She’s super popular, super fun to play, and is seeing play at all skill brackets.
I definitely think she needs some fine tuning – she somehow STILL has a 52/53% winrate in low/mid elo despite REPEATED nerfs patch after patch – but unlike champs like Zeri or K’Sante I don’t think she’s inherently unbalanceable.
She’s had a positive effect on the jungle meta, and obtained a bunch of new OTPs. To me at least, she’s a highlight of 2023, which otherwise had the very forgettable Milio and Naafiri, the latter of which is actively OP at low elo and yet hardly anyone plays her (3% pickrate in silver/gold even with a 54% winrate last patch).
Is she the most positive champion release since Renata?
Briar E is 35% damage reduction and a smaller heal than Meditate, which is a 90% damage reduction which falls off to 45-55% depending on rank. The raw durability isn’t that close, but I agree that it not being interruptible is strong.
Main thing though is Briar can’t go untargetable every 7 seconds.