Fixing Marksman/ADC Kog'Maw and the Currently Terrible On-Hit Situation
While AP Kog'Maw is experiencing a resurrection at the moment, Marksman Kog'Maw is sitting at a 43% winrate which is sinking as I'm typing this post. So, how come?
There have been a lot of theories and suggestions on what could be done with Kog'Maw and why he is so bad now - that his laning phase is weak, that his W shouldn't cost any mana, that his ult should be a poke tool instead of an execute etc. I personally think that there is a root cause to not only his problems but the problems of a whole branch of champions:
The current situation of On-Hit itemization, runes and masteries.
Kog'Maw isn't weak because his kit is weak, he is weak because he can't itemize for it properly. Kog'Maw wants to build as much on-hit and attack speed as possible - he can't go for proper a crit build. If you look at Jinx, Vayne, Twitch etc. you can clearly see how their crit builds synergize with their attack speed and AD steroids on their abilities while you can't find any of those interactions in Kog'Maws kit.
For example: Vayne's Q scales with her total AD and can crit, she has an AD steroid on her ult, all of these factors are able to synergize with crit, lifesteal, AD, armor pen and attack speed.
Now back to Kog. The only AD ratio he has is a rather mediocre ratio on his ultimate. Since only 50% of his damage is magical, he also scales really bad with armor penetration. Crit is also really meh on-him - his main damage source is his W on-hit and his spells, not his autos themselves - so crit really does not enhance his damage by a lot. Lifesteal is also really bad because you can't lifesteal off his abilities and W on-hit. I think you are starting to see a pattern here.
This means that Kog builds Tri-Force into BotRK to focus on his on-hit itemization - but then something interesting happens. He actually has to build crit and armor penetration because these are literally the best options he has because there aren't enough on-hit items to fill the slots or they are just not made for a marksmen, or they are just terrible cough Guinsoo's cough.
And he's not the only one. Other full on-hit carries have moved on to other builds after the removal of the insanity that was Sated Devourer and old Guinsoo's because there are literally not enough options for them, just take Yi for example, who now has to focus on more AD-heavy builds instead.
Not only that, the last real on-hit mastery, Fervor of Battle, is also getting changed to give you AD instead of on-hit damage which will inevitably pull Kog'Maws winrate even lower, alongside champions like Kayle and maybe Shyvana who don't have much good AD ratios.
Riot has a scary history with on-hit, just look at Sated Devourer, old Guinsoo's, Feral Flare and the W of the now old Kog'Maw. The existence of all of these factors made it virtually impossible to balance on-hit itemization because the champions who would abuse all these things would become overpowered if any other on-hit items would become even remotely strong.
Yet I think that there should be another attempt to make on-hit carry builds a thing. It would give tons of balance anchors to balance problematic champions like Kog, Kayle and Shyvana in the future and it would also create a ton of alternative builds for other champions.
Either that, or Kog'Maw has to be turned into something that is just not the typical on-hit carry anymore because wth the curret situation of on-hit this is just impossible.
Below you can see some ideas on how to make full on-hit builds an actual thing without making it horrendously broken. I know, some of these seem scary and the numbers are still a bit shaky but I would just ask of you to look at my points one by one and think about them before you say that they're unrealistic or broken.
NEW MASTERY: Swift Strikes: To make this mastery able to exist, Battering Blows and Piercing thoughts which both give 7% penetration respectively, one armor penetration and one magic penetration, would have to be united into one single mastery which gives you both. The choice between the two was never really tactical or meaningful at all, you literally just need to look at a champion's damage chart on champion.gg to decide which of them you will take. On top of that, Precision, the mastery in the Cunning Tree which gives you both magic and armor penetration, is in a decent and balanced spot right now too, so why wouldn't the same work for Battering Blows and Piercing Thoughts?
This way, a mastery slot could be freed for a new mastery to take its place - this mastery would be Swift Strikes and it would grant you the following:
Grants 0.07/0.14/0.21/0.28/0.35 bonus attack speed aswell as increasing the cap on attack speed by the same amount.
This way not only on-hit champions but every other attack speed building champion will be able to consider this mastery over the option to go for percentage penetration and it will be more of an actual choice.
NEW RUNES: Damage On-Hit: Recurve Bow already grants it to you as a stat but it could also be made into a rune. Their primary runes would be marks and quints and there would be two versions of them, one would give you magic damage on-hit, the other physical. I'm not going to do the math to find proper values for them but you get the idea.
This would basically give on-hit champions another little thing to think about when they are deciding on what kind of runes they want to take.
ITEM REWORK: Splitting BotRK Into Two Items If you look at BotRK's patch history you can see how Riot struggled to give it a proper identity because it has a lot of things in one packet - many of which are actually not even synergizing with the builds they are intended to be in.
It has an active that helps you catch up with people, AD, lifesteal, attack speed and percentage damage on-hit - all these stats alone are decent but as a combination they don't really work.
If you wanted to buy it to fit in an on-hit build, in which you are looking for on-hit and attack speed obviously, Bloodrazor would do it better, since its on-hit is better and it has more attack speed than BotRK, on top of having the smite buff and being cheaper than it. On-Hit champions usually also don't have enough AD ratios to make proper use of the AD it gives and they also don't want the lifesteal, since you can't lifesteal off your on-hits.
If you wanted it to be a lifesteal item it would also be outclassed by the other lifesteal options. No Jinx in her right mind would choose it over a BT that gives her much more stats and double the lifesteal that BotRK does and you can clearly see how every Trundle is using Ravenous Hydra rather than a BotRK because it's just better at its job of lifestealing and giving you more damage.
If you want it for the utility combined with damage, Frozen Mallet is also doing a much better job at that too, just look at Yasuo.
The split options you can see below are aimed at creating two on-hit items with their own niche that's not already taken by another item that does a better job at it.
The new Blade of the Ruined King is intended to be the sustain option of on-hit builds, the equivalent of a Ravenous Hydra or a BT in AD builds while Glaive of the Fallen Crownguard and Lichblade are basically the anti-tank items of on-hit builds, the equivalent to Void Staff in AP and the Last Whisper upgrades in AD builds.
Blade of the Ruined King: Bilgewater Cutlass + Recurve Bow + 900 gold = 3400 gold 25 AD 40% attack speed 40 physical damage on-hit Unique Passive: 15% of all damage dealt by basic attacks and on-hit effects is returned to you as health. Unique Avtive: Deal (100% AD) as physical damage to target champion and trigger on-hit effects, heal for 100% of the damage dealt and steal 25% of the target's movement speed for 3 seconds ( 550 range and 90 second cooldown ).
Lichblade: Dagger + Dagger + 500 gold = 1100 gold 25% attack speed Unique Passive: Damage dealt by basic attacks and on-hit effects ignores 30% of the target's bonus armor and magic resistance.
Glaive of the Fallen Crownguard: Recurve Bow + Lichblade + 600 gold = 2700 gold 50% attack speed Unique Passive: Basic attacks deal 4% of the target's maximum health as bonus magical damage on-hit, capped at 75 against monsters. Unique Passive: Damage dealt by basic attacks and on-hit effects ignores 45% of the target's bonus armor and magic resistance.
ITEM REWORK: Guinsoo's Rageblade: So, with the new items and changes of above on-hit builds now have Wit's End as the anti-magic damage on-hit item, Titanic Hydra as your on-hit/HP item, Bloodrazor and Glaive of the Fallen Crownguard as the anti-tank on-hit item, Blade of the Ruined King for on-hit sustain, Nashor's for AP/On-Hit builds and finally Tri-Force for the ability casting on-hit champions.
The only thing that's left is an item that enhances the rest of the build it's in. A central scaling item that is not very good on its own but becomes extremely powerful once you've bought other items to synergize with it and once you are able to afford enough money to buy it. An item that would be the "Infinity Edge of On-Hit Builds" to quote several Rioters - Guinsoo's Rageblade.
Wait a second.
Guinsoo's Rageblade gives both AP and AD? Why would you want to do that? Sure, some champions in the game scale with AP, AD, attack speed and on-hit all at the same time but what do you expect the others to do? What does Kayle want to do with AD? What does Yi want with AP? Why would they want to dump their gold on this?
That's not even the worst part of it. Not only does it give mediocre attack speed values when fully stacked, it also does not have any base attack speed on it outside of the stacks. So you are basically paying 1000 gold for the attack speed on the recurve bow, a huge amount of gold for AD and AP that the very least of on-hit champions even need and then you let the 3600 gold central scaling attack speed on-hit item, "The Infinity Edge of On-Hit Builds", not even have ANY base attack speed at all?
This item is a practical joke and absolutely sucks at what it is supposed to do. I'm sure you guys from M&G can make something out of the irony that this item is right now.
Alright, rant over. Below you can see my rework idea for what Guinsoo's Rageblade is supposed to be. The fact that you have to stack half of its attack speed up first with the attack speed you already have from other items, that you have to collect several on-hit effects to make the phantom hit worth it and the monstrous amount of gold that it costs ensures that you will only buy it later in the game and that it actually becomes what it is supposed to be.
Guinsoo's Rageblade: Recurve Bow + Recurve Bow + Dagger +1300 gold = 3600 gold 60% attack speed 60 magic damage on-hit Unique Passive: Basic attacks grant 10% attack speed for 5 seconds stacking up to 6 times. At 6 stacks gain Guinsoo's Rage: Every other basic attack will trigger on-hit effects an additional time. Unique Passive: Attack speed granted by this item ignores the cap for attack speed.
Just looking at this you can see how much sense it would make to include these items and how many different options this would open up for most champions. Imagine a Kog'Maw with Berserker's Boots, Trinity Force, Guinsoo's Rageblade, BotRK, Glaive of the Fallen Crownguard and a defensive item to top it off. This would be a way to fix him without having to give him so much inherent power in his kit that he becomes too strong in the early game or that a penetration-oriented AP build becomes overpowered in turn.
And think about all the other champions that could use all this new stuff, for example Shyvana, Teemo, Vayne, Kayle, Teemo and many more.
It may be bit bold but it would definitely be awesome.
