Vayne Silver Bolts improvements and suggestions!
Having been playing against a great many Vayne players lately, it's come to my attention just how pretty oppressive her anti-bruiser and anti-tank abilities are.
The focus of this suggestion thread is to make Vayne more of an interactive champion who requires thought and quick thinking. As it stands, Vayne is considered the epitomy of hypercarries. However, the nature in which she accomplishes these things is very basic.
Auto-Attacks.
Typically speaking, this is fine, considering her auto attack range isn't all that huge. However, I personally don't really care for what happens next, should she decide to auto attack you.
Vayne: "Hooray! I landed 3 auto attacks! I'm so skilled, I'm the greatest!" RIOT: "Okay, you landed 3 auto attacks from range, here's your reward!"
*Dishes out 2000KG of % max HP true damage*
NOTE: NO other champion deals % max HP true damage.
How can this possibly be a balanced risk/reward tradeoff? A ranged champion, most likely cowering behind their support or tank, lands 3 measly auto attacks and is rewarded with chunking 25-30% of a bruiser's health bar as TRUE DAMAGE. See, there's the big issue.
Considering Vayne gets to chunk someone heavily with true damage for the simple act of auto-attacking, I can't help but feel that isn't balanced and requires no skill for such high reward. This wouldn't be a huge issue if we were still in the Assassin Meta, but since teamfights go on for a long time, it gives her plenty of time to unload on the enemy and subsequently score multikills.** That's too much reward for the simple act of clicking on a new champion every 5 seconds once they're dead and occasionally avoiding wayward skillshots. No interaction with the actual Silver Bolts skill at all.**
"Oh buh she not safe during lane!"
Well of course not, no champion is truly safe during laning phases (even you, Heimer). But any good ADEQUATE Vayne player is going to play it safe, farm from a distance and only go in if there's a guaranteed safe kill during the laning phase. BUT EVEN THEN, should she get absolutely destroyed in lane, she still can be just as deadly because of Silver Bolts.
A perfect quote a friend of mine uttered that sums up Vayne in a nutshell: "You cannot stop Vayne, you can only hope to slow her down."
Because Vayne WILL catch up. No matter how much you poop on her, she will always become that mid to late game monster she's known for being. And the reason that is, is because of Silver Bolts.
The Problem:
Vayne's Silver Bolts give too much punch for little to no effort outside of simply staying alive for a few seconds.
The Solution:
Change Silver Bolts to work on a cycling system, encouraging players to cycle out their bolt type according to their target.
The Details:
-Current Silver Bolts effect: Deals 20/30/40/50/60 + (4/5/6/7/8 % of target's Max HP) as true damage on every 3rd consecutive auto attack within 3 seconds on the same target.
-Reworked Silver Bolts effect: Deals Deals 20/25/30/35/40 + (5/6/7/8/10 % of target's Max HP) as magic/phys/true damage on every 3rd consecutive auto attack within 3 seconds on the same target.
Activating Silver Bolts causes Vayne to cycle between crossbow ammunition.
Silver Bolts (M) - Deal % Max HP magic damage on every 3rd consecutive auto attack against the same target. Silver Bolts (P) - Deal % Max HP physical damage on every 3rd consecutive auto attack against the same target. Silver Bolts (T) - Deal % Max HP true damage on every 3rd consecutive auto attack against the same target of a higher level. Capped at 200 against monsters. At level 18, Silver Bolts (T) will deal true damage to targets of the same level.
The goal of this suggestion and improvement is to make it so Vayne players:
- Have a better comeback chance if they get squashed in lane (their 'weak' point).
- Take a little bit of her pressure off during the late game where she has the capability to absolutely wreck anyone.
- Take some pressure off her early trading if she's ahead.
- Encourage Vayne players to make choices according to the enemy's builds (Instead of spam-building attack speed).
- Reward players for thinking ahead and cycling their ammunition types during skirmishes and fights.
- Add a small hurdle for Vayne players to jump (or tumble) over in addition to simply keeping her alive.
Conclusion:
TL;DR I believe that Vayne's Silver Bolts are too strong, especially considering how it takes no skill to proc them. I've made a suggestion to improve Silver Bolts to limit their oppressive power in snowball situations while also giving Vayne the ability to cycle damage types as she may require against targets building heavy armor or magic resist. This may also open Vayne to new build paths.
