The History Of The Most TOXIC Metas In League of Legends

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It's been almost 13 years since League of Legends was officially released. To commemorate this, I decided to look back through the game's history and reminisce over some of the worst, most toxic metas we've had to go through and see how they shaped the game's future!
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#LoL #Meta #History

[@VarsVerum]

Check out my new line of gaming PC's that were made with the help of Apex! By using my code VARS you can get up to 250$ off your first purchase! apexpartner.app/redirect/vars

[@BrendanGeormer]

Oof, did they pick those specs out for you with those prices, or what? Some weird mismatches in the price tiers, putting more of the budget in places which don't fit with the rest of the build, and especially on the high end the value there is nonexistant. During the GPU price hike, sure, you could do those prices, but in late 2022, you'd see those prices at a boutique SI which has a bunch of other stuff they market to convince buyers of there being value. I know there are system builders like NZXT which advertize pricing at just what the parts cost + $75, and for something like that $2,600 PC, that would be closer to half that price. I get that whoever this company is might not have good ways to get components and that it's therefore more expensive, but sheeeesh

[@nickbowerman1197]

@@BrendanGeormer Theyre pricing adding in a 1tb hard drive at 100 bucks... Thats $50 tops man. Does it cost $50 in labor to install a HD?

[@BrendanGeormer]

@@nickbowerman1197 I'm not sure what point you're getting at. Also, depending on the SSD, $100 for 1TB isn't too abnormal, even if you can get them for cheaper.

[@frozendoomandstuff]

@@BrendanGeormer It's not an SSD upgrade though it's just adding a 1TB HD on their website. They are definitely way overpriced

[@jansonshrock2859]

so you're saying the only time when supports got to be the ones to shape the meta was the most toxic time in league of legends history damn

[@shamelabaza3572]

It's not actually a " tank meta " when every other class is abusing the new tank items better than tanks themselves ....

[@ethanbowers9619]

The "everyone else abuses tank items while actual tank champs for the most part are absolute dogshit because they dont get the advantages and anyone can build giga anti-tank making your gold + stats almost worthless when compared to just playing something else" meta. Great times.

[@paftaq526]

its "the tank item meta" not "the tank meta"

[@hungrymusicwolf]

@@paftaq526 Well. the assassins have all become tanks so you can argue it's still a tank meta, just one that leaves all the supposed tanks out of it.

[@ShroomBois_Inc]

@@hungrymusicwolf not all the assassins, you never see tank zed

[@Sexman42]

@@ShroomBois_Inc gonna try this now

[@TheGodofdrawing]

Let's not also forget the dreaded "Gold Funnel" Meta. For those who don't know, there was a time in which jungle items didn't penalize junglers for taking CS from minion waves, meaning hypercarry junglers such as master Yi could farm lanes after farming their own jungle. Pair that with a support in the midlane that could have enough sustain to keep themselves alive such as Taric and you basically have a Jungler who's also getting gold, as the name of the meta would suggest, "Funneled" towards them. This was also during a time in which if Taric was tethered to an Ally that was untargetable they would still get his E stun primed as well as Taric's ult channeled. So basically by 10 minutes you would have a 3 item master yi roaming around the entire map, followed by the Taric pocketing him to a point where Yi was essentially unkillable.

[@WolfGeek64]

Either that or you'd have a nunu midlane giving a funneled karthus a ton of ap on a very short cool down with his old blood boil.

[@yuzuftazimo2157]

Ive seen this in worlds or that was LCS? I forgot but I heard the casters goinf crazy and keep saying funnelling

[@synckar6380]

@@yuzuftazimo2157 It was everywhere. So casters having to commentate on two teams doing effectively the exact same strat trying to get a hypercarry on the board got stale real quick.

[@PedroHenrique-nc3em]

The funneling meta… what a funny time to be alive

[@MrYatta831]

Also worth a mention is some taric/yi duo had like70% winrate in grandmaster and challenger

[@MastaPhil666]

Who remembers the feral flare meta? Games were literally 4v4 for 17m and was a race to see which jungler could fully upgrade their flare the fastest.

[@space5476]

s4 right?

[@MastaPhil666]

@@space5476 yeah it was. S4 was when I started playing league

[@MastaPhil666]

@@space5476 yeah it was. S4 was when I started playing league

[@andrewferguson6901]

4.20 weedwidk bby

[@drSvensen]

Trick2g was too good with that.

[@QuestionableLogic_]

Smite Support Top was the greatest toxic meta that got snubbed out as quickly as it arrived. It was so hilarious to watch unfold for like two patches

[@ethanstyant9704]

Smite supp top was definitely the funniest

[@bilkari8753]

@@ethanstyant9704 obv someone that didnt play top or abused it cause it was the most toxic thing invented

[@gregory5749]

you forget Banner of Command?

[@bilkari8753]

@@gregory5749 banner alone wasnt that bad, the 3+ banner into nashoor was

[@Kilesfactor]

I was in a discord and the two people on it had a safe word phrase: "Janna has smite", after playing a rediculous game where Janna did indeed have smite and was playing top. The safe word was used to display the fact that you are uncomfortable in a conversation. I forgot to use it and just left the discord; kinda miss them.

[@FranciscoJG]

The history behind Ardent Censer meta was the change on enchanter items so that the class would feel more impactful during the game: it was the time when "healing and shield bonus" was created and some items like Redemption had their debut. So part of the reason people found it so strange (and maybe even _toxic_ ) was no one being used to enchanters having so much relevance.

[@livingreverie5951]

Not to mention with the release of Redemption, the game became a partial RTS game with all supports initiating Artillery Strikes with it

[@Ballerheiko]

also Shields were a lot stronger and had longer duration. Janna e for example gave over 4,5k gold in stats to her adc in form of a non decaying shield that lasted 5 seconds (with just Censer as completed item), shielding 500 hp, giving ~40 ad, 25% AS and the lifesteal. all that with a CD of like 9 seconds.

[@FranciscoJG]

@@Ballerheiko yeah, after all that utility overload Riot finally decided to nerf some shields

[@scoper7897]

Bro who asked about your history lessons??? This ain't boomer history channel wake up 💀💀💀noone asked your opinion ong ong

[@scoper7897]

@@livingreverie5951 ok cuh cringe coment

[@MrLolguy93]

Always loved your History of LoL videos. Can you make one on the history of the Jungle, from its humble begininngs to its current state, maybe even predict the future? Or the Evolution of the supports, with their role specific items and changes to the roles and champs typically played as Support?

[@purpleenthusiast5814]

Exil has a video on the history of the jungle iirc

[@connormccormack8168]

The banner of command meta for 2 patches was easily the most memorable change of how the game was played for me. The entire game became who can get baron first and built teams around that idea.

[@Dmangames-gg3cl]

If you do a part 2 of this can you add the s11 tank/brusier mythic meta where there was a different OP mythic every other week. in one season you had the goredrinker meta, sunfire meta, chemtank meta, divine meta, stridebreaker meta, etc(not a frostfire or trinity meta because no one cared about those items)

[@titanofyoutube4834]

S11 also had prowlers meta, shieldbow meta and this season we got eclipse meta

[@darkghoost7532]

Nah ardent was bad cuz all the fun adcs were unplayable

[@idirbouchdoug1567]

none of those are even in the same plane of existene as a lot of the ones mentioned in yhe video.

[@richard8670]

This wasn't actually a meta though. If it wasn't prevalent in pro games it wasnt the meta

[@bobyhappy2992]

Do you remember the time where no one wanted to play support ? that time when vision was a team effort...the support had to build the vision stone and the other teammates told the support to build the vision stone...and to place wards do you remember the time where support items were allactivable items ? because you know...what's the point in having a support character with support abilities when you're only expected to build and use active items do you remember when riot decided they didn't like the marksmen anymore and litterally got rid of them ? the worst part is the death dance item which was created during the marksmen class update...but in the end is better on melee champions

[@MaKs2K5]

Atma's Impaler Warmog was a much bigger problem than tank assassin. You had no chance of surviving this with a support having 2 heart of gold and 2 philosopher stones.

[@samyazza23]

gold generation items were a stupid toxic meta in their own right; roamers, oof

[@zapmayor4867]

I wonder how bizzare metas will get as time goes by

[@thod8820]

It'll be an adventure for sure.

[@Kacper-jw3bv]

Mana meta 💀

[@aaronparry2636]

Roaming support top was pretty darned weird. Lol

[@EruCoolGuy]

Aurelion meta

[@aaronparry2636]

@@EruCoolGuy I mean, with the rework, it may just happen. I personally am appalled at what I've seen so far, but it should probably make him more popular

[@randomguy9202]

Most tanks have horrible pathetic winrates right now, the new items may look scary and good on tanks, but none come near what sunfire used to be, sunfire used to give damage, resistances, health, wave clear/jungle clear and did I mention damage? Also like you said, tank busting is so common and widely available nowadays. season 13 is not going to be a tank meta, in fact tanks are A LOT worse(rip sunfire), it's a bruiser meta.

[@randomguy9202]

Redditors were just overreacting.

[@synckar6380]

Only saw a few streamers point out the dip in wr of almost every relevant tank. With the exceptions of tanks like Sion and Mundo being left unhindered, they haven't really gotten stronger with the items. Meanwhile I get 11/2 Jax top lane that become a more dangerous raid boss than any tank could ever be.

[@mwsn736]

@@synckar6380 not sure about Mundo, but Sion is pretty weak right now. We sitting at a 47% WR right now or something like that

[@cloudshifter]

I do greatly miss the whole kleptomaniac items you got like mana pot and stuff, it was incredibly fun and I would take even if that was it's only buff to potentially give you small useful items when engaging in a trade. They need to make fun items but in a way that you get some fun stuff without it being op, just exchanging damage or stats for other things like small items, speed or make it like, exchanging tankiness for damage or vice versa.

[@Canadioryan]

I'll never forget the juggernaut update immediately followed by the release of Illaoi. The meta that forced red side to ban either Darius, Morde, Garen, or Skarner just for blue side to pick up whichever one wasn't banned (typically skarner). Followed by the release of Illaoi, teams were rushing for whichever juggernaut or illaoi they could grab first

[@MasterAnimit]

Plus reworked Gangplank and Kalista

[@bylethhresvelg3434]

Don't forget back when ardent censer was meta there was NO ANTI SHIELD ITEM OR MECHANIC. The first anti shield mechanic was Reworked Aatrox's passive applying mutilation and later Irelia dealing more damage to shields. Later they added blitz ult and renekton empowered w removing shields. Even later still they added serpents fang to finally counter shields.

[@TheTruestZero]

I loved the ZZ'rot + Banner with rework Yorick or Singed. Or how I called it "Single player mode"

[@Ballerheiko]

the real OG with that build was Heimerdinger :D

[@TheTruestZero]

My prefered ways to use this was the "Oh? You are Team Fighting? Just let me ZZ + Banner a Cannon and drop the Maide while I TP on the other lane to push for game" Yorick. Singed was the same, but I normally proxied the lane where the TF was happening to they didn't had the pushing power to go for game.

[@Gaphalor]

@@TheTruestZero Ohh yea this was kinda fun I remember. ZZ was such a cool thing

[@goopo5320]

death dance meta :^) my favorite to play against as a mage player who gets to build the same items every game since we got 10 viable items but you need 3 of them in every build.

[@diogofreitas4792]

Ah yes, the item that made Bruisers/Assassins tankier than any tank champ while also giving them a metric ton of AD and CDR. Death's Dance Cleanse Ezreal still haunts me to this day

[@miguelsanchez825]

The only reason I will say Arden meta was the worst is because many ADC players have refused to accept that the game changed years ago and continue to play the same way and flame you when you play support and dare to help someone else but him. They always were like this but the fact that a meta supported their ego broke my wishes to play support ever again.

[@shacolin6546]

And these are the same players that always say adcs are weak when marksman is literally the only class holding a monopoly over a role.

[@luk6997]

@@shacolin6546 they are tho

[@quickredf0x143]

As a primarily support player, the problem I find is that most adcs are designed around being a glorified minion until they get items so someone has to hold their hand until then. Even then, adcs are, for the most part, designed to need protection from things like assassins and other such things they can't feasibly protect themselves from.

[@luk6997]

@@quickredf0x143 Yeah, and other problem is that when an adc is good enough to be independent, vayne top happens, release lucian etc

[@quickredf0x143]

@@luk6997 Senna top and mid are popular in my group since she gets the support tools necessary to keep herself alive without a support.

[@HashAssett]

I can't put an actual timeline on it, but there was a time I first played league back in season 3, where the meta was just wacky off the wall stuff. I will forever cherish those moments where you could play things like critplank oneshotting people. Or Veigar with deathfire grasp absolutely nuking whoever he hit. Things that were broken, but kinda hard to achieve sometimes?

[@PhilFromSchool]

I wanna add that ardent censer meta coincided with windspeakers blessing being really strong too. A mastery that empowered heals and shields and gave armor and MR to healed/shielded units

[@kyojurorengoku7479]

Bleach new episode and Vars premiere Mondays can't get any better.

[@mysticfox1663]

I still stand firm that nexus turrets should do true damage.

[@turbulenttranquilities4207]

I gotta say, of all the things riot learned from bad meta's, tank might have the worst consequences. As I would argue the excess of tank busting items hurts tanks more than it helps, to the point where we are getting stuck in a fighter/tank meta. And not just Fighters and tanks, but fighters BUILDING tank, alongside all sorts of other classes. As a fighter can build heartsteel, gargoyles or even warmogs, then still have room for a black cleaver a last whisper item and it still be super gold efficient for them.

[@benjaminwilson8807]

I'm here for this. The more % health, %pen, shred, yadda yadda yadda that is introduced into the game, both on items and on champ kits, the more knife-edged the actual balance line becomes.

[@antonioreconquistador]

They havent really taken the time to fix armor scaling, max health damage, or healing because at this point it effects too many classes for it not to create a have-have not situation. With the way hydras and health-scaling items are at the moment, a lot of fighters can have the best of both worlds unless the enemy team has explicit counters and tanks.

[@RikKawaii]

One thing remind me about Ardent censer meta was that one game, SKT Wolf use Trundle to beat the shit out of the buff sp but still bought this item so Bang could still had the buff from it

[@pnw8836]

One of the worst parts about the ardent meta is that on the patch ardent was supposed to get nerfed, riot in typical riot fashion did an “adjustment” to the item which actually buffed it even more.

[@Darque2391]

Ya'll forgot about the Sated Devourer meta and how it made on hit junglers like pre-rework Warwick an actual 1v9 raid boss

[@ethanbowers9619]

Idea for tanks: Just make tank stats scale opposite what they do now. So if I only build like 50 armor it dont do shit but if im full tank build I actually take less damage. Suddenly the problem of assassins, bruisers, etc. building a single tank item and being unkillable because it gives just enough survivability to 1v5 with their in built shields + healing is gone. *Looking at tank diana among others that would build sunfire into full damage but be tankier than anyone known to man because w shield + conqueror healing). Armor pen then also will feel like it does more as taking away 300 armor from a 600 armor tank takes the % down by like 3% from all those diminishing returns. EDIT: This is obviously not going to suddenly fix anything without other changes involved. This idea is solely meant to allow for more flexibility and bring more balancing around the actual tank champions in the game. If the scaling was completely flipped right now with no other changes it would undoubtedly be worse for the game as the game has been built around armor and mr stacking as it does currently but doing something like this is not without precedent. If you would like an example just look at CDR and what is has become, Ability Haste. This was not just a one to one change but a relatively well thought out change to make it feel better to build and work with the champions that wanted to build other items with the stat and give the stat to other champions that were otherwise blocked from building it.

[@alex2005z]

You cant make armor and mr scale exponentially. It would just turn op to quickly, and be impossible to deal with. Imagine 99% dmg reduction. Not fun to deal with unless you are a few champs. Tanks are already way tankier than non tanks building tank items (look at sej with 50% extra armor and mr, or sion with extra hp...).

[@theimmortaleye7511]

This would sacrifice any surviveability optiona for example for mages and adcs for example. Since now most armor and mr on nontankitems are basicly a dead of inefficient stat.

[@ethanbowers9619]

@@alex2005z The solution would be to just not have champs able to build that much armor. Look at cdr now, you dont get 100% for that ever. This would give viability to be more flexible with the numbers and making building full tank actually rewarding instead of it being either OP or dogshit.

[@alex2005z]

@@ethanbowers9619 if you dont let tanks build a lot of armor then you cant even go full tank which defeate the entire point

[@ethanbowers9619]

@@theimmortaleye7511 We have precedent for this exact thing. Crown of the Shattered Queen. Gives little to no armor but allows you to deal with burst without just being permanently tanky. Or we have the items they already have that have massive shields that do effectively the same thing. (Maw, shieldbow, steraks). 99% of games you build just those two stats(armor and mr) on those champs you are still going to be oneshot by the people that are meant to do that. You just dont have the tools to effectively use the stats(which is OK and whats meant for those classes. they arent meant to tank shit and survive. Youre meant to be more ranged and have your allies tank the damage and peel for you so you can deal damage.) Saying that it makes the stats inefficient or bad without also admitting that those stats dont mean shit right now anyway makes the point irrelevant. Theres a plethora of ways around making sure squishier targets still feel "tanky" while letting tanks be rewarded for building full tank without being just flat out unkillable.

[@BrendanGeormer]

Something maybe worth mentioning in a followup video to this would be the time that Thunderlord's Decree ruled the roost, when it wasn't uncommon to have 7-9 people running it in a game (at least in lower ELOs). It was so much better than any other option in most cases (barring situations where a champ really fit the niche of something like the green (tank) mastery which junglers like Sejuani took that gave health from killing jungle monsters) that Riot took the unique approach of not nerfing Thunderlord's, but instead giving a buff to everything else, as TLD was the sort of impact they wanted in a game from a mastery; aka meaningful choice pre-game with your runes/masteries, which eventually came with runes reforged. Though I'll always have a soft spot for the wet noodle fights of season 5/6...

[@hineighbor25]

oh yes i remember thunderlord meta. People would run it on mage supports and burst everything. Crazy times

[@intoHeck1964]

Ngl i hated warlords bloodlust more. Champs that got free bonus crit became unkillable. Remember playing against a tryndamere who soloed baron with 3 items and came away with full health before 1v5 our entire team

[@selby545]

Ah yes...League of Thunderlords...brings a tear to my eye

[@faloughasch9239]

I'm glad you used the mafikarupUsedFly Ardent Kog video. When the item was being mentioned that was my first thought with the four ardent censors vid

[@mrmatejator]

I have had countless games of just 10 assassins running around for the last few years. DMG is so overturned that it makes you almost wish for tank meta again.

[@sammemman2660]

I love it when you just post video. Thank you for the video!

[@CaptainNarwhal1997]

What about that time where practically every champion was running Thunderlord’s Decree because it was free damage and very easy to proc?

[@ImpossibleToGauge]

I remember playing Thunderlords + Hextech Revolver Sona back then all the time. Q into Powerchord AA, instant Thunderlords proc and Hextech for 60-80% of the ADC's life every fourty seconds. Good times.

[@dangng7079]

remember the time when everyone go dark havest and the game become: if you get below 50% and there is a assassin/mage or more than 1 enemy nearby you are instantly dead? .. Good times

[@Fgtr4Life]

I feel like we're about to see something like At-Mogs again in current day. The items that dropped recently are kinda crazy. Just waiting to see what the right combination of them will be for things to tip over. Also, side comment to the editor or whoever chooses the music; I love your music choice. Had me sitting here thinking it was an SMT imagine song on the first track, but then realized it was Rival Wings, lol. Always good music choices that fits the videos well!

[@antonioreconquistador]

In metas like this where either you have max health damage or have to buy bork to hope to do anything to tanks, it's really surprising to see people not prioritize heartsteel-warmogs or jaksho-warmogs into a hydra. Im surprised they had taken out any combination of their likeness for years at a time only to release two around the same time, make them priority mythic items (heartsteel having cock-of-the-walk health), and drop them in metas where hydras and tank/healthscaling items are the only way to not get blown up.

[@sahloknir6287]

You already mentioned it but Banner of Command meta was something different man, it started bc of a *bugfix* on an item no one ever used, and then after they just flat out removed the item from the game instead of trying to salvage the concept. It lead to some of the least interactive gameplay I've ever seen.. Watching someone wail on a cannon minion for 2 full minutes while its solokilling your inhib tower was truly a spectacle for the ages lmfao

[@bohomazdesign725]

Isnt it lovely how every role gets their giga super broken meta for a really extented time. Support / ADC - Ardent meta; Mid lane - perma roaming, no farming, insta oneshot meta; Jungle - just being super broken the 3 season in row; and then there is top lane that never really got a carry meta, but was forced to play tanks otherwhise people would wish you death in champ select and team chat, because not picking a tank was griefing. Riot really hates top lane.

[@ethanstyant9704]

Well there was smite support top for a little while which was definitely the funniest meta to see

[@LouisSaver2012]

Back in the ardent censer meta I could climb to Diamond 3 with Sona and Nami alone, that item provided alot of things, mana, cool down reduction, mobility, I usually didnt have to get boots back in the day. Now with enchanter I could climb to Platinum at max

[@dizzyheads]

The fact that it also gave flat healing early game was huge too ADC literally only needed to build attack speed

[@twincitiescrush19]

My favorite was banner of command and zzrot as yorick. Such a fun yet toxic time

[@mldanny1899]

4:00 Love to see a Corki rush bramble vest

[@edgyloner3260]

Was looking forward to seeing the coverage on zz'rot meta

[@kfk4441]

FF music on a vars video i´m interested in warms my heart

[@Savings_and_Grift_Plan]

Banner of Command meta when the buff gave something ridiculous like 90% magic damage reduction on minions and people were picking things like ChoGath, Sion, Nunu just to get rid of the damn minion.

[@PhatTony92]

Assassin one shot meta was and is the worst meta in League history. Yes I am one of those "League Boomers", I do have "back in my League day" stories, and yes I will die on this hill.

[@pipsapossu1699]

what about yuumi meta

[@GNCD2099]

I still remember using old Black Cleaver with old Urgot. Just hit E and spam Q from a mile away. It can easily chunk 50% of the enemy laner's HP bar.

[@macnahamic]

Tank Ekko/Fizz Top. Back then they would have missing health dmg as a passive on their W. They would essentially delete squishies with base values while remaining unkillable. Darkest time in top lane for me personally.

[@purpleheart9160]

this an old comment but while that was hellish, what really made me quit toplane was the abundance of mages. Fucking everybody went Viktor, Ryze, Cassiopeia, Vladimir, Karma, Lissandra, etc. This was so toxic that I switched roles for 4 seasons and only came back to toplane recently. Fuck everyone who went mage top. Atleast adc top can get oneshot, those fucking mages with Zhonyas and Phase Rush were impossible to kill

[@tyronegundran4549]

the Force of Nature Meta back then was the most toxic for me. Dr Mundo, Singed and i think also Udyr, they would be so tanky and can run away scott free without any damage at all especially Mundo he regens a shit ton of health without even taking damage at all

[@shaderunner7.0]

I remember 6.13, the shield and heal bonus on Ardent was not unique passive, and it was super strong to a point I went to Ranked with Karma and built 6 Ardents. Someone thought I was trolling until they saw that I could cast 700 HP shields with capped CDR and RE would give over 1k shield and little less to everyone else and 0 mana issues

[@dev2410]

I I don't think this is necessarily the worst meta ever but the anti-marksman meta where crit items were nerfed followed by a bunch of other changes resulted in Marksman being more of a liability as opposed to being an asset stands out. The reason for this is that it essentially made an entire class of Champions obsolete and therefore an entire group of players obsolete as well.

[@Kyrolysis]

I can't believe there's no mention of Banner of Command + Zzrot (+ Redemption the Cannon minions) meta. The Imaqtpie video on it was glorious to behold.

[@eminkilicaslan8945]

Weird Riot try to tune everything, items, builds, runes and champions, to be as distributed as possible then there's every single player who not playing Shaco picking flash.

[@MinecraftLegoCat]

I love the choice of using FF14 music. Can't say I was expecting it, but it's lovely. Keep up the good work and keep on making amazing videos that are enjoyable to watch.

[@Nazuiko]

Its a Stormblood theme isnt it? I recognize it but cant place it, hard to do when theres > 350 amazing tracks

[@sifridcrew4168]

@@Nazuiko here's the ost list : - The Drowned city of Skalla (Far from home) - Baelsar's Wall (Another Brick) -Weeping city of Mhach (forgot the actual name of the song tho) -Hell's Lid ( Down Where Daemon's Dwell)

[@sahelanthropus4991]

Starting late s6, i the atrocity that was post-tank meta feels so bad. Even today I think too many people get too much dmg

[@ages_dot_mp4]

8:50 Since Wild Rift is literally League 2, they already vanished this by not allowing you to have more that 1 of the same item

[@Prince_Smugarina]

Got a video about the removal of the Frozen Mallet, and the nerf of the Glacial Augment, making it impossible to use for most champs.

[@TwistedTeaFate]

As a long time TF main, I very much miss kleptomancy. I miss triforce kelpto AD TF being meta and Nemesis playing it at LEC 2019 a bunch of games. Riot thought klepto fit TF so well thematically that they basically added it to TF's E in wild rift as an active ability (without the items, just the gold). Sucks TF doesn't use first strike very well at all.

[@aimin6469]

7:55 have you forgotten that trundle and seju for example also built it in pro play with font of life?

[@Dingdong2730]

The “Arcane” meta has been the most blatant one since I started playing in season 9, and by Arcane I mean Jinx season 12. This champ got huge buffs paired with lethal tempo changes right around the time the hit Netflix series was released, and for the next 6+ months Jinx would sit around 55% winrate across all servers and elos, keep in mind people like to call this time “assassin” meta, the class of champions supposed to be the counter for a long range immobile dps carry, yet still Jinx was the best champ in the game at this period. Keep in mind that Jinx is a champ that prefers 5v5s and melting down her targets, in a gamestate where allegedly everyone and their mother was dashing around the screen and 1-shotting everyone.

[@pearse2944]

Enchanters we’re overpowered as hell at the same time so could save her from being one shot, never advocate for assassins they’re cringe

[@metalbar02]

viktor and jayce were really strong too, too funny

[@Dingdong2730]

@@metalbar02 They weren’t outliers tho, Jinx was a legit outlier in “hotfix nerf” territory, but thet just didn’t fix her for 6 months running.

[@Nikolai0169]

11:07 i really miss omnistone. It was the most fun keystone, it was just held back by the inspiration tree not being strong enough. Or rather, the other trees being too strong as they would later get nerfed.

[@enavoid6285]

I've never had the brain power to use it well

[@brianjuice]

Omnistone was a really cool idea. I think they could’ve made it like Spellbook where you can choose which rune you wanted. Like if you’re playing Pyke support, you can go guardian if you’re getting poked too much, electrocute for the all in, or glacial augment for team fight cc.

[@mikedangerdoes]

The Ardent meta has a special place in my heart. It was the first time I got to Gold. But not because I played Lulu or Soraka or anything. I used to like playing engage supports like Leona, Blitzcrank, Thresh etc. and I was getting super frustrated that no matter how many hooks I landed, no matter how much I peeled, we would always lose to an enchanter support who just over-buffed their carry. As a tank support I could never do enough damage to really help my team, but I stubbornly refused to play echanters because I just didn't like that style of play. And so I started playing Brand, building full AP and just blowing kids up. The Ardent meta was basically the first time I said YOLO and played the game how I wanted to play it, and it actually worked out for me. Was very satisfying to play against enchanters who had no answer for the overwhelming damage I would put out as Brand or Zyra with a full rotation that hit mutliple people. The burst, the DOT, the coverage, good times. I miss it.

[@darkdemon5865]

I ain't sure if it could be called meta... but i still remember how fun was when jgl item called Devourer was added into the game. For quite low price it was giving you +40% attack speed and +30 on-hit magic damage which you could stack up to 60 by killing monsters or champions after stacking it up it was giving phantom strike passive which allowed for melee champs to proc on hit effect twice every second AA which was insane on champs like Xin Zhao, Warwick, Master Yi, Udyr, Jax etc.

[@konstantinvojvodic2803]

A wild rift Sion main here, but my friend complained to me about inting Sion few years ago. I never played League on PC, but I heard so much about Sion metas, like inting Sion as a newer thing and fountain diving Sion meta as an older one. (Un)fortunately, we can't use Sion to destroy turrets that easy in both games.

[@ethanstyant9704]

Part of it is the items don't support him as well as PC does

[@ivystopia]

Highly enjoyable video. The "meta" is just the "metagame" - the game about the game. It isn't called that because it is an acronym for "most efficient tactic available", that's just a neat backronym. It's the same concept as "metadata".

[@MyronZhang]

Season 8 Banner of Command Meta. That was a horror to deal with.

[@zezubat8900]

5 banners was pog

[@raikaria3090]

Here's one: Season 2. In general. You had the trifecta of ADC's; Corki; Graves and Ezreal. You had Supports who never got to have items. GP10 and Wardbitches. You had junglers who didn't get to have items. GP10; Wards and Oracles. Pretty much the entire game was decided by botlane 95% of the time; and the ADC's were the strongest characters early; mid and lategame. This meta lead to the removal of generic GP10; Oracles; the introduction of Trinkets and the Wardstone [which eventually became modern support items] and supports and junglers... actually being allowed to have items. I lead to more items for mages and bruisers to help cut the ADC dominance at every stage of the game.

[@thesaints147]

as someone who played during tank, ardent, and klepto meta, i fucking miss them, not so much klepto but the other two were so fun as a support main, galio got bonus points because before he was reworked that champ would heal from tower shots building only MR, it was insane and i want him back 😭 got all the way to mastery 6 with him in a week upon discovering how fun he was until the rework was released

[@buratotaueiii3359]

10:35 anyone remember Kleptomancy Viktor top lane with ice borne guanlet rush build. really annoying

[@bartolcherry2200]

kelptomancy was my favourtie rune mostly for champion like ezreal gankplank and some of draven the last one literaly having frull build in 20 minutes with other money runes

[@darrak1]

Ardent meta was amazing. Those team fights were top notch. Dunno why so many ppl cry about it :(

[@Dingdong2730]

Because it was hypercardy ADC + 4 kittens vs hypercarry ADC + 4 kittens. Also the hypercarry ADCs are not very skilled, Jinx, Twitch and Kogmaw are probably some of the least skilled ADCs if not the most because they are basically ranged stat checkers.

[@riven4121]

Because nobody had agency in the game aside from ADCs and supports. Mid and top were just straight up irrelevant. Jungle was bot lane's bitch and by extension so was mid and top. The entire game hinged on which Relic Shield abusing bot lane got Ardent Censer first.

[@shacolin6546]

In addition, team fights are just one of many approaches to the game, it shouldn't be the only. Duels, skirmishes, scattered confrontation and early aggression are all parts of the game and they were all absent during that meta.

[@batatac4mil86]

I loved tank meta, miss it so much, those were the best days. Playing tank engagers supports fighting all the time, team fights were long and had a sense of strategy in them, juggernauts were truly raid bosses. Only thing bad were tank assassin's

[@stareater4629]

Snore to tank meta

[@mechanicalsilence1]

Ap varus dealing 75-100% max health to tanks : very cool, i approve. (I play varus)

[@manuelarteaga8209]

amazing and insightful video as always

[@krkirill]

Nice choice of BG music for the video 😉

[@abyssalspecter93]

The other item that caused "unique passives" to become a thing was Hextech Gunblade. Building multiple on certain champions like Akali or Katarina was super broken. Hell, even buying Hextech Revolver (one of the component items) 3-4x on people like Vlad was hilarious because it gave a ton of "Spellvamp" (aka AP damage lifesteal, now called "Omnivamp" I guess?). Using certain builds you could heal for thousands of damage and never die on him, Swain, etc.

[@WLMinaro]

Spellvamp still exists as a stat. It's not that they changed it to omnivamp, but rather that they slowly started phasing out spellvamp while using omnivamp instead in cases where you previously would have seen spellvamp, both because spellvamp confused players and just "felt bad". There's a single source of spellvamp left in the game, on Lee Sin (see the bottom part of my comment). Spellvamp would heal you for the majority of damage dealt by abilities, with the exception of certain damage subtypes - the detailed information available is very limited, so a lot of this is from memory; Damage subtypes: "Proc" (most on-hit effects), "Pet" (any summons) and "Basic" (damage from AAs and certain abilities). It's also possible it didn't work on the "Default" subtybe, but I'm having mixed thoughts given how I know there was a thing about Ignite triggering spellvamp, but Ignite may have since then been re-classed into Default. I'm thinking it's the latter, since I think most items that had passives dealing damage were Default, and none of them triggered spellvamp. In other words, spellvamp didn't work for the majority of on-hit effects, whether from items or abilities (Yi's Wuju Style, Kog'Maw's Bio-Arcane Barrage etc). As a rule of thumb, if it could trigger spell effect procs such as Liandry's dot or Rylai's slow, it could trigger spellvamp. By comparison omnivamp will heal you for practically all the damage you deal (reduced to 1/3 effectiveness for stuff tagged as aoe) - I think there are no exceptions, but I'm playing safe. There's was a special sort of "spellvamp-ish" present in the pre-rework (now replaced with Treasure Hunter) Domination rune Ravenous Hunter, before they changed it to give omnivamp. It would work on everything that spellvamp worked on afaik, but unlike spellvamp it also worked on Proc damage, probably Pet damage and possibly also Default damage. Yi players were especially aware of this, though most on-hit focused champion mains likely knew. Afaik there's only a single source of spellvamp that's still in the game; Lee Sin's safeguard (re-cast) - it gives him spellvamp and lifesteal. As for the reason why they haven't just given him omnivamp instead, I'm guessing it's got something to do with not creeping his sustain for things such as clearing the jungle up more than necessary while keeping the values where they are. If they gave him omnivamp instead it'd let him heal from the damage of his pet, potential immolate or other item effects and so on.. but that's just my guess. Either that or they cba.

[@owenmac6202]

This taught me 2 things, that riots twisted sense of logic will not let there be a balanced meta once, and that META is an acronym.

[@rfxpro7049]

It hard to say what meta was the most toxic because it really depends on case by case adc did not hate the Arden meta some top player didn't hate black clever some tank did not hate the tank meta and so on and so forth so to answer the question it depends on what lane where you maining and what role in that labe were you playing

[@antonioreconquistador]

The notion of toxic implies that it was so bad for the opponent's other lanes and macro that either you had to build/take it or you were at a permanent disadvantage, even to a worse opponent.

[@MetalHeartGunner]

kleptomancy meta was awsome, i literally climbed out of elo hell spamming full ap pre rework sona mid and she was op as hell

[@alyssarichardson2544]

That wasn't original Black Cleaver. Black Cleaver used to give 0 health or CDR, it was AD, attack speed, and a passive that reduced enemy armour on hit by 15 stacking up to 45. It was part of what made release Xin Zhao so insane.

[@eksskellybur]

I always felt like we had a Trinity Force Meta somewhere in the history of League, and it would vary from champion to champion. Back then it was common for me to see a hecarin going Trinity force into full tank.

[@antonioreconquistador]

Triforce was almost always outclassed by other sheen items in gold efficiency, stats, and passive damage after they removed the ap and crit chance. As much as i liked the idea, it was almost solely a hecarim/corki/jax type of item. Making it a mythic because of its similarity to sunderer was something of a nail in the coffin. I presume adding on-hits to katarina makes hybrid items dangerous to make viable and cdr and tank meta makes it dangerous to give tanks viable or gold efficient damage items, so theyve kinda left it by the wayside. If they buffed it in any sorta way, itd be hard to counter even if it didn't offer the utilities of other mythics.

[@andreitaker3527]

Another nerf that hit the triforce is the change that made sterak gives bonus Ad instead of Base Ad. That change alone remove almost 40% of addional damage.

[@trymbruset3868]

Ardent censer was nothing compared to the Banner of command + ZZ'rot portal meta. Literally the only counter was picking minion dematerializer and saving it until the baron buffed canon minion with banner of command came around.

[@karasutsuki1733]

ooooooooooooh I heard Drowned City of Skalla Music at 2:00, oh and more songs

[@musicman12395]

Feral Flare, watching every hyper farm jungler just delete you when they finally decide to join the match. Especially old WW with his point and click ult. Banner of Command was also notably annoying.

[@edde2429]

14:10 I know Zoe technically has true damage. It is however affected by resistances because it's capped at how much post-mitigation her E did. So really she doesn't

[@clouss5696]

Thats kinda recent but I hated it when Stridebreaker meta just switched to Divine Sunderer Meta and instead of getting oneshot by a Garen or Urgot everygame you would just face Camille or Fiora... Man, that was fun

[@EigenMemes]

The Goredrinker Meta was insanely fun, beyond how broken it was. Thus us undeniable

[@marcelovieira519]

It was fun until the unkillable Goredrinker-Muramana Blue Kayn suddenly one-shotted you because he could

[@EigenMemes]

@@marcelovieira519 lmao as a Kayn Main, I can appreciate that better than you know

[@mantraki]

@@marcelovieira519 my trauma is with the milk champion running around with 3 dashes and a steroid buff that is also an ability that scales with the less health you have, like goredrinker.

[@nathanjones8667]

@keivin Fuentes who is the milk champion?

[@mantraki]

@@nathanjones8667 you know, the "I have mastered the art of smashing q"

[@BL00DeMoN]

in season 2 I runned sunfire X5 on singed, great fun

[@erikp5393]

The tank meta at the start of season 8 with the new runes. Maokai top was scary stuff.

[@kalenics123]

My Karma still loves Ardent Censer, R+E in a teamfight is chef's kiss.

[@didzisozols311]

Kinda disappointed that no one is talking about S1 wrigles meta, since it was simply "are you and AD champ? yes, then buy wrigles." it was common to see 2~3 wrigle's per team (atleast 2 adc and jungler). i think it might have been forgetten because the At-Mog's meta was at almost the same time and it one of the gold sources for its operation ( Heart and Stone or Wrigle's then transision in to atmogs)

[@HashAssett]

Because nobody was there for it lol.

[@hrodvithit]

Pretty sure tank ekko became a thing because they nerfed his scaling damage to the point that he couldn't one shot people effectively, so he was just a menace permaban as a tank. Or that's what I remember.

[@antonioreconquistador]

Between his passive w and ult he has a lot of heals and shields, and around release he had a ton of base damage. A lot of tank assassins and tank mages went top- where ekko's range and escape utility made him pretty damn hard to skirmish with. Tank items were also arguably better efficiency/cdr wise than mage items at the time, allowing him to do more with easier farm than against a ranged mage or assassin in midlane.

[@manuelmanolo7099]

Zz'Rot + Banner of Command. It only lasted for a couple of weeks but it was literally the worst solo queue experience with everyone building it

[@butterflyfx57]

I don't think we're actually in a tank meta. We're in a healing meta. A drain tank meta if you want to go that far. That's why they had to nerf Ravenous Hydra Omnivamp. They overnerfed Grevious Wounds to the point that it's grief to buy if you're not a mage with burn damage or an enchanter. So now you've got stuff like Jak'sho Mordekaiser being very hard to kill while healing through all damage. This is also why Aatrox was tier 0 in World's. Same thing, drain tank meta. It's just the new items made it even more pervasive.

[@ethanstyant9704]

I was trying out a new champ in top and had a jaksho Jax that still one shot me

[@wastingsun]

I once saw a pillow that said Ezreal's passive should be Klepto, and honestly if they hard nerfed the item I think it could be much more interesting than his atk speed one.

[@koku170]

It would actually fit his lore so, sounds great

[@The_oli4]

I also remember a Thunderlords meta where every game atleast 6 or 7 people ran the keystone

[@aaronparry2636]

One comment. I feel like the biggest contributer to items having unique passives was the madred's and lantern stacking messes that occurred the first few seasons (originally only abusable by ww)

[@Ballerheiko]

aaah, a fellow connoisseur of the old point and click 1 ability-oneshot build. good times :D

[@hineighbor25]

that and also tiamat fiora (prework) and her ult could kill the entire enemy team

[@dawidlol1337]

Kinda wish I played back in ardent meta, sounds fun to be able to play ADC

[@antonioreconquistador]

This was also before shit like samira kaisa nilah and a lot of the more insane jungle champions. It was by no means an all adc meta but it was more "playable" than what it is now

[@adolfocabrinihormazabal4093]

Banner of command and Funnel were really toxic too. Having a jungler lvl 6 while everyone was lvl 4 was an abusive tactic.

[@readyforlol]

Full AP Yi and full mana Ryze in S3 were absolutely insane and could take 1V5s at lvl 6 with just a couple of kills. I still have nightmares.

[@dragomirtachev5553]

The Black Cleaver meta was the reason I had stopped playing LOL for around 2 years and switched to dota 2. Ofc I came back afterwards, it's Scorpion, it just pulls you in..

[@dantespekken3549]

Illouwie with clepto was insane too, being able to proc it on her e

[@novaextrem2716]

Ardent meta, tank meta - I'm really ready for anything that is NOT assassin meta. That 1-shot-no-counter is toxic, other may be problematic but somewhat bearable in comparison

[@kazuyamishima5779]

Yeah, other metas were somewhat counterable, You can't counter assassins, because You are dead the very moment they appear on Your screen

[@novaextrem2716]

Yeah, as if you survive, you'll be able to catch em anyway

[@DarkyLonewolf]

I'd still take that over getting stunlocked for a million years or dealing scratch damage to damn near anything, thank you very much.

[@kazuyamishima5779]

@@novaextrem2716 Yeah that's also a big part of why assassins are so bs. They are supposed to be high risk - high reward, but with all the invisibility and mobility they have You can't even hit them back if You survive, because they are already on the other side of the map which makes them no risk - high reward

[@Underworlder5]

@@kazuyamishima5779 still annoyed that akali R, aka an execution skill called "perfect execution" can be used to ESCAPE a fight without actually using it to kill anyone. the 2.5s delay between casts does not matter either since she can just hourglass her way through the vulnerability period

[@TheREMIXrage]

Banner of command meta literally made me stop playing league. Depending on your comp sometimes you could never kill the siege minion..