Riot Games designer explains why new League of Legends champions often need major balance changes

On a recent stream, Nick ‘Endstep’ Frijia, Seasonal Game Designer on Riot Games’ Summoner’s Rift team, explained that modern League of Legends champion releases are more likely to receive significant post-launch adjustments because Riot is ‘taking more risks’ with new designs than it did in earlier seasons.

Speaking about the trend of newer champions undergoing major tuning — sometimes including kit-shaping changes — Endstep explained that the game’s ever-growing roster has reduced the amount of ‘safe’ design space left to explore.

As a result, Riot is more willing to ship bolder ideas and then iterate quickly if they do not land as intended.

“It’s better for us to take risks… than to make a boring champion,” Endstep said, adding that it can be even harder to make an unexciting kit compelling after the fact. He pointed to League of Legends history as evidence that turning a straightforward release into an engaging pick can require substantial development time and new technology work.

Endstep used Season 5 support champion Bard as a comparison point, saying older releases could still feel fresh while largely reinforcing existing gameplay patterns — such as encouraging supports to roam — without creating the same level of balance risk. In his view, repeating those ideas today would feel less novel, pushing the team toward more experimental mechanics.

As recent examples, Endstep referenced champions like Smolder and Aurora, both of which received notable follow-up changes after release as Riot adjusted their power curves and role expectations.

With Smolder, Endstep said the original approach leaned too heavily on stacking as the primary source of damage. He described the result as a gameplay pattern where teams effectively funnelled stacks to accelerate scaling, prompting Riot to reshape how the champion’s late-game power was distributed. Riot later shipped small-scale kit updates for Smolder as part of Patch 14.23.

Aurora, meanwhile, was discussed as a case where the initial intended role and gameplay profile carried clear downsides. Endstep said Aurora was originally designed with top lane in mind, but the play pattern proved highly frustrating to face and skewed toward elite and professional play. Aurora also received kit-focused changes in Patch 14.23.

Despite those outcomes, Endstep argued the solution is not to stop taking risks altogether. Instead, he said the development team would rather accept the possibility of having to revisit a champion after launch than consistently release safer kits with lower upside.

Riot’s recent balance cadence has increasingly included targeted, pro-focused adjustments around major competitive milestones, with patch notes regularly flagging when changes are aimed at shaping high-level play.