Proposed Changes: Urgot
I hope I can convince at least some of you that this idea of a machine gun Urgot really isn't that bad, but he needs a lot of work in terms of revisions to how his W currently functions.
The idea of a machine gun turret type character is perfectly fine in my opinion. Despite Urgot being able to heavily abuse items such as Black Cleaver and runes like Conqueror, I think that's fine, and should simply be taken into consideration when balancing Urgot.
I do have some disagreements with HOW the W scales though. Setting it on a 8/6/4/2/0 second cooldown feels very awkward to play around, and forces one specific skill order, which is NOT to max W first, but Q. While not bad on its own, it makes Urgot feel like less of a champion until the 0 second cooldown mark, where he actually becomes a real champion.
Here are some proposed changes:
- Make W have scaling damage rather than scaling cooldowns.
Currently, the only difference between all the ranks is that at rank 5, it becomes a toggle, and before that, the cooldown decreases slightly, with a very small difference in scaling.. That's it. When it comes to Urgot's W, I believe that it should increase in the amount of things it can do while it's up, rather than having an 8/6/4/2 cooldown scheme. Up until Rank 4, it's still fairly easy to get away from Urgot's barrage, even with his slow and reposition dash. Once he hits Rank 4, he might have a chance at reactivating it before you escape, but it's still a coin-toss scenario in most cases, such as whether you built boots in time or not. Urgot might be able to actually make choices as to whether he wants on hit effects and shotguns or movement speed, and at earlier ranks, basic attack damage. It would also enable Urgot to start maxing W in more matchups rather than delaying their ability to finally be able to play the game, by maxing Q. It would also give Urgot more power in an early W, where he has less interactions in his on-hit effects, and less power late, where he has more interactions in his on-hit effects.
The current scaling is 12 (+ 20 / 24 / 28 / 32 / 36% AD). I propose making it purely AD scaling, and instead of making it 20/24/28/32/36, I suggest making it 25/27.5/30/32.5/35% AD per shot.
- Decrease the movement speed debuff from a flat amount to a scaling amount. With a base movement speed of 330, his movement speed is crippled in the early game, but less relevant late game. Trying to reduce the amount of mobility differences between the two could lead to a better experience for both sides.
MS Debuff: Flat MS: -125 -> Flat MS %: .345
Sample calculations:
MS no boots: Before: 205. After: 216.15
MS with boots of speed: Before: 230. After: 232.525
MS after Cleaver's phage effect: Before: 240. After: 239.075
MS after Mercury / Tabi + Phage: Before: 260. After: 252.17
By making it a flat percentage rate, it slightly improves his early game and slightly decreases his late game movement speed. By doing this, I think that Urgot may be able to emphasize his early game strengths as a top lane bully that falls off as the game goes on, instead of always remaining a threatening force, albiet slightly inferior to other top laners.
- Decrease his base AD by 2, and increase his AD growth from 2.9 -> 3.1. This is a really really small change. I know that, and it's just mostly for that unconscious feeling of oppressiveness Urgot gives off in the early game. "So why bother buffing his early game's W?" Glad you asked.
Why the proposed changes?
Urgot currently sits at a 50.67 winrate according to OP.GG, when played in the top lane. Why bother changing him then?
There is a lot of complaints about how a champion "Feels" when playing/playing against a champion. For example: Yasuo feels fun to play, but awful to play against. This is bad design that heavily favors one specific category of people. Conversely, Singed feels fair to play against, and his mains enjoy playing him. I think that although Singed's player base is smaller, his design is healthier in general.
In the case of Urgot, he feels both unfun to play against, and sometimes unfun to play as. By emphasizing his unique on-hit traits, he'll be able to function more effectively with a specific niche in mind, which is a lane bully that relies on item stacking. The early game W buffs simply function to give him a more reliable option to trigger shotgun knees for close range dueling, rather than always using basic attacks and harassment with Q, giving him more of a base against melee champions that can get close to him, while also slightly hitting his ability to impact the champions that can't. By reducing the counter play against immobile champions, and increasing the counter play against mobile champions, this effectively makes Urgot generally more fun to play against AND as.
Visual representation:
Before:
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Urgot's Fun Mobile Melee Fun Immobile Melee Fun
After (Hopefully):
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Urgot's Fun Mobile Melee Fun Immobile Melee Fun
Urgot trades his power against Immobile Melee units for power against mobile melee units. Because Urgot still should have a niche of being a lane bully, he should still have an advantage against immobile melee champions when it comes to ease of playing, but this evens out the curve from sheer oppressiveness to a less oppressive state. As for mobile champions, they'll still have plenty of movement to deal with Urgot, but should hopefully be less powerful at trading with low consequence.
Side note: As for the rarer ranged units, they are typically squishier, and that is where the shotgun knees activated by W come in. Ranged units can usually bait out Urgot's W too easily, so by removing its toggle, it makes his trading a little easier, by exchanging a slight 2 AD for much more reliability.
I'll be occasionally posting proposed changes, but these are only PROPOSED changes. I would love feedback and discussion.