Kog'Maw's Passive; add a little bite?
People have been talking about Kog'Maw lately off and on since his minor rework along with the marksman update has resulted in him feeling undertuned. Among other things, kog's innate gets mentioned now and again as a point people desire to have reworked into something more complimentary of his combat as it doesn't feel very satisfying or powerful.
I'm not here to talk about anything like that.
Personally, I'm not interested in greatly changing Kog'Maw's passive and I don't think that's the first place that should be looked at to add significant power to his kit. I'd rather Riot refine his other skills if need be.
Let's think about the benefits of Kog's passive first. What an after-death passive like this does on a champion is basically add another layer of threat onto the prospect of jumping in and murdering them. This is actually a fairly valuable feeling to go along with his immobile artillery piece kit, I'd say. I think it's good to have some innate risk of engaging in a close duel with a champion who doesn't have the tools to disengage so easily if things turn south. When it does actually secure a kill in exchange or have an impact on the tail end of a teamfight, Kog's passive can hit a really high note of satisfaction. The frantic scramble created by Kog's passive after his death adds some distinctive character to the champion without really affecting his power all that much, and I think that's more of a win than a loss.
However, that's been an increasingly rare occurrence as League has continued. Kog's passive kind of continued to dwindle in impact as mobility creep became a bigger thing over the years and a number of other effects have been added to the game which can help others avoid the passive.
In light of the Icathian Surprise losing some of its pizzazz as the game has changed, you know what would be a fun and I think relatively small buff to the ability? What if we let Kog'Maw put his giant gape-hole to use and let him latch on to a champion after his death if he managed to click on them within melee range? Maybe slightly delay his passive movement if need be to allow split-second planned escapes and flash expenditures to work, but pressuring enemies to more quickly make the decision to escape it instead of languidly organizing the perfect juke away from the explosion and any teammates pissed off that you kicked their voidpuppy.
Maybe the sight of a Caitlyn sailing away on a Thresh lantern with a sliver of life and a Kog'Maw firmly attached to her frilly behind can only exist in a dream, but it is a good dream...Or somebody's niche fetish fan art , probably.
Anyway, thoughts and implications related to such a change?
