Discussion: How will this planned nerf affect Caitlyn

Please bring discussion points and not any rude/salty comments, thank you!

Meddlers comment

Caitlyn Headshot no longer stacks multiple times per attack with Hurricane. Caitlyn's lacking in clear enough weaknesses and one she should have is lower single target DPS late game than most marksmen with similar builds. Hurricane's currently making it so her teamfight single target damage is higher than we suspect it should be however, at the same time also constricting her build paths. Testing a change as a result.

This is quite the broad nerf to Caitlyn. This affects many parts of her and how she functions. I have a couple of points to go over and id love to hear opinions on this! thanks!

Early Game This is actually important part of how it will affect Caitlyn, as she wont snowball as hard as she does. With this nerf, will become extremely less efficient of an item on Caitlyn. This makes her have to get even further ahead to compensate for this nerf, as shell need even more to compensate for how bad her skirmishing, fighting, and sometimes duels would be. So if you consider how much further shell need to get ahead in lane would be, this is an lowkey indirect 'nerf' to her early game.

Mid Game Here, in my opinion, is where Caitlyn will suffer the absolute most. Caitlyns mid game is already pretty bad if she cant get ahead, which compensates for her good early and late game. By mid game Caitlyn only really has . So, the question is, where does Caitlyn get her main damage from? Headshot. Caitlyn has no steroids for her to shoot faster, do more damage, etc OTHER than headshot. Headshot only procs once every 6 stacks, so its highly unreliable for it to be an actual steroid. Compare it with a ult, a w, etc. So Caitlyn has no way to quickly get damage out, as she has only 50% crit, about 140 AD, and barely any attack speed. All Caitlyn can rely on is her Headshot and her Q to give her damage mid game. so this is a DIRECT nerf to her mid game, making it even worse than now.

Late Game This is where im sure Riot had their views set on when they thought about this nerf. Caitlyn does a lot of damage late game, although she does get outscaled by champions like and above. But heres the thing, her Headshot is still unreliable. it only procs every 6 stacks. Now heres where comes in. As youve maaaaybbeeee guessed, it can stack Headshot with its bolts. But the bolts are ALSO unreliable, as they have limited range. so her headshot with is a really hit or miss thing in fights, it makes her sacrifice some of her positioning if she wants to increase her dps. Im not completely sure about this, as I cannot say it without any bias clouding my views, how overwhelming her late game is. Although I do admit it may need a bit of toning down.

Waveclear Surprised? Well it makes sense. She wont be able to clear waves as well anymore with this nerf, as she cant just delete a minion every few autos anymore. This is honestly pretty self explanatory about how this affects her as a whole, so ill leave it here.

Duels This will make Caitlyns duels way worse, as Caitlyn cant pick to fight by minions anymore. This will make her dueling a bit worse. Indirect nerf.

Sieging This will make Caitlyns sieging worse, as she cant punish people as often if they decide to proc her traps. This is situational ofc. What ties into this is her tower diving, This will make her diving go slower as she cant deal as much dps. Indirect nerf.

Game Health Many people hate Caitlyn, understandably. Caitlyn is a MAJOR lane bully, depends on snowball, and controls the lane hard. But heres a discussion question, how toxic is this really, and why? Traps are the most controversial of Caitlyns kit. They are what makes Caitlyn a sieging goddess. Caitlyn is able to completely block off the whole lane with traps. Forcing you to step on one and take the damage, or stay behind them. This nerf would definetly highlight Caitlyns weaknesses, but at what cost? Im unsure how this would affect the overall health of the game, but I can theorize it would make people less frustrated fighting her in teamfights. But in exchange shed be left in a weak state. In my opinion i dont think this is the right way to go with Caitlyn. Discussion question: What would be the right way to go with Caitlyn nerfs, why, and how would they affect Caitlyn as a whole as well as the game?

Winrate Most sites give Caitlyn around a 51% winrate. So this asks, is winrate a good stat to look at to determine if a champion is balanced? Caitlyn has a great skill ceiling, you can learn about her and still keep finding things out about her. her combos, secret things she can do, laying out traps while in a teamfight, getting over her mid game slump so you dont feed, etc. But on the other side her early and late game are extremely easy to pick up on. So there are many factors that go into her winrate. So is her winrate an actual representation of her balance?

Conclusion Many people are frustrated to play against Caitlyn, and Riot plans a nerf for her to lower her single target damage in teamfights. But is this the right way to go, or is there another way to do this? Thanks for taking the time to read this, I hope i can see some awesome discussions! [slayer-jinx-wink]