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Marksmen and the Ranged Auto-Attack

Lord Boltrix·10/9/2017, 3:02:33 AM·1 votes·428 views

So it's come to my attention (I'm late to the party, as usual) that there seems to be a problem concerning marksmen. Namely, that these last few patches they have warped the meta so much that from Bronze to LCS the same champions and the same items keep popping up, and we can't agree on what to do. We usually end up dragging the argument to other classes, such as how assassins can't kill marksmen due to burst/survivability versus delayed burst, or how tanks simply melt to being peppered by auto-attacks before they can make engagements.

A lot of people, and I do too, think the problem is that ADC's have too reliable damage for their expected roles as late game carries. With the way that Riot has moved the game to create more counterplay with many new champions and champion reworks emphasizing counterplay, sometimes to a point it's detrimental (just look at Ornn), the fact that marksmen still rely on the right-click auto attack system for their damage output is very concerning.

For melee carries like Tryn, Yi, Yasuo, etc., the right-click method is fine because you have to put yourself at risk to get in range to attack, but for ranged champions that aren't mages... right-click auto attacks are the key issue for why marksmen can't be balanced in the way that Riot has been moving the rest of the champion roster forward, and instead have to suffice with hitting them numbers-wise until they eventually become a problem once more.

The question is... how do you make that less reliable, or more 'fair?' I'm not talking about short-term nerfs, but major changes to improve their game health for the future.

I'm not going to bring up something along the lines of 'turning' as some DOTA fans will bring up, while it might work there if Riot were willing to implement that as a fixture, they would have done it long ago. Instead, we can look on a few key champions who exemplify what direction marksmen can be taken. All in all, I believe that the key to bringing marksmen to the 'counterplay' design of League is to give counterplay to marksmen auto-attacks beyond just 'don't be in range of them.'

Graves / Jhin These two function on an ammunition system, and while people might have their complaints towards other parts of either champion, one can't argue that you don't face an endless barrage of auto attacks from these two because they have to reload sometime. This is an oft-discussed method of removing the reliability of the marksmen's ranged auto attack, but it's not the only one.

Draven Ah, everyone's favorite executioner (that isn't Urgot, sorry bud), he is a unique champion because it's not just auto-attacks that make him... no Draven worth their salt is going to just pepper you with auto-attacks standing in place like some automated turret. Draven needs to be active, catching axes and tossing them at you, with his axe-indicator a clear form of counterplay that adds a new element of outplay for everyone present. And speaking of executioner's...

Urgot So yes, Urgot is a juggernaut and does not fulfill the role expected of a traditional marksmen, but his form of auto-attacking certainly means we should take a lesson on how auto-attacks can be implemented for ranged champions. With two forms of ranged auto-attacks, we see the ranged auto-attack can exist tastefully if done right.

Xayah Ah, Xayah, a champion me and my girlfriend have become very intimate with. This is a champion whose auto-attacks are done in a flavorful way where she can strike through enemies and her gameplay revolves less around standing still right-clicking and more of managing her feathers, positioning to damage and cc enemies which enemies can position to avoid. If there were more champions who functioned like Xayah and made auto-attacks less the source of their damage and more a means of delivering something their kit requires to do damage, we'd be in a much better state.

Kalista Now now, hold your pitchforks ladies and gentlemen, yes... Kalista herself may not be a healthy champion in terms of gameplay health, but that has less to do with her damage and more to do with the ridiculous mobility she has. Strictly in terms of her auto-attack gameplay, she is one of the healthier champions due to her focus on stacking spears in her enemy before rending them, I would hope that a rework of her would emphasize more on that... and of course restrict her passive hopping to something more conditional and her Runaan's abuse dealt with, as then I'd be extremely happy to see what Kalista could bring.

Sivir Alright, Sivir... nothing really much to say about her that is overly obnoxious... and it's strange to think that for a champion who sees a great deal of play in competitive, she isn't a common complaint. The fact of the matter is, for someone who doesn't have a real gimmick for her auto-attacks and is as reliable for her auto-attacks as other marksmen, Sivir is a champion who is done right for having such a reliable damage through such means. Her auto range is very low for a marksman so she has to actually risk herself more compared to her fellow compatriots, her spell shield has a notably long cooldown so she gets one chance to avoid trouble, her damaging abilities can be managed (the Q is completely avoidable, and the W can be mitigated by avoiding the pitfall of grouping very close together), and her ultimate simply provides movement speed outside of the passive... Kudos to Sivir for not being a constant problem.

I'd like to hear your discussion and thoughts on this, what would you do about marksmen to solve their issues in the long-term?

3 Comments

PearPearadox10/9/2017, 3:24:42 AM1 votes

I upvoted this because I thought people just disliked this to be rude, but after reading EVERYTHING, I can see this is just a complaint of all the champions with no way to balance them other than to change their main output of damage, but you should've realized how highly unlikely that is considering there are probably at least 50 ranged ADCs in the game. The reload system is highly unlikely because that leaves too many vulnerable moments where ADCs are powerless since they do 0 damage and can't lifesteal in the moments that they need to reload. I just downvoted this. Try balancing something less specific and difficult., like the damage of an auto attack or whatever.

Talinis10/9/2017, 3:57:57 AM1 votes

The reload system is highly unlikely because that leaves too many vulnerable moments where ADCs are powerless since they do 0 damage and can't lifesteal in the moments that they need to reload.

You mean like how mages have CDS and the majority don't have any LS???

There are ways to balance them, such as building a stacking damage over time so that instead of one or two shotting a squishy, they build up their damage over time.

Perhaps make crit a tank only buster since they are supposed to be the ones that wreck the front line while divers/assassins/some mages are supposed to kill the back.

Perhaps switching to a new target cuts their damage down for a short period such as not allowing crit on a new target within 2.5 seconds while they reassess the new targets weak points etc. Kinda like how with fizz has to mark a new target and set for 2 seconds in order to do massive damage.

There are a lot of creative ways to cut down their damage appropriately. These are only a small sample

Lord of Math10/9/2017, 4:10:45 AM1 votes

Or just for the pre-season rune changes, just do not buff the adc's for the removal of runes, just make them pick shit like the lethal tempo, that will lock them into ramping damage playstyles. Or make Crit a ramping mechanic so that each autoattack brings more chance on the damage. Like crit chance is 0 then you gain you crit chance every hit, so if you had 30% then you would have 90% after three hits. This would be accompanied by making crit chance from the store much lower. Like 5% for the item 2015 upgrades.