Reworking Caitlyn: "Runeterra's Greatest Detective"

Yes, I'm aware she recently got some touch-ups but I still feel it's worth bringing up.

With Jhin's release, one of the major complaints about Jhin was that he took Caitlyn's spot. That he was a better sniper than Caitlyn and that he completely took her identity. I've played a lot of Caitlyn (Level five mastery) and she's ranked up there on my top three champions. I've done character work on her and really thought about what makes her tick. With this in mind, I've come to a pretty heavy conclusion:

#Caitlyn has never TRULY been a sniper character.

• Caitlyn's lore only makes passing mention at her sniper characteristics. She's a good shot but not some sort of sniping goddess.
• Caitlyn's kit has only been a sniper by virtue of base range and ult. Ironically, several champions (Kog, Twitch, Trist, Jinx) will eventually outrange her.
• Most of Caitlyn's tools don't speak as a sniper.
• Caitlyn's background and lore all talk more about her work as sheriff and being an officer of the law.

Could you argue that Caitlyn should be a sniper? Of course you could. However, I don't think that it's core to her character. It's not the thing that I initially think of when I think of Caitlyn. What I'm going to propose might seem radical and odd but hear me out: I think Caitlyn should embody the spirit and character of the great detective lawwoman.

#What does that mean?

Caitlyn should embody her lore and role as a sheriff who's greatest strength is her mind. Draven's strength is his death-defying talent with machete-axes. Ezreal has raw magical power from the glove. Lucian has skill honed from years of fighting undead. Vayne is batwoman. Jhin is a dexterous sniper. You see my train of thought, I hope. Caitlyn, as a character and kit, should show herself to be the "smartest" of the ADCs. She's the prodigal sheriff who has a plan for every situation and is incredibly hard to sneak up on and catch her off guard.

Her kit would need changes, sure, but I'll get into that later. Most of what I want to do is differentiate her from the crop of long-range marksmen by making her the safe, smart bet. Caitlyn shouldn't be signified strictly by her range. She should be about having the tools and talent to track down any criminal who earns her ire and/or breaks the law.

#So what would be examples of what you're trying to do?

Bear in mind, I'm terrible at this game and I'm no balance expert. If I was I'd go apply to Riot. With this in mind, here are just some examples of what could be done to embrace "detective" aspects of Caitlyn. Before I begin, her ult will mostly stay the same as it is. It's probably the most iconic thing about Caitlyn and it'd be silly to touch such a strong aspect of her.

>New Passive: Sheriff of Piltover >Characters who attack Caitlyn and/or her allies provoke Caitlyn, earning "Wanted" stacks. These are only removed when Caitlyn is killed. >After a certain amount of stacks, enemies will take additional damage every (x) shot. (X being a scaling count similar to current headshot)

New passive would play into Caitlyn as a woman of the law. Consistent harassment, impeding justice, indecent exposure, etc. It's all about Caitlyn reacting to criminal activities she sees in play. These will interact differently with her skills as we go on. The base passive allows for enemies to make a gamble in fighting Caitlyn. Burst her down or risk building wanted stacks, which can make your life hell if she gets out of control.

>New Q: Tracking Dart >Caitlyn fires a remote dart that provides vision of an enemy. Caitlyn gains bonus range when attacking tracked targets. Higher "Wanted" stacks make the vision last longer (Roughly 1 second minimum, 3 second maximum? Maybe? Like I said I'm no balance expert)

Q would be Caitlyn's harass tool. Piltover peacemaker, early game, is an ok poke tool that eventually falls off when trying to auto-attack. New tool would remove some of her wave clear and allow Caitlyn a few seconds of harassment if played right. It'd also keep the reworked aspect of traps/net, which I found to be very strong.

>New W: Maglock Handcuffs >Passive: Enemies near Caitlyn leave behind "trails" as they move. These trails are longer depending upon Wanted stacks. >Active: Caitlyn cuffs a nearby target with a maglock handcuff, having 5 seconds to handcuff another nearby target. The two handcuffed targets are bound together and slow each other when moving in opposite directions. Targets cannot break the tether.

For the passive, Batman's detective vision was the inspiration. A trained investigator can easily see footprints, trails and other small clues others would miss. As a sheriff, Caitlyn can easily see where someone with low health was going...and also track them down or prepare for an ambush. You're not fooling anyone, Rengar. The footprints stop at the bush!

As for the active, look she didn't forget the fuzzy cuffs! Maglock handcuffs allow Caitlyn to do some neat tricks. Perhaps she locks someone to herself and negates them from fleeing. Maybe she handcuffs Braum to herself so he can't be knocked away by a rowdy Alistar. Maybe she locks up two characters so that they have to stand and fight or run away together. Hell, maybe she'll tie Lee Sin to Baron so that they have to make nice for a bit?

>New E: 90-caliber Net >Caitlyn replaces her current shot with a net capsule. Her next auto-attack fires a massive net. The closest enemies (0-200) are stunned based on Wanted stacks. Medium range enemies (201-400) are snared based on wanted stacks. Long range enemies (400+) are slowed based on wanted stacks.

A "get off me" spell with a little more thought required than "I hit E and jump over a wall, woo!", E would allow for Caitlyn to have tools to deal with enemies who dive her while also giving her some chase potential. Range is relative to how close they are to Caitlyn, mind you. You could also place the range-increase from current E if it ends up being bland.

>R: A.C.E. in the Hole >Largely unchanged. The only addition is that wanted stacks increase the damage done by this skill. > "Automatic Criminal Eradication bullet. You're NOT getting away this time, love."

Same as before, only with an added component to give this skill a bit more weight if you have high stacks. Some other possible ideas to toy with:

• Increased range based on wanted stacks?
• Increased range based on amount of wanted stacks "collected"?
• Increase auto-range by 100/200/300 per level?

#Conclusion

These are just ideas I'm throwing out and a possible method of exploring an aspect of Caitlyn many people discredit or ignore. Caitlyn is the Sheriff of Piltover and has dedicated her life to ridding the streets of crime. (She actually did a pretty good job before C and Jinx) It makes little sense that Caitlyn, a character who is so roughly tied to her sniper trope that it chokes the life out of her when someone like Jhin comes along, would be pigeonholed into being a sniper for the rest of her existence.

Feel free to debate. Ignore the kit if you want, I just wanted to propose that Caitlyn might work better as a character and champion if we embrace the detective/sheriff aspect of her rather than the sniper aspect so many people attribute to her.