All elements of League of Legends are subject to change over time. However, the most common thing for Riot Games is to modify champions. Every patch, at least a dozen characters get changes and have their stats balanced. However, sometimes these types of transformations are not enough and changes are made to mechanics or abilities. Adding new features and removing others is so commonplace that one can barely count the champions on one hand who have not gone through this process on at least one occasion.
The Big Exception to League of Legends Permanent Changes
In this case, we wanted to focus on Orianna, who is one of the small group of characters whose abilities have never been changed. Since its introduction on the first day of June 2011, only seven times have new features been introduced to the character’s spells, and each time has been quality of life tweaks. (e.g. having his sphere stay in place when carried by an ally who falls in battle). None of the mechanics have changed since release, and on reflection, it looks like the champion could stay that way until the end of time.
Orianna is one of the most important characters in League of Legends history. She’s always been relatively popular in ranked, and since her launch, there hasn’t been a single season where she hasn’t been picked in competitive play. In fact, she has participated in every edition of the world championship since the second. And this, while staying in good shape. Even if she is not at the top of her performance, the character still wins around 49% of her games, all ranks combined.
This is largely due to the fact that she is one of Riot Games’ few “perfect” video game characters. By this we don’t mean that she is the best or that she has an advantage over the others, but the fact that she has an extremely balanced skill set with very well marked weaknesses and strengths: she can make good trades but lack mobility, she is capable of destroying a teamfight… or completely missing her ultimate and being useless. Each strength comes with its own deficit.
However, the surprising facts about this champion don’t stop with the fact that his abilities never underwent major changes. Equally striking are the few balance tweaks she received throughout the story. Excluding the durability update, in which all heroes received changes, its last adjustments date from patch 11.8 (April 2021) and the previous ones were made a year earlier, in patch 10.8 (April 2021). 2020). In effect, Since release, it has had only 25 balance adjustments.
There are very few League of Legends champions who can match Orianna in terms of stability. One of them is Karthus, who we define as the champion with the oldest skills in the game. However, these are exceptions that prove the rule. Today, there’s hardly a champion in League of Legends who hasn’t had a playable overhaul that dramatically altered their spells.
Yesterday, Skyyart gathered its community around a League of Legends stream. The idea was to theorycraft and test Nasus’ up. The streamer also took the opportunity to talk about LP (decay) losses in Ranked. And he didn’t go out of his way with Riot Games! Is it justified?