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A nice, easy way to balance Marksmen Kog

Rebonack··3 votes·624 views

Riot doesn't like AP Kog, apparently. He's been called 'the definition of unhealthy champion design' more than once now. Which is why we're probably never getting his old Ult back ever. Which is sad.

But since Riot isn't ever giving him his old Ult back, the new one really needs some changes to help it pull its weight. Basically, Kog needs a reason to want to use his Ult on enemy champs who aren't already on death's door. And I think I've got a simple way to do that. I don't usually suggest concrete numbers in topics like these, but I think they'll help get across the intent I'm shooting for. Consider them place-holders and nothing more.

R - Living Artillery: Kog'Maw fires a long range projectile that deals 100/150/200 (0.5 bonus AD ratio, 0.3 AP ratio) magic damage in an area after 0.6 seconds. This damage is multiplied by 3 if the target is below 25% maximum health. Additionally, hitting units with Living Artillery applies the Free Food debuff for 4 seconds, revealing them. Kog'Maw's basic attacks against debuffed targets deals bonus magic damage equal to 6/7.5/9% (+1% per 100 AP) of their current HP OnHit. Consecutive casts of Living Artillery within 8 seconds compounds the mana cost.

So Kog would want to tag healthy targets with his Ult to apply the debuff, which gives him access to some hefty %Current HP damage. That extra damage helps him gnaw down healthy targets to get them closer to execute range more quickly. This would also provide Kog with a MUCH needed boost in his mid-game power, because if a Juggermaw comp's Maw isn't kicking in by mid-game when team fights are starting there really isn't any point in running a Juggermaw comp in the first place.

10 Comments

NodirjonSattarov1 votes

What about his other abilities? I love this idea but people will associate it with the "press W and win" slogan he had a couple months back.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

What about his other abilities? I love this idea but people will associate it with the "press W and win" slogan he had a couple months back.

Well, the goal here is to pitch a fairly 'low bandwitdth' change that Riot could roll out pretty easily. Kog needs a VGU about as badly as Galio or Urgot or Aatrox as it stands, but something like this would make a pretty good stop-gap until Riot can devote the time needed to actually update Kog.

I don't think there's really anything wrong with Kog's W. His E could be rebalanced to fit in better with the other one-point-wonder utility skills most Marksmen have (full slow from level one, high cooldown at level one, scales down with levels.)

The resist shred concept on his Q is great, but it really does need some work to make it attractive as something other than just a passive attack speed boost. Something as simple as turning it into an attack reset modifier instead of a clunky skillshot could potentially do it. Though personally I would prefer to see Kog's Q and Passive reworked to make him THE resist shred Marksmen. That would take quite a bit more effort on Riot's part, however.

His Goatliness1 votes

" Kog'Maw's basic attacks against debuffed targets deals bonus magic damage equal to 6/7.5/9% (+1% per 100 AP)" Holy Hell that's a lot of damage. That proposal would mean if he had 500ap (Not at all unreasonable) That he would do 14% -Per Hit-. AP kog with nashors and BotRK would be THE meta for every team. Not to mention a decent kog would have that debuff on his target until either his target or himself died.

Those numbers are unreasonable.

Rebonack1 votes

[{quoted}](name=His Goatliness,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Jwl9qux3,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2016-11-07T20:51:47.572+0000)

" Kog'Maw's basic attacks against debuffed targets deals bonus magic damage equal to 6/7.5/9% (+1% per 100 AP)" Holy Hell that's a lot of damage. That proposal would mean if he had 500ap (Not at all unreasonable) That he would do 14% -Per Hit-. AP kog with nashors and BotRK would be THE meta for every team. Not to mention a decent kog would have that debuff on his target until either his target or himself died.

Those numbers are unreasonable.

Of course they are. I said as much in the opening post. I just used the numbers as an illustration for the basic idea. If something like this were actually used, the numbers would be tuned through many sets of iteration to find what feels right.

Erockandroll1 votes

{quoted}

Of course they are. I said as much in the opening post. I just used the numbers as an illustration for the basic idea. If something like this were actually used, the numbers would be tuned through many sets of iteration to find what feels right.

What I would suggest is Keep the Numbers, but make the Attack consume the buff. So that it works once, but encourages Kog to make use of his Ult and keep reapplying the buff. It would give more synergy to the old TF build that was popular on him before the update.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

What I would suggest is Keep the Numbers, but make the Attack consume the buff. So that it works once, but encourages Kog to make use of his Ult and keep reapplying the buff. It would give more synergy to the old TF build that was popular on him before the update.

That's another way to roll with it. Something I had also considered, as a matter of fact.

Basically, putting SOME form of %Current HP damage on his Ult that gets triggered by a basic attack would make it useful against healthy targets and prevent it from being pure poke power.

Sire Hippington1 votes

Asides from the numbers beeing a bit overtuned, it sounds like a good idea which also would help Ap+nashors kog.

Earl Eulrich1 votes

I still think Koggy is totally fine as it is, maybe even a little on the strong side. That being said, i like the mechanic and if numbers go down i could live with having koggy a little too strong for some time again.

Billy VoHagen1 votes

The only problem I see with this is that Kog could just build AP and pick up a Nashor's.

Rebonack1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Billy VoHagen,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Jwl9qux3,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2016-11-08T17:35:36.508+0000)

The only problem I see with this is that Kog could just build AP and pick up a Nashor's.

Which wouldn't be too much of a problem. If AP Kog is being forced to move into basic attack range to get the most out of his damage then that's a good thing, isn't it? Riot's main problem with AP Kog isn't him being built AP, but that AP Kog deals damage from a range that's difficult to interact with.

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