Why New LoL Champions Need Balancing

League of Legends has never been a static game, and Riot Games has become increasingly open about why new champions often launch strong, weak, or simply awkward before receiving major balance changes. According to Riot Games designer Nick “Endstep” Frijia, this trend is not an accident. It is a deliberate consequence of how the game has evolved and how limited traditional design space has become after more than a decade of continuous updates.

Speaking on a recent livestream, Endstep explained that modern champion releases are far more likely to receive significant post launch tuning, sometimes including full kit shaping changes. The core reason is simple. Riot is taking bigger creative risks than it did in earlier seasons of League of Legends.

Why “Safe” Champion Designs No Longer Work

With over 160 champions in the game, Endstep noted that the number of safe and unexplored design ideas has shrunk dramatically. In the early seasons, Riot could introduce a relatively straightforward kit that reinforced existing gameplay patterns and still feel fresh. Today, repeating those ideas would come across as stale or uninspired.

Because of this, Riot prefers to ship bolder concepts and then iterate quickly based on live data and player feedback. Endstep summed it up clearly. It is better to take risks than to release a boring champion. In his view, it is far harder to turn an unexciting kit into something compelling after launch than it is to dial back an ambitious idea that overshoots the mark.

League of Legends history supports that perspective. Several older champions required extensive development time and even new technology to become interesting picks long after their release. Riot would rather avoid that scenario altogether.

Lessons From Bard to Modern Champions

To illustrate the shift, Endstep pointed to Bard, the support champion released in Season 5. Bard felt fresh at the time while still reinforcing familiar ideas, such as roaming supports and map interaction. Releasing a champion like that today would not generate the same excitement, which pushes the design team toward more experimental mechanics.

Recent champions like Smolder and Aurora highlight both the risks and rewards of this approach. Smolder initially leaned heavily on stacking as the primary source of damage. This created a funnel focused playstyle where teams prioritized accelerating his scaling above all else. As a result, Riot reshaped how his late game power worked, distributing it more evenly across his kit. These adjustments arrived through smaller kit updates in Patch 14.23.

Aurora followed a similar path. She was originally designed with the top lane in mind, but her gameplay pattern proved frustrating to face and disproportionately powerful in elite and professional play. Riot ultimately introduced kit focused changes, also in Patch 14.23, to better align her role and reduce unhealthy interactions.

Risk, Iteration, and Competitive Balance

Despite these outcomes, Endstep emphasized that the answer is not to stop taking risks. Riot would rather accept the possibility of revisiting a champion after launch than consistently ship safer kits with limited upside. This philosophy is especially important in a game where innovation keeps players engaged season after season.

This mindset also explains Riot’s recent balance cadence. Patches increasingly include targeted adjustments aimed at high level and professional play, often timed around major competitive events. Patch notes now regularly flag when changes are designed to shape elite metas rather than average ranked games.

For players climbing the ladder, these shifts can have real consequences. Champion balance changes can dramatically affect matchups, role priority, and overall consistency. This is one reason many competitive players turn to LoL boosting services during volatile patches. When sudden updates impact win rates or comfort picks, a professional boost can help stabilize progress and protect a desired rank during uncertain periods.

What This Means for Players

Frequent balance changes are not a sign of poor design. They are a reflection of Riot’s willingness to push boundaries and refine ideas in real time. For casual players, this means a constantly evolving game with new mechanics to learn. For serious competitors, it means staying informed is critical.

Whether you are grinding solo queue or considering boosting services to secure a seasonal rank, understanding Riot’s design philosophy provides valuable context. Champions will continue to launch boldly, and adjustments will follow. In modern League of Legends, iteration is not a flaw. It is the system working as intended.

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