Thoughts and Discussion: Caitlyn
I do not make these posts off of direct current events, do not do these based off of solo queue games (reaction posts are dumb 99% of the time), I do these because I recognize some kind of issue with the champion; whether it is for the player or the one playing against the champion.
As far as Caitlyn goes, she wants the opponent to take their hands off their keyboard+mouse and just let her take the tower because nothing you can do about it AND she outscales you as a lane bully hyper marksman (that should sound broken because it is). Yes, Caitlyn has a mid game lull, but I feel balancing through mid game is a terrible way to balance since it is a transition period. I feel it is much easier to balance a champion through strong late game or strong early game, with the mid game champions still leaning towards late game or early game, but no where near with the extremes of lane bully or hyper scaler (Kog'Maw, Twitch, Jinx, Anivia, Karthus, Azir, etc. should be weak early because of their scaling - Draven, Renekton, Lucian, etc. should fall off in an ideal world since their early game are so strong).
We need to decide if Caitlyn should be a lane bully or a hyper marksman.
For the sake of my concept kit I will assume people want her to be a lane bully.
General rundown of what I be looking at for Caitlyn: ~ New Passive: ~ ~ ~ Attacking as fast as possible doesn't make sense for a sniper that wants to focus her shot for one super deadly shot. It makes more sense to give her something that has her laying in wait for one super deadly shot with huge range. This will help fix her overlap of lane bully hyper marksman by giving her a short range to reduce her scaling and really focus on her lane bully sniper ways and thematic (make sense in a bit).
~ Q is a pretty good ability, feels good to use and fair to play against. Also has the cool aspect of forcing Caitlyn to walk around the minion wave for maximum super physical nuke damage. Offers good wave clear, but not overpowering since its focus is in the first enemy hit single target damage (snipers should have focused damage from a distance).
~ W traps. As they stand currently they need a massive overhaul of changes. But having them trigger range and damage could work a lot more fairly if Caitlyn's base attack range is down, but what we have learned from her last rework is that 5 is far too many traps since a wall of traps removes their strategic placing element and instead just completely starves the enemy out of oxygen with nothing they can do about it. Rather have them about controlling the enemies' pathing and think twice before stepping in a brush for if they step in that trap they take a hurting of some serious pain. ~ ~ ~ Short end. Traps need to move back into being strategic areas of control and away from a wall of traps. ~ ~ ~ If Caitlyn keeps her traps the charge system will definitely stay, she should be able to pick up her tent and camp elsewhere easily enough.
~ On a personal level I hate dashes, but especially blinks since dashes can have a form of balance, but if you are going to give mobility spells like a dash, instant teleport, jump, etc. then it has to be draw a huge portion of power from the champion since they are much, much stronger than anyone gives them credit for (there are very few champions in the game that take in mobility has a huge portion of their power as they should). ~ ~ As far as E goes. The power of the dash and slow is more problematic giving a passive massive attack range with it just out of the gate which that range leads to some ridiculous scaling. I do feel that there is something we can do better for a retreat / escape ability for Caitlyn that does not involve giving her a mobility spell, but at the same time with the right changes elsewhere in the kit Caitlyn becomes a lot more manageable to deal with which means the dash+slow ability can just stay as is since her balance issues have been fixed for the most part.
~ Ultimate is very Caitlyn. It also has pretty decent gameplay to it with its channel time before firing and ability for other champions to block the shot as well, also it has a meaningful enough cooldown to it so it cannot be mindlessly spammed. ~ ~ ~ Only change I would do to it, potentially, would be move the damage more into execution range so it is not about getting free poke on any champion and more about killing a low health target that moved to far away to attack. This aspect would also place even more emphasis on teammates blocking the shot to save their ally rather than everyone taking a huge nuke of damage. Execution damage does add slightly more skill to a super long range point-and-click nuke as well since it becomes use for a reason rather than just use for free damage.
tl;dr : small scale changes with a brand new passive to feel more sniper themed and re-balance Caitlyn's kit to be about lane bully and not double dip into late game scaling as well
CONCEPT KIT BELOW! THIS MEANS TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A SUPER SMALL GRAIN OF SAND OR LESS!!!
Basic Attack Range: 450 units from 650 units (do not crucify me!) Attack Speed: 0.690 +2.5% from 0.543 +2% (no longer uber range so no need for super low base attack speed, giving a high attack speed at a very low range and her NEW! super range will have a very low DPS in a different light)
Headshot (Passive): Ranks: @levels 1/3/6/9/11/16 If Caitlyn stands still without taking champion damage for 2.5/2/1.5/1.25/1/0.75 second(s) then her next basic attack's current attack range doubles and deals 120% damage (250% vs minions and monsters), split between 50% physical and 50% true. Moving cancels a readied Headshot that has yet to be fired.
Headshot attacks can only damage structures if allied minions are nearby it.
Additionally, Caitlyn's basic abilities will also ready Headshot against their target.
Piltover Peacemaker (Q): Cooldown: 6 seconds; Cost: 50/60/70/80/90 mana; Range: 1250 units After a 1 second delay, Caitlyn fires a projectile in the target direction dealing 10/60/110/160/210(+80/105/130/155/180%AD) physical damage to the first enemy struck and readying Headshot against it for the next 1.5 seconds.
After hitting one enemy the projectile's width and damage are both reduced by 50% for every enemy beyond the first.
Yordle Snap Trap (W): Cooldown: 0.5 second; Cost: 20 mana + 1 Trap; Range: 900 units Passive: Caitlyn stores a trap every 40/33/26/19/12 seconds, up to a maximum of 2/3/4/5/6 at a time. Only 3 Yordle Snap Traps can be in play at a time.
Active: Caitlyn places a Yordle Snap Trap at the target location that arms after a brief delay, if an enemy champion walks over it then they are rooted for 1.5 seconds readying Headshot against it for 1.5 seconds. The same target can only trigger a Yordle Snap Trap once every 3 seconds.
90 Caliber Net (E): Cooldown: 16/14.5/13/11.5/10 seconds; Cost: 75 mana; Range: 1000 units Caitlyn fires a 90 Caliber Net in the target direction slowing down the first enemy struck by 99% for 0.75/1/1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds, dealing 60/80/100/120/140(+100%AP) magic damage, and readying Headshot against it for 1.5 seconds.
If the struck enemy was within Caitlyn's attack range then she knocks herself away to her current maximum attack range.
Ace in the Hole (R): Cooldown: 90/75/60 seconds; Cost: 100 mana; Range: 2000/2500/3000 units Caitlyn targets an enemy champion and channels for 1.5 seconds, then she releases a powerful shot that can be intercepted by other enemy champions, dealing between 100/200/300(+100%bonusAD) to 300/600/900(+300%bonusAD) physical damage based on the struck champion's missing health.
CLARIFICATION:
So basically this Headshot triggers in two ways, standing still for a required amount of time without taking champion damage (so a natural advantage for sitting in brush - cannot be seen, so cannot be hit essentially) and must remain standing still or you lose the empowered attack. The static cooldown is simply waiting out the required standing still time again, cannot keep firing super overpowered attacks for free, you can be attacking and gain Headshot's attack as long as you do not take champion damage (i.e. stand still, hit minions, get those minion last hits, and whenever the passive is off its cooldown harass your opponent).
The other way is landing your skill shots allowing for a one time Headshot attack within a short time window, this attack can only be used against the target you hit with the ability, but does not go away when Caitlyn moves unlike the standing still requirement for the passive - also does not share the same static cooldown (just technically that ability's cooldown).
Q+E changes: 90 Caliber Net (E) is emphasis on trigger Headshot and MASSIVELY slowing down the target for a short duration, with less emphasis on direct burst, and sometimes dashing if a target is too close you can hit the eject button to get out of there - also allows for a cool aspect of granting Caitlyn a super dash if she uses E+Headshot together since the range of the dash is based on current maximum attack range (a drawback is this does make it a lot more skill reliant since missing her E is a lot more punishing) - this change also helps make sense with the new found short attack range to not screw over Caitlyn with E's new CC emphasis and dashing only to her maximum attack range from the struck target rather than a static dash all the time.
Piltover Peacemaker (Q) is practically the same thing, with an adjustment to more single target damage and less area of effect damage to focus on its cool and unique element better - also damage reduced by a lot early for a lot more Qs early, equally out as it was before ~ish by rank 5. The biggest change is readying Headshot against the first target so now all 3 basic abilities ready the passive for the range and damage boost placing Caitlyn as a skill based sniper marksman bully rather than a brain dead champion to play. ~ Makes her more rewarding which in turn more fun to play in my opinion (fun aspect is subjective, but the rewarding aspect holds true for playing her well and feel terrible how she is now for not playing her well [its like feeling really good when you land your Dark Bindings on Morgana and really bad when you miss them all]) ~ Giving her real weaknesses and strengths should have her less frustrating to play against, i.e. be aggressive when she tries to charge up an attack and/or avoid her skill shots gives a fairness when against her. Other side of the spectrum rather than get free long range autos you jump be more rapid firing short range autos all the way to super powerful autos that deal the heavy hitting damage and literally sniping people off and really getting into the champion you are playing by yelling out loud BOOM! HEADSHOT! for either proper positioning to basic attack or landing your skill shots to kill your target - and if they are too far away and alone finish them off with Ace in the Hole (still need vision of the target obviously). ~ ~ ~ And of course Ace in the Hole is the exact same ability, just a lot less damage for full health targets to reduce free poke damage ability, and more damage for execution range to ensure execution. Makes it cooler having it as a sniper finishing off her target from a very safe distance rather than 50-80% of a squishy's health in the late game all the time.
Well that is about all I have to say on the subject matter for now. Just wanted to showcase something that can move Caitlyn into a fairness to play against while keep her lane bully sniper aspect, fix the underlying issues then we can easily tune her power numerically between every patch without worry of ruining someone's gameplay experience.
I tried to keep things fair for both sides of the coin, ensure something that is fun for the Caitlyn player with the question "If I played this kit would I enjoy my time?" and honestly I would, and the other side of "Am I going to insanely frustrated and feel helpless to do anything when playing against this champion?" ideally this should feel like she does her job of bully me in lane, but not in a bull shit matter (I say ideally because that is the goal we are striving for, but hard to say for sure without actual gameplay, she cannot be worse than what she is now to play against).
