Kog'maw Changes May Be in Wrong Direction for His Power Curve

ofart··5 votes·350 views

Making his W a more effective skill really helps ADC Kog'Maw as well as the occasional JG Kog but it seems like it doesn't suit the champion so much. Kog's supposed to be a late game carry but this change gives him early power even at level 9. Previously, if you maxed Q to get that same AS, you'd at least be more vulnerable because your W range would be really short. Moreover, by having AS on Q and delaying his AA scaling, it could have allowed more power in traditional AP Kog builds which are really struggling. Now, even as AP Kog I feel that I have to get a Nashor's Tooth fairly early to take advantage of this even though I really want to make a poke style work again.

In conclusion, I actually didn't feel Kog's late game was all that impressive before the changes but now that he scales up so much faster, he may get to it too quickly. It's possible that his late game seemed lackluster before just because he was always so behind when he reached it. I think it may be good to change the AS back to Q to delay scaling and perhaps bump some ratios. Alternatively, the AS can be lowered a bit on W but it can have a 1% AP and AD ratio to make him more item dependent (although I feel this forces him to go Rageblade mid too so idk if I like narrowing his builds this way.). Finally, Kog with the same kit as 6.2 but 3% base on W would be quite fine too and also delay scaling since the % HP isn't that strong early on. Doing this also wouldn't bias him to a particular item as much (Rageblade).

BTW: I posted this on the PBE but hope it will get a little bit more visibility here.

5 Comments

ofart1 votes

Another idea that occurred to be but I discarded in the original post is to nerf Kog's base AS but increase the per level growth. I don't like this because it will throw off a lot of Kog players in every lane and also because it will hurt his scaling with items (which to me is what a hypercarry is all about). It will also inevitably be balanced around his ADC role and that will leave mid Kog non-AS builds even weaker.

A similar but better solution if necessary could change the scaling for AS to be weaker early. Instead of:

BONUS ATTACK SPEED: 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 / 35%

It can be:

BONUS ATTACK SPEED: 5 / 10 / 15/ 25 / 35%

MunchCrunchLunch1 votes

the starting values are too low

ofart1 votes

I should note that I've had very little experience with Kog after 6.3 and these are just preliminary thoughts. Perhaps with the rise of assassins and buffs to other ADCs in the coming patches too, he is actually not scaling too fast. Although, I expect a Kog pick to be very punishing for teams which lack engage and assassins.

Previously, I also expected him to be stronger in competitive than in solodynamic que because pro teams can peel better and are more likely to build a comp. around him (Lulu mid, Braum support, Nautilus top etc.). However, I also think pro teams tend to be way more decisive if they get an advantage and they know how to split push better instead of just teamfighting constantly so Kog may be a riskier pick there in a sense.

Rebonack1 votes

I still hold that if Riot ever wants Kog to fill the 'long range single target high sustained damage Marksmen' niche then he needs some was to keep his W rolling if he plays well. Because when Kog's W is down (and it's down more than its up) Kog is not a long range high sustained damage Marksmen. He's a short ranged, awful damage Marksmen.

ofart1 votes

{quoted}

I still hold that if Riot ever wants Kog to fill the 'long range single target high sustained damage Marksmen' niche then he needs some was to keep his W rolling if he plays well. Because when Kog's W is down (and it's down more than its up) Kog is not a long range high sustained damage Marksmen. He's a short ranged, awful damage Marksmen.

I agree with you but now he reaches late game so fast that it doesn't matter. I think it was smart to have AS on Q because it gave him a choice between more safety with maxing W or more damage but lower range by maxing Q. Now he basically gets his core level 18 abilities at level 13. This actually lets him snowball pretty well with even a tiny lead. I'd much rather have something like you're suggesting but a weaker early and mid game.

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