Lets talk Jhin: Buffs that dont augment his damage power (Quality of life suggestions)

NA Darklarik··3 votes·1,301 views

Hello, so, Jhin, Ive been playing him quite a lot since he the day of his release, im near hitting his mastery level 5. My games have been only normals so far, im platinum elo, and im played him evenly as both a Mid laner and a Bot lane (with my supp duo), and a few jungle games here and there (Dont try it, stick to Graves and Kindred if your into the adc jungle thing). Im here to express my thoughts on Jhin thus far, how he feels, where he succeeds, but mostly, where he horrendously fails...

So, first off, Jhin is a midlaner. The way his kit functions he has thus far served more as a Caster, with his AA being his 'spells'. He can bot, but it is incredibly disadvantageous for him, especially with the wrong support. He is extremely item gated, more so than any other ADC imo, and while lategame his AA can become like AD hitting Veigar Ultimates, the moments where he reaches this point is rare, and he dosent really perform well anywhere else until then. He currently has an abysmal early game, no trading potential, and clunky mechanics that require too much preparation for unsatisfying rewards. Overall, my expirience with him, even in games where i finished 20 kill with an S+, have been quite frustrating with him, but i dont think he fails in his damage output, rather, in small little trinkets of his abilities. None of his skills really serve him in fights, and the scenarios where he can use Curtain call effectively are extremely rare, plus the ability is easy to avoid or escape.

Ill go over where i belive his abilities succeed and fail, then go over some buffs that could help him survive the early game and increase his abilities.


ABILITIES Passive: The whole around which Jhin, is, Jhin. I think its too early to say "Buff" his damage or something, but as it stands, Jhin faces the following problem. Even at lv 18, his att speed dosent reaches around .93 thats slightly less than 1 auto attack per second. Now, lategame, one could justify this, due to how insane each of these bullets begins to hit IF it crits, but here is the thing: Jhin can only autottack 4 times every 7 seconds. Let that sink in. This is why he is item gated, if each these bullets dosent crit, his damage output is abysmal. This means he has to focus on a build that maximises his Critical strike chance, thus, until he starts to reach around 4 items, his damage output is a fraction of other ADC with 4 items (especially champions like Lucian Corki Vayne who can already beging to make an impact with just one item). However, the real killer is Jhin's inability to reload at will. sitting on 2 shots and having to wait 10 seconds or find a target to shoot at is horrible, it messes up his Cs and skirmishing. With all the prep this guy needs, also having to prepare how many chambered bullets you have is too much. Buff ideas:

  • Reload mechanic by clicking on his passive icon. This would be huge. both in helping him CS and in fights.

  • Some kind of Critical strike buff/augmenter (like Yasuo )

  • Slightly lower reload time lategame

Q: Dancing grenade This ability served mostly as a 'fifth bullet' for jhin, for the purposes of farming and pushing the lane. Its inconsistency makes it a poor harassing tool, since timing the bounces between minions is up to luck and the enemy, more than Jhin's own planning or execution. It dosent really help Jhin in trades since it cant compete against almost any other ADC's quick damaging abilities. Overall its purpose is there, but it could use some tunning in its functionality, not so much in its damage. Its currently useless in teamfights, along with his other skills. Buff ideas:

  • Make the increasing damage apply if the grenade bounces of a champion, this way, Jhin can poke the backline with a well bounced grenade in a clustered fight, it would give it team fighting relevancy (where there are rarely minions around)

  • Applies mark for deadly flourish (see below for both his W and R)

W: Deadly Flourish This is where Jhin flops. This ability, for lack of a better word, just plain out sucks. It has a huge cooldown, pitiful damage, is level gated, requires too much planning and pinpoint execution to be usefull, dosent serve as poke, and overall just feels BAD. Too much is going on with this ability and i dont quite understand its purpose._ Is it meant to be a poke_ (because its damage is horrible)? is it meant to be a cc (Because its only relevant with 3 levels and is too difficult to execute given the pre-mark requirement)?_ Is it meant to be an escape tool_ (Jhin CC HIMSELF TO CAST THIS, i cannot express how many times ive tried to use this to try and root a chasing enemy but the cast time leaves me standing and butchered)? Whichever it was meant to be, it fails at all of them for the reasons stated in the ' () '. This ability just has too much set up required to it and its reward is minimal. It feels frustrating to use and unrewarding. Changes to this ability are what i think could affect Jhin greatly. Buff ideas:

  • REMOVING THE CAST TIME, not the delay, the CAST TIME (having to stand still while the shot charges). This change would be huge, equivalent to when Rengar had his W be able to cast while on the move. It would allow jhin some clutch escapes and overall more safety, not only that, but if the abilities trajectory moves with him, it would allow him to better line up the shot, increasing the interaction with his intended targets since the ability now has a deeper level of play to dodge it. This is the biggest change this ability could use, more so than the other ideas. With the amount of leaps and mobility, he needs this in order to have any kind of chance of fighting back.

  • Increase the root duration to a flat amount from level 1 (make this his 1 point wonder skill)

  • Have the ability Critical strike, if the struck target is marked with Caught out.

  • dont have the 'Caught out' be consumed upon striking a champion, for purposes of his ult, and have the ability apply 'caught out' even if the target isnt marked (again, for purposes of his ult)

  • Reduced cooldown if successful hit

E: Lotus trap I like this ability. It fits with Jhin's 'planning' theme as well as tracking opponents. My only grunge would be early game its damage is quite pitiful given the difficulty of its execution (This also has to do with it needing to be connected to his W's Root, which early game, as stated above, is pitiful). It can be used in the middle of combat, which ties into why Jhin's trading potential is so week and why he suffers so much early game. However, i think with some of the above stated tuning to his Q and W, he would be fine. Overall, not many changes required. This ability is amazing when properly coordinated with Allies. Me (Mid Jhin) and my buddy (Adc Caitlyn ), would set up six traps and one cupcake trap ontop, since many players have a tendency to step on caitlyn traps simply to disable them, it resulted in some funny unexpected kills xD Buff ideas:

  • some more early game damage

R: Curtain Call On paper, and from afar, this ability looks awesome. On execution, its a huge flop. This ability suffers from a lot of things. First, for jhin to use it properly, he needs to be far away, which means in a fight, it has minimal use. When he doesent use it in a fight, this ability is way to easy to avoid. If Jhin is too close, enemys can escape the zone by walking sideways out of the cone range (not to mention he could leave himself very vulnerable), if he is too far way at what would be considered optimal range, the shots take to long to travel and are easy to avoid, not to mention enemies can just simply walk out of range. The amount of times i found myself being able to use this ability effectively where very few times. Not only that, but for how hard this ability is too execute, the damage output isnt that great, it only shines if the target is squishy or very low on HP. The Canceling refund feels too taxing, the set up channel takes too long, the delay between shots is to great, the shots themselves are extremely thin, but most agonizing is the targeting Thumb dosent give a good idea of where the shot will go. This ability needs lots of changes, including tweaks on how the reveal works. Buff Ideas:

  • Increase the refund for each shot to 15%

  • Reduce the set up time and the time between shots

  • Increase the cone width, especially the farthest range

  • Increase the speed of the shots

  • change the targeting reticule to something that better displays the trajectory of the shot.

  • Make it so if a champion is applied 'caught out' (via ally), they are instantly revealed even if the ult has already activated. Have the Reveal last for the entire duration as long as the champion remains withing the bounds of his ult. And have his bullets apply the reveal as well, meaning if he hits a least 1 bullet, the target in question is revealed for the durations.


Overall, i think with many off these changes not focused so much on his damage but rather his usability, Jhin would begin to shine and feel less clunky, unrewarding and frustrating to use, as well as reaching the point of his endgame sniping fantasy. These changes i suggestions arent meant to supplant his weaknesses (such as his poor early game and early skirmishing), but rather augment his strengths for successful execution of the pre-required set up his abilities require, and to ease his currently horrible early game so he dosent flop and become very irrelevant very early.

I reaaaaaaally like this champion, both in his kit design and art. I really hope riot lets him bloom and be deliver on what we all want to see.

5 Comments

Caytheles2 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/5xTydYyy-passive-buff-that-might-help-jhin-hear-me-out

I feel like most of the buffs you indicated are abit unneeded. maybe the Q causing Deadly flourish but that too would somewhat break him.

His allies can already trigger it.

Take a look at my small buff to him.

Petey Pastrami2 votes

1 other thing I've noticed while playing him is that pink wards are not an option for him to clear. Attacking wards consumes your bullets and with a pink ward being able to take 5 hits, means it takes him 7+ seconds to clear it if he's by himself. So if I see a pink ward i just take maybe one pop shot at it and ping it out for my allies.

Definitely agree with you on the ult tho.

lolipopevelynn2 votes

the only buff he needs is faster reload times. huge QoL buff.

chezwickcheese2 votes

I've played a few games with him (not a huge amount, but enough) and I foresee him being reworked.

xKatOneTrickx1 votes

I got around 100k on him s2 so idk how seriously your going to take me...but i think he does pretty well on bot once you get used to him...its my favorite spot ofr him right now....if you build a full crit amp page you can outrade most adcs with your 4th shot q harass and althouh your ult isnt as effective on bot as it is in mid your not really going to use it in the middle of a fight anyway. Its just for picking people off who are running away or providing a cc chain to lock someone down....idk thats how i see it.....but his bouncing grenades are really good for 2v2s as well as his traps.

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