On the idea of too many passives, and Jhin.

Before I say anything, I want to iterate that this is purely an opinion piece. I believe that people are free to their opinions and that I am not making any assumptions or claiming truths.

Wall of text inc.

Note: When I say Passive, I refer to the main passive on a Champion, and when I say passive I refer to other passives in their kit. Now,

Some have understandably complained about Jhin being yet another case of too many passives (namely three, two on his main Passive that serve to augment his AA's in some form, and one on his E, the traps).

This also exists with other, more recent Champions. Tahm Kench is an example, possessing three passives despite a relatively simple kit in terms of actives.

Something I'd like to suggest is that multiple passives create artificial but fulfilling depth both from a gameplay perspective and from a thematic perspective.

What I want to bring to mind second is the idea that on a technical level, all Champions play the same. All Champions R-click to move and autoattack, all Champions possess a slew of abilities mapped onto Q, W, E, and R (with some exceptions). A great number of Champions can be described as "aim your abilities in the general direction of your enemies and succeed" (examples including ) Now I'm not at all insinuating that these Champions are easy or that those who've mastered them are unskilled, I'm just saying that they (from my point of view) can reliably find success from pointing their abilities in one direction and firing off.

The question is, how do we make the aforementioned experience of "Aim, then shoot" - more fulfilling?

So, Jhin, where does he fit into this?

Jhin falls into the above category of "monodirectional point-clicking and succeeding", for me at least. Q minion waves, potentially harass. W to poke, potentially cs. E as a counter-engage or trapping mechanism and R as the lovechild of Xerath and Caitlyn.

Akin to the complaints about too many passives, some have mentioned that Jhin appears to be a Frankenstein's Monster of a Champion. With Graves' Passive, Katarina's Bouncing Blades and a damage gimmick for his Q, an alternate Lucian Q for his W, Teemo-esque traps and the above-mentioned Xer/Cait ult.

When you have so many Champions, it's understandable that some of their abilities overlap. So how can one circumvent the feeling of same-y-ness?

Having multiple passives is one way to go about this, and this is especially the case for ADC's as a class. They're almost all based around shooting people down with AA's, which all function almost exactly the same. Click to shoot. Build AD for more damage. Build AS for more shots. Build Crit because it's almost impossible not to it has the chance of further bolstering your damage.

This was the core of rework, to realize the fantasy of a shotgun-toting outlaw, they made his auto's entirely unique. In addition to compensate for being short-ranged, they gave him (or rather kept) his other Passive of scaling AR/MR in combat.

has three Passives on her AA's alone; the dashes, the no AA-cancelling, and the 0.9 AD ratio. As a result, AAing with Kalista is dramatically different to AAing with any other Champion in the game, and that's before we go into her abilities. The latter two passives are in place to keep the first one in check, as well as emphasize that her damage is E-based.

These are examples of depth through gameplay.

From a gameplay perspective, Jhin get's multiple passives on his Passive because it makes his autoattacks more interesting and gives both the player and his enemy more do to in lane (personally I liken Jhin's Passive to Gangplank's more than Graves anyway, on the basis that you AA normally until the big damage (true damage Trial by Fire or 4th Shot for Death)). It makes his ADC point-click pattern much more than just point-click. A deeper thought process goes into it than the majority of normal-AA ADC's.

"Do I use my fourth shot to harass but risk taking more damage back by moving in range?" "Do I save this shot and miss some cs or just let it go?" "Should I continue AAing the frontline or try move to the backline when my 4th comes up?"

On the other hand, certain multi-passives exist (arguably) more for thematic reasons.

Why does get to not have unit collision (despite already being the posterboy for hypermobility) and take reduced magic damage? Because thematically his trip into the Void made him otherworldy and he's decidedly Riot's take on an Anti-Mage.

Why does get to have one Passive, and a secondary ult passive? Because it fits his identity as a predator who strikes from the shadows, and his theme of evolution and adaptation.

In Jhin's case, he get's his dual-part Passive because he's not an ADC the way the others are. He's not in the game of pumping out shot after shot for consistent like most of the others. He lines up his target and releases slow, powerful precision shots to kill. That's (so far) what we know of his lore, he's an assassin for Ionia's less-than-pure political side.

His E passive I'd attribute to making his art out of his killing. He's a theatrical individual, as he says; "I will make you famous", so his targets go out with a bang.

So, the point of this all is to suggest that multiple passives don't exist for no reason. They're there for a purpose. Whether that purpose be fulfilling a Champion's theme or enriching the gameplay, or simply adding uniqueness to a situation that would be worse off without it (we could just as easily have had Jhin's Passive be: Every 4th AA crits, but only Jhin's 4th AA can crit, additionally, he gains MS on these 4th hits - but that would mean his playable and thematic character is less carved out and defined).

Multiple Passives are not always an example of Power Creep, they're more often than not what I feel feel are examples of character and gameplay expression. Multiple Passives can be seen as necessary because without them, we're stuck with the above-mentioned R-click and QWER moveset for everyone. What the inclusion of MP's do is allow the same gameplay input to have different, unique outputs, which adds depth.

Granted, it's not always well-executed. I'm still boggled as to why gets to take reduced AA damage despite already having the thematically fitting slippery-fish Passive, and I can say that literally no one I've encountered thinks that 's EXP passive is welcome. Another example would be; why does Garen get to punish someone for doing well, or why does Darius get to punish everyone for not killing him fast enough in a teamfight?

But, all things considered that's my take on Multiple Passives, something that came to mind with the new Champion release. I'd love to hear anyone elses thoughts on the matter, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

TL;DR - Multiple Passives add gameplay and thematic depth while sticking to the input of R-click and QWER, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad.