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Caitlyn doesn't fulfill the Sniper power fantasy

The5lacker·7/14/2014, 7:38:46 PM·64 votes·9,267 views

Right now, Caitlyn has problems. She's a hyper-safe, poorly scaling carry who's an insurmountable lane bully and harder to catch than Jinx herself (Which makes absolutely no sense when you stop and think about it.) Between her range, traps, and recoil-dash, Cait simply isn't engaging to lane against.

But that's not her real problem. Cait's real problem is that she's a terrible sniper. Where's the carefully studying opponents? Where's the incredible short range vulnerability? Where's the lining up the perfect shot (Ace in the Hole sorta fulfills that, but it's pretty underwhelming) to take out a priority target?

Long story short, Caitlyn needs both vulnerabilities and abilities that actually fulfill the sniper fantasy, as opposed to abilities that fulfill the "Incredibly safe and aggravating carry" fantasy. She's not a huge priority, but I still think she needs a small-scale rework to get her in line with both Riot's design philosophies of interesting choices and her actual core concept in ways other than "Hurr durr she's got range."

  • Passive - Keen Eyes

  • Caitlyn studies visible opponents, discerning their weaknesses. Visible enemy champions within a radius around her are studied over 10/9/8/7/6/5 seconds (At levels 1/4/7/10/13/16), after which they are Marked. Against Marked enemies, Caitlyn gains 20% Armor Penetration and her attacks deal bonus physical damage equal to 20% of her total Attack Damage. This bonus damage is multiplied on Critical Strikes. Enemies aren't aware they're being watched unless they're within Caitlyn's vision radius.

  • Enemies that Caitlyn loses vision of become unMarked after 3 seconds. In addition, whenever Caitlyn takes damage from an enemy champion, her concentration is disrupted, temporarily unMarking and delaying Marking enemies for 3 seconds.

  • Marking Radius: 1100 (+50 per level)

  • Q - Piltover Peacemaker

  • Active - Caitlyn chambers a special round into her rifle, disabling her ability to attack or use abilities for one second but retaining her ability to move. For 5 seconds afterwards, Caitlyn's next attack fires an incredibly fast piercing round that deals 20/35/50/65/80 (+120/125/130/135/140% total AD) physical damage to enemies it passes through, reduced by 10% for each enemy it hits to a minimum of 50% damage. Caitlyn retains her normal attack range for the attack, but the shell travels to a maximum range of 1200. This attack can be triggered against structures, but doesn't deal bonus damage to them. On-hit effects and critical hits are only applied to the primary target of the attack, and critical hits don't count any of the bonus damage.

  • While Piltover Peacemaker is primed, Caitlyn can reactivate it to fire it as a skillshot. This shot doesn't apply on-hit effects or crits to any enemy hit, but otherwise behaves as normal.

  • Cost: 60/65/70/75/80 Mana

  • Cooldown: 10/9/8/7/6 Seconds (Notes: Piltover Peacemaker loses a lot of its oppressive early and mid game damage but becomes a bit easier to hit at medium range. Also keep in mind that while the 20% AD on-hit effect from Keen Eyes is only applied to the primary target, but the 20% Armor Penetration applies against all targets hit.)

  • W - Yordle Snap Trap

  • Passive - Caitlyn generates and stores a trap every 20/18/16/14/12 seconds. This stock time is effected by cooldown reduction. Caitlyn can store up to 2 traps at a time.

  • Active - Caitlyn sets a trap at a location that arms after a short delay. An enemy champion that steps on a trap is dealt 80/120/160/200/240 (+50% AP) magic damage and is snared for 1.5 seconds. Caitlyn also gains True Sight of the enemy for 8 seconds, and enemies are immediately Marked.

  • Traps last for up to 4 minutes, and Caitlyn can have up to 3 traps out at a time. Placing an extra trap deactivates the oldest one. Traps can be targeted and destroyed with 3 autoattacks similarly to wards.

  • Cost: 50 Mana + 1 Trap

  • Static Cooldown: 2 second

  • Range: 600 (Notes: YST loses range and damage but gains the ability to store a pair for quick deployment, allowing Caitlyn to quickly set up a small sniper nest. It also allows her to quickly Mark priority targets, though the traps still have a short arm time.)

  • E - Kinetic Barrier

  • Active - Caitlyn activates her shield belt, sending out a pulse of energy that knocks enemies back, dealing 60/100/140/180/220 (+50% AP) magic damage to enemies around her and slowing them by 30/35/40/45/50% for 2 seconds, with the slow decaying over its duration. Caitlyn also gains a shield that absorbs up to 60/100/140/180/220 (+50% AP) damage and lasts for up to 3 seconds.

  • Cost: 80 Mana

  • Cooldown: 18/17/16/15/14 Seconds

  • Range: 325 (Notes: Caitlyn trades the hyper-safe net jump for a medium-low strength shield/AoE slow. Still very safe, but doesn't allow her to reposition herself, harass enemies from a distance, etc. On the upside it still grants Caitlyn a line of defense against assassins, which maintains her safe nature without making it completely excessive like it used to be.)

  • Ultimate - Ace in the Hole

  • Active - Caitlyn targets an enemy at extreme range, channeling for 1.5 seconds. If the enemy is Marked, she channels for 0.5 seconds instead. At the end of the channel, Caitlyn fires a special homing round that travels at incredible speeds, dealing 100/175/250 (+150% total AD) to the first enemy champion in its path. If Ace in the Hole hits its targeted champion deals 1.25% increased damage for each 1% of the enemy's health that's missing, up to a maximum of 200/350/500 (+300% total AD) damage to enemies at or below 20% health. If the targeted champion is Marked, Ace it the hole deals maximum damage to enemies at or below 40% health instead. If Caitlyn loses vision of the target, the target becomes untargetable, or she cancels the ability by reactivating it, Ace in the Hole goes on a reduced 10 second cooldown but doesn't refund its mana cost.

  • Cost: 100 Mana

  • Cooldown: 120/105/90 Seconds

  • Range: 2000/2500/3000 (Notes: Ace in the Hole gets quite a few degrees more mechanical complexity focused around keeping it from being a "remove a champion from the fight" button. The longer channel time is counteracted by a drastically higher projectile speed (nearly instantaneous) and a reduced channel time for targeting enemies that have either been studied or have unfortunately stepped on a trap. In addition, the penalty for intercepting a shot is drastically reduced, and the ability is much more execution focused: Against low health targets, death is all but assured if the shot connects. In addition, the total AD scaling helps smooth out its power curve. It also gains more counterplay by forcing Caitlyn players to really consider when to fire. It's important to remember that while cancelling the ability puts it on a reduced cooldown, interrupting the channel with hard CC does not, and with the longer channel time using it at close range presents a huge opening.)

CHANGELIST:

  • Cooldown on W changed to a static 2 seconds to help prevent chain CCing. (7/15/2014)
  • Marking range on passive changed to adjust with level, 1100 (+50 per Level), 2000 at level 18. (7/15/2014)
  • Removed double-speed Marking on targets that can't see Cait. (7/15/2014)
  • Keen Eyes scaling reworked: Same at levels 1 and 16. (7/17/2014)
  • Taking damage only disrupts Cait for 3 seconds, temporarily disabling Marks. (7/17/2014)

148 Comments

RiotRiot Baconhawk7/15/2014, 4:43:33 AM44 votes

I'd really like to play against this Caitlyn just to see how it feels. This kit is very dynamic and definitely moves her further out on the spectrum of ADCs to the most extreme (where she should be IMO).

RiotIronStylus7/16/2014, 6:18:07 AM9 votes

How do you feel about the "sheriff fantasy"?

...I'm actually very interested in that.

I would submit, and this is my own opinion, that Caitlyn isn't a great example of a sniper fantasy, but she is potentially a fertile ground for the crack-shot sheriff.

Insanity 1017/14/2014, 8:57:21 PM8 votes

Yes pls

Khodexus7/15/2014, 3:57:42 PM6 votes

Okay, I used to Caitlyn main, and she's still my favorite overall champion. Only reason I don't main her anymore is cause I got tired of the difficulty finding a good support, and gravitated more towards mid-lane mages.

That said, I think your overall kit here is pretty decent. The thing I like most about your E is that it really makes her fit better in Piltover with all the other crazy inventions and techmaturgy stuff. I'd like to see this carried to her W a bit too. Not mechanically, but visually. Imagine a 'snap trap' that instead of just a bear trap, had a little spinning laser sensor on it, and then exploded with some kind of glowing 'tracer' goo when someone set it off. That would explain the true vision, as well as the snare effect.

The passive needs a little work, however. The thing that concerns me right now is how easy it would be for other ADCs to just tag her every couple seconds to completely negate her passive. Whatever you might say, the fact of the matter is most champions she'll be fighting against will have ways of safely poking just enough, whether it's Vayne rolling in, and then dodging back out before you or your support can react, or someone with a long-range skillshot. What I'd like to see here, is rather than taking damage causing you to lose all stacks, is rather it just 'disrupts' your stack growth rate. When you take damage it pauses all stacks, and only if you take several hits do the stacks actually start to deplete. And yes, I said deplete, not disappear.

That said, I think I'd like to switch two aspects of her Q and Ult. I'd like to see Q just grant her a sizable boost to her auto-attack range for one shot, and add the piercing line effect to Ace in the Hole, giving her the bonus damage ONLY if the 'first champion hit' is the one she's targeting. While I like Peacemaker as is, I think the piercing effect is just more fitting for her ultimate, and I'd love for her to be able to throw out a really long range auto-attack once in a while, at the cost of her cooldown and mana, that is.

Let me know what you think of these suggestions.

Thales7/14/2014, 8:25:46 PM4 votes

What I'd do to enhance the sniper fantasy is give her a passive that gives her a moderate amount of bonus range if she doesn't attack for a few seconds. Sort of like Ashe's passive, I guess.

MrBuffington7/15/2014, 12:42:18 AM4 votes

Well I don't know how this will play so I'm not so sure about passing judgment on it yet. The proposed passive does sound interesting, if a little complex, but definitely seems better (thematically, again not sure about balance yet) than her current passive (why would a dedicated sniper only be able to hit a headshot 1 in 7/5/3 times?).

I'm a little off-put at her new Q, it's basically just Lucian's with some travel time and extra range, no? I'm also curious why you got rid of both of Caitlyn's skillshots.

I'm also wondering what you think about some ability that scales with range, sort of like Nidalee Q? What if this was integrated into her passive? So her Autos would get a bonus at max range, and also she'd be weaker at melee range, encouraging people to close distance with her?

Overall some interesting ideas, I like the execute addition to the ult (makes more sense for a sniper)

Kloroform7/14/2014, 8:39:18 PM3 votes

This is a really amazing suggestion, I've always thought it odd that she could raise her rifle and "snipe" twice a second. Just didn't seem in line with her weapon of choice or model-suggested fighting style. This brings that out really well while maintaining her current niche as a strong, long ranged ADC. The ult change is immensely welcome as well.

TheFakeMackie7/14/2014, 8:45:00 PM3 votes

So this is really cool. I love the new passive because it really rewards players for setting up the zones that they want to fight in via vision control so that they can let the passive build up. I.e. ward placement around dragon and vision denial before fights. That rewards the smart caitlyn players in a much cooler way than; ok we have vision of them so we can sneak up on them. With that change you really feel like a sniper waiting as long as possible to take the shot on an opponent before you lose vision of them or before they find you. The way I could see the new peacemaker working is kind of like lucians q which would make it more consistent, but the damage changes make the scaling less oppressive early and better late game. I also like the new e because it would be way more fun and interactive to play against. Finally though, having her ult be a longer channel execute is way more fulfilling than her current; nuke a squishy before the teamfight with zero risk.

MonsieurBanana7/14/2014, 11:13:04 PM3 votes

I think that you need to rethink the shield; to me, it seems like a shield is completely out of place with a sniper.

5G8Nri0B547/14/2014, 9:51:29 PM2 votes

I actually full agree with the TC. But...I feel sorry for him once all the people who are a) afraid you're trying to get her buffed and b) people who main her who doesn't want ANY changes in the game catches wind of you.