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Kog'maw is on the next free rotation - what a surprise

ValyrianBlade··2 votes·697 views

Is it just me, or does it seem whatever champion is widely considered to be the most OP suddenly appears on the free rotation the next week? Meanwhile nerfs are already on the PBE.

Honestly, before I found websites to update me on PBE content, I'd have the following happen:

  1. I'd play a champion on free week that I had played against in game and found to be pretty strong (I mostly wanted to play it to see their weakness or if they were just good)
  2. In some cases it was a balanced champion and I'd learn the weaknesses. In some cases it was someone who was OP and already had nerfs on the PBE, and I understandably felt really good playing this OP champion
  3. Since I felt really good playing the champion, I bought the champion
  4. The champion I literally just bought gets nerfs

Now, I know that sites like SurrenderAt20 exist, and I don't fall for this anymore. I wonder though, is this fair to new players at all?

How many new players are going to buy Kog'maw after trying him out this week because they think they click with him due to getting some cheap wins, when in actuality he's just really OP right now and will get nerfed and they won't be good on him once he gets nerfed?

Riot, why are you putting imbalanced champions on free week? Why isn't free week literally just rotating champions that are in a steady state and are learner champions, i.e. following the values you advertised in your free rotation blogs?

Because from what I've seen, it's the OP champions that hit free week. Notice what we've had recently? Lux, Fiora, Xin Zhao, Udyr, Graves, Poppy, etc...

11 Comments

Jorencice1 votes

Wait... kog is considered op right now?

...how? Every single must pick/ban champion ahhnilates him...

kingdennehy1 votes

{quoted}

Wait... kog is considered op right now?

...how? Every single must pick/ban champion ahhnilates him...

Kog'maw is stupidly strong at the moment, the only champs ive found work against him are amumu and rammus, every other champ gets melted in 4 seconds max

Jorencice1 votes

Kill him faster than that ^-^

ValyrianBlade1 votes

Well, since you appear to have missed it:

Kog'maw's buff shifted his attack speed boost from his Q to his W, resulting in his Q basically doing nothing.

Which means that he now hits his level 13 power spike (two maxed skills) at level 9. He hits his level 18 power spike (all 3 skills maxed) at level 12 (as all of his power is in just 2 abilities).

I'm sure you already knew Kog'maw was a hypercarry. Even in his weakest states, he's still been a viable pick at world's in "protect-the-kog'maw" comps. The problem now is that in addition to being the hardest scaling ADC in the game he's also a lane bully and a midgame threat.

In plat+ ranked he's the highest win rate ADC by over 3% (56.03%, second is Ashe at 52.88%), despite the lowest playerbase average games played at 11 and a solid play rate of nearly 10% (i.e. most people are picking him up strictly because he's OP, they're not kog mains).

The worst part is his win rate by game length. He was always a hyper-carry. He should shine in longer games.

He now has a decreasing win rate with game length (as enemies who reach full build can start to one shot him as you've pointed out, which is the only way to beat him now). His win rate for games under 25min is 58.5%.

He wins every ADC matchup. The only ones that come close are against Twitch and Ashe (Kog'maw wins 52% and 52.5% respectively), the remainder he wins over 54%.

http://champion.gg/champion/KogMaw/ADC

Jorencice1 votes

Nah I knew all about that. But this is GD..the people that say it's leauge of mobility.

I just can't belive they actually are admitting a champion without mobility is good.

ValyrianBlade1 votes

Naw, right now GD says it's League of Assassins.

And Kog'maw is basically another assassin right now with how fast he can 100-0 people.

MoonToonEx1 votes

Diana is my best and favorite Champ (I'm still a non level 30 noob at this game so my exp with champs is VERY small).

But given her unique traits I fear that they may try to change her ... but I feel like I want a bit of a change? I love playing her, it's just that without the right team comp I feel like I can't team fight at all (I'm in the potato rank where everyone groups mid for blunt force team fights for no reason as soon as they can). Can't split push with her cause she has no escape even though she's great at ripping down towers, dueling and is pretty good at wave clear (I split push, they send 2 people ... I can't take both but I can't run away so #dead). If I don't build for team fighting then I can't be much of a factor in them unless I have someone who can suck up the CC cause even though I may be able to dive in and kill someone I can't GTFO like actual assassins.

I fear that if they touched her she would either be nerfed to hell or turned into more of an assassin by taking away her more tanky feel. If they do change her I hope they either make her MORE of an AP fighter with some kinda escape (if they made her into an assassin I'm sure they would give her an escape but I don't want her to become that. I see her as a fighter as is)

ValyrianBlade1 votes

Well first, you don't want her changed. Trust me - when your main gets changed, it hurts. Either they become stronger and instantly are considered OP and will get banned frequently until they are nerfed. Or they become weaker, and obviously you don't want that either.

Anyways, Diana is actually one of the champions I struggle against most. She has a pretty strong laning phase and that doesn't seem to be your problem. Late game, you want to have enough damage to one shot the enemy ADC with your combo as soon as you hit moonlight on them (practice that combo, and be willing to use your ultimate a second time if they use any dash/flash to get away), but also enough survivability to make the enemy team waste a load of damage trying to kill you so your team can win the fight.

An ideal Diana build should include: Abyssal sceptre: trifecta of AP, flat magic resist reduction (destroys squishies), and magic resist for your own tankiness Zhonya's hourglass: finish off your defenses with armor, and a 2.5 second active that lets you survive even longer when being focused (typically best to proc Zhonya's immediately after you're certain you've killed the enemy ADC, assuming of course his allies are turning on you to attempt to help him). Sorc Shoes for flat magic pen to go through whatever MR the adc has left Deathcap to overload your AP

These 4 items should be enough to give you everything you need: damage to 100-0 an ADC instantly and MR/Armor/invulnerability active to either survive the fight or soak up enough damage/abilities that your team is guaranteed to win it.

Jalkan1 votes

There's also Aatrox, Rumble for some underpowered champs and a few more relatively balanced champs. 10 champs per free week, also Kog hasn't been on free week for a while and isn't Yorick. Nothing to do with state of balance.

ValyrianBlade1 votes

I suppose in the current state that makes sense - so many champions are out of balance that it's almost a given that one or two will show up in the free rotation each week...

However, and perhaps I'm selectively remembering things, champions frequently went on rotation when OP in the past (and when there were only 2 or 3 OP champions at a time).

I decided to check and it looks like I'm wrong. The biggest evidence would have been preseason 5 Warwick. At first I thought I was right as he was on free week Jan 13 2015. However he was nerfed in patch 4.21 already (which would have been December 2014, right?).

La Barbotte1 votes

cant remember the last time i didnt have all champions lol

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