QUALITY OF LIFE suggestions for Twitch (Q delay indicator, passive clarity)
I feel like Twitch can be way too strong if buffed too much, but there's some things about him that he really needs for clarity purposes which don't provide too much risk to put him over the edge.
Because Riot is planning on potential buffs for Twitch in patch 5.18, they should introduce some or most of these changes with the buffs:
** tl;dr
- Q delay needs an ability timer above the skill bar
- Passive indicator needs to be more clear
- E needs to be more reliable once activated, as it can miss and go on cooldown **
** 1) Q (AMBUSH'S) DELAY NEEDS A TIMER ABOVE THE SKILL BAR **
DISCLAIMER: I made a PBE suggestion for this around a year ago, and it was heavily supported by the community, but I recently learned that the PBE isn't used for suggestions, so I wanted to bring the suggestion here in time for the upcoming buffs. http://boards.pbe.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/champions-gameplay-feedback/ZEEmxngG-suggestion-twitchs-ambush-q-should-have-an-ability-timer-when-activated I don't suggest you read this unless you are in dire need of more information about this concept.
So anyways, because of the Twitch nerfs from Patch 4.10 (which affected Twitch heavily from being OP to a bit weaker than normal):
- Ambush ( Q ) stealth delay while not taking damage increased to 1.5 seconds from 1.25 seconds
- Ambush ( Q ) alternate stealth delay increased to 6 seconds from 3 seconds
This made Twitch's stealth extremely long and sometimes useless when trying to use it as an escape. Nowadays, if you press Q to escape while under attack, you're guessing when the stealth will proc. During these 6 seconds, you COULD be putting in a few autoattacks, but you maybe don't want to risk it incase your stealth pops as soon as your autoattack animation is winding up. Twitch players will know what I mean when they accidentally blow their stealth because they were in the middle of an autoattack.
MY SUGGESTION: ** Riot should put an ability timer above the skill bar to indicate when he'll stealth, and possibly even specify if he's in combat or not so the player knows that the Ambush will take longer to activate. Maybe make it so minions don't affect his increased Q timer? **
https://4st.me/PB8Sz.png Something like this. The image shown is his Ambush attack speed buff, but you get the idea.
** 2) PASSIVE INDICATOR IS REALLY MESSY DURING TEAMFIGHTS, ESPECIALLY IN CONTRAST TO THE OLD PRE-VU INDICATOR **
The post-VU passive indicator is a green, transparent, 2D particle that can sometimes look extremely buggy. I think we've all seen a situation where the Twitch passive, or something similar like the Face of the Mountain particle stacks surrounding an ally or enemy doubles or triples.
The passive particle bug is similar to the Face of the Mountain's 
particle bug:
https://4st.me/FuknM.png
I'm not entirely sure if this bug is fixed but I recall seeing it recently. /tangent
Anyways let's get on more topic with the clarity instead of bug-fixing: when stacks are added, they're added in a preset location around the target.
** 1st: ** bottom left ** 2nd: ** bottom right ** 3rd: ** top ** 4th: ** bottom ** 5th: ** ??? middle ??? ** 6th: ** large above head
Past the 2nd stack it becomes extremely difficult to count the amount of stacks as there's barely any room for them to be located.
The pre-VU passive indicator was a brighter, more solid 3D particle that never really had any problems. It had a lot of clarity as the stacks were large enough to see around the enemy, and also were animated so they spun around the target, making it a lot easier to count how many stacks were on the enemy as they would never permanently hide behind them. The animation also refreshed every time a new stack was added from your autoattack or W, making it extremely easy to see the stacks add one by one.
Pre-VU Twitch Stacking 1-6: https://youtu.be/hZ2Vp_UojfM?t=29s Post-VU Twitch Stacking 1-6: https://youtu.be/2IpoZ60PXlo?t=53s
Notice how the post-VU Twitch stacks sometimes hide behind the enemy, especially when it becomes cluttered at around the 4-5 mark? The pre-VU Twitch never had this problem because it was animated and larger, and also contrasted with the environment and didn't mix in with the other green effects of Twitch.
MY SUGGESTION: ** Riot should make Twitch's passive indicator larger and have a brighter, yellow-ish colour that is more distant from each other stack indicator. If Riot wants to put effort into it, they COULD make it a 3D animated particle like the pre-VU Twitch. **
Here's some other images to compare pre-VU and post-VU Twitch:
_Pre-VU Clearing Minions: _ https://4st.me/P1PQw.png _Post-VU Clearing Minions: _ https://4st.me/ogGkb.png Post-VU green stink effects blending with the small green passive indicators, and also hidden behind minions
_Pre-VU 6 Stacks: _ https://4st.me/2rvld.png _Post-VU 6 Stacks: _ https://4st.me/HYeld.png The post-VU 6 stacks indicator is a lot less noticeable compared to pre-VU's indicator, especially in contrast to their respective smaller 1-5 stack particles. Currently in the post-VU state when comparing an enemy with 5 stacks to an enemy with 6 stacks, it's hard to differentiate them because the size difference is negligible at most.
** 3) E (CONTAMINATE) CAN MISS AND ALSO GOES ON COOLDOWN / USES MANA EVEN IF IT DOESN'T HIT THE TARGET **
This QoL suggestion isn't present in the title, I added this and now the thread has too many upvotes for me to change the title I think. So please don't pass by this suggestion.
Attempting to last hit with E on Twitch, or even kill an enemy near the maximum E range can be stressful when they either die or walk out of your range at the last second. Your E goes off, you see the "projectile" fly at the target, and then the target dies or walks out of the range and it uses all of your mana and even puts it on cooldown. Because the post-VU Twitch's E is now a projectile, whilst the old E worked like Kalista's Rend, there's a lot more room for the kill-shot to fail.
Even the League of Legends Wiki states this in Twitch's E information:
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Twitch Damage from Contaminate is not applied if Deadly Venom wears off or the targeted unit moves out of range prior to the damage being applied.
MY SUGGESTION: ** The E should have a quicker animation or projectile speed, and/or should always hit the target once casted UNLESS they die first or get blocked by Braum shield/Yasuo wall. This is to prevent moments where a Twitch presses E at max range and the target just walks out of the range. Alternatively, Riot could make it so if the E doesn't hit a single target once casted, it'll refund the mana or cooldown similar to Lux using her ult while dying. I prefer the first option, personally. **
