@Xypherous RE: Katarina

Hello again. Back in October Xyph said this in response to my griping about preseason changes negatively impacting Katarina:

If she's actually weak - I expect she would actually get changes to her kit. However, compensating champions for the changes of a single system when multiple systems have been altered seems highly suspect at best.

Between the end of last season (5.21) and now (6.1) here is how Kat's stats have changed: Average Win Rate: 50.41 > 46.9 1-5: 51.76 > 41.7 5-15: 49.41 > 44.34 15-50: 50.29 > 47.78 50-125: 50.41 > 47.65 125+: 52.76 > 50.41

Average Games: 138 > 152 Gold Earned: 12,122 > 12,469 Damage: 23,736 > 22,707

Win rate by game length is the biggest change. In 5.21, Kat’s win rate peaked pre-25 minutes at almost 56% and then broke 50% again at 30-35 and 40+, which follows the threat pattern she is known for. This patch she only breaks 50% once with a 50.7% rate pre-25 minutes and then stays between 45% and 48% for the remainder of the game.

What we are seeing here, on average, is more experienced players earning slightly more gold and getting roughly the same kills and assists, but doing less damage, dying more, and winning far less often.

Now, I realize that comparisons can be a quagmire, so these figures are only to provide context for Kat’s low averages and conditional win rates. While other champs have similar averages, most also reach a much higher peak for conditional win rates. Strictly for the sake of context, here are the best-case stats for a few others with similar averages:

LeBlanc: 56% at 125+ Akali: 58.4% at 50-125 Veigar: 55.7% at 125+

While underperforming on average, you can carry a majority of games with those three given enough skill and practice. Now compare to the stronger assassins:

Talon: 60.17% at 50-125 Zed: 55.77% at 125+, only drops below 50% at 40+ minute duration Fizz: 55.5% at 125+ Elise: 59.42% pre-25 minute duration, 53-56% at 5-125+ Master Yi: 54-60% at 15-125+

Unlike other assassins, Kat has no threshold for success right now. We have the holistic picture you referenced previously in the discussion about starting items/costs, and it’s not pretty. The comparison stats above are to demonstrate that assassins as a class are not inherently weak in this meta. To the contrary, every primary assassin in the game can perform or is performing extremely well with the lone exception of Katarina (and Ekko, but at least he is getting net positive results in jungle).

Based on the PBE, Kat’s situation is getting worse instead of better. Thunderlord’s power shift is a net nerf for Kat’s window of influence. AP items are getting a slight cost decrease, but only for mana items (despite the primary beneficiaries already creeping towards 55% win rates). In short, Kat’s weak early game is getting weaker, her power spike may see a slight nerf, and enemy mages will be hitting power spikes slightly earlier.

It’s worth mentioning that right now Katarina is almost exactly where Yasuo was before the buff to Warlord’s Bloodlust, even though his playerbase average games is less than 75% of Kat’s. Yasuo is relevant because his relative win rate curves are the most similar to Katarina’s. Yet Kat is on the losing end of the current PBE instead of showing any signs of reversing the consistent downward trend that began in 5.22.

Preseason hit Kat harder than most other champs with the loss of several important masteries, huge cost increases to every item in her build, the relative power increases to cc mages and bot lanes, decreased MR cost, increased pen and MS costs, nerf to grievous wounds on ulti, and nerfs to warding/hopping.

In conclusion, has enough time passed and has the game stabilized to the point where we can safely say that Kat is in a place that’s bad enough to warrant individual buffs? Not only is she performing quite poorly in 6.1, she is performing poorly in a meta that is friendly to assassins. Not only has her win-rate plummeted, it has plummeted relative to 5.21 at the peak of the anti-assassin Juggernaut meta.

Sorry for the long post, and I hope we can get a response. Thanks!

TL;DR: Buff Kat.

P.S. If buffs happen, I would suggest any (not all...but I wouldn't complain) of the following: 1-2 sec CD reduction on Q, +10 increase to base on W, slight duration or reduction increase on E, +.05 AP ratio to W and E, or .5 sec reduced channel time on R.