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Recently, Which Champions specialize in burst damage and high mobility? was put on hold for being primarily opinion-based.

The problem is, there is a non-opinion based answer to the question.

How do we separate an opinion question like this: Best Picks for Solo Carrying?
from a non-opinion question that may seem like an opinion to someone who isn't familiar with the intimate details of the game, like these:

What are support duties in LoL compared to DotA?
Is there any reason not to play support Maokai in Season 6?
Is rank still a good indicator of personal skill with the new Dynamic Queue?

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    From someone who didn't vote to close it, nor plays MOBAs, starting the question with the word "Best" probably isn't helping it not seem opinion-based. Again, admitting that I don't know details and intricacies of LoL, the conclusion I come to is... "There's a giant list of champions, some of these are advantageous due to their mobility, so now there are going to be a bunch of opinionated answers arguing which the best one is". I think the question itself better details that the asker is looking for a list of these types of characters. A title edit might be worth it here.
    – king14nyr
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 14:22
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    @king14nyr I definitely agree that it could use some rewording, but if we look past the selected verbiage, it is a valid question with a very well defined set of answers.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 14:25
  • Possibly related: meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/q/8213/101016
    – user101016
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 14:27
  • I personally wouldn't accept it yet,and i play some league of legends. What is a mobile champion? one that have 1 skill for moving faster?, 2 skills for moving faster?, less cooldowns to use those skills?, faster basic mobility? If the answer is yes, then i have a list to give him :P
    – Gaunt
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 18:03
  • Except Best in a game of league of legends, when you refer to a determined skill IS NOT broad nor opinated. Each character has public values, and as such it's possible to say that "x is better in A" and "y is better in B"
    – Oak
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 18:06
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    @Gaunt Well, high mobility champions usually have a gap closer. Not a speed boost, but a dash, flash, or teleport. For example, Riven is objectively very high mobility because she has 4 dashes in her kit. Kalista is objectively high mobility because every auto attack allows for a dash. Mobility is very well defined in LoL, and it's easy to pinpoint high mobility champions. In fact, the answer to this question is actually that the OP is looking for Assassin-type champions who are traditionally highly mobile and deal burst damage.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 18:09
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    @nukeforum But that's an opinion based answer. Is Zilean not considered mobile despite his 99% movement speed boost? That's half of the advantage that's getting him picked in the LCS occasionally. If he is considered mobile, then where is the cutoff for movespeed being considered mobility? If not, then why is Riven considered mobile when her dashes can't help her outpace Zilean? The fact that you have to say "usually" means this isn't well defined at all.
    – gwj17
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 20:00
  • @AverageUnknown Do you want to split hairs over whether moving fast is the same as having high mobility, or can we just agree that Kha'Zix, Talon, Zed, LB, and others of their ilk are far more mobile than Zilean? Doesn't matter how fast Zil is/can make someone if Zed can just W>W>R>E>Q>R and delete the person. Being able to walk fast is not the same as having high mobility. If you increase the movespeed of Xerath to 900, he's still less mobile than the Kalista that's kiting him. Really though, this is not the argument at hand.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 20:41
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    The real discussion is about determining how we designate information as fact and how we designate information as opinion. I think we could talk all day about the finer points of the mechanics in League here, but my real question is, how can someone who knows a factual answer to a question that can be misconstrued as opinion-based let people attempting to close a question on that basis know that it can be answered? At this point I feel like I'm fighting impossible odds to get the OP less than 10 lines of text that would completely answer their question. Unarguably.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 26, 2016 at 20:46
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    I think the problem was that the OP didn't give a definition for what they thought was mobile (having a gap closer tends to be considered as mobile, but not always), and the part about having burst damage. Whether or not someone has burst is kind of subjective, and also depends on their relative strength. Marksmen may tend to have sustained damage, but a number have very high damage combos which will burst someone out. If the OP were to edit it to make it more specific of a question, I think it could be made perfectly valid.
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 1:48
  • @Dragonrage I'm assuming you're referring to the likes of Ez, Luc, Varus, and Graves. In the case of Varus and Luc, you have a special attack pattern that has moments of burstiness, but overall is a sustained damage pattern. Ez and Graves are edge cases where Ezreal actually has a secondary role of mage, lending to his burst potential (Varus shares this trait) and Graves has very special cases where he can outright delete enemies, but they are not consistent and depend highly on his itemization, rather than his kit whereas the typical assassin has this ability built into their kits.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 15:41
  • I feel like Graves may be your strongest argument here if he wasn't such an effective skirmisher through his passives and the relatively low mobility he touts.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 15:42
  • @Dragonrage Also, I feel like my earlier response to AverageUnknown illustrates the difference between walking fast and actual mobility.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 15:45
  • @nukeforum You didn't mention (but other than that it's a great reply) that the quality of the mobility skills does matter a lot. Tristana for example, she's not particularly mobile. She does have one dash (jump), however it's on a long cooldown and it's really not that big/fast. However if she does get the resets going on, she's one of the most mobile ADCs (like Jinx if she stacks the passive during a fight/turrets)
    – Oak
    Commented Feb 28, 2016 at 0:54

1 Answer 1

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Here's my take on this subject:

Meta

It's a fluid thing. It changes based on trends, and due to that it's hard to have a definite answer. For example, currently assassins are getting extremely strong not only due to the introduction of a new item (Else LeBlanc wouldn't be strong as well), but also because the champions who counter them are weaker due to other circumstances. Due to this, questions regarding Meta or "what's strong right now" should be avoided, unless expressely identifying a specific patch. This however also runs the risk of being opinion based, due to the fact that I can simply say "Katarina is the best thing in bronze". While there is some truth to that, Meta also shifts between tiers. In bronze, harder to play champions (Kalista, Orianna) are less common (and as such non-meta). Likewise champions who are countered easily like Yi aren't so common in high elo — meaning not only the question should be identified with the patch but also the elo it refers to, at least for objective questions such as "What are the Meta Champions in X Elo in patch y.zz?"

Strategy

This is also something that changes often, simply because Meta is the trend of different strategies. However this is much less subjective. "How do I deal with Katarina" is extremely easy to answer and it's extremely on point: "You deny her from roaming, and you abuse the fact she is melee without CC" (obviously explaining what abuse is). Essentially, Strategy Questions can be answered based on the scenario presented, so these are definitely on topic.

Trivia

This is the easiest aspect. "Who won EU LCS in 2015?". "What are the hidden taunts of Jhin against Tahm Kench"? These should be marked with the patch they are relevant to though, if the answer/question is no longer valid. "Who has more taunts in the game?" is a question that one month ago was answered with Tahm Kench, but now it's Jhin. In fact, Jhin's taunt towards Tahm Kench is exactly due to that fact.

"Who should I pick"

These are risky. They attract opinion based answers. However, as long as they are based on logic and facts they should be allowed. One example is "How to deal with Heimerdinger". This has the potential to have several different answers, but they are finite. Heimerdinger can be dealt by being able to do 'x'. Picking 'Y Champion' or buying 'Z Item' are slightly opinion based, however they only are such because there's more than one strategy which is valid. Essentially this kind of question must be scrutinized and only allowed if it's in one way or another answerable with concise information.

"Who is stronger, x or y?"

This should be allowed, but only as long as the question itself specifies the scenario. A Sona going in against a Galio midlane is more than likely going to suffer a lot of issues. However if she's facing him in a duo lane, the story is much, much different. Answers to this kind of question must be, once again, based on facts and the inherent Pros/Cons of the Champions involved.


Tl;DR

Most questions can be weighed on their viability in one single step. "Is this question answerable with facts based on deduction from the different capabilities of the characters involved?". If so, it's quite likely a great question. If not it's most likely too broad or opinionated. Note that this is also valid for other constantly changing games who are balanced in imbalance, such as DOTA 2, Hearthstone, Yu-gi-oh, Magic: The Gathering, and so on.

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  • RE: Other Games; Agree, but it is worth considering the strategy based on situation; If it is a very specific situation that would not be common ( eg. a base defense situation in Clash of Clans) we generally discourage the question as off topic on the basis that the question is so specific that it would only provide use to the original asker. Questions that are generally not useful to 'the community', and only 'the individual', come up as generally frowned upon, and are often closed.
    – user106385
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 18:00
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    Evidently, there are questions who can be too localized and as such off-topic (eg:What to do when you have 123 HP and a Caitlyn with 321AD is attacking you next to the baron pit while having 1 turret at half health remaining). Those should evidently be excluded, but they would've been by default anyway =)
    – Oak
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 18:02
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    So I think your tldr highlights the problem in my question. How do we go about "proving" to high reputation members of this community who don't have a solid enough grasp of the game and its intimacies that a question is NOT opinion-based. You said it yourself in several of the sections you outlined - some questions in this category are good, others are bad, but you pretty much have to have a deep understanding of the game in order to determine which is which in some cases.
    – nukeforum
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 18:22
  • Precisely. I raised that concerns reagarding LoL earlier. Once due to having questions with blatant WRONG information (because not everyone can freely edit questions/answers/delete), but also regarding not having High Rep users veto'ing everything they deem unfit (even though that's the point of .SE, it's being misused). Ended up being closed as offtopic for being mostly related to Arqade though. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/275722/…
    – Oak
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 18:32
  • On the plus side, it's by having a meta post being precedence that we get grounds to invalidade those VTCs. "I would suggest to start a meta discussion on your own site to bring this problem up, there users can make a decision to either keep the current status quo, or change it. "
    – Oak
    Commented Feb 27, 2016 at 18:33

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