Riot’s lead champion designer Bryan ‘Axes’ Salvatore guides us through his perspective of the latest laning meta in League of Legends in this week’s Quick gameplay thoughts.
Heavy emphasis is put on agency and positional health. There are 5 distinct positions in League of Legends, and positional health refers to the relative balance between them. This is measured by how impactful each role is, and to a lesser extent how powerful the player feels.
Starting from 13.3 it has become prevalent for Junglers to assist bottom, as winning that lane would result in a steep advantage in Gold and experience that is nigh insurmountable. As a result, the lane has become a 3v3 brawl instead of the traditional 2v2 meta in the past.
This introduces problems where bot lane becomes too important compared to mid and top lane, taking the agency away from those 2 roles and putting too much in the hands of Junglers who decide when and where skirmishes happen. Support and ADC also play a part in setting the right conditions for the fight, and though they are impactful, they have no agency since it’s completely in the hands of their Jungler.
Riot has already shipped a balance pass in Patch 13.4 to address the current lopsided meta, but more is to be expected for there to be a significant shift. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out (just like our mid and top laners!)
In the meantime check out TFT Patch 13.4 notes.