What Makes a Weak Midgame?

Ifneth·Jun 11, 2018·1 votes·769 views

I’ve often heard that certain champions, like Caitlyn, have a ‘weak’ midgame to compensate for their strong early and late games. What makes for a weak midgame?

7 Comments

MrHaZeYoJun 11, 20181 votes

The reason her early game is so strong is mostly due to her range, once mid game hits and she's on a even gold/item level as the other carry her per level stat growth starts to hinder her, as she has one of the worst scaling AS in the roster of ADCs. Once her late game turns on with IE and 2 Zeal items that lack of AS isn't as big of a thing because the game is mostly teamfights from that point on and her superior range with the common Crit AD power spike kicks in she will still just do massive damage.

There's a little more to it then that, but it's the jist of it.

IfnethJun 11, 20181 votes

{quoted}

The reason her early game is so strong is mostly due to her range, once mid game hits and she's on a even gold/item level as the other carry her per level stat growth starts to hinder her, as she has one of the worst scaling AS in the roster of ADCs. Once her late game turns on with IE and 2 Zeal items that lack of AS isn't as big of a thing because the game is mostly teamfights from that point on and her superior range with the common Crit AD power spike kicks in she will still just do massive damage.

There's a little more to it then that, but it's the jist of it.

Ooooh, I see. What’s the rest besides the jist?

MrHaZeYoJun 11, 20181 votes

Well she'll always naturally be a late game carry based on her build and range and role.

Draven Jhin Kalista Lucian MissFortune Quinn - Are mid game champions, they don't rely on Crit, rather they tend to build mostly raw AD and just bulldoze their way through squishies, but they fall off the later the game goes because they don't have as much Crit and AS.

Jinx Ashe Xayah Twitch Vayne Varus Tristana Sivir KogMaw are all AS Crit based champions, so they need time to get their main 3 items Ie and two zeal items to really start pumping out damage, plus they'll usually need a LW item as well if the other team is getting tanky.

Unlike a lot of these champions though Cait has the advantage because of her range, she can hit you long before you can hit her and that allows her to trade with AA then back out of the area, so if you wanna trade back you need to run into your minions to get a AA usually allowing her to get her 2nd off and maybe even a Net>AA as well meaning she will always win most trades. As the game goes on and ults come online though she'll stop being able to trade as hard with the mid game ADs because they all have better ults or a way to face dive into Cait. Like all other Crit/AS based ADS though she'll come back online at 3 items + boots which is why people say she has a mid game lull.

Unlike Jinx, who has AoE damage from pretty much the same range Unlike Trist who has the safty and burst potential Unlike Kog who has %Max HP damage at a longer range with lv5 on her W (while it's active) Unlike Varus who like Kog is a oh-hit oriented champ and turns on with Rageblade Unlike Ashe who has better poke and poke while also having stronger AAs with her Passive and Q and a slow with her Passive Unlike Xayah who has AoE damage, safety and burst Unlike Sivir who has built in Waveclear and AoE where she just needs to hit whose in front of her and it bounces to everything around, with a team speed up in her ult Unlike Vayne who has better outplay mechanics Unlike Twitch with his AoE ult and Stealth.

Then Kaisa and Ezreal are two different kind of beasts in themselves.

Cait isn't really any weaker then the other ones she's classified with, but they all have different strengths and in the mid game hers just isn't as strong in a teamfight.

IfnethJun 11, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Well she'll always naturally be a late game carry based on her build and range and role.

- Are mid game champions, they don't rely on Crit, rather they tend to build mostly raw AD and just bulldoze their way through squishies, but they fall off the later the game goes because they don't have as much Crit and AS.

are all AS Crit based champions, so they need time to get their main 3 items Ie and two zeal items to really start pumping out damage, plus they'll usually need a LW item as well if the other team is getting tanky.

Unlike a lot of these champions though Cait has the advantage because of her range, she can hit you long before you can hit her and that allows her to trade with AA then back out of the area, so if you wanna trade back you need to run into your minions to get a AA usually allowing her to get her 2nd off and maybe even a Net>AA as well meaning she will always win most trades. As the game goes on and ults come online though she'll stop being able to trade as hard with the mid game ADs because they all have better ults or a way to face dive into Cait. Like all other Crit/AS based ADS though she'll come back online at 3 items + boots which is why people say she has a mid game lull.

Unlike Jinx, who has AoE damage from pretty much the same range Unlike Trist who has the safty and burst potential Unlike Kog who has %Max HP damage at a longer range with lv5 on her W (while it's active) Unlike Varus who like Kog is a oh-hit oriented champ and turns on with Rageblade Unlike Ashe who has better poke and poke while also having stronger AAs with her Passive and Q and a slow with her Passive Unlike Xayah who has AoE damage, safety and burst Unlike Sivir who has built in Waveclear and AoE where she just needs to hit whose in front of her and it bounces to everything around, with a team speed up in her ult Unlike Vayne who has better outplay mechanics Unlike Twitch with his AoE ult and Stealth.

Then Kaisa and Ezreal are two different kind of beasts in themselves.

Cait isn't really any weaker then the other ones she's classified with, but they all have different strengths and in the mid game hers just isn't as strong in a teamfight.

Aha!

So you pick Caitlyn to win botlane by out-poking and out-shoving your lane opponents, getting the wave under the enemy turret, and using your basic attack range to slowly chip it down behind your traps, too.

Once she gets that turret gold and the ability to push her lane far, she can rotate from bottom to mid or top lane and repeat the process, knocking down one turret after another with her range and siege.

This early strength and snowballing is balanced by her needing to exploit both. If she doesn’t, then the mid-game becomes a question of “Where do I get the farm?” as the announcers once said during a game where a Caitlyn did not destroy the enemy botlane turret.

Until she reaches two items and Zeal for 90% Crit, she can’t bring as much to skirmishes or teamfights as other Marksmen can. That build could easily take ten minutes to acquire, leaving a large window of advantage for her opponents to find and win fights.

Right?

MrHaZeYoJun 11, 20181 votes

For the most part ya. Cait is prolly the best ADC in teamfight siege moments along with a late game Trist. She can use her traps to basically cut off the other team from entering fighting range around a turret, but ya do to her poor scaling she really needs her items to actually be strong during the mid game, if she doesn't snowball then she's just there for a bit till she turns back online.

AptestJun 11, 20181 votes

Cait only have 2 abilities that can be reliably used in all-in combat. One of them has a high cast time and is easy to dodge.

Because of that, during the time where she can't carry herself with her autos, and her abilities fall off as a result of the mid game kicking in, she is weak.

IfnethJun 11, 20181 votes

{quoted}

Cait only have 2 abilities that can be reliably used in all-in combat. One of them has a high cast time and is easy to dodge.

Because of that, during the time where she can't carry herself with her autos, and her abilities fall off as a result of the mid game kicking in, she is weak.

Oh, I didn’t think about that.