parallel aspect that Riot is exploring concerns healing and sustain. Put simply, “the longer it takes to kill champions, the more powerful sustain gets,” Axes stated.
The dev team has identified that items and runes are providing way too much healing and shielding, which might seem ironic considering the strength of burst damage. But we've seen this play out as well, especially in the competitive scene. Yuumi, for example, has emerged as one of the most powerful and game-changing picks this past season.
However, reducing both damage and sustain might not be the silver bullet to the issue. This could lead to tanks becoming overpowered, as well as any form of healing (for example, Soraka, Kindred, Fiora). Meanwhile, it could cause burst mages to suffer.
The team has not revealed definitive numbers or changes as of yet, but it looks like there will be more precise modifications spread out over the season rather than one big systemic overhaul. With how much League has evolved over the years, sweeping changes may not help solve the current tussle between burst and healing.
This will mean helping slow League of Legends down slightly to the late game, such that the fights are less one-sided, whether to the damage side or the sustain side. The dynamism of champions and fights at this point makes it even more of a nuanced balancing act for the developers to solve to make Season 12 gameplay just overall a better experience for everyone involved.
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