So I just got through a couple games as Jinx after newly picking her up, and I'm a bit star struck. I play a fair bit of Caitlyn, and I feel like I am performing significantly better at almost everything in the game on Jinx, barring Cait's better escape potential. I am admittedly a weak ADC, so I have at best a tenuous grasp of the role. Can someone more knowledgeable explain why or in what situation they would pick Caitlyn over Jinx? Thanks!
is an early game monster who can completely shut down the opposing ADC early game and use that to snowball her into an early lead/win. Her kit allows her to have incredible lane dominance, so if she DOESN'T win the laning phase and win it hard, she is in for a very rough mid-late game. Her mid game is meh compared to other ADC's, her needed about 3-4 items(IE, PD/Shiv/LW/BT) before she becomes a late game powerhouse again.
has a mediocre early game, who in most cases get shut down very hard by . She needs time to scale, but after her early game and level 9 power spike(when she Max's Q) she really only has up to go. She can also snowball incredibly hard if she can get ahead because she is a late game hyper carry. She is also incredibly mobile with her passive, being able to wipe out teams once she resets and is able to catch them all out.
Watch TSM vs TL week 5. That can show you what Jinx can do.
Caitlyn is much better at early game and is safer because she has an on-demand disengage, long range, and long-term traps rather than a set of emergency roadblocks. Cait can also go over walls, while Jinx can't without Flash.
Jinx hugely outscales Hat Lady, though.
Caitlyn is a better pick when you're up against lane bullies like Draven or Graves, as Caitlyn is not easily bullied. She can disengage easily if need be, and generally out-ranges lane bullies, letting her poke them down if needed. The worst thing you can do with Caitlyn, however, is get into a slugfest with other ADCs; the only one Caitlyn will consistently beat in slugouts is Ashe (who loses to everybody).
No. You are right. Jinx does everything cait does, only she can't escape
cait has the mobility to escape, jinx relies heavily on her chompers and positioning
jinx goes oom if she constantly autos from cait's range.
jinx also has very low attack speed scaling in rocket form
you can't really body block jinx's ult in a lot of cases because the explosion will still hit the target if it's close enough.
there's some of the main differences for you.
With cait, you have to be extremely good at positioning with traps such that when bruisers and assassins dash over them, they get caught and you can use your range to siege or hit targets that other ADCs can't hit. However, with such positioning, she is one of the hardest ADCs to assassinate with both a snare and an escape, and is good on teams with weak peel.
Jinx is allergic to assassins and high damage bruisers at all points of the game, assuming equal gold. However, with peel, she can wipe out entire teams with AOE crits at long range.
cait is a safe pick with a good early game (especially against adcs with short range/bad early game), a pretty weak mid game, then a decent late game. you pick cait when you want to play fairly safe, she plays better with poke supports and can easily out farm and out poke adcs with weak early game. her mid game teamfights are not super good and you really want to try to keep your turret up and force the enemy adc to stay in lane until you have 3+ items (boots dont count) after that, stay with your team and shoot whoever is closest, dont be afraid to net someone in the face to re-position if your team isnt peeling. I usually pick cait if i'm not comfortable with the matchup or if they have a super aggressive ganker like shaco.
jinx is less safe but way more aggressive. she is a snowball adc with a decent early game (though she is easily ganked) and has early kill potential so she works best with more aggressive supports or really any support with hard cc you can chain your chompers with. a couple of either kills or forced backs will definitely mean an enemy tower down. jinx can teamfight at any point after ie, though i usually recommend at least boots + zeal (preferable phantom dancer) which will give you enough attack speed to use rockets more often from further away and stay safe. any teamfight you survive should equal at least one objective because of your pushing power. I pick jinx when i want to play aggressive and carry.
It is also worth noting that Jinx's AS has to ramp up in a fight - she has to get her stacks, otherwise she has one of the lowest AS in the game. This means her damage is less front loaded. Cait, on the other hand, can start off with a Q and some AAs and she's ready to fight. This is partly why Cait has such a better time in the early game than Jinx.
