It's been so long since we've had a new champion that doesn't try to shake everything up so much that you feel like you aren't playing League of Legends anymore. He's certainly different, but it doesn't feel like he is in a way that's forced or disruptive. Good job, Gypsylord.
Meep Man40 votes
release wasn't as disruptive as everyone thought really. He is probably up there with Jhin. Its also easy to call Jhin "not disruptive" since, while all of his forms of dealing damage are decently unique in how they play out, he doesn't bring any new mechanics to the game except maybe the death trap thing on his E passive.
BastionKross32 votesTo be fair, Bard was horribly underpowered when he was released. After multiple patches with buffs and QoL changes, he became an actual, effective, champion.
Sadly, he still carries that stigma of being weak by some players even today, when he's viable and strong. So that helps tame his influence on the game as a whole.
Unironic SJW2 votesI said on release that Bard had a busted kit but his numbers were too undertuned for everyone to see it, now they've buffed his numbers and he's probably the best support in the game (though he synergizes heavily with preseason changes as well)
Drehirth2 votesmaybe he can be the best... but I usually hate life when I have a bard support XD I never yell at them but just as I see the enemy about to walk into a perfect mf ult. SUprise my bard ults them and im shooting air --. Or bard gets caught, but in a nice chokepoint for another beautiful mf ult. oops magical journey right to me giving them an escape and gapcloser to crush me --. ALso not to mention how they go to collect chimes for so long they come back try to harrass but are under leveled and die..
Dar Raksada5 votesmaybe he can be the best... but I usually hate life when I have a bard support XD I never yell at them but just as I see the enemy about to walk into a perfect mf ult. SUprise my bard ults them and im shooting air --. Or bard gets caught, but in a nice chokepoint for another beautiful mf ult. oops magical journey right to me giving them an escape and gapcloser to crush me --. ALso not to mention how they go to collect chimes for so long they come back try to harrass but are under leveled and die..
Bard has 'riven syndrome'. Aka bard is either great, or he is bad. The difference between a skilled bard and a bad bard is huge, a bad bard will feed, while a great bard has a good chance of carrying his adc, even if said adc is bad.
Spicy Rice4 votesYou mean Shaco's Law
Mhihnj2 votesI wanna be the very best like no bard ever was
LordGeovanni2 votesyou want bard to be aware of your skills but you dont seem to want to be aware of his
HonkLord1 votesA constant support problem. I duo with a friend who HATES Janna and Braum supports which I think he is stupid for, probably because of bad experiences.
So, one game I am playing Braum (my Duo is Jungle) and he notices that our lucian their MF and kills her. He asks how she got stunned and I said "with my passive...". My duo partner plays TONS of games and HE didn't know about Braum's passive! One of the biggest ways to advance in League is to just know what the capabilities are for champs, then playing the game and actually seeing how they play out.
Carnicore2 votesI know a lot of people feel that way, but honestly there's no evidence that he's over-the-top in any way. He's only used by a few players professionally (even though his ult should theoretically be much stronger in a coordinated team), and his statistics have always been mediocre (even in the hands of experienced Bard players).
HonkLord1 votesI think Jhin shakes up league as much as bard did in the sense that it's pushing players to accept a higher and more strategic method of play. For example, Bard showed everyone that it's okay to leave lane once in a while and check out other lanes as a support which is now more widely accepted. Roaming in general is done by far more champs since Bard's release started pulling teams out of their lanes.
Jhin is a herald to the new league philosophy: Obvious strength, Obvious weaknesses in champs to promote team strategy. I think the strategies will be to make teams think more about synergies of champs to help exploit the strengths and make up for the weaknesses and really think of how the team as a whole will play out before the game even starts. The most important choice being... against this team comp is it a good time to pick Jhin?
Jhin will mostly feel underpowered because of the current meta. With assassins on the rise and champs like Jax/Fiora/Olaf/Yi being able to just blow through and beat his face in it's kind of hard to see how he can be successful as anything but a limited and strategic choice.
Spaceman5pff13 votesTo me he just feels like what I always wanted Caitlyn to be.
EDIT: This is a good thing.
TotalJerk23 votesI know, that's the problem I have. He feels like an actual sniper. Every time I see him I think "this is what Caitlyn should be".
MrBuffington9 votesCaitlyn isn't meant to be a sniper. Yes, Caitlyn uses a long-barrel rifle with a telescopic sight, but thematically she's more along the lines of an Annie Oakley style sharpshooter than a guerilla-warfare-lie-in-wait-for-target-one-shot-one-kill sniper
It's fine to want an actual sniper champion (especially because now we have one in Jhin), but Caitlyn is not and isn't supposed to be that champion.
shyv9 votescait literally is a sniper though. like one of her quotes is "a sniper's greatest tool is precision" she calls herself a sniper and everyone calls her a sniper and that's.. what she is lol
MrBuffington5 votesThe word "sniper" gets misused a lot, especially in popular culture; like do you really think those Call of Duty 360 no-scope videos are actually how snipers behave? If you pay attention to Caitlyn's broader theme, the sheriff of piltover, it really doesn't match with an actual sniper at all. Like, when I say "sniper", I'm thinking ghillie suit, not miniskirt. There's a lot of grounding in the trope of an old-western sharpshooter-sheriff, but that's a pretty far cry from the mentality and actions of, say, a military sniper, or, in Jhin's case, this deadeye-assassin character.
Carnicore2 votesWhen you use the word "sniper" though, the concept everyone thinks of is nothing like CoD's snipers. A sniper is a backline assassin/support that threatens enemies' lives from across the map. Good examples are Widowmaker from Overwatch, or The Sniper from TF2. Poor rate of fire and mobility, with extreme range, precision, and burst damage in compensation. That's what it means to be a sniper in a video game.
Truth is, Caitlyn and Jhin both fulfill this really well in their own ways. Cait has the long range basic attacks and targeted ultimate, while Jhin has real burst on his basic attacks and ultimate. Jhin fails a bit in precision because he has much less reliability, and Cait fails because she has potent mobility.
Spicy Rice2 votesThe thing is tho, he is basically using something like a .49 Magnum
ComannderShepard3 votesTo me he just feels like what I always wanted Caitlyn to be.
EDIT: This is a good thing.
The ironic thing is Caitlyn uses a sniper rifle and Jihn uses what looks like a revolver
SlippySloop5 votesIt becomes a rifle, he just mashes another part onto it and presto! Easy Mac Sniper Rifle!
MetalGearTeemu12 votesGiven how wrong the boards are when i get a gut feeling about a champion, I'm going to say he sees LCS play in Korea and takes off like a bat out of hell. reliable crit which amounts to 25% crit for free just for existing will make trading against him in any lane enormously difficult once people get the hang of him.
I feel like this going to go down in my "Told you so's" like Garen detrending on his own as soon as people remember what kiting is, of Darius at worlds, and Kindred LCS that these boards felt like arguing with me over.
[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]
Itadaki Seieki3 votesGiven how wrong the boards are when i get a gut feeling about a champion, I'm going to say he sees LCS play in Korea and takes off like a bat out of hell. reliable crit which amounts to 25% crit for free just for existing will make trading against him in any lane enormously difficult once people get the hang of him.
I feel like this going to go down in my "Told you so's" like Garen detrending on his own as soon as people remember what kiting is, of Darius at worlds, and Kindred LCS that these boards felt like arguing with me over.
[slayer-pantheon-popcorn]
Most people I see build Jihn without Essence Reaver. :T Then I get annoyed cause why wouldn't you when you get assured crits?
MetalGearTeemu2 votesI've seen alot of people who seem to think he only crits on shot 4 for some reason or another, he's just as able to crit his other shots, and given his enormous damage numbers... yikes.
Itadaki Seieki5 votesI've seen alot of people who seem to think he only crits on shot 4 for some reason or another, he's just as able to crit his other shots, and given his enormous damage numbers... yikes.
Oh I know they CAN crit, but I just like the fact that I get mana back on crits because every fourth auto I'm assured a crit. I spam my spells quite a lot, so it really benefits me early-mid game.
Yorukin8 votesOn the flipside, his attacks don't hit NEARLY as hard during lane phase when he's not on his 4th shot yet. Add to that his Q's quasi-reliability and his rather limited self-peel, and it evolves into a game of knowing when to trade with him. Attack and harass when he's on his early shots or reloading, and try to stay away when he's close to or on the magic bullet.
Of course, this also means he synergizes well with disengage supports like Lulu or Janna, and then things will have to adjust to that. Evolving metagames are fun to predict, aren't they?
MetalGearTeemu6 votesTo counterpoint you though, yeah they don't hit as hard, but they hit hard enough. Jhin is not a case of weak early game stats compared to other marksmen.
Rather you get windows of parity, and then straight up zoned if he's on a 4th.
His starting stats are actually quite decent, he begins with a very generous 540 health, which among marksmen is quite high, only outdone by graves and lucien to my knowledge at lvl 1.
though his damage on paper comes in at 53, which is on the low end of the spectrum ( tied with cait ) he outscales most of the games other marksmen to land at 113. Its also good to note that this strong scaling closes his gap with other marksmen very quickly. I do not know what his base damage would be with a rune setup(due to his passives wonkiness with crit/ats), or even if it would matter.
What you end up with is a character who can play aggressively with his early stats.
Gooberp4 votesTo counter-counter-point, Jhin's early game is necessarily very passive. His ammo system is extremely restrictive for farming purposes. You can't afford to waste ammo on trading except for the fourth bullet, which might as well put a giant window over his head saying "don't trade with me right now". Jhin is quite easy to bully in the early game, as he has to choose between trading or farming, and if you force him to choose repeatedly, he'll lose either health or gold. Additionally, he has very little kill potential pre-6. If his 4th bullet fails to execute the target, there's a massive window during which he's totally helpless, as his abilities don't do much damage yet.
Jhin isn't "disruptive" because he was released as a mid-to-late-game champion with a passive laning phase into an early-game meta.
MetalGearTeemu5 votesI feel this mindset you propose falls into the "Viegar Trap" where the worst thing you can do is passively farm. You have strong base stats and a ZZZap which pierces minions and animates faster then a xerath Q. these are tools to use. he's a champion that can use his early bulk to secure a bullying position, and a strong one. In mid he's able to do this on his own, in bot lane any Damage from his support marks the target, and turns his w into a potent setup tool.
You're going to see him pair up with aggressive supports that can leverage this such as old standby toolbox thresh. or Braum. Braum Landing Q into Jhin w snare will almost certainly 
tee the Braum stun, and will likely net you a flower under your rump too.
Dengeden6 votesPeople gave props to TK too, give it time.
roboooo1 votesTK got overbuffed like something out of a nightmare, he was probably strong on release but they boosted his damage and reliability quite a bit after a patch or two.
Dengeden1 votesAnd now they've crushed it unless he's against an opponent where he can max Q. His ult damage is weaker than ever, all he's got is the additional utility they gave him.
CaptnJakSparrow6 votesHe's actually really really balanced lol . . . . . .
His entire kit has numerous amounts of counterplay tacked into it. Very defined power spikes. Very defined weak points.
He is the seaason 6 Velkoz imho.
TotalJerk4 votesI feel he has some numerical issues, some parts are too weak and others too strong, but the design is completely solid.
CaptnJakSparrow5 votesI feel he has some numerical issues, some parts are too weak and others too strong, but the design is completely solid.
i think his #s are pretty accurate.
He only does "insane damage" when it wouldnt have mattered anyways. Like the 3,000 damage R" Yeah, that 3,000 he's doing to you . . . you only had 10 hp . . . sooo . . . literally a caster minion would have killed you anyways.
The E trap. It has to do a lot of damage because it has a delay. IF it did little damage, there'd be no reason to even waste mana on it. You get big pay outs for paying attention and landing W WHILE they're in the trap. IF you don't, then your E does no damage. Q does mediocre damage unless you plan ahead and manage to perfectly tiime it + have it kill 3 things before hitting the enemy.
He is the closest to high skill + high risk = high reward you can get to in design for a champion to date.
People mention his 1k ad late game. But . . . with 25% crit reduction + armor negating 50% damage on majority of champs + only attacking at .97 a second he actually does less damage than other adcs. He's also punished harder for getting caught than other adcs.
Yeah, he can run up and tag someone for around 900-1000 damage with one auto super late game. But, a fed Jinx can two shot a squishy with rockets faster + farther away all the same. A caitlyn with headshot late game can 3/4th life someone with 1 auto. Vayne kills anyone in 1 second late game. Draven actually one shots people, and does it faster than jhin.
He's actually as closed to balance as he can be. If he gets nerfed, he will basically be a trash tier pick. I already see him struggle in diamondish mmr as is. The games he's been in he's never actually done anything impressive that any other champion could have done, but actually done better.
The Loveless2 votesAnd he's also predictable due to his passive, especially during laning. You can hide and let him use that 4th shot to cs, then jump on him. My strategy is to never engage him when he has 1-2 bullets, and sometimes engage him with 3 bullets depending on the overall situation. 4 is the magic number.
chipndip15 votesYou know, they said the same thing about Tahm...about how wonderfully balanced and fun he is.
Give it some time.
Only Play Darius4 votesTahm was useless shit on release and was over buffed ( in the wrong areas too) which is why he became a problem. He is fine otherwise
He was also released before the warding changes which made a big difference in how oppressive he is. Although he counters split pushers by nature, the warding changes made baseline split pushing harder, so now his presence makes trying to push sidelanes outright impossible
The Loveless4 votesHe's truly a late game terror. I played him on pbe and could melt 200+ armored tanks without buying pen.
Serika Zero4 votesQ = Fiddle sticks Crows, AD version W = random looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong range skill which might snare, with also a quick travel time. Ok this one is unique due to its range and speed E = traps, similar to teemo which hide and explode R = huge range ultimate with zoom out. Similar to Xerath's ultimate, except its not circle skill shots, its linear HUGE RANGE skill shots, much easier to hit and provides a slow.
His only thing "unique" is the stupid passive that overwrite the game power curve, making Jhin a pain in the ass to balance in the future. As well as his W. That's it.
edit: May all the Jhin fanboys and fangirls downvote. But your loved one is a mix of different abilities that already exist in this game. And his passive (which is "unique) is as toxic as it gets for the balance team. Since it will provide them with many challenges in the future. I highly advise against "maining" Jhin as it will be the same as maining Vlad, Yasou Galio and so on. You never know when riot will slap the nerf hammer and you will never rise again.
FistOfSharkiesha2 votesI want to say this is just champion hate but I can't. You're 100% right. His passive gives him absurd power and his lategame is just insane. Right now he's okay but with his range and damage he's going to be causing problems in high levels of play shortly.
Incognonymous3 votesIf he gets ahead, you can no longer take objectives like Baron or dragon. He just straight up dumps 1000 damage minimum on everyone involved, if not outright stealing it entirely. His numbers aren't CRAZY, but they are too high-- an obvious and well documented strategy of purposely releasing champs in such a state to spur sales.
His passive is not okay. His range is not okay. His bonus AD scaling as hard as it does is not okay. I saw him do 3000 damage in a 1v1 scenario with his 4 shots against a Sion. No penetration. No abilities. Autos. An actual, factual 100-0. Don't worry, if you haven't seen it yet, you will. Jhin has the least interactive laning since release Azir-- and at least release Azir was designed with the ability to go balls deep. Nothing in Jhin's kit requires it, so why bother? Because that's fun, right? And don't even get me started on this piece of shit's kill stealing potential. Dump on one in lane? Doesn't matter. When it gets time to teamfight he's going to sit in his spawn and last hit his team's kills a la Old Darius, but unlike old Darius, gold sinking his team doesn't matter because even a bad Jhin will do the most damage by virtue of his generous design.
"Buy stat x, get stat y" is the laziest, most egregious offender of Riot's many failed design policies. There has never been a situation, ever, where such a kit aspect has been healthy OR meaningful, and further, I'm deeply embarrassed that champ design has sunk to this level.
Solaxo3 voteswell, he's another champion with 3-4 hit passive
Carpe Victoria3 votesThe magic combination.
NichtHurz2 votesWell...that might be because he's banned in every single game I play. I don't even own Jhin yet, but it really pisses me off to see people banning him in every single normal draft game I play. I'd actually like playing against him so I get to know his kit, strength's and weaknesses better. Instead people blindly ban him even if their team would completely destroy such kind of champ. After Illaoi was released everybody was crying because she seemed op, but now everybody knows her and can utilize her insane weaknesses.
ForeverLaxx3 votesPeople ban new champs, and have always banned new champs, since the beginning of games where banning new champs was possible. No one wants that "one guy" who first-picks the new champ and loses the game for their team. It has nothing to do with a new champ's power and everything to do with keeping the inexperienced from ruining their game.
Lucifer2 votesDespite being the youngest champ designer, I think Gypsylord has the best understanding of what's healthy for the game. I love whenever he makes a champion.
IntakiNine2 votesHe knows how to make very "safe" champions, in terms of design and gameplay. Nothing too out of the box or exciting. That's a good thing, but if all champs were like that the game would get dull.
roboooo1 votesidk, I'd say a game consisting of Vi, Ekko, Jinx, Jinh, and Gnar would be one of the better combinations of champs.
Alëk2 votesThere is a LOT of potential in Jhin mid lane. He can legitimately lane very safely with his traps and farm up for mid game where he can become very effective. Even against other long range mages as long as he can get some early lifesteal he can sustain through poke, given he doesn't get combo'd by a Lux or something. He also has really good waveclear if he utilizes his Q correctly. Its almost impossible to run OOM with him if you know what you're doing and he has a nice burst combo with third AA + W + 4th AA. He's still weak against assassins, but what mage isn't. However he's pretty good at farming from a range so if you know what you're doing its pretty good. Because of how strong the other ADC's are he might be stronger mid lane than ADC right now.
