When you got some people vs the majority of the player base, I think that an easy choice to make.
As for the solution to the meta, what's the alternative to nerfing? Buffing cards is always welcome but just because you made some decks better doesn't mean that the oppressive ones are going to stop being oppressive.
When I say player feedback I am talking about constructive criticism and observation from the active player base not: "This is worst meta ever!" type of comment. Statics alone are often misleading and should never be the only factor for change, most of the decks that were considered toxic or oppressive never had particularly high win rate or play rate but more importantly card games are just entertaining if people are not enjoying them they are gonna stop playing them, no one is gonna play a game because a bunch of stats say that the meta is healthy.
Also stop using Nocturne and Baccai Sandspinner as example of powercreep. Sandspinner is just used as removal, Nocture is win condition.
I'm not annoyed yet. I started this game during the TF/Fizz and Aphelios meta. I read everywhere that that meta and the current Blade Dance/Watcher meta were the worst ones ever. I can only compare with Hearthstone but even during this two meta's my homebrew and offmeta decks are still very viable. There is also a lot more deck diversity compared to HS. Maybe I'm not spoiled because I missed the perfect meta's but I think it's surely not that bad now.
That doesn't say I'm not looking forward to the 2.11 patch next month because I really dislike the Watcher deck. Blade dance isn't much better either. I also look forward to the buffs! But this surely isn't a reason to stop playing for a while. I'm still having a lot of fun atm.
Since you are relatively new I am gonna give some context so you could understand why there so much negativity at moment:
-It started with patch 1.10, Riot decided to buff one their least played champions at time Lee Sin after a couple of weeks the community realized that buffs made him too good and the he need to be toned down a little. In next patch 1.11 Riot didn't nerf Lee sin, they also buffed a spell Bastion these changes gave birth to one most oppressive deck of all time.
-Flash forward to patch 2.1 this patch will introduce some of the most overtuned cards to game Aphelios and The Veiled Temple, it also introduced Stress Testing a card that made the already powerful TF/Fizz deck completely overpowered, same as before the community noticed Twisted Fate/Fizz and Aphelios/Zoe were both oppressive. In patch 2.3 the only balance was giving Aphelios one less health which didn't matter because Targon has lot's of healing and protection. Both deck would continue to oppress the meta for months.
-Finally we arrive at Azir/Irelia, Lissandra/Trundle both deck have been problematic. Azir/Irelia had the one biggest win and play rate ever but Riot said the deck was fine and that high play rate was because the deck fun to play so they had no intention of nerfing it. Only to back track later and admit that deck was overpowered after all. As for Lissandra/Trundle, that deck saw no adjustment, While his play rate and win rate are nothing extraordinary the deck made most control decks unplayable.
So you see the pattern here? Riot release something that is too powerful, the community tells Riot that cards or deck are problematic, Riot proceed to ignore the feedback and do nothing, leaving players to deal with an oppressive meta for months. So while the meta is not that bad many players have started to get the feeling the Riot has just stopped taking player feedback into account and only balancing their game based on statics.
Unless they happen to be morons of epic proportion, the new approach should be fairly simple if the whole community tells you that deck is problematic, don't ignore it or pretend that it's fine, also there is no harm in buffing more cards, the buffs don't have to be anything drastic, just look card like Black Spear and Mountain Goat they both receive simple changes that made them viable.
I don't know if you been follow the news lately but there have been an uproar in community following the release of patch 2.9.0; streamer, pro player even casual have been complaining non stop. That's why they released a statement promising big changes for patch 2.11.0
That is true but even in the beta polarizing match up existed, for example frostbite cards were always a great counter to any Demacia deck. P&Z would also got countered by SI since losing unit to removal wasn't a issue for that region and they could heal from the burn damage with drain and life steal. Like you said however I definitely feel like they have gotten worse since Targon.
They however could still make many match ups less polarizing by adjusting some cards. No player is asking for perfect balance, take for example Equinox that card allow you to shut down strategies that revolve around cards like The Leviathan or Cithria the Bold. A one mana spell should not be able to negate a win condition, that just bad design. There are many cards like in the game currently which way people have lost their shit over the this patch.
Another good point you mentioned is this whole dividing expansion into three sets. I really feel like it's hurting the game, they should go back to one expansion or maybe two at most.
The whole champion expansion is just an excuse. Anyway they did make another post were they said that they were going to re-evaluate their design philosophy. All we can do now is hope that they are honest and have learned from their mistakes.
Not to say that the meta is good or anything but statement like "this the worst meta ever" are to be taken with a grain of salt. One thing I noticed about card game communities is that they have a tendency to get hyperbolic any time they don't like something ( Yes I have been guilty of this myself).
There are many viable competitive decks beside Azir/Irelia ( Thresh Nasus, Shavana/A.Sol, Ez Draven, Overwhelm Shurima, Lissandra/Trundle) so the whole no deck diversity is nonsense. The problem is that these deck tend to hard counter one another so playing the ladder feels like a coin flip.
Even if they slow the game down, control oriented champions like Karma would still not be viable because of Lissandra/Trundle. All control deck are slow so that give L/T players all the time they need to get their combo pieces and once they do it's game over since unless you have double silence there is no way to counter two watchers.
Thats normal. Stun does not prevent units from attacking if the attack is triggered by a card effect. For example if you stun Irelia she can still attack by using Bladsurge to switch position with another unit. The same thing happens with Cataclysm even if your opponent unit is stunned the card will still force the attack.
So what's the news here? pretty much every player, casual or competitive is complaining about this meta. The only ones defending it are Riot themselves. Hopefully they will realize that they were wrong and adjust the unholy trinity of Azir/Irelia, Tresh/Nasus and Trundle/Lissandra.
I think people are singling out Irelia Azir unfairly if you look at mobalytics the far more concerning issue is that literally 3/4 of the tier list is aggro, punctuated by one or two midrange, control, and combo decks respectively. That's very limiting in terms of deck variety.
But Azir/Irelia is the reason for the lack of variety, no one plays control because they all have abysmal match up against that deck, even Lissandra/Trundle a deck who can beat Spider, Discard and Nightfall aggro without problem, gets completly destroyed by Azir/Irelia.
When you got some people vs the majority of the player base, I think that an easy choice to make.
As for the solution to the meta, what's the alternative to nerfing? Buffing cards is always welcome but just because you made some decks better doesn't mean that the oppressive ones are going to stop being oppressive.
Here you go :
When I say player feedback I am talking about constructive criticism and observation from the active player base not: "This is worst meta ever!" type of comment. Statics alone are often misleading and should never be the only factor for change, most of the decks that were considered toxic or oppressive never had particularly high win rate or play rate but more importantly card games are just entertaining if people are not enjoying them they are gonna stop playing them, no one is gonna play a game because a bunch of stats say that the meta is healthy.
Also stop using Nocturne and Baccai Sandspinner as example of powercreep. Sandspinner is just used as removal, Nocture is win condition.
Since you are relatively new I am gonna give some context so you could understand why there so much negativity at moment:
-It started with patch 1.10, Riot decided to buff one their least played champions at time Lee Sin after a couple of weeks the community realized that buffs made him too good and the he need to be toned down a little. In next patch 1.11 Riot didn't nerf Lee sin, they also buffed a spell Bastion these changes gave birth to one most oppressive deck of all time.
-Flash forward to patch 2.1 this patch will introduce some of the most overtuned cards to game Aphelios and The Veiled Temple, it also introduced Stress Testing a card that made the already powerful TF/Fizz deck completely overpowered, same as before the community noticed Twisted Fate/Fizz and Aphelios/Zoe were both oppressive. In patch 2.3 the only balance was giving Aphelios one less health which didn't matter because Targon has lot's of healing and protection. Both deck would continue to oppress the meta for months.
-Finally we arrive at Azir/Irelia, Lissandra/Trundle both deck have been problematic. Azir/Irelia had the one biggest win and play rate ever but Riot said the deck was fine and that high play rate was because the deck fun to play so they had no intention of nerfing it. Only to back track later and admit that deck was overpowered after all. As for Lissandra/Trundle, that deck saw no adjustment, While his play rate and win rate are nothing extraordinary the deck made most control decks unplayable.
So you see the pattern here? Riot release something that is too powerful, the community tells Riot that cards or deck are problematic, Riot proceed to ignore the feedback and do nothing, leaving players to deal with an oppressive meta for months. So while the meta is not that bad many players have started to get the feeling the Riot has just stopped taking player feedback into account and only balancing their game based on statics.
Unless they happen to be morons of epic proportion, the new approach should be fairly simple if the whole community tells you that deck is problematic, don't ignore it or pretend that it's fine, also there is no harm in buffing more cards, the buffs don't have to be anything drastic, just look card like Black Spear and Mountain Goat they both receive simple changes that made them viable.
When you are saying "it was a knee jerk" reaction are you talking about the community reaction or the devs response?
I don't know if you been follow the news lately but there have been an uproar in community following the release of patch 2.9.0; streamer, pro player even casual have been complaining non stop. That's why they released a statement promising big changes for patch 2.11.0
That is true but even in the beta polarizing match up existed, for example frostbite cards were always a great counter to any Demacia deck. P&Z would also got countered by SI since losing unit to removal wasn't a issue for that region and they could heal from the burn damage with drain and life steal. Like you said however I definitely feel like they have gotten worse since Targon.
They however could still make many match ups less polarizing by adjusting some cards. No player is asking for perfect balance, take for example Equinox that card allow you to shut down strategies that revolve around cards like The Leviathan or Cithria the Bold. A one mana spell should not be able to negate a win condition, that just bad design. There are many cards like in the game currently which way people have lost their shit over the this patch.
Another good point you mentioned is this whole dividing expansion into three sets. I really feel like it's hurting the game, they should go back to one expansion or maybe two at most.
It's definitely the work of their design philosophy this post more than confirms it :
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/nqp1q0/big_balance_patches_like_14_arent_guaranteed_to/h0bs3rm/?context=3
The whole champion expansion is just an excuse. Anyway they did make another post were they said that they were going to re-evaluate their design philosophy. All we can do now is hope that they are honest and have learned from their mistakes.
Here's the second post for anyone interested :
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegendsOfRuneterra/comments/nr2ckp/we_hear_you_updates_to_live_cards_and_the_future/
When Hearthstone balance team is doing a better job, you know you got a problem.
Not to say that the meta is good or anything but statement like "this the worst meta ever" are to be taken with a grain of salt. One thing I noticed about card game communities is that they have a tendency to get hyperbolic any time they don't like something ( Yes I have been guilty of this myself).
There are many viable competitive decks beside Azir/Irelia ( Thresh Nasus, Shavana/A.Sol, Ez Draven, Overwhelm Shurima, Lissandra/Trundle) so the whole no deck diversity is nonsense. The problem is that these deck tend to hard counter one another so playing the ladder feels like a coin flip.
Happy to see Taliyah/Malphite getting some love. Sad to see that Lissandra/Trundle getting away unharmed.
Even if they slow the game down, control oriented champions like Karma would still not be viable because of Lissandra/Trundle. All control deck are slow so that give L/T players all the time they need to get their combo pieces and once they do it's game over since unless you have double silence there is no way to counter two watchers.
Thats normal. Stun does not prevent units from attacking if the attack is triggered by a card effect. For example if you stun Irelia she can still attack by using Bladsurge to switch position with another unit. The same thing happens with Cataclysm even if your opponent unit is stunned the card will still force the attack.
So what's the news here? pretty much every player, casual or competitive is complaining about this meta. The only ones defending it are Riot themselves. Hopefully they will realize that they were wrong and adjust the unholy trinity of Azir/Irelia, Tresh/Nasus and Trundle/Lissandra.
Zed/Snoozebottom is one the most fun decks to play at moment, your opponent is never safe from a surprise lethal.
Cithria/Matron decks can dish out great amount of damage.
It's weird to put vengeance x3 when your goal is to counter aggro.
Looks like we guessed wrong on the skin theme, not that I am disappointing horizon event have always been one my favorite skin themes.
But Azir/Irelia is the reason for the lack of variety, no one plays control because they all have abysmal match up against that deck, even Lissandra/Trundle a deck who can beat Spider, Discard and Nightfall aggro without problem, gets completly destroyed by Azir/Irelia.