Game mode specific balancing changes in League of Legends

With the release of Nexus Blitz: Snowdown edition, Riot games for the first time has introduced mode-specific balancing, seeing many champions having their kits slightly tuned to better accommodate the game mode.

At first glance, this news doesn’t seem too important. It makes perfect sense that certain champions who may excel particularly well in a  game mode to see their stats toned down and vice-versa for champions who may require a buff.

Surprisingly, however, this type of balancing has never really been seen in League of Legends before. As a result, this news has come rather as a shock and has even upset a community of ARAM and Twisted Treeline players who’ve largely seen their beloved game modes untouched in terms of champion changes.

Various meta games exist in these game different modes which largely differ from Summoners Rift, which was previously the focus of balancing changes. Several Reddit posts have been made on the leagueoflegends subreddit with people criticizing Riot Games for waiting so long to make this type of balancing distinctions reality, while at the same time leaving the long-existing game modes untouched.

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These complaints are not without merit. The balance within these game modes seems to be skewed towards a select few champions, whereas in Summoners Rift, a more diverse metagame exists.

Mages such as Ziggs, Xerath, and Lux are just some examples of incredibly high win-rate champions in ARAM and their overwhelming power has gone unchanged in recent time.

Similarly, Twisted Treeline sees its own unique playstyle of champions as well, again with a select few champions which seem to dominate others, all while remaining vastly unchanged in recent patches.

Overall, this leaves certain champions at a major disadvantage. This is especially problematic in ARAM, where you are unable to pick your champion. As a result, games can be one-sided simply based on champion select alone.

It is definitely not a fun gaming experience to have a guaranteed loss solely based on poor ARAM drafting and perhaps something should be done to combat this. A very dedicated ARAM and Twisted Treeline community exists in League of Legends and it deserves the same treatment and updates as that Summoners Rift gets.

Riot Games has noted on their website that the changes to champion kits on Nexus Blitz won’t be final either, with more patches scheduled in the future. The full list of all of the Nexus Blitz specific changes which can be viewed here.

"“Nexus Blitz features a bunch of mode-specific balance changes for champions and runes to accommodate the faster pace, smaller map, and frequent fighting. We’ll have at least one follow-up balance update after the mode goes live.”"

What do you think about the introduction of game mode specific balancing changes? Should ARAM and Twisted Treeline receive their own overhauls as well? Let us know in the comment section below.