Welp, Kog has made it into the Top Ten least picked champions

Rebonack·Jan 17, 2016·3 votes·444 views

Again.

Last time it was due to the Assassin meta. Now it's due to, well, I think you guys can probably figure that out yourselves.

13 Comments

Illâoi Evê SiônJan 17, 20162 votes

Somebody has to be down there:

Riot buffs Kog'Maw
Kog'Mawis now the 11th least played champion
Shyvanna slips into the top 10 least played champions
Somebody makes a thread complaining about Shyvanna being down there

I'm not saying that Kog'Maw does not have any flaws, I'm just saying your argument does.

RebonackJan 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Somebody has to be down there:

Riot buffs Kog'Maw

Kog'Mawis now the 11th least played champion

Shyvanna slips into the top 10 least played champions

Somebody makes a thread complaining about Shyvanna being down there

I'm not saying that Kog'Maw does not have any flaws, I'm just saying your argument does.

And your argument completely misses the environment that this change has taken place in.

Kog was given a partial rework with the intent of making him a strong niche pick. Kog is anything but a strong niche pick right now, he simply isn't played. Thus, the rework failed its objective, thus something should probably be done about it.

Just as Mord (rightfully) got all sorts of follow-up with his remake, Kog should be getting some real follow-up with his as well.

Illâoi Evê SiônJan 17, 20162 votes

And your argument completely misses the environment that this change has taken place in.

No, it doesn't. It only answers to the environment you introduced.

Welp, Kog has made it into the Top Ten least picked champions Again.

Last time it was due to the Assassin meta. Now it's due to, well, I think you guys can probably figure that out yourselves.

But that aside, yes some reworks fail, but I do believe Kog'Maw's only problems right now are strength and situation. Not unlike many other champions he simply doesn't fit into the current meta enough to be insanely popular. Most of the time, flavor of the month champions aren't even stronger than other champions. They're just popular for a while because of the exposure they get when less experienced players do not know how to play against them (or for other reasons). A while ago, nobody had a problem with Rengar. Then people started talking about Kha'Zix changes, started comparing him to Rengar, and picked the latter up. And as with any other champion in the current Meta, they got ahead and stomped games, giving Rengar the exposure he is currently enjoying.

If the current meta supported Kog'Maw a little bit more, despite his issues, he could easily be a flavor of the month champion who shreds enemies in two seconds from afar. Kog'Maw with Devourer is still insanely strong.

Also, other champions down there like Xerath are perfectly fine. While another 'failed' rework (Skarner is just really niche at the moment) is one of the three least played champions.

MagicDragon300Jan 17, 20162 votes

Kog is also down there because of his mana issues and horrendous W uptime, so there's that.

RebonackJan 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Kog is also down there because of his mana issues and horrendous W uptime, so there's that.

Hit the nail on the head there.

Due to his W uptime, disengaging from Kog after he pops his W basically makes him free food. If Riot wanted to give him some love without too much risk of making him a priority pick/ban at the LCS level (which seems to be a prospect they're terrified of for some reason) then his W upt time would be the place to start.

MagicDragon300Jan 17, 20161 votes

Kog becoming OP and a top tier pick/ban could be a problem due to him basically being able to melt everything post 35 minutes. This comes with him basically being a glorified caster minion in the early game though due to his mana pool and his sheer weakness of being able to be buttfucked by a lot of champs. If they improve his W uptime, the problem with that might be that his early game could become easier and he could shred shit even before he reaches the point of 2 or more core items. Of course they could balance that buff with a nerf of some kind, but that would be something to consider by Riot when messing with Kog's W uptime and/ or mana issues.

RebonackJan 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

Kog becoming OP and a top tier pick/ban could be a problem due to him basically being able to melt everything post 35 minutes.

Okay, so

Riot has made it pretty clear they want games to be shorter and more decisive when one team is winning. If this ever changes, it probably won't be until next season or possibly half way through this one. This isn't a new thing. Game time has been trending downward since Season 1 and I doubt it'll be changing any time soon. Balancing champions around a hypothetical metagame that may or may not ever come to pass is silly because:
If Kog ends up being too strong for one patch then he'll get nerfed. You know, like what has happened with Miss Fortune? She got reworked and she was insane. Some months later she eats a nerf and now she's great instead of absolutely overbearing. That's how balance cycles work in this game. Kog being a pick/ban for one patch would be business as usual, not an apocalyptic scenario.

J EevoJan 17, 20162 votes

You're missing the bigger picture.

Riot updated kog, but they didn't want to change him, just amplify what made him special - thus they made his lategame better, which obviously had to have a price. His strength late game is obvious now, as is his weakness early.

EXCEPT It seems they didn't realize that a purely lategame champion would be TOTAL GARBAGE if they simultaneously put more significance on early game with their other changes to the game, making turrets weaker and games generally faster. If Kog, a lategame champ had a positive winrate in the current state of the game where most games literally end in 20 minutes he'd be broken.

RebonackJan 17, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=J Eevo,realm=EUNE,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=UapRqvwp,comment-id=0004,timestamp=2016-01-17T17:24:03.127+0000)

You're missing the bigger picture.

Riot updated kog, but they didn't want to change him, just amplify what made him special - thus they made his lategame better, which obviously had to have a price. His strength late game is obvious now, as is his weakness early.

EXCEPT It seems they didn't realize that a purely lategame champion would be TOTAL GARBAGE if they simultaneously put more significance on early game with their other changes to the game, making turrets weaker and games generally faster. If Kog, a lategame champ had a positive winrate in the current state of the game where most games literally end in 20 minutes he'd be broken.

Meanwhile, Twitch is amazing right now provided you're going YoMama's into Hurricane rather than the old BorK rush. His late game is as strong if not stronger than Kog's.

Vayne isn't quite as overbearing as she was when the Energize items fully stacked, but she's still quite powerful (and not to mention popular).

Both of these champions are late game carries who are doing admirably despite the focus on early game. They're far from 'breaking the game', however. All I'm asking is that Kog be at least as desirable a pick as Twitch, because it makes sense that players should be able to make an informed choice between 'Do I want AoE and lower damage, or higher single target sustained damage?'

If something suddenly changed and games were stretched to 45 minutes on average and Kog got too strong, so what? What do you take him for, Jinx? Do you really expect that Riot would allow him to be a priority pick for more than two patches?

Darth Pixy MisaJan 17, 20161 votes

Kog is in the bottom 8 when i checked. Funny thing is on champion.gg stats when you look at most damage done by champs Karthus and Xerath are still in the top 10, and Kog'maw is #3 in damage dealt by ADC. Unfortunately Kog dies as much as Karthus and Akali.....

LuggJan 17, 20161 votes

All the early game ADCs shut him down to the point where he doesn't reach his late game until 30 plus minutes. The game is decided then 99% of the time, so he has no impact at all.

RebonackJan 17, 20161 votes

{quoted}

All the early game ADCs shut him down to the point where he doesn't reach his late game until 30 plus minutes. The game is decided then 99% of the time, so he has no impact at all.

And considering that Riot is actively trying to push games on Rift to be shorter and more decisive than they were in previous seasons, that probably isn't going to be changing any time soon.