In League of Legends, there are many roles of champions. But, Bruisers might be the role with the lowest level of variation across its characters. While assassins, marksmen, mages, and even supports are all getting new abilities and ways to create creative play on the Rift, bruisers and fighters have remained relatively unchanged.
A bruiser’s objective is to be the frontlines of teamfights, leaving limited opportunity for outplay moves or showy damage-dealing abilities. League players are noticing that playing a bruiser is becoming tiresome, and the community has been airing its collective grievances in a recent Reddit thread uploaded to the game’s official subreddit.
Bruiser champions all have the “do damage in a circle around you” gameplay
The main argument that’s been brought up is that that kind of role as a damage dealer, and how every champion literately in the role only does damage in a circle around them.
The owner of the post then named numerous champions who match this paradigm, including Swain, Mordekaiser, Udyr, Shyvana, and Garen. Other champions in the jungle and top lane, though, match that passive, circular damage-focused definition as well, like Nasus, Wukong, etc.
It’s no secret that circle abilities are popular in League of Legends, as they’ve provided Riot with an easy way to build champions and pick up their abilities, especially for champions outside of the bruiser/fighter archetype.
Champions are growing fewer and further between as champion design evolves over time. Still, circular abilities are common in League, owing to their popularity early in the game’s development. With the mix of simplistic design and fast-paced updates, things quickly became repetitive—and the game is still suffering as a result.
While the Reddit thread makes a valid argument about these champions having limited damage choices other than cỉcular AoE, it might be deceptive in some instances.
Specifically, the past three bruiser-like champions to be introduced, such as K’Sante, Gwen, and Sett, have all shed the usual paradigm of a bruiser, and the differences between them and older champions like Darius and Garen are evident.
With that in mind, devs are getting more creative with their champion design throughout the years, so it’s likely any future champions wouldn’t possess these circular Aoe abilities.