Quinn Issues and Review
Hey guys Killroy here,
Quinn is one of those unique ranged adc's that I have seen in a myriad of positions. While traditionally released as an ADC, Quinn struggled to keep up with the more dominant ADC's in the lane and as such became a less viable pick for bot lane comps. However, players soon learned she had a knack for not only blowing up top lane but jungling as well. After being used there for a long time and still reasonably effective top. I have seen Quinn fall off of jungling leaving her to be at best a situational top pick. As such I wanted to take a moment to review some issues that I think are prevalent in the kit design and flow of the champion Quinn that could be the cause. So without further ado lets get started.
QUINN KIT REVIEW:
Quinn relies heavily on a combination of poke harassment and burst. Her damage revolves heavily around landing her abilities to mark a target with Harrier and getting off an auto attack. This combination of ability / auto attack is key to maximizing her lane presence and kill potential. However, there are some key issues that stem from this kind of game play that I would like to bring up. So lets get into her abilities.
> Passive: Harrier Quinn periodically marks targets as vulnerable. Her first auto attack on a vulnerable target deals bonus damage.
This passive works well in most situations. Quinn's abilities also mark targets as vulnerable which allow her to stack a quick combo of damage on a specific target. Giving her some control over the normally random nature of this ability. There are some down sides to this behavior however.
- The mark requires her auto attack to activate the bonus damage.
- Her mark does not sync well with one or more of her clutch abilities.
> Blinding Assault: Quinn launches valor toward an area blinding them and dealing damage in an area. This ability is good and doesn't need any changes made to it. It acts as a long range poke, disruption, and a mark generator.
> Heightened Senses Passive attack speed and movement speed when hitting a vulnerable target. Reveals an area of the map for a period of time.
This ability is in my opinion lack luster. While it provides movement speed and attack speed after hitting marked targets. This really should be a part of Quinn's Passive Harrier. Outside of the passive, the ability itself provides only a minor tactical advantage similar to Ashe's vision ability. This is one of my issues with her current kit design. Utilizing Heightened senses does little more than reveal people in bushes which a ward already accomplishes. In addition, if you are using it to ambush a champion it fails. The reason being it alerts the champion of its use (and rightly it should). Outside of that it provides nothing.
- Improvements:
- Move the passive attack speed and movement speed steroid to her passive.
- Give her the ability to mark all enemy champions vulnerable that are revealed or in range of heightened senses. --------AND/OR---------
- Give her the ability to detect and destroy all traps visible or invisible (to include wards if you like)
This would give Quinn some more mark control with her abilities so that she could punish a target attempting to gank. In addition this would give her another mark generator without depending solely on her Blinding Assault or Vault. In addition, giving her the ability to detect and destroy traps would make her a decent counter to Trappers like Teemo, Caitlynn, Jhin, Nidalee, and Shaco. While also providing a nice team buff as they would be able to see and destroy any traps during that time to.
> Vault: Quinn dashes at the target dealing damage on hit and briefly slowing them. Quinn then vaults off her target landing at her maximum attack range.
The problem with this ability is three fold and more mechanical in nature. (1) Quinn needs this ability to disengage from enemies and kite. So using it sparingly is key to being a good Quinn. The problem is that vault has a lower mana consumption than Blinding Assault. Because of this, as a solo laner you utilize this to peck at the enemy more than Blinding assault. (2) Quinn lands at her maximum attack range. What this does is ruins her ability to follow with an auto attack if the enemy is moving away from her. Which even with the slow effect is done rather easily. **(3)**This ability marks a target, so auto attacking after her vault is essential in poking. However, because this is not an automatic thing. The player must command Quinn to attack after landing in order to make use of the mark. This is increasingly difficult when the enemy is moving away from Quinn as the ability ends.
- IMPROVEMENTS
- Make her attack automatically after landing if the target is still in range. (OR) Make her auto attack mid way through her vault back (while still airborne would look super cool).
- Increase the slow duration or intensity if the target is blinded when she hits them. This will synergize well with her Blinding Assault.
- Increase the mana consumption so you can reduce blinding Assaults consumption.
This would effectively make Vault more situational and less likely to be used. However, it would simplify this ability some by making the auto attack more fluid and without player interaction. It would increase it's synergy with her other abilities and create in "all in combo" that is more effective than her current system.
CONCLUSION
Making these minor alterations to her existing kit would enable her to be a more effective lane presence not only as a TOP laner, but may bring her back to her original role bot lane as an ADC. As I stated above, I believe outside of some additions to her heightened senses, that Quinn's kit issues are more mechanical than requiring a total rework. She has all the right tools, shes just using them the wrong way or not as efficiently as she could be!
Lemme know what you all think!
-Killroy-
