What if Kog's Ult were his basic attack?
Somewhat crazy idea, I know. But this is an interesting concept that came to me and I figured I would share it.
Kog's actual basic attack would become melee range. Basically consists of biting/eating things. He would get a new Passive that triggers only on his melee attack (think Pirate) recovering a percentage of his missing mana and possibly dealing a bit of extra magic damage. Kog has always had a nasty bite up close, this would continue to be the case.
That melee range mana recovery would be a bit on the risky side to use, however it would allow Kog to fuel his R, which would now be unlocked from level 1 like many transformation Rs. I don't usually suggest any concrete numbers in posts like these, but in this particular case I feel it would help to better communicate the concept I have in mind. Remember that the values are purely place-holders meant to illuminate the idea behind them.
R - Living Artillery: Kog'Maw fires a long range (1100/1200/1300/1400) artillery strike that deals magic damage (10/40/70/100 base damage plus 0.3 AP ratio plus 100% total attack damage. This ability applies OnHit effects to the enemy unit closest to the center, prioritizing Champions.) to all enemy units in the target area after 0.6 seconds. The mana cost compounds with each cast, however stacks drop off individually after 10 seconds. Mana cost of 30. Cooldown of 3/2/1/0.5. Using this ability does not interrupt Kog'Maw's basic attacks.
So? The base damage drops quite a bit, however it now applies OnHit effects to the primary target, allowing it to take full advantage of Muramana, Spellblade, and Nashor's if you roll that way. For all practical purposes, it's a super long range basic attack. If it were given the ability to Crit, I would suggest the Crit apply only to the base damage portion of the attack rather than the bonus damage.
The cooldown is improved significantly and the mana cost reduced to help hammer home the idea that this is a sustained damage tool rather than a burst tool. Also note that the range is getting scaled back pretty dramatically at higher levels. Riot's big problem with Kog is apparently that his level 6 Ult is 'unhealthy' due to the long range. I figure dialing it down in exchange for being a more reliable damage tool would be a reasonable trade off.
Main goal here is trying to find some way to allow Artillery Kog to continue being a thing without Riot's dread specter of 'unhealthy game-play' looming over him. Obviously the rest of his Kit would require some pretty major tweaks since this is VGU level stuff, but I figured I would focus on his Ult. Thoughts?
