Remaking the remake, or, a Kog for everyone

Rebonack··5 votes·497 views

Before the remake went down Kog was being pulled in three directions. His Q and W made him the tank-buster Marksmen along with Vayne. His W and Q also made him the long range machine gun Marksmen (Trist used to fill this role as well, but Riot nudged her over to a siege focus). Kog's Q, W ,E and R all gave him solid poke. And of course his Passive is a potato which has absolutely no relevance to his kit.

When the remake went Live, Kog could reach his old tank-busting power if he went with an AD heavy build. Since the removal of the AD ratio on his W, Kog's ability to tank-bust has been heavily nerfed. In terms of %HP damage done over the duration of the skill, we're talking half the damage.

In like manner, Kog's poke took a pretty heavy hit when his Ult was turned from a poke tool into an execute.

So Riot decided to focus in on Kog's machine gun aspect with laser-like focus-

-but still kept his potato Passive for some reason.

With the suggestions here, I want to pitch a Kog that should make all of his old players happy. Or at least all of his old players a little more happy. Some people really hate the new W, so there's not much to be done about that. Anyway! On with the show. Fully remade skills will be spelled out. Modified spells will have changes noted.

P - Eldritch Enzymes: Kog'Maw's basic attacks have no Bonus Attack Damage ratio. Instead, his basic attacks deal bonus magic damage OnHit equal to 2% plus (percentage) per 100 bonus AD of the target's maximum HP. This OnHit damage can critically strike for (some amount less than 200%?).

Want to play Tank-Buster Kog? Build him AD. Do note that Kog is losing the AP ratio on his %HP damage. That's quite intentional. AP Kog isn't the tank-buster after all. This also means Kog has fairly low damage against Towers when compared to other Marksmen, but his ability to take monster objectives should be quite a bit higher. This also means that, barring Gunblade, he gets very little benefit from Lifesteal. How's that for clear strengths and weaknesses?

Q - Caustic Spittle: AP Ratio increased by (probably to 0.7).

AP Kog is losing the ratio on his %HP damage, so he'll need something else to make up for it. Before it was turned into a skillshot, his Q originally had a 0.7 AP ratio, so that seems like a good place to start.

W - Bio-Arcane Barrage: Toggle Off: It does nothing! Who do you think Kog is, Jinx? He's not getting something for nothing. Toggle On: Kog'Maw doubles his attack speed and attack speed cap in addition to gaining significant attack range. However, he slows himself by 75% and reduces the Base Attack Damage ratio of his basic attacks to 50%. After activating this skill, Kog'Maw gains (amount) additional attack range over (duration). Cooldown of 6/5/4/3/2 seconds, 40 mana cost activation.

Ah, Kog's double attack speed buff. It comes a toggle now, but while it's on Kog gets a pretty crippling slow to really hammer home the idea that he's a turret champion. The initial range buff he gets should be pretty solid, but the longer he keeps it on the more range he gets. This is to encourage Kog to set up in a good position and start shelling his foes while his team does the whole 'protect the Kog' thing. Obviously I have no idea how much range would be reasonable, but I'm sure Riot could find a solid value.

As before, if Kog wants to do the whole long range machine gun thing, attack speed and OnHit damage is the way to go.

E - Void Ooze: Slow increased to 40/45/50/55/60%.

Just a straight forward buff to Kog's ability to fend off people charging straight at him. With his immobility amplified, his slow could really use a bit of love.

R - Living Artillery: This ability's AP ratio no longer increases against foes with low HP, instead remaining at a static (0.4? 0.5? 0.6?). This ability's Bonus AD ratio no longer increases against foes with low HP, instead it deals (percentage) of the target's missing HP as bonus magic damage per 100 bonus AD.

AP Kog poke-monster is back in town! AP Kog's execute damage is MUCH lower than what AD Kog boasts, but he actually has the ability to snipe full health targets and do something other than waste his mana. In the same fashion, bonus AD gives the skill %Missing HP damage, focusing it more directly on destroying beefy targets rather than a squishy nuker. This helps to really resolve between Kog's different builds and roles, which is the main focus of this remade remake.

And that's that! A Kog for everyone. Want a tank-buster? AD is for you. Want your machine gun? Run OnHit. Want an artillery platform? Go AP. With Kog's old Passive gone and his W gaining a significant downside, I suspect that would open up enough kit power to really help this come to life.

Thoughts?

8 Comments

Rebonack2 votes

If I had just one wish, it's that Riot would finish Kog's rework before moving onto other things instead of leaving him half-assed.

Kog doesn't work very well with half an ass, aside from looking silly.

Rebonack1 votes

Worth mentioning that all these changes wouldn't require any new art assets for Kog, aside from possibly changing up his death animation. I'm pretty sure just having him run around randomly for four seconds before exploding (without dealing damage to anything) would be workable.

WookieJesuz1 votes

This is actually a realy good rework. I mean REALLY good. I hope riot sees this.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

This is actually a realy good rework. I mean REALLY good. I hope riot sees this.

Thanks for the kind words! I don't think Riot's rework of Kog was bad. It's just that they were fiddling with so many Marksmen that they didn't have enough time to give Kog the full attention he really needs. They basically didn't rework him enough.

The best thing about all the changes suggested here is that they wouldn't be intensive at all. No new abilities. No new art. Just the things Kog has right now shuffled a bit, focused down to what matters.

Alsek1 votes

Thing is, I don't really want Kog to be a turret champ. I don't like the slow.

My whole problem with the new rework has been that it doesn't reward a lot of critical ADC mechanics.

I want him to be able to kite and reposition during fights. He already doesn't have an escape. He's already squishy as hell. Why should he have to stand still to deal damage?

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

Thing is, I don't really want Kog to be a turret champ. I don't like the slow.

My whole problem with the new rework has been that it doesn't reward a lot of critical ADC mechanics.

I want him to be able to kite and reposition during fights. He already doesn't have an escape. He's already squishy as hell. Why should he have to stand still to deal damage?

I don't disagree with you, old Kog was great.

But Riot seems to be dead set on machine gun tripod Kog. The idea with the remake is to allow the other facets of Kog to shine a little more and really double-down on the turret champion bit. Near as I can tell, they want players to go with Corki or Ez for poke and Vayne for tank busting.

Alsek1 votes

Kind of feeling like so long as he can't move while W is active he'll exist in an unbalance-able state for solo queue, though.

He'll either not do enough damage to justify sitting still mid teamfight (because that's what AD carries do, right?) or if it is enough damage to justify it, it will be way too much damage.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

Kind of feeling like so long as he can't move while W is active he'll exist in an unbalance-able state for solo queue, though.

He'll either not do enough damage to justify sitting still mid teamfight (because that's what AD carries do, right?) or if it is enough damage to justify it, it will be way too much damage.

This is one of the core issues with trying to balance champions who only have one aspect they bring to the table. Now, arguably, Kog pulled it off before the remake. He was regularly in either the number one or number two average damage per game slot, trading back and forth with Karthus. Which, honestly, is where they should be since they have no hard CC and no mobility. When damage is all one brings to the table, that damage had better be great.

Now, this remake focuses on trying to stick to that vision of 'totally immobile, squishy, damage only'.

But there is another route to take.

Riot could add sustain and/or durability to Kog as a second balance lever and make him a ranged Juggernaut of sorts. Graves already has decent mobility in addition to one of the best CCs in the game and as much free defensive bulk as fucking Rammus so why not let totally immobile Kog get beefy when he's totally immobile? It's not like he would be able to dodge skillshots with a 75% self-slow. May as well let him face-tank them instead.

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