History HighTierScrappy / LeagueOfLegends

[[folder:Items]]
Even in terms of tier scrappydom, items aren't exempt from this, whether their effects are too strong or too effective, means that more players will and must buy them to stay relevant in the evolving metagame. Riot with all of their wisdom and glory will try their best (emphasis on "try") to keep the item checked, but some items are just powerful or at the very least useful enough to stay relevant for so long throughout their entire run cycle that many can't help but to hate their inclusion to the game.
Keep in mind that in order for an item to be in this list, it not only be reasonably powerful, but also must see consistent play throughout their run, whether the item is still on the item shop rotation or already removed from the game.
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* The one most controversially effective item in the game has to be the humble '''Stopwatch''' (and to an extent, Zhonya's Hourglass, though it's not as hated as the Stopwatch), which receives a good amount of haters and defenders alike. However as the metagame slowly evolves to single-strike burst damage combat, the idea of anti-burst mechanic on demand within reasonable price that the Stopwatch gives is too good for it's cost, even with the single-use restriction. Stopwatch (and to an extent the Commencing Stopwatch rune) was later removed in Preseason 14, and it's on-demand anti burst mechanic was moved to Seeker's Armguard, essentially forcing players into building Hourglass if they really want an on-demand anti burst mechanic.
* Among the new Mythic Items, '''Goredrinker''' is one of the most effective items ever released. The ability to gain burst healing with a single click of a button in teamfights has singlehandedly propelled the item's popularity among not just Bruisers, but also Assassins and some Tanks, to the point that it's one of the most bought Mythic Item during it's rotation. Naturally players gets sick of it, so much so that it becomes the primary contention of arguments against healing in the game. Riot took notice, which prompt them to nerf the item to the ground several times just so other champions pick something else to buy but not so much that the champions that wants to buy it (i.e. Bruisers) didn't get grounded too hard. Even with all of the nerfs and adjustment made to make the item as an option and not a solution, majority of players still buys this item because it's effect is just really good for how weak it is, not helping the fact that the item shop reworks also eliminates interactivity of items that leave nothing but select few like Goredrinker as the only items with active skill. Eventually Riot said that they had enough and pull the plug on the Mythic Items altogether, with Goredrinker not being carried over to the new item shop.
* Behind Goredrinker as one of the most popular Mythic Item to purchase is '''Divine Sunderer'''. At first glance, the item doesn't seem to stand out, being another Spellblade item that's based on the target's percent max health instead of the usual percent of user's AD as well as small amount of heal. Then Riot took notice and buffed the percent max health damage by a bit, and everything goes haywire after that. Thing is, there's a lot of bruisers that synergizes well with Spellblade items, and no other champion abuses it the most than '''Camille''', which turned the percent health physical damage into a full blown percent health '''[[AntiArmor true]]''' damage from her Q, and in turn boosts the post-mitigation healing you got from it. It's one of the primary contention of arguments against healing in the game, and naturally everyone that benefited from Spellblade items buys them, even completely overshadowing the other Spellblade items in the game. Like Goredrinker above, the Sunderer becomes one of the items that got swept alongside the Mythic Items removal, though unlike Goredrinker Riot still haven't given up on the item just yet and reworked it into '''Sundered Sky'''. Though still pretty divisive item on it's own right, the primary consensus is that the Sundered Sky is much more balanced than Divine Sunderer and saw a healthy use among bruisers in general.
* '''Duskblade of Draktharr''' is considered one of the most hated item ever released, if not the most hated, for a good reason. First released early in season 6, Duskblade didn't receive much fanfare for being another supplemental item for Assassin. It's not until several reworks later that the item gains it's infamy. With the removal of the old passive, Duskblade gains the "Nightstalker" and "Blackout", the former turns the wielder into a powerful initiator with percent health damage plus added brief slow later on allowing some champions to easily land their skillshots, while the later provides user with vision denial that detect and disables enemy stealth wards. This changes turns the item from a niche purchase for Assassins into a generalized purchase that even non-Assassins can benefit, and even with several nerfs and reworks (the Blackout passive was moved to '''Umbral Glaive''' later) Duskblade still sees a lot of play from Assassins and other champion classes.
** However it's not until the Mythic Item shop rework that the item receives it's most hated incarnation, twice no less! Duskblade is one of the few items that got rechristened into a Mythic Item during the transition, and [[GoneHorriblyRight they did a good job]] at it. The Nightstalker passive now grants the user brief invisibility after scoring a takedown and with a generous cooldown, which grants it's user partial untargetability on demand. Naturally, this changes paved way to some of the most degenerate strategies employed by (ironically) non-Assassins like Master Yi and Samira, as the safety they provide essentially removes their [[GlassCannon primary weakness]] and allows them to escape the thick of battle unharmed. Riot, in all of their wisdom and glory, decided to rework the item for the last time to eliminate this degenerate playstyle once and for all, by [[IdiotBall turning the partial untargetability into an outright invulnerability]] in [[DamnedByFaintPraise admittedly]] much less generous downtime, which not only makes the item even more common purchase, but also [[HistoryRepeats revive the degenerate strategy in full force]] despite all the nerfs the item and the corresponding champions (Master Yi and Samira) has received to curb the strat completely. The vitriol that the item has received across the board has become so intense that Riot eventually gave up on the item altogether and remove the item from the rotation forever along with the Mythic Item system.
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* In ARAM, the most historically-disliked champions are those with [[LongRangeFighter long-range poke damage]] and those with healing abilities. The game mode lacks the ability to recall to base to heal up, [[DeathOfAThousandCuts so any damage received is usually permanent]] and is only mitigated by health pickups that spawn every few minutes or from player-based sustain. This may work for or against you given how champions are largely random, but ''nobody'' likes being on the receiving end of poke-heavy teams that can damage you from afar with impunity (infamous offenders being Xerath, Ashe, Lux, etc.), especially if they have [[WhiteMage a healer]] like Sona or Seraphine that can help them outlast your response. Riot eventually deemed it enough of a problem that in 2019, they made it so that poke damage was greatly reduced (damage falls off the further in range the ability travels) and began issuing slight ARAM-specific balance changes to make things more stable, so while they can still be a pain in the tail, they're not overwhelmingly so.

* A ''ton'' of '''[[CloseRangeCombatant Skirmishers]]''' (sometimes referred to as "melee carries") tend to be considered high-tier scrappies at lower [=ELOs=], stemming from how they -- especially earlier ones -- tend to be designed. Their general design conceit is that they're able to duel 1v1 or serve as cleanup against weakened enemies, [[MagikarpPower and thus escalate significantly by late game, able to shred entire enemy teams when properly fed]]. This presents balance issues when [[LongRangeFighter ranged carries]], including marksmen exist, most of which are able to serve as primary damage dealers from a distance and don't require being in inherently dangerous close-quarters range, demanding skirmishers walk a tightrope balance-wise, needing to survive the enemy onslaught to deal their sustained damage without becoming utterly unstoppable (this aspect varies a lot on skill range, [[SkillGateCharacter as more coordinated and skilled teams tend to have an easier time stopping them]]). Riot has become increasingly aware of this issue and ([[ReimaginingTheArtifact re-]])designs modern champions to require more versatility or possess more utility to make things less binary, but a few [[TheArtifact artifacts]] exist here and there.
** '''Master Yi''' is one of the oldest still-remaining skirmishers who fits this design philosophy to a tee; all of his power comes from blink-and-you'll-miss-it damage and snowballing to shred entire teams, with annoying temporary invincibility with his ''[[FlashStep Alpha Strike]]'', self-healing, and on-kill cooldown resets. Because of [[MagikarpPower how scary he can get from this]], a common complaint is that games focus entirely around him simply for him existing, though this is a double-edged sword since due to his [[AttackAttackAttack all-or-nothing nature]] and weak early game, [[SkillGateCharacter he's also fairly easy for coordinated teams to punish before he gets to that point]]. Because of his "[[SkillGateCharacter brutal at low levels, ineffective at higher levels]]" identity being set in stone, however, Riot doesn't consider him a high-priority balance target, so he still gets complaints from low-level players for being "broken" to this day.

* '''Aphelios''' got hit with this reputation pretty bad on release -- while he was hyped up as another [[DifficultButAwesome high-skill floor, high-power potential champion]], players quickly found that he was both nowhere near as intensive as expected ''and'' his kit was too rewarding, with a ton of backlash against his [[MultiRangedMaster gun-changing mechanic]] as being [[MasterOfAll too versatile and overall lacking punishable weaknesses, with virtually every combo being viably lethal]]. Combined with clarity issues (for as much as Riot did their best to emphasize and make clear which gun he's using in his ''main'' hand, [[FakeDifficulty enemies often had a hard time telling what was in his off-hand and what his ultimate did at any given time]], though the former at least got addressed with a new indicator later on), it's no wonder he's built up a reputation for being the purest form of "unfair" design in a while.

** '''Yuumi''' isn't consistently a high-tier pick, but in metas where she is, she's a symbol for everything busted about [[WhiteMage Enchanters]] when left unchecked, and then some. Her entire game plan of attaching onto allies -- becoming NighInvulnerable in the process -- has received a lot of flack for her lack of flexibility, where if she's doing her job right and keeping her host alive and well, her single-button-press heal/speed boost, [[PlayerGuidedMissile homing poke]], and excellent [=AoE=] ultimate provides little to no weaknesses or counterplay opportunities as soon as she gets an early lead, and thus ends up with a near-universal presence and crushing winrates when Enchanters are high in demand, simultaneously making it easy to overnerf and make useless. Even after a pretty substantial mid-scope rework in early 2023 (shifting around her heals, toning down her potential damage scaling and crowd control, and tweaking her attaching ability to be more biased and situational in nature), she's still been greatly criticized for being too inherently strong, amassing a hatedom of detractors who want to see her removed on the basis that she's unfun when weak, frustratingly effective and toxic when not.

%%** '''Renata Glasc''' showcases how irritating an enchanter can be with toxic abilities that can flip any encounters and even the gamestate with ease, with '''Bailout''' being the most problematic. With Bailout, Renata provides the [[LastChanceHitPoint original Chemtech Dragon Soul buff]] on top of the Bailout offensive buffs to a target allies ''plus'' ability to revive them back with 20% health remaining if the target and Renata gets a takedown, with the catch that she can only gave 1 Bailout to one champion at a time. Thing is, revival is considered a toxic ability by both players and developers alike that it's basically a "get out of jail free" card to anyone possessing it. Even revival mechanics with heavy drawbacks and restriction tend to be nerfed to the ground or just outright removed (like Aatrox's ultimate and the aforementioned Chemtech Dragon soul), and with Bailout being much more accessible and less conditional compared to the two, it pretty much solidifies it as one of the most toxic ability an enchanter could have in their kit, since there's nothing you can do to counter it besides of [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running away]] or deliberately dogpiling your resources to the target before they could do anything. There's nothing stopping Renata from just popping W to a dying teammate in a middle of a teamfight to flip the situation in their favor, worse yet if they just shy close from killing their target.

* Special mention goes to the '''Windbros''', the duo brothers of Yasuo and Yone that shares the same crit-damage passive modifier that practically gain increased crit chance at a cost of lowered critical damage dealt, which allows them to only need to buy two crit items and left you with three spaces that you can mix and match yourself to cover up their [[GlassCannon innate squishiness]]. Both brothers has some situational defensive mechanic that allows them to basically deny you opponent's offense (anti-projectile for Yasuo, large shielding for Yone). Both brothers also scale on attack speed for their ability cooldown reduction, which makes them really spam heavy and downright unstoppable if you [[MagikarpPower let them escape the early game hell they normally face]]. Their overall strength is offset by the [[DifficultButAwesome technical difficulty]] that the players must master whilst controlling them, but in general they're really strong and potent regardless of roles.

* Special mention goes to the '''Windbros''', the duo brothers of Yasuo and Yone that shares the same crit-damage passive modifier that practically gain increased crit chance at a cost of lowered critical damage dealt, which allows them to only need to buy two crit items and left you with three spaces that you can mix and match yourself to cover up their [[GlassCannon innate squishiness]]. Both brothers also scale on attack speed for their ability cooldown reduction, which makes them really spam heavy and downright unstoppable if you [[MagikarpPower let them escape the early game hell they normally face]], and with the rework on Lethal Tempo on Preseason 12 that also boosts their overall DPS even higher.

** Similar to his younger brother, '''Yone''' is also a high-risk high-reward skirmisher with similar damage-crit modifier and having the cooldown tied to the user's attack speed, with the only major difference is that Yone doesn't have his own equivalent of Wind Wall and a greater emphasis on close range combat.

** '''Yasuo''' is a [[DifficultButAwesome high-risk, high-reward skirmisher]] who has just enough utility to survive prolonged combat ''if'' his player knows what to do. A good Yasuo will [[LightningBruiser blitz through an entire team]] while remaining almost untouchable thanks to his dash mechanic, passive shield, and ''Wind Wall''; a bad Yasuo trying the same thing will get murdered. It doesn't help that unlike most AD Carries, he doesn't need to fully invest into crit items to be consistent, allowing him (and his brother) to be able to buy other items like Iceborn Gauntlet while still be able to consistently hit hard per strikes. This makes him loved and loathed at all tiers, and banned by both sides, because "their Yasuo" will become a team-slaying monster, while "your Yasuo" has a sign around his neck saying "Free Gold Here".
** Similar to his younger brother, '''Yone''' is also a high-risk high-reward skirmisher with similar damage-crit modifier and having the cooldown tied to the user's attack speed, with the only major difference is that Yone doesn't have his own equivalent of Wind Wall and a greater emphasis on close range combat. However players found out that his high-risk part is a lot more downplayed compared to his brother, in part to having three separate dash in his kit (one of them being a reliable get-out-of-jail-free card) and being generally having safer gameplan compared to his brother, essentially allowing players [[TheBerserker to be a lot more reckless]] compared to playing Yasuo, and in-turn makes him easier to play than Yasuo. This, and the rework of Lethal Tempo keystone in Preseason 12 warrants him (and Yasuo) a consistent place in mid-high tier in the general metagame, which has yet to be shaken off to this day.

** '''K'Sante''' had one hell of a debut year for being [[DifficultButAwesome another technical, high-skill-ceiling brawler]] who remained consistently relevant in higher divisions and pro play, with the biggest complaint being that he has fundamentally ''too much'' -- the sturdiness of a Warden, abilities to shield himself and make himself immune to crowd control, multiple forms of ''his own'' control, multiple dashes, [[LightningBruiser and an ultimate ability that ratchets up his damage even further]]. While this is placed within a delicate kit and requires skill to use optimally, this sheer versatility has kept him an enormously relevant top-laner, with many coming to loathe him for being yet another inherently overloaded champion that introduces far more problems than he's worth.

** '''Yasuo''' is a [[DifficultButAwesome high-risk, high-reward skirmisher]] who has just enough utility to survive prolonged combat ''if'' his player knows what to do. A good Yasuo will [[LightningBruiser blitz through an entire team]] while remaining almost untouchable thanks to his dash mechanic, passive shield, and ''Wind Wall''; a bad Yasuo trying the same thing will get murdered. This makes him loved and loathed at all tiers, and banned by both sides, because "their Yasuo" will become a team-slaying monster, while "your Yasuo" has a sign around his neck saying "Free Gold Here".

%%** In paper, '''Yone''' was designed to be a foil for Yasuo, sharing several gameplay aspects and combat properties and general [[DifficultButAwesome difficulty curve]] that Yasuo was associated with, having roughly the same AS scaling cooldown passive, critical chance booster, three point strike that ends in a knockoff, some sort of shield, and an ultimate that can potentially round up the entire enemy team in one fell swoop. In practice, Yone could have been more different than his brother, and is seen as generally more overloaded and harder to fight off. For starters, Yasuo gameplan focuses on [[FragileSpeedster carefully waltzing into the enemy ranks]], poking the enemy from mid-range then finishes them off with devastating ultimate all while maintaining [[GlassCannon low sustainibility and defenses]]. Yone on the other hand wants to stay up close and[[TheBerserker auto attacking constantly]] because his sustainability is built-in to his kit instead of being supplemental from items, and despite sharing general durability with his brother, he's more durable and hard to crack because all of his kit provides him with even more safety that allowed him to rush down then jump back to safety without precautions, and as such, he's quickly dominated the metagame upon release and seeing nerfs upon nerfs ever since. Players dread of teaming up/fighting againt Yone because of his kit's nature.

The majority of Marksman champions in general tend to be seen as balanced for the fact that their primary power (high consistent damage that [[MagikarpPower snowballs to lategame]]) is offset by their [[CripplingOverspecialization lack of other options such as mobility or disengage]] and the fact that they're had to aim for the lategame to carry their team when average match time is 30 minute at best only makes them hard to stand out among other champions like Bruisers and Control supports. The reason why they're balanced as such because giving dedicated Marksmen other cool toys in their kit can be very devastating, hence the '''[[MechanicallyUnusualFighter Unique Marksman]]''' that functions differently compared to other pure Marksman managed to stand out and shape the new Marksman design philosophy in the long run, as the champions below can attest.

* '''Ezreal''' is one of the most consistently popular champions in the game in large part due to [[JackOfAllTrades his versatility]] and fast-paced gameplay, and he's usually considered healthy and liked enough that he rarely strays hard into being a "scrappy." However, he's created some rippling balance issues due to the design of his ''Mystic Shot'', a skillshot that applies on-hit effects normally applied by basic attacks, which has resulted in surprisingly intense and [[NotTheIntendedUse unexpected consequences]] that the rest of the game (particularly its items) have had to accommodate for, one of the most infamous being with the Kleptomancy mastery introduced in preseason 8. With its ability to allow champions to gain gold and other goodies from weaving basic attacks in with abilities, it was practically built for Ezreal and him alone[[note]]The closest competition was Gangplank solely due to him having a similar on-hit effect interaction with his ''Parrrley'', and even then, Ezreal was ''much'' faster with it[[/note]], and the rune ended up having to be balanced solely around him (as well as vice-versa, itself causing problems for those who ''didn't'' want to take Kleptomancy due to its RNG-heavy nature). After hogging the rune for the better part of two years, it was decided that Kleptomancy was a lost cause and was removed entirely in preseason 10.
* '''Graves''' quickly become one of the most frustrating marksman to fight against after his rework, and it's not because of being an AD Carry like they previously intended. The gist of his Season 6 rework is to give him a niche edge when fighting against other more highly focused marksman in the game while also ironing out [[MasterOfNone his unfocused and counterintuive kit]] by streamlining his kit into a more engagement-heavy mid-ranged marksman, with faster clear speed and higher burst damage at a cost of much lower sustained DPS. The reworking on his kit done a great job of lifting him back into the metagame, [[GoneHorriblyRight a little too great in fact]] that players realize how well-tailored his kit for ganking off-lane and that his intended drawbacks only made redundant because of just powerful everything else about his kit, hence the reason why Graves slowly being shifted from a side-pick laner to a full-time jungler, with high pick rate across the board. Many players hated fighting with or against Graves because his engage-heavy kit promotes high-risk high-reward playstyle that filters out good and bad players in two separate cups with no inbetween; bad Graves will not be able to utilize his full ganking strength and will quickly fell off, while a good Graves turns the game for side laner into a survival horror genre where they had to keep checking whether he's closer to your lane or not, because it'll more likely for him to out you from nowhere and escape unschated because of [[LightningBruiser his deceptively high defenses]].

* '''Senna''' exemplifies how [[GatheringSteam stacking mechanics]] can be annoying to go up against. As a hybrid Marksman-Enchanter, Senna's [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter own mechanics]] forces her to gather stacks to boost her offensive power, as her base auto attack is slow and have shorter range, [[MagikarpPower until she got her stacks that is]]. Thing is, getting stacks for her is relatively easy, as the souls you got from nearby fallen minions and monster camps have decent spawn rate (provided that you're letting your allies kill them) and certain units like Cannon/Super Minion guarantees a stack, allowing her to reach maximum stack pretty quickly, and fully-stacked Senna is a nightmare to fight due to the longer range and movement speed she gained from it, turning her auto attack into ThatOneAttack you can't reasonably counter because she's just too fast for most champions to outrun/chase out.

* '''[[DynamicEntry Engage supports]]''', archetype consist of champions (usually tanks, but they can also be assassins and/or bruisers with lockdown capabilities) that specializes in some form of lockdows (usually pulls) that forgoes the usual sustainability of enchanters or the resilience of wardens in trade of taking down single (or multiple) target in a well-coordinated crowd control to effectively shut them down and/or even stop their gameplan altogether. Usually they're balanced around the fact that their overall damage is rather low and had to rely on peeling off enemy's resource so that the allied champions could finish them off. Regardless, the fact that they can singlehandedly flip the gamestate by either disabling or outright removing a core member from their team (usually their main damage dealer or the crucial enchanter support) with relative ease means that they're even more dangerous than the ADC marksman because they're effective regardless of the gamestate. Many players derided them as much as they love to joke that engage supports can [[Characters/StreetFighterAkuma Shun Goku Satsu]] the opposing botlane out of nowhere.
** Special mention goes to '''Blitzcrank'''. Realisticly, Blitzcrank should have been a bad champion in the current metagame, his cooldown is rather long (including his signature pull), his damage value for engage support is low (even Leona is higher), he's not that tanky, and one of his skill practically gives him a direct drawback after it ends that doesn't help him in any way, but everything about him is singlehandedly carried by his signature pull; it's a skillshot that bypasses wall and pull any first target that hits it, which is very quick and only has special indicator if he was visible, which allows him to effectively [[BoringButPractical pull someone's out of the group over the wall]], or in many dubious cases, invading the enemy jungler by [[{{Troll}} pulling away their camp halfway through or right when it's about to be killed off]], which can often tilt the jungler off the game. Blitzcrank pull is so strong that [[BoringButPractical it's the sole reason he managed to remain relevant to the evolving metagame]] in spite of it. Naturally, nerfs ensued, and his kit receives tweaks and overhauls so that he had other utilities and not to always rely on his pull, though it doesn't deter is original gameplan whatsoever, and arguably makes him even stronger in spite of it, because now he have enough damage to pull then destroy squishies in a single combo string.
** '''Pyke''' highly slippery and painful puff-and-sting gameplan as a hybrid slayer-controller type support not only makes him annoying to catch and even more annoying to stop, his ultimate singlehandedly show the metagame of how important gold distribution across each lane is. Basically it acts as an X-shaped execute (prior nerfs it also deals massive damage) that gave both him and 1 assisting allies (usually the closest) a sum of the cut they can consume for instant gold (worth 300 gold each) for each champions killed, and prior to nerf you don't need to execute them as long as you contribute in the fight, with the only drawback from it is that it won't reset the skill cooldown, oh wait a second did we forget that [[FromBadToWorse it resets upon kill]]? Of course this was offset by his general [[GlassCannon squishiness]] and the fact that [[CantCatchUp his damage potential fell off pretty quickly]], but it doesn't matter because he can still distribute unhealthy amount of gold to all allied champions and singlehandedly flip the gamestate in his team's favor. Players hated fighting against him, and sure enough, he receives barrage of nerfs that practically lower his damage potential even further and makes it so that his ultimate can only executes and he had to ''kill'' the target with the ultimate to give assisting allies their cut because he wouldn't receive shared cuts from kills and assist, though he's still quite a fickle to catch when roaming.
** '''Pantheon''' receives a special mention here during his first post-rework heyday where they find him [[NotTheIntendedUse rather useful as a duo lane engage support]] because his kit is almost perfectly tailored for it. Pantheon's kit is one of the best kit for towerdiving, as he can practically puff and sting the opposing laner even from his tower, then deploy his shield which grants him [[NighInvulnerable immunity to all damage that came facing toward his shield]], then finishes them off with a long range poke that minicrits low health targets. Pantheon is also quick enough to roam around the map and assist any other lane back and forth with ease. Pantheon quickly become a must pick or ban in the support lane for quite some time, and while he's nowhere as broken and exploitative like Toplane Soraka before him that's not enough for him to warrant a direct nerf, many players still derided his involvement in the duo botlane metagame and eventually after dominating the support role for almost a year, Riot decided to give him a mini rework that addresses his overly-safe gameplan and makes him more powerful in other lanes, among the changes were boosting his overall damage across the board while removing the turret shot among the things he can block with his E. The rework alone weren't enough to stop him from being played in support role, but overtime other supports are getting stronger and eventually Pantheon would sees play everywhere else but the support role.

** '''Lulu''', as she became more popular and got more buffs, began to wander into this territory in higher [=ELOs=]. Her ''entire'' kit allows her to peel for her team, as she has a ranged slow, an attack speed and movement speed boost that turns into a hard CC when used on an enemy, a shield that is also a point and click damage ability, grants true sight if used on an enemy, lets her fire her slow off whoever Pix is currently attached to and automatically slows them if it's on an enemy, and her ult is a combination knock-up and max health increase that can save herself or a teammate from death and turn both trades and teamfights around. She's also no slouch when it comes to offensive capability, as her kit and stats once made her an effective off-meta mid and top lane pick.
** Initially deemed as bad, '''Bard''' quickly [[VindicatedByHistory flip his image in the metagame]] after players (especially in the professional scene) began to slowly understand his roaming gameplan and how much power he can give to every other lane. He's an interesting case where both his team and the enemy team hated playing with one because his roaming gameplan effectively [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter forcing him to abandon his duo laner for some time to assist other lanes]], which effectively turn him into another roaming unit the enemy team had to kept track on because he's just very good at ganking, but at the same time can be very frustrating to play along with because oftentimes he's going to be helping every other lanes besides themselves, and that's after people figured out how his kit works and Riot can comfortably nerf him back to more balanced state.

** '''Renata Glasc''' showcases how irritating an enchanter can be with toxic abilities that can flip any encounters and even the gamestate with ease, with '''Bailout''' being the most problematic. With Bailout, Renata provides the [[LastChanceHitPoint original Chemtech Dragon Soul buff]] on top of the Bailout offensive buffs to a target allies ''plus'' ability to revive them back with 20% health remaining if the target and Renata gets a takedown, with the catch that she can only gave 1 Bailout to one champion at a time. Thing is, revival is considered a toxic ability by both players and developers alike that it's basically a "get out of jail free" card to anyone possessing it. Even revival mechanics with heavy drawbacks and restriction tend to be nerfed to the ground or just outright removed (like Aatrox's ultimate and the aforementioned Chemtech Dragon soul), and with Bailout being much more accessible and less conditional compared to the two, it pretty much solidifies it as one of the most toxic ability an enchanter could have in their kit, since there's nothing you can do to counter it besides of [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere running away]] or deliberately dogpiling your resources to the target before they could do anything. There's nothing stopping Renata from just popping W to a dying teammate in a middle of a teamfight to flip the situation in their favor, worse yet if they just shy close from killing their target.

* '''Malphite''' is what happens when you trying to make an actually viable ranged toplaner, a sub-role that's infamous for [[CripplingOverspecialization being able to kick the enemy melee toplaner in the nuts and nothing else]]. Aside of being a mitigation tank, which means he can peel off the enemy team's resources early game with relative ease, Malphite has two skills that's virtually unavoidable and the core of his gameplay; his Q, which is a point and click projectile that deals good chunk of health and steals a portion of their movement speed to Malphite for a short time, and his ultimate, a powerful point and click skillshot that deals a massive damage in a wide radius around the target and knock them off airborne fora short time, and most of his skills have AP scaling, which means building full GlassCannon Malphite is actually a viable strategy, if not the meta for Malphite for quite some time before Riot decided that AP Malphite is unhealthy and nerfed him to healthier but still underpowered levels. Riot also reworked him so that people are encouraged to build tanky thanks to the new armor and max health based scaling in his kit, which didn't help matters because it ended up making him a bit overtuned and annoying to lane against.
* '''Galio''' has been a consistently strong pick since his rework, drifting between ''merely'' high tier to an outright GameBreaker depending on the patch. His somewhat unique niche as a mid lane tank already gives him reason to be picked, but his individual strengths are numerous enough to make him a consistent top contender. Both his wave clear and burst are deceptively good, his global presence is rivalled only by Shen and Twisted Fate, and his durability is only slightly worse against AD assassins, who tend to struggle against tanks like him who can resist their burst to begin with, rendering him a LightningBruiser who can show up anywhere, survive anything the enemy team throws at him, all the while squashing anyone unfortunate enough to get within taunt range.

* Special mention goes to the "Four Horsewomen of the Toplane", a collective group of four female Divers; Riven, Irelia, Fiora, and Camille, who were infamous for shaping the Diver archetype to what they are now and being annoying to fight against, either by having [[ThatOneAttack a hard-to-counter skill in their lineup]], or just being [[GameBreaker too good at what they're doing overall]]. All four have quite significance in the toplane metagame and see healthy amount of picks and bans throughout the metagame, and still feared to this day even at their weakest.
** '''Riven''' stood out in the roster for being one of the most mechanically intensive Diver in the entire game, [[DifficultButAwesome requiring you to master her animation cancelling techniques]] to churn out the best of her damaging potential and circumvent all the animation clunkiness that admittedly dragged her down in some way. Detractors however find her nowhere being as difficult as people claimed her to be, and they're accusing Riven mains (and by that extent Riot themselves) into gaslighting the playerbase into believing that she's difficult to play, as her kit [[JackOfAllTrades provides her]] with [[MagikarpPower strong snowballing potential]] and safety that allowed her to be more careless that she should, with the clunky animations being the primary source of FakeDifficulty around her kit. Her presence in the metagame being considered healthy enough prompts Riot to not fix the issue surrounding her, which irked both fans and detractors alike.

** '''Camille''' managed to prove herself to be pretty strong regardless of how the current meta goes, but when the meta does favor her, she becomes STUPID. Camille's entire power is essentially defined by two words; '''[[ThatOneAttack Precision]] [[ArmorPiercingAttack Protocol]]''', which convert her second Q proc into full on true damage at max rank, essentially giving her Cho'gath's ultimate in a normal ability with generous cooldown. Her other skills essentially makes her a [[LightningBruiser hypermobile assassin with bruiser properties]] that further emphasizes her powerplay and giving her easy access to take down an important target or escape ganks with ease. The item shop rework also makes her core items easier to access, making her even more powerful early game, where she was supposed to be weak at. Even in the scene where Camille is overshadowed by the current top picks for toplane, she still remains strong and stood out regardless of the metagame because of her Q alone, which ensures her a higher spot on the toplane tier list for general metagame unless they decided to completely gut her Q, which they won't do.

** In paper, '''Yone''' was designed to be a foil for Yasuo, sharing several gameplay aspects and combat properties and general [[DifficultButAwesome difficulty curve]] that Yasuo was associated with, having roughly the same AS scaling cooldown passive, critical chance booster, three point strike that ends in a knockoff, some sort of shield, and an ultimate that can potentially round up the entire enemy team in one fell swoop. In practice, Yone could have been more different than his brother, and is seen as generally more overloaded and harder to fight off. For starters, Yasuo gameplan focuses on [[FragileSpeedster carefully waltzing into the enemy ranks]], poking the enemy from mid-range then finishes them off with devastating ultimate all while maintaining [[GlassCannon low sustainibility and defenses]]. Yone on the other hand wants to stay up close and[[TheBerserker auto attacking constantly]] because his sustainability is built-in to his kit instead of being supplemental from items, and despite sharing general durability with his brother, he's more durable and hard to crack because all of his kit provides him with even more safety that allowed him to rush down then jump back to safety without precautions, and as such, he's quickly dominated the metagame upon release and seeing nerfs upon nerfs ever since. Players dread of teaming up/fighting againt Yone because of his kit's nature.
** '''Viego''' didn't really leave a strong first impression on the community, being deceptively difficult and clustered with [[GameBreakingBug so many bugs he might as well have been the second coming of pre-VGU Mordekaiser]], put in a spot of being utterly useless and provoking demands for him to be buffed. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor They certainly got them]], and in concert with most of his worst bugs getting ironed out and more players finally learning how to play him optimally, they found a really solid combatant with strong ganking tools (skillshot, dash stun, a stealth gank option, and an execute), and that his possession mechanic was so devastatingly useful that teamfights were effectively won once he got a single valuable pick. After tuning him back down, his power exists in a spot that's greatly dependent on his possession passive ''and'' the player's knowledge on using possessed champions, making him either ungodly strong or utterly useless.

** '''Seraphine''' is essentially Sona with her design cruft ironed out and replaced with the traditional mage skillshots, which makes the playerbase think of using her as a support or an AP Carry counterpick in the botlane. Riot has tried repeatedly to push her as a midlaner by buffing her major strengths such as her scaling and survivability, but it ended up makes her even more annoying in duo botlane thanks to how her kit synergy gives her plenty of versatility when buddied up, even if she wasn't playing as the support.

* '''Zeri''' is a marksmen that, due to [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter her unusual]], [[DifficultButAwesome high skill-based form]] of [[FragileSpeedster running 'n' gunning]], started off in a wonky state of inconsistent balance, but ended up crossing into high-tier scrappydom during the middle of her debut 2022 season. In addition to her kit conceptually having ''a lot'' (her wallbang is a gnarly long-range poke, her dash gives her massive map-crossing mobility, and her ultimate gives her intense scaling and chasedown potential), her synergy with enchanters is through the roof, most especially with Yuumi, whose untargetability and potent ''Zoomies'' are no-brainer options to pair up with Zeri in making her even harder to catch. In pro play, the botlane meta [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was absolutely magnetized to Zeri (usually with Sivir as a counterpick due to being seen as on par with Zeri's ridiculous DPS and mobility)]], requiring several direct nerfs just to make her less overbearing as both players and Riot struggle to determine counters to her sheer speed. Eventually Riot just gave up and gave her massive rework so that her on-hit trigger playstyle is downplayed massively for more traditional AD Carry mechanics, without removing her signature run-and-gun tactics, allowing the balance team to buff her elsewhere.

** '''Renekton''' proved that you only need [[BoringButPractical one reliable crowd control move]] to stay relevant in the metagame for so long, and players dread fighting him head on because of it. His W, '''Ruthless Predator''', is an auto-attack buffer that gives you multiple properties in your next auto attack (applies extra hit up to three times, stun, shield breaker, and each hit applies on-hit effects, among other things), allowing him to just insert it during his auto attack chain without people noticing. The easily accessible crowd control option makes it really useful any time of the game to effectively disable (if not get rid off) a single champion off an enemy team (usually squishies like AD Carry and Enchanter Support) and can singlehandedly flip the gamestate upside down in your favor if you play them right, while the rest of his kit [[LightningBruiser helps him go up close and face punishment]] just so he can disable someone with relative ease. Because of this, Renekton has a solid presence throughout the time he was active in the toplane metagame even at his weakest, and become a staple pick in professional play because of the skill alone, which culminates in [[UpToEleven having a full on 100% ban rate]] during the entirety of LCK 2022.

** Initially deemed as bad, '''Bard''' quickly [[VindicatedByHistory flip his image in the metagame]] after players (especially in the professional scene) began to slowly understand his roaming gameplan and how much power he can give to every other lane, especially after the copious amount of buffs Riot provided to compensate his low pick rate, making him quite a fickle to fight against, with nerf and adjustment ensues. Oddly enough, the reason why he was hated is not because of his power, but he was hated because his roaming gameplan effectively [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter forcing him to abandon his duo laner for some time to assist other lanes]], which often very tilting for the allied botlaners and can cost them games because they had to fend up-to potentially four players at once, all by themselves. Given that the AD Carry players are infamous for their impatience and [[GlassCannon fragile gameplan]], the vitriol was pretty much bound to happen, even if the Bard player in question is very good at playing and planning the game.

* Plenty of '''[[LightningBruiser Divers]]'''(fighters with mobility, often known as '''Bruisers''') tends to be hated across the board because of how Riot didn't have any good definition of what Bruisers are and what they should be; [[LightningBruiser are they're tanky assassins or mobile juggernauts?]] This leaves them in the state where even at their weakest, they can still put up a fight and win you the game as long as you know what to do with them, with little chance to actually fight back and turn the table in your favor. It doesn't help that they're deceptively tanky and/or mobile they are as plenty of rune and/or the summoner spell choices manages to cover up some of their "weakness" if there are any.

The majority of Marksman champions in general tend to be seen as balanced for the fact that their primary power (high consistent damage that [[MagikarpPower snowballs to lategame]]) is offset by their [[CripplingOverspecialization lack of other options such as mobility or disengage]] and the fact that they're had to aim for the lategame to carry their team when average match time is 30 minute at best only makes them hard to stand out among other champions like Bruisers and Control supports. The reason why they're balanced as such because giving dedicated Marksmen other cool toys in their kit can be very devastating, as the champions below can attest.

* '''[[JackOfAllTrades Engage supports]]''', archetype consist of champions (usually tanks, but they can also be assassins and/or bruisers with lockdown capabilities) that specializes in some form of lockdows (usually pulls) that forgoes the usual sustainability of enchanters or the resilience of wardens in trade of taking down single (or multiple) target in a well-coordinated crowd control to effectively shut them down and/or even stop their gameplan altogether. Usually they're balanced around the fact that their overall damage is rather low and had to rely on peeling off enemy's resource so that the allied champions could finish them off. Regardless, the fact that they can singlehandedly flip the gamestate by either disabling or outright removing a core member from their team (usually their main damage dealer or the crucial enchanter support) with relative ease means that they're even more dangerous than the ADC marksman because they're effective regardless of the gamestate. Many players derided them as much as they love to joke that engage supports can [[Characters/StreetFighterAkuma Shun Goku Satsu]] the opposing botlane out of nowhere.

** Pre-VGU '''Irelia''' was ''hated'' back in her heyday for embodying the worst of the tanky DPS golden age, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness when Riot was still trying to figure out how to make melee champs that weren't straight tanks or bulky mages work, and boy, was it obvious]]. Her biggest problem was that her kit was simply too overloaded: Free scaling tenacity, a dependable nuke/gapcloser with an easy-to-trigger reset that triggered on-hit effects, passive healing and true damage from auto-attacks, an easy targeted stun/slow, and a relatively low-cooldown ultimate that gave her long-range piercing nukes that allowed her to recover chunks of her health. The end result made her incredibly frustrating and annoying to deal with (possessing so much innate damage that [[LightningBruiser she could build tanky and still be horrifying]]), and so she was hit with near-constant nerfs for a good deal of 2011 (creating the "better nerf Irelia" meme), and reworks to tone down the really problematic parts of her kit without making her useless. She eventually reached a general state of balance and favorability for several years, and was eventually subject for a full relaunch to better capitalize on her gameplay fantasy and remove several egregious [[TheArtifact design artifacts]] for good measure.
*** Irelia received her full VGU in 2018, though she hasn't emerged completely unscathed. While much of her original design cruft was removed, her active strengths were shifted around to preserve her status as [[LightningBruiser a very high-mobility, high-power duelist]] in the right hands, resulting in her being a highly dominant toplane ''and'' midlane threat throughout the rest of the season. [[HistoryRepeats Naturally, widespread vitriol and consistent nerfs to the champion were to follow]].

** After her buffs starts rolling in and with the addition of her passive can proc on structures, many mid-to-high diamond top laners will swear on '''Fiora''' and for a good reason. She's a versatile fighter with good statline, solid sustain, healthy mobility options, and powerful disengage choices. Doesn't help that her Riposte is deceptively strong since you don't need hit someone who uses a crowd control move with it to be useful, because the double cripple and slow is enough to practically bring any lane trading a piece-of-cake and make her hard to go up against. Combined with the buffs that allowed her Q and E to proc on buildings, she becomes a stupid splitpushing machine that the viable way to go up against her is to haste on Bramble Vest.
** '''Camille''' managed to prove herself to be pretty strong regardless of how the current meta goes, but when the meta does favor her, she becomes STUPID. Camille's entire power is essentially defined by two words; '''[[ThatOneAttack Precision]] [[ArmorPiercingAttack Protocol]]''', which convert her second Q proc into full on true damage at max rank, essentially giving her Cho'gath's ultimate in a normal ability with generous cooldown. Her other skills essentially makes her a [[LightningBruiser hypermobile assassin with bruiser properties]] that further emphasizes her powerplay and giving her easy access to take down an important target or escape ganks with ease. The item shop rework also makes her core items easier to access, making her even more powerful early game, where she was supposed to be weak at. Even in the scene where Camille is overshadowed by the current top picks for toplane, she still remains strong and stood out regardless of the metagame because of her Q alone, which ensures her a higher spot on the toplane tier list for general metagame unless they decided to completely gut her Q, which they won't do.

Assassins tend to be among the most problematic champions for players and the balance teams, since their design conceits hinge around a single question: "Can I go in, kill this target/these targets fast and make it out alive?" If yes, they're incredibly powerful, but if not, then they're near-useless. Due to an incredibly sensitive {{metagame}} with a few itemization changes affecting a vast amount of champions, assassins, especially item-dependent "hypercarries," are more susceptible to balance issues more than any other character class, even after several attempts to introduce more counterplay and overall utility beyond their lethality, while still retaining enough to qualify them as "assassins." This doesn't even take different skill levels and champion difficulty into account; often times, [[DifficultButAwesome difficult-to-play, but punishing-when-played-right champions]] get ire from both teams as it's very easy to fall into a mindset of "the ally assassin is bronze level, the enemy assassin is horrendously broken," making them some of the most consistently banned champions nobody wants to see in their game.

* Plenty of Bruisers (fighters with mobility) tends to be hated across the board because of how Riot didn't have any good definition of what Bruisers are and what they should be; [[LightningBruiser are they're tanky assassins or mobile juggernauts?]] This leaves them in the state where even at their weakest, they can still put up a fight and win you the game as long as you know what to do with them, with little chance to actually fight back and turn the table in your favor. It doesn't help that they're deceptively tanky and/or mobile they are as plenty of rune and/or the summoner spell choices manages to cover up some of their "weakness" if there are any.

* A ''ton'' of [[CloseRangeCombatant skirmishers]] (sometimes referred to as "melee carries") tend to be considered high-tier scrappies at lower [=ELOs=], stemming from how they -- especially earlier ones -- tend to be designed. Their general design conceit is that they're able to duel 1v1 or serve as cleanup against weakened enemies, [[MagikarpPower and thus escalate significantly by late game, able to shred entire enemy teams when properly fed]]. This presents balance issues when [[LongRangeFighter ranged carries]], including marksmen exist, most of which are able to serve as primary damage dealers from a distance and don't require being in inherently dangerous close-quarters range, demanding skirmishers walk a tightrope balance-wise, needing to survive the enemy onslaught to deal their sustained damage without becoming utterly unstoppable (this aspect varies a lot on skill range, [[SkillGateCharacter as more coordinated and skilled teams tend to have an easier time stopping them]]). Riot has become increasingly aware of this issue and ([[ReimaginingTheArtifact re-]])designs modern champions to require more versatility or possess more utility to make things less binary, but a few [[TheArtifact artifacts]] exist here and there.

* '''Zeri''' is a marksmen that, due to [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter her unusual]], [[DifficultButAwesome high skill-based form]] of [[FragileSpeedster running 'n' gunning]], started off in a wonky state of inconsistent balance, but ended up crossing into high-tier scrappydom during the middle of her debut 2022 season. In addition to her kit conceptually having ''a lot'' (her wallbang is a gnarly long-range poke, her dash gives her massive map-crossing mobility, and her ultimate gives her intense scaling and chasedown potential), her synergy with enchanters is through the roof, most especially with Yuumi, whose untargetability and potent ''Zoomies'' are no-brainer options to pair up with Zeri in making her even harder to catch. In pro play, the botlane meta [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was absolutely magnetized to Zeri (usually with Sivir as a counterpick due to being seen as on par with Zeri's ridiculous DPS and mobility)]], requiring several direct nerfs just to make her less overbearing as both players and Riot struggle to determine counters to her sheer speed.

* Engage supports, archetype consist of champions (usually tanks, but they can also be assassins and/or bruisers with lockdown capabilities) that specializes in some form of lockdows (usually pulls) that forgoes the usual sustainability of enchanters or the resilience of wardens in trade of taking down single (or multiple) target in a well-coordinated crowd control to effectively shut them down and/or even stop their gameplan altogether. Usually they're balanced around the fact that their overall damage is rather low and had to rely on peeling off enemy's resource so that the allied champions could finish them off. Regardless, the fact that they can singlehandedly flip the gamestate by either disabling or outright removing a core member from their team (usually their main damage dealer or the crucial enchanter support) with relative ease means that they're even more dangerous than the ADC marksman because they're effective regardless of the gamestate. Many players derided them as much as they love to joke that engage supports can [[Characters/StreetFighterAkuma Shun Goku Satsu]] the opposing botlane out of nowhere.

** '''Amumu''' is one of the definitive examples of [[SkillGateCharacter a champion who excels in Solo Queue but poorly in competitive play]]. He has decent clear speed and ganks, and his ultimate is one of the most powerful in the game, especially in teamfights, and is generally very easy to use. He has a few noticeable weaknesses that higher-tier players can easily exploit, such as his extremely weak early game and need for opponents to be out of position in order to maximize his ultimate's use, but these are usually not likely to be encountered in solo queue as coordination is typically nowhere near as good as it is professionally. Lately players find him rather useful as an engage support because his past rework effectively turn him into a powerful crowd control machine and can singlehandedly lockdown the entire enemy team with ease, and his weakness weren't as apparent when played in duo lane.

* '''Lulu''', as she became more popular and got more buffs, began to wander into this territory in higher [=ELOs=]. Her ''entire'' kit allows her to peel for her team, as she has a ranged slow, an attack speed and movement speed boost that turns into a hard CC when used on an enemy, a shield that is also a point and click damage ability, grants true sight if used on an enemy, lets her fire her slow off whoever Pix is currently attached to and automatically slows them if it's on an enemy, and her ult is a combination knock-up and max health increase that can save herself or a teammate from death and turn both trades and teamfights around. She's also no slouch when it comes to offensive capability, as her kit and stats once made her an effective off-meta mid and top lane pick.

* '''Seraphine''' is essentially Sona with her design cruft ironed out and replaced with the traditional mage skillshots, which makes the playerbase think of using her as a support in the duo botlane. However, Riot has tried repeatedly to push her as a midlaner by buffing her major strengths such as her scaling and survivability, which in turn makes her even more annoying in duo botlane thanks to how her kit synergy gives her plenty of versatility when buddied up.

* '''Yuumi''' isn't consistently a high-tier pick, but in metas where she is, she's a symbol for everything busted about [[WhiteMage Enchanters]] when left unchecked, and then some. Her entire game plan of attaching onto allies -- becoming NighInvulnerable in the process -- has received a lot of flack for her lack of flexibility, where if she's doing her job right and keeping her host alive and well, her single-button-press heal/speed boost, [[PlayerGuidedMissile homing poke]], and excellent [=AoE=] ultimate provides little to no weaknesses or counterplay opportunities as soon as she gets an early lead, and thus ends up with a near-universal presence and crushing winrates when Enchanters are high in demand, simultaneously making it easy to overnerf and make useless. Even after a pretty substantial mid-scope rework in early 2023 (shifting around her heals, toning down her potential damage scaling and crowd control, and tweaking her attaching ability to be more biased and situational in nature), she's still been greatly criticized for being too inherently strong, amassing a hatedom of detractors who want to see her removed on the basis that she's unfun when weak, frustratingly effective and toxic when not.

* Assassins tend to be among the most problematic champions for players and the balance teams, since their design conceits hinge around a single question: "Can I go in, kill this target/these targets fast and make it out alive?" If yes, they're incredibly powerful, but if not, then they're near-useless. Due to an incredibly sensitive {{metagame}} with a few itemization changes affecting a vast amount of champions, assassins, especially item-dependent "hypercarries," are more susceptible to balance issues more than any other character class, even after several attempts to introduce more counterplay and overall utility beyond their lethality, while still retaining enough to qualify them as "assassins." This doesn't even take different skill levels and champion difficulty into account; often times, [[DifficultButAwesome difficult-to-play, but punishing-when-played-right champions]] get ire from both teams as it's very easy to fall into a mindset of "the ally assassin is bronze level, the enemy assassin is horrendously broken," making them some of the most consistently banned champions nobody wants to see in their game.
** '''[=LeBlanc=]''' has been the source of constant adjustments since her release. When she’s strong, she can take over a game with her strong, hard to avoid and very fast burst damage while being impossible to catch with her [[TeleportSpam spammable teleport]]. No champion can typically delete a character as safely or quickly as her, and she even is ranged unlike other assassins, with one of the strongest laning phases of any midlaner. However, [[CrutchCharacter she also has a very bad late game]] as she is countered hard by anti-burst mechanics, is incredibly squishy, and overall a difficult champion to pilot. Riot tried to address this with a rework in 2017, but ended up making a champion who had a even better laning phase whilst having access to strong waveclear and area damage so she didn’t fall off as hard, even better damage, synergy with the Hextech Gunblade item giving her broken healing, and the ability to choose which ability her R would ''Mimic'', meaning she always had a teleport up. Not even LB mains liked this version of the champion, and she was reverted fully after a year.
** '''Fizz''' is an infamously very slippery assassin, with a reputation of [[LightningBruiser being able to instantly dart around the battlefield and avoid damage, all while laying down scary damage and crowd control with his infamous ult]]. While several nerfs and reworks helped put him in his definitive place as [[FragileSpeedster a squishy AP assassin]], many will never forget his heyday where his shark was a far higher-damage death sentence, or the occasions where his innate damage and mobility was so high that [[NotTheIntendedUse he could build for tankier stats]] while being no less lethal.
** '''Rengar''' has consistently been an issue due to his entire gameplay thematic: [[DynamicEntry Stealth, dive onto a squishy enemy,]] [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath one-shot them from nowhere, then escape just as quickly.]] While Rengar is ''usually'' [[GlassCannon pretty squishy]] (depending on the current meta and whether he can [[LightningBruiser reasonably build tank items and maintain his damage]]), he's been a problem since day one due to this hard-to-play-against concept being so innate to his character, prompting tons of ability tweaks just to make him slightly more palatable when he isn't simply nerfed into the ground. Worse still, several of these attempts to divert his binary concept only served to overload his kit while not directly addressing his stealth or assassination problems (his preseason 7 rework in particular granted a CC-cleanse/heal and a guaranteed 100% crit gap closer ultimate), drawing even more bad faith all around.
** '''Ekko''' is actually generally considered a pretty healthy assassin due to [[DifficultButAwesome the careful nature of his kit and burst damage]], but many will never forget his state immediately following his release when it was discovered that due to his immense utility and high base damage, [[NotTheIntendedUse building him as]] [[LightningBruiser a full tank]] was ''far'' more effective than his expected GlassCannon build. Tank/bruiser Ekko was considered the default option for the longest time and provided a ton of scary balance issues, especially regarding his late game where he could crowd-control and annihilate enemies without a care in the world for fragility. This path was mercifully nerfed out after countless stat and damage ratio tweaks over the years, where he's finally found his primary recognition as the mostly stable AP assassin he was meant to be.
** '''Akali's''' had many problems both before and after her Season 8 VGU, infamous for when she's good for being ''really'' good.
*** Before her update, her kit's been somewhat all over the place, with a pretty simple yet potently deadly kit allowing her to potentially snowball out of control from a single kill, with her infamous [[SmokeOut Twilight Shroud]] being able to help make her even more slippery. However, due to her lack of utility useful for the team and focus on [[AttackAttackAttack pure all-or-nothing assassinations]], she also became extremely easy to overnerf as [[TheLoad a failure to kill targets from a lack of damage numbers made her a liability]], prompting a full relaunch.
*** Issues shifted around with her Season 8 VGU, where her kit was expanded to give her more mobility and combat options that subsequently required delicate play and a relatively longer execution time when compared to other assassins. However, in a way very akin to Yasuo, she became controversial due to many arguing that she's still too loaded and frustratingly effective at her job to play against, not helped by her revamped Twilight Shroud, made to be ''even more'' stealthy. Riot had to remove several chunks of her post-relaunch kit (including a heal on her Q, a stun from her ultimate, and the aforementioned "true stealth" which even stealthed her from turrets at one point), even beginning an initiative at the start of 2019 to intentionally gut her to [[JokeCharacter joke status]], ''then'' buff her back up to normalcy when everyone calmed down, and she's ''still'' a pretty contentious champion, after constant adjustments since her rework.

* The majority of Marksman champions in general tend to be seen as balanced for the fact that their primary power (high consistent damage that [[MagikarpPower snowballs to lategame]]) is offset by their [[CripplingOverspecialization lack of other options such as mobility or disengage]] and the fact that they're had to aim for the lategame to carry their team when average match time is 30 minute at best only makes them hard to stand out among other champions like Bruisers and Control supports. The reason why they're balanced as such because giving dedicated Marksmen other cool toys in their kit can be very devastating, as the champions below can attest.
** '''Ezreal''' is one of the most consistently popular champions in the game in large part due to [[JackOfAllTrades his versatility]] and fast-paced gameplay, and he's usually considered healthy and liked enough that he rarely strays hard into being a "scrappy." However, he's created some rippling balance issues due to the design of his ''Mystic Shot'', a skillshot that applies on-hit effects normally applied by basic attacks, which has resulted in surprisingly intense and [[NotTheIntendedUse unexpected consequences]] that the rest of the game (particularly its items) have had to accommodate for, one of the most infamous being with the Kleptomancy mastery introduced in preseason 8. With its ability to allow champions to gain gold and other goodies from weaving basic attacks in with abilities, it was practically built for Ezreal and him alone[[note]]The closest competition was Gangplank solely due to him having a similar on-hit effect interaction with his ''Parrrley'', and even then, Ezreal was ''much'' faster with it[[/note]], and the rune ended up having to be balanced solely around him (as well as vice-versa, itself causing problems for those who ''didn't'' want to take Kleptomancy due to its RNG-heavy nature). After hogging the rune for the better part of two years, it was decided that Kleptomancy was a lost cause and was removed entirely in preseason 10.
** '''Kai'Sa''' is infamous among the playerbase as an example of how overloaded newer champions and reworks has become, containing a stacking PercentDamageAttack passive, reliable waveclear that also functions as a quick single target burst, a long-ranged poke, a mobility option that increase her attack speed and can grant her stealth, and an ultimate that allows her to chase marked enemies from far away ''and'' give her a good chunk of shield on top of it. Even with her weaknesses (no form of crowd control whatsoever, thus relying hard on control support to help her out of the laning phase), Kai'Sa's sheer versatility has made her one of the most inherently powerful marksman to date, being able to remain relevant even after other marksmen with just as (if not even more) overloaded kits like Aphelios and Samira entered the scene.
** '''Aphelios''' got hit with this reputation pretty bad on release -- while he was hyped up as another [[DifficultButAwesome high-skill floor, high-power potential champion]], players quickly found that he was both nowhere near as intensive as expected ''and'' his kit was too rewarding, with a ton of backlash against his [[MultiRangedMaster gun-changing mechanic]] as being [[MasterOfAll too versatile and overall lacking punishable weaknesses, with virtually every combo being viably lethal]]. Combined with clarity issues (for as much as Riot did their best to emphasize and make clear which gun he's using in his ''main'' hand, [[FakeDifficulty enemies often had a hard time telling what was in his off-hand and what his ultimate did at any given time]], though the former at least got addressed with a new indicator later on), it's no wonder he's built up a reputation for being the purest form of "unfair" design in a while.
** '''Samira''' was ''really'' annoying on launch, with Riot effectively designing an AD marksman version of Katarina but greatly underestimating how much her strengths would outweigh her weaknesses. The playstyle of racking up fast combos to unleash a crazy ultimate balanced with [[GlassCannon fragility]] and [[FragileSpeedster high mobility]] isn't anything new, but Samira's biggest asset was the fact her abilities applied [[HealingFactor 1:1 on-hit]] [[LifeDrain lifesteal]], making it so long as she built up a full combo, [[MadeOfIron it was completely in her ability to facetank a 5-man enemy team]] [[OneManArmy and still win]]. Combined with other nuisances like her ability to dash to knock up any stunned enemy using basic attacks (a trait considered too rewarding given it didn't even require her to be in harm's way to use) and her ''Blade Whirl'' being compared to a 360-degree Yasuo ''[[ThatOneAttack Wind Wall]]'', it's not surprising that she had a ban rate circling around 80-85%. Eventually, Riot had enough of her and directly nerfed her major strengths (''Wild Rush'' has slower cast speed and no longer allows you to dash on an allied unit, lowered lifesteal per ultimate hit, a ''Blade Whirl'' that lasts half as long, and overall lowered AD scaling) that she finally relegated into a niche snowball pick on botlane rather than being a meta-defining pick she is before.
** '''Zeri''' is a marksmen that, due to [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter her unusual]], [[DifficultButAwesome high skill-based form]] of [[FragileSpeedster running 'n' gunning]], started off in a wonky state of inconsistent balance, but ended up crossing into high-tier scrappydom during the middle of her debut 2022 season. In addition to her kit conceptually having ''a lot'' (her wallbang is a gnarly long-range poke, her dash gives her massive map-crossing mobility, and her ultimate gives her intense scaling and chasedown potential), her synergy with enchanters is through the roof, most especially with Yuumi, whose untargetability and potent ''Zoomies'' are no-brainer options to pair up with Zeri in making her even harder to catch. In pro play, the botlane meta [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was absolutely magnetized to Zeri (usually with Sivir as a counterpick due to being seen as on par with Zeri's ridiculous DPS and mobility)]], requiring several direct nerfs just to make her less overbearing as both players and Riot struggle to determine counters to her sheer speed.

* Engage supports, archetype consist of champions (usually tanks, but they can also be assassins and/or bruisers with lockdown capabilities) that specializes in some form of lockdows (usually pulls) that forgoes the usual sustainability of enchanters or the resilience of wardens in trade of taking down single (or multiple) target in a well-coordinated crowd control to effectively shut them down and/or even stop their gameplan altogether. Usually they're balanced around the fact that their overall damage is rather low and had to rely on peeling off enemy's resource so that the allied champions could finish them off. Regardless, the fact that they can singlehandedly flip the gamestate by either disabling or outright removing a core member from their team (usually their main damage dealer or the crucial enchanter support) with relative ease means that they're even more dangerous than the ADC marksman because they're effective regardless of the gamestate. Many players derided them as much as they love to joke that engage supports can [[VideoGame/StreetFighter Satsui no Hado]] the opposing botlane out of nowhere.

* '''Amumu''' is one of the definitive examples of [[SkillGateCharacter a champion who excels in Solo Queue but poorly in competitive play]]. He has decent clear speed and ganks, and his ultimate is one of the most powerful in the game, especially in teamfights, and is generally very easy to use. He has a few noticeable weaknesses that higher-tier players can easily exploit, such as his extremely weak early game and need for opponents to be out of position in order to maximize his ultimate's use, but these are usually not likely to be encountered in solo queue as coordination is typically nowhere near as good as it is professionally.

** '''Zeri''' is a marksmen that, due to [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter her unusual]], [[DifficultButAwesome high skill-based form of running 'n' gunning]], started off in a wonky state of inconsistent balance, but ended up crossing into high-tier scrappydom during the middle of her debut 2022 season. In addition to her kit conceptually having ''a lot'' (her wallbang is a gnarly long-range poke, her dash gives her massive map-crossing mobility, and her ultimate gives her intense scaling and chasedown potential), her synergy with enchanters is through the roof, most especially with Yuumi, whose untargetability and potent ''Zoomies'' are no-brainer options to pair up with Zeri in making her even harder to catch. In pro play, the botlane meta [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was absolutely magnetized to Zeri (usually with Sivir as a counterpick due to being seen as on par with Zeri's ridiculous DPS and mobility)]], requiring several direct nerfs just to make her less overbearing as both players and Riot struggle to determine counters to her sheer speed.

* '''Aatrox''' has historically been in many cases a LowTierLetdown (see [[LowTierLetdown/LeagueOfLegends the respective page]] for details), even after his 2018 VGU due to initially feeling a bit undercooked and clunky. Post-patch 9.9 Aatrox, however, is now a whole 'nother beast -- in addition to ironing out the casting of his abilities (including [[AntiFrustrationFeatures making his dash more intuitive]]), his passive and ultimate were greatly reworked, replacing his antiheal and self-revive into huge amounts of [[LifeDrain lifesteal]], turning him into a proper drain tank LightningBruiser with extended brawling and [[MagikarpPower late-game snowballing]] in mind. [[HistoryRepeats As is still the case like with pre-VGU Aatrox]], LifeDrain being such an integral part of his identity means he requires a lot of attention from Riot as it's easy for him to get out of control when played correctly and especially if healing is strong and/or antiheal is weak. In those cases, he can be nigh-unstoppable unless he's up against a counter who can outclass his specific movement or [[ArmorPiercingAttack punch through his healing]] (such as Fiora, Cassiopeia, or Camille), and any form of Grievous Wounds (such as Ignite or Bramble Vest) are considered absolute requirements to even try to deal with him. The good news is that this is still dependent on [[DifficultButAwesome the challenge of landing his abilities]], but nowadays even after extensive nerfs and tweaks, he leans on being a very strong bruiser pick.

** [=LeBlanc=] has been the source of constant adjustments since her release. When she’s strong, she can take over a game with her strong, hard to avoid and very fast burst damage while being impossible to catch with her [[TeleportSpam spammable teleport]]. No champion can typically delete a character as safely or quickly as her, and she even is ranged unlike other assassins, with one of the strongest laning phases of any midlaner. However, [[CrutchCharacter she also has a very bad late game]] as she is countered hard by anti-burst mechanics, is incredibly squishy, and overall a difficult champion to pilot. Riot tried to address this with a rework in 2017, but ended up making a champion who had a even better laning phase whilst having access to strong waveclear and area damage so she didn’t fall off as hard, even better damage, synergy with the Hextech Gunblade item giving her broken healing, and the ability to choose which ability her R would ''Mimic'', meaning she always had a teleport up. Not even LB mains liked this version of the champion, and she was reverted fully after a year.
** Fizz is an infamously very slippery assassin, with a reputation of [[LightningBruiser being able to instantly dart around the battlefield and avoid damage, all while laying down scary damage and crowd control with his infamous ult]]. While several nerfs and reworks helped put him in his definitive place as [[FragileSpeedster a squishy AP assassin]], many will never forget his heyday where his shark was a far higher-damage death sentence, or the occasions where his innate damage and mobility was so high that [[NotTheIntendedUse he could build for tankier stats]] while being no less lethal.
** Rengar has consistently been an issue due to his entire gameplay thematic: [[DynamicEntry Stealth, dive onto a squishy enemy,]] [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath one-shot them from nowhere, then escape just as quickly.]] While Rengar is ''usually'' [[GlassCannon pretty squishy]] (depending on the current meta and whether he can [[LightningBruiser reasonably build tank items and maintain his damage]]), he's been a problem since day one due to this hard-to-play-against concept being so innate to his character, prompting tons of ability tweaks just to make him slightly more palatable when he isn't simply nerfed into the ground. Worse still, several of these attempts to divert his binary concept only served to overload his kit while not directly addressing his stealth or assassination problems (his preseason 7 rework in particular granted a CC-cleanse/heal and a guaranteed 100% crit gap closer ultimate), drawing even more bad faith all around.
** Ekko is actually generally considered a pretty healthy assassin due to [[DifficultButAwesome the careful nature of his kit and burst damage]], but many will never forget his state immediately following his release when it was discovered that due to his immense utility and high base damage, [[NotTheIntendedUse building him as]] [[LightningBruiser a full tank]] was ''far'' more effective than his expected GlassCannon build. Tank/bruiser Ekko was considered the default option for the longest time and provided a ton of scary balance issues, especially regarding his late game where he could crowd-control and annihilate enemies without a care in the world for fragility. This path was mercifully nerfed out after countless stat and damage ratio tweaks over the years, where he's finally found his primary recognition as the mostly stable AP assassin he was meant to be.
** Akali's had many problems both before and after her Season 8 VGU, infamous for when she's good for being ''really'' good.

** Pre-VGU Irelia was ''hated'' back in her heyday for embodying the worst of the tanky DPS golden age, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness when Riot was still trying to figure out how to make melee champs that weren't straight tanks or bulky mages work, and boy, was it obvious]]. Her biggest problem was that her kit was simply too overloaded: Free scaling tenacity, a dependable nuke/gapcloser with an easy-to-trigger reset that triggered on-hit effects, passive healing and true damage from auto-attacks, an easy targeted stun/slow, and a relatively low-cooldown ultimate that gave her long-range piercing nukes that allowed her to recover chunks of her health. The end result made her incredibly frustrating and annoying to deal with (possessing so much innate damage that [[LightningBruiser she could build tanky and still be horrifying]]), and so she was hit with near-constant nerfs for a good deal of 2011 (creating the "better nerf Irelia" meme), and reworks to tone down the really problematic parts of her kit without making her useless. She eventually reached a general state of balance and favorability for several years, and was eventually subject for a full relaunch to better capitalize on her gameplay fantasy and remove several egregious [[TheArtifact design artifacts]] for good measure.

** Darius is absolutely ''loathed'' by quite a large percentage of the game's community for having a kit utterly overloaded with damage and self-healing, most especially his refreshable, massive-true-damage ult. While it's generally agreed that he's not overpowered ''per se'', it's only because there are a number of champions who exploit his flaws ([[MightyGlacier lack of hard CC or escapes, limited range]]) to counter him completely and those who ''don't'' counter him get destroyed so one-sidedly that they might as well not bother. Additionally, his ultimate means that even a Darius who has a terrible early game can still come back and do immense damage late-game even when purely tank-built, largely by {{Kill Steal}}ing -- with some claiming he's far more annoying and punishing than he probably should be, even for [[TheJuggernaut his status]].
** After her buffs starts rolling in and with the addition of her passive can proc on structures, many mid-to-high diamond top laners will swear on Fiora and for a good reason. She's a versatile fighter with solid sustain, spammable mobility options, and powerful disengage choices. Doesn't help that her Riposte is deceptively strong since you don't need hit someone who uses a crowd control move with it to be useful, because the double cripple and slow is enough to practically bring any lane trading a piece-of-cake and make her hard to go up against. Combined with the buffs that allowed her Q and E to proc on buildings, she becomes a stupid splitpushing machine that the viable way to go up against her is to haste on Bramble Vest.
** Camille managed to prove herself to be pretty strong regardless of how the current meta goes, but when the meta does favor her, she becomes STUPID. Camille's entire power is essentially defined by two words; '''[[ThatOneAttack Precision Protocol]]''', which convert her second Q proc into full on true damage at max rank, essentially giving her Cho'gath's ultimate in a normal ability with generous cooldown. Her other skills essentially makes her a [[LightningBruiser hypermobile assassin with bruiser properties]] that further emphasizes her powerplay and giving her easy access to take down an important target or escape ganks with ease. The item shop rework also makes her core items easier to access, making her even more powerful early game, where she was supposed to be weak at.
** In paper, Yone [[DifficultButAwesome seems to function]] like his brother Yasuo, having virtually the same passive and AS scaling on his kit, designed around surfing through enemy ranks with three-hit attack that ends with a knockup. The difference starts kicking in once you realize that his overall gameplay is completely different to Yasuo, whereas Yasuo has to carefully waltz into an enemy ranks and had to make sure to score a takedown because his mobility option can only be activated to an enemy unit on top of best being played with other champions with knockup skills, Yone's gameplay consist of [[TheBerserker relentlessly attacking his opponent with every part of his kit without having to be careful with his positioning]] because of his Yasuo-like kit allows him to keep spamming his Q after buying Berserker Greaves, and it synergizes well with Lifesteal and Omnivamp, allowing him to heal fully from hitting his Q instead of only 33% of damage dealt from it. The knockup dash on his third Q sounds weak at first in comparison of Yasuo's third Q who is a ranged skillshot or an [=AoE=] knockup, but then Riot decided to overcompensating his kit by giving him boatload of other skills that's just too good for his already, which grants him safety and even stronger sustain that he's ever need. Needless to say, Yone quickly dominates the game for a short while before being quickly hotfixed and nerfed to the ground to compensate how many things they added in his kit. Problems arises once more after the preseason 11 item shop rework that left crit-oriented champions weak for a short while, which indirectly affects him and Yasuo. Riot eventually buffed them and their core items to keep them afloat in the next metagame, [[GoneHorriblyRight until players figured that the 'weaker' items were actually a perfect fit for both of them]], allowing players to adjust and quickly master them both for the entirety of Season 11 onwards, causing Riot to keep adjusting them every now and then and keep the cycle of nerfing and buffing running for those two and repeating their mistakes over and over again whenever they also nerfed/buffed their items. Many players really disliked his inclusion and the fact that Riot keeps drawing comparisons of the brothers together (which also means if Yasuo's weak, Yone is also weak in their eyes, and they will almost always being buffed together, not helping the case), insisting that they're completely separate and has different gameplan altogether (and by that comparison what makes Yasuo weak doesn't affect Yone as much as he can even be stronger in such regard) and had to be balanced differently, but as for his current position, it's unlikely that Riot will ever address Yone's core problem without having to draw comparison to Yasuo again.

** Master Yi is one of the oldest still-remaining skirmishers who fits this design philosophy to a tee; all of his power comes from blink-and-you'll-miss-it damage and snowballing to shred entire teams, with annoying temporary invincibility with his ''[[FlashStep Alpha Strike]]'', self-healing, and on-kill cooldown resets. Because of [[MagikarpPower how scary he can get from this]], a common complaint is that games focus entirely around him simply for him existing, though this is a double-edged sword since due to his [[AttackAttackAttack all-or-nothing nature]] and weak early game, [[SkillGateCharacter he's also fairly easy for coordinated teams to punish before he gets to that point]]. Because of his "[[SkillGateCharacter brutal at low levels, ineffective at higher levels]]" identity being set in stone, however, Riot doesn't consider him a high-priority balance target, so he still gets complaints from low-level players for being "broken" to this day.
** Tryndamere has been known for having [[AwesomeButImpractical very extreme strengths, but at very hefty costs]] where he's treated as highly unstable for any given meta. His strengths include [[CriticalHitClass brutal crit-based auto-attacks]], a pretty solid low-cooldown dash, and his infamous ultimate that prevents him from dying, along with a niche as one of the best splitpushers in the game. His downsides are that he's also an enormous stat-checker [[CripplingOverspecialization lacking in pretty much everything else]], including a consistent early game, flexibility against counters, and even the actual ability to carry in teamfights. How this ends up in practice is that he's generally seen as such a gamble that he's very rarely tolerated unless he reaches 6 items, but he's incredibly obnoxious once there since there's very little that can be done against his raw DPS and ''Undying Rage'' if the enemy team just doesn't have the right champions to delay him. Prior to late 2021, he was almost completely forgotten beyond his kingdom of low ELO and a cult of dedicated mains, but as preseason 2022 began rolling around and the meta began shifting (including a widespread shift in favor towards burst damage and increasingly relevant items like Galeforce), he was discovered to be astonishingly powerful for being really ''[[WhyWontYouDie annoying]]''.
** Yasuo is a [[DifficultButAwesome high-risk, high-reward skirmisher]] who has just enough utility to survive prolonged combat ''if'' his player knows what to do. A good Yasuo will [[LightningBruiser blitz through an entire team]] while remaining almost untouchable thanks to his dash mechanic, passive shield, and ''Wind Wall''; a bad Yasuo trying the same thing will get murdered. This makes him loved and loathed at all tiers, and banned by both sides, because "their Yasuo" will become a team-slaying monster, while "your Yasuo" has a sign around his neck saying "Free Gold Here".
** Viego didn't really leave a strong first impression on the community, being deceptively difficult and clustered with [[GameBreakingBug so many bugs he might as well have been the second coming of pre-VGU Mordekaiser]], put in a spot of being utterly useless and provoking demands for him to be buffed. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor They certainly got them]], and in concert with most of his worst bugs getting ironed out and more players finally learning how to play him optimally, they found a really solid combatant with strong ganking tools (skillshot, dash stun, a stealth gank option, and an execute), and that his possession mechanic was so devastatingly useful that teamfights were effectively won once he got a single valuable pick. After tuning him back down, his power exists in a spot that's greatly dependent on his possession passive ''and'' the player's knowledge on using possessed champions, making him either ungodly strong or utterly useless.

** Ezreal is one of the most consistently popular champions in the game in large part due to [[JackOfAllTrades his versatility]] and fast-paced gameplay, and he's usually considered healthy and liked enough that he rarely strays hard into being a "scrappy." However, he's created some rippling balance issues due to the design of his ''Mystic Shot'', a skillshot that applies on-hit effects normally applied by basic attacks, which has resulted in surprisingly intense and [[NotTheIntendedUse unexpected consequences]] that the rest of the game (particularly its items) have had to accommodate for, one of the most infamous being with the Kleptomancy mastery introduced in preseason 8. With its ability to allow champions to gain gold and other goodies from weaving basic attacks in with abilities, it was practically built for Ezreal and him alone[[note]]The closest competition was Gangplank solely due to him having a similar on-hit effect interaction with his ''Parrrley'', and even then, Ezreal was ''much'' faster with it[[/note]], and the rune ended up having to be balanced solely around him (as well as vice-versa, itself causing problems for those who ''didn't'' want to take Kleptomancy due to its RNG-heavy nature). After hogging the rune for the better part of two years, it was decided that Kleptomancy was a lost cause and was removed entirely in preseason 10.
** Kai'Sa is infamous among the playerbase as an example of how overloaded newer champions and reworks has become, containing a stacking PercentDamageAttack passive, reliable waveclear that also functions as a quick single target burst, a long-ranged poke, a mobility option that increase her attack speed and can grant her stealth, and an ultimate that allows her to chase marked enemies from far away ''and'' give her a good chunk of shield on top of it. Even with her weaknesses (no form of crowd control whatsoever, thus relying hard on control support to help her out of the laning phase), Kai'Sa's sheer versatility has made her one of the most inherently powerful marksman to date, being able to remain relevant even after other marksmen with just as (if not even more) overloaded kits like Aphelios and Samira entered the scene.
** Aphelios got hit with this reputation pretty bad on release -- while he was hyped up as another [[DifficultButAwesome high-skill floor, high-power potential champion]], players quickly found that he was both nowhere near as intensive as expected ''and'' his kit was too rewarding, with a ton of backlash against his [[MultiRangedMaster gun-changing mechanic]] as being [[MasterOfAll too versatile and overall lacking punishable weaknesses, with virtually every combo being viably lethal]]. Combined with clarity issues (for as much as Riot did their best to emphasize and make clear which gun he's using in his ''main'' hand, [[FakeDifficulty enemies often had a hard time telling what was in his off-hand and what his ultimate did at any given time]], though the former at least got addressed with a new indicator later on), it's no wonder he's built up a reputation for being the purest form of "unfair" design in a while.
** Samira was ''really'' annoying on launch, with Riot effectively designing an AD marksman version of Katarina but greatly underestimating how much her strengths would outweigh her weaknesses. The playstyle of racking up fast combos to unleash a crazy ultimate balanced with [[GlassCannon fragility]] and [[FragileSpeedster high mobility]] isn't anything new, but Samira's biggest asset was the fact her abilities applied [[HealingFactor 1:1 on-hit]] [[LifeDrain lifesteal]], making it so long as she built up a full combo, [[MadeOfIron it was completely in her ability to facetank a 5-man enemy team]] [[OneManArmy and still win]]. Combined with other nuisances like her ability to dash to knock up any stunned enemy using basic attacks (a trait considered too rewarding given it didn't even require her to be in harm's way to use) and her ''Blade Whirl'' being compared to a 360-degree Yasuo ''[[ThatOneAttack Wind Wall]]'', it's not surprising that she had a ban rate circling around 80-85%. Eventually, Riot had enough of her and directly nerfed her major strengths (''Wild Rush'' has slower cast speed and no longer allows you to dash on an allied unit, lowered lifesteal per ultimate hit, a ''Blade Whirl'' that lasts half as long, and overall lowered AD scaling) that she finally relegated into a niche snowball pick on botlane rather than being a meta-defining pick she is before.
** Zeri is a marksmen that, due to [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter her unusual]], [[DifficultButAwesome high skill-based form of running 'n' gunning]], started off in a wonky state of inconsistent balance, but ended up crossing into high-tier scrappydom during the middle of her debut 2022 season. In addition to her kit conceptually having ''a lot'' (her wallbang is a gnarly long-range poke, her dash gives her massive map-crossing mobility, and her ultimate gives her intense scaling and chasedown potential), her synergy with enchanters is through the roof, most especially with Yuumi, whose untargetability and potent ''Zoomies'' are no-brainer options to pair up with Zeri in making her even harder to catch. In pro play, the botlane meta [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome was absolutely magnetized to Zeri (usually with Sivir as a counterpick due to being seen as on par with Zeri's ridiculous DPS and mobility)]], requiring several direct nerfs just to make her less overbearing as both players and Riot struggle to determine counters to her sheer speed.

* Amumu is one of the definitive examples of [[SkillGateCharacter a champion who excels in Solo Queue but poorly in competitive play]]. He has decent clear speed and ganks, and his ultimate is one of the most powerful in the game, especially in teamfights, and is generally very easy to use. He has a few noticeable weaknesses that higher-tier players can easily exploit, such as his extremely weak early game and need for opponents to be out of position in order to maximize his ultimate's use, but these are usually not likely to be encountered in solo queue as coordination is typically nowhere near as good as it is professionally.
* Pre-VGU Poppy, along with the old Sion, is considered by Riot to be one of the worst champions they have ever designed. She was the most extreme example of imbalanced risk-reward in the entire game; her passive was a ''massive'' damage reduction that gave her ridiculous faux-tankiness and an utterly broken ultimate that gave her ''complete invulnerability to damage'' ''and crowd control'' ''with absolutely zero downsides.'' To elaborate on her old ultimate, it was perhaps the biggest case of NotTheIntendedUse in the game. "Diplomatic Immunity" was meant to initiate a 1v1 duel with an enemy champion just like Camille's ultimate. During teamfights, you could choose a low-damage champion such as the support and deal massive damage to the rest of the team while [[NoSell No-Selling]] their efforts to stop you. The saving grace was that her kit was so boring and her early game took so dismally long that ''if'' she got to late game she would be terrifying, but even by carry standards it took her ''so long'' to get good [[AwesomeButImpractical that she was totally impractical]]. Thankfully, Riot nerfed her into complete unplayability, and eventually she was given a complete rework/visual update during Season 5.
* Lulu, as she became more popular and got more buffs, began to wander into this territory in higher [=ELOs=]. Her ''entire'' kit allows her to peel for her team, as she has a ranged slow, an attack speed and movement speed boost that turns into a hard CC when used on an enemy, a shield that is also a point and click damage ability, grants true sight if used on an enemy, lets her fire her slow off whoever Pix is currently attached to and automatically slows them if it's on an enemy, and her ult is a combination knock-up and max health increase that can save herself or a teammate from death and turn both trades and teamfights around. She's also no slouch when it comes to offensive capability, as her kit and stats once made her an effective off-meta mid and top lane pick.
* Ryze is infamously the most significantly reworked and retooled champion in the game, stemming from his original design concept as a tanky burst mage, and has gone up and down the tier lists as a result.

* Galio has been a consistently strong pick since his rework, drifting between ''merely'' high tier to an outright GameBreaker depending on the patch. His somewhat unique niche as a mid lane tank already gives him reason to be picked, but his individual strengths are numerous enough to make him a consistent top contender. Both his wave clear and burst are deceptively good, his global presence is rivalled only by Shen and Twisted Fate, and his durability is only slightly worse against AD assassins, who tend to struggle against tanks like him who can resist their burst to begin with, rendering him a LightningBruiser who can show up anywhere, survive anything the enemy team throws at him, all the while squashing anyone unfortunate enough to get within taunt range.
* Seraphine is essentially Sona with her design cruft ironed out and replaced with the traditional mage skillshots, which makes the playerbase think of using her as a support in the duo botlane. However, Riot has tried repeatedly to push her as a midlaner by buffing her major strengths such as her scaling and survivability, which in turn makes her even more annoying in duo botlane thanks to how her kit synergy gives her plenty of versatility when buddied up.
* Tahm Kench has been a balancing rollercoaster due to an enormous amount of his power coming from his [[SwallowedWhole Devour]] mechanic, an integral part of his identity, but is considered in practice by most to be too good at its job in instantly saving allies from death or suppressing enemies in skirmishes (to say nothing about his additional crowd control, tankiness, and utility ultimate). In addition, [[NotTheIntendedUse his kit occasionally pulls him into being a decent toplane pick, often seen as mutually exclusive with his intended support route]], and Riot's attempts to pull him from one to the other has often left him a technically competent StoneWall, but in the sloggiest, most non-interactive way possible. Riot substantially reworked him in 2021 to make him less centralized on ''Devour'' by making it his ultimate, swapping around a tweaked ''Abyssal Dive'' ability to make him more of an engage tank, which fortunately stabilized him in making him more interactive as a StoneWall while not able to just completely smother enemies by existing.
* Yuumi isn't consistently a high-tier pick, but in metas where she is, she's a symbol for everything busted about [[WhiteMage Enchanters]] when left unchecked, and then some. Her entire game plan of attaching onto allies -- becoming NighInvulnerable in the process -- has received a lot of flack for her lack of flexibility, where if she's doing her job right and keeping her host alive and well, her single-button-press heal/speed boost, [[PlayerGuidedMissile homing poke]], and excellent [=AoE=] ultimate provides little to no weaknesses or counterplay opportunities as soon as she gets an early lead, and thus ends up with a near-universal presence and crushing winrates when Enchanters are high in demand, simultaneously making it easy to overnerf and make useless. Even after a pretty substantial mid-scope rework in early 2023 (shifting around her heals, toning down her potential damage scaling and crowd control, and tweaking her attaching ability to be more biased and situational in nature), she's still been greatly criticized for being too inherently strong, amassing a hatedom of detractors who want to see her removed on the basis that she's unfun when weak, frustratingly effective and toxic when not.
* Aatrox has historically been in many cases a LowTierLetdown (see [[LowTierLetdown/LeagueOfLegends the respective page]] for details), even after his 2018 VGU due to initially feeling a bit undercooked and clunky. Post-patch 9.9 Aatrox, however, is now a whole 'nother beast -- in addition to ironing out the casting of his abilities (including [[AntiFrustrationFeatures making his dash more intuitive]]), his passive and ultimate were greatly reworked, replacing his antiheal and self-revive into huge amounts of [[LifeDrain lifesteal]], turning him into a proper drain tank LightningBruiser with extended brawling and [[MagikarpPower late-game snowballing]] in mind. [[HistoryRepeats As is still the case like with pre-VGU Aatrox]], LifeDrain being such an integral part of his identity means he requires a lot of attention from Riot as it's easy for him to get out of control when played correctly and especially if healing is strong and/or antiheal is weak. In those cases, he can be nigh-unstoppable unless he's up against a counter who can outclass his specific movement or [[ArmorPiercingAttack punch through his healing]] (such as Fiora, Cassiopeia, or Camille), and any form of Grievous Wounds (such as Ignite or Bramble Vest) are considered absolute requirements to even try to deal with him. The good news is that this is still dependent on [[DifficultButAwesome the challenge of landing his abilities]], but nowadays even after extensive nerfs and tweaks, he leans on being a very strong bruiser pick.

* Aatrox has historically been in many cases a LowTierLetdown (see the respective page for details), even after his 2018 VGU due to initially feeling a bit undercooked and clunky. Post-patch 9.9 Aatrox, however, is now a whole 'nother beast -- in addition to ironing out the casting of his abilities (including [[AntiFrustrationFeatures making his dash more intuitive]]), his passive and ultimate were greatly reworked, replacing his antiheal and self-revive into huge amounts of [[LifeDrain lifesteal]], turning him into a proper drain tank LightningBruiser with extended brawling and [[MagikarpPower late-game snowballing]] in mind. [[HistoryRepeats As is still the case like with pre-VGU Aatrox]], LifeDrain being such an integral part of his identity means he requires a lot of attention from Riot as it's easy for him to get out of control when played correctly and especially if healing is strong and/or antiheal is weak. In those cases, he can be nigh-unstoppable unless he's up against a counter who can outclass his specific movement or [[ArmorPiercingAttack punch through his healing]] (such as Fiora, Cassiopeia, or Camille), and any form of Grievous Wounds (such as Ignite or Bramble Vest) are considered absolute requirements to even try to deal with him. The good news is that this is still dependent on [[DifficultButAwesome the challenge of landing his abilities]], but nowadays even after extensive nerfs and tweaks, he leans on being a very strong bruiser pick.