Vayne - "Truely" Abusive

Hello fellow summoners. I'd like to take a few minutes of your time to talk about the one champion takes makes this game unbearable. Vayne. While there are other champions who are a nuisance to play against (cough cough Teemo cough), Vayne is the only champion that is so consistently powerful that teams just can't fight back. Her true damage accounts for just about one third of her damage to champions in a game that last beyond 20 minutes. This excessive true damage is unhealthy as it can almost not be built against nor can it be reduced by most effects. So much for 'Adaptive helm.'

Background to the problem:

I started playing League of Legends in December, 2018, during the pre-seasons. I quickly picked up terms, lanes, itemization, and critical gameplay aspects that made League of Legends what is it. It was easy to learn as I used to play Smite and some things are similar. While I understand all champions require a specific level of synergy in their abilities and well as ultimates that may spell doom to squishier champions, Vayne is the only champion which insane to play against. As an ADC, it is understandable that Vayne has strong auto attacks and critical potential. However, my problem lies in the effectiveness of the true damage she can deal in a fight. The video I linked is from Patch 9.2, before the infinity blade's passive was changed once again. Match ID: https://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2970823258/2097676179737408?tab=stats As you can see, I played Mordekaiser in this match and was shredded by Vayne after her Guardian Angel revived him.

Statement of the problem:

I believe Vayne's true damage output is too high to be considered balanced. The majority of her true damage comes directly from her "Silver bolts" passive, dealing up to 14% of a target's maximum health as true damage after 3 basic attacks on the same target. While this may not sound too threatening at first, with the combination of other effects such as Press the Attack, Lethal Tempo, Guinsoo's Rageblade, the displacement and/or stun from her "Condemn" ability, and other bonuses, her true damage racks up to quite a large amount. Specifically speaking, Guinsoo's Rageblade applies on-hit effects twice; After Guinsoo's Rage is active, the third basic attack will deal 28% of a target's maximum health as true damage. Additionally, since the attack speed boost of Guinsoo's Rageblade is gained on basic attacks on both minions and champions, as seen in the video, Vayne kept her Guinsoo's Rage active on minions, the Nexus turrets and an inhibitor between the onslaught on champions. Another fact; [14% (of Maximum health) x 2 (Double on-hit effects)] x 4 = 112%. In other words, with Guinsoo's Rage active, Vayne can kill anyone in 12 basic attacks with true damage alone. Press the Attack, the rune node under the Precision tree as Cut down, Coupe De Grace and Last Stand (On an ADC? Lol.) can further increase this true damage. While Conqueror is not ideal for an ADC, it's sub-par to other Lethal Tempo and Press the Attack in this case. I'll refrain from condemning it in this post because it has changes live in the 9.4 Patch on the test servers. Once again, it is notable that from the Matches I played against Vaynes, around one third of their damage is true, even in patch 9.3. This abundant true damage is not possible to build effectively against; ~ True damage ignores Armor. While Vayne still deals physical damage on basic attacks, this true damage is the larger threat as many tanks are easily kited by Vayne, too slow to run away, and too slow to dedicate to the kill if Vayne uses her ultimate. While Vayne's ultimate alone isn't particularly lethal, its combination with Vayne's mobility, damage from auto attacks, invisibility and chase potential makes it nearly impossible to beat in a 1 v 1 situation. ~ As the true damage scales off a percentage of maximum health, building more health only makes the effect deal more true damage. While certain items such as Randuim's Omen and Thornmail can slightly reduce Vayne's attack speed, this is insignificant compared to the attack speed Vayne actually has. Additionally, no active item has the hard crowd control needed to shut Vayne down. ~ Vayne already out damages the meta late game. Even without the passive true damage, the synergy of her stun and kiting makes it very difficult for other Champions to keep up. With the added invisibility after rolling, other ADCs struggle to target Vayne while tanks struggle to even reach her. Her kiting playstyle makes it harder to get close enough to deal any damage, while her passive ability keeps her fast enough to keep her just close enough to you.

Comparison to Other Champions:

While most people would compare Vayne to Master Yi for similarities in their true damage basic attacks there's a large difference between the two. Firstly, Master Yi deals true damage proportional to his AD. This means Master Yi required attack damage to deal more true damage. Additionally, Master Yi's effectiveness can be reduced by building more health since his true damage does not scale based on the target's health. On the contrary, Vayne's true damage scales with the target's health. Sorry Sion. While other true-percentage damage dealers like Fiora and Garen exist, Vayne is the only ranged true damage percentage. While Garen's Demacian Justice deals massive true damage, the target has to be the villain. Another notable factor is that Vayne's true damage passive technically has no cool down, allowing it to be proc'ed as many times as she can shoot you. Fiora on the other hand actually deals less true damage with her passive than Vayne does, although it is far more challenging to get to the other side of an enemy than it to shoot them twice, roll away then hit 'em again.

Solution to the Problem:

As the issue relies on the actual true damage output of her ability, and not her overall kit, the following suggestions may reduce this overwhelming effect: 1.) **Cap the maximum damage. ** Gonna be honest. 14% is a lot. While there's already a minimum damage of 50 / 65 / 80 / 95 / 110 true damage per activation, there's is no maximum damage cap. This means 3k hp Mordekaiser can take 420 true damage from every third basic attack. An upper limit of 100/140/190/240/300 would be appropriate, since Vayne is dealing absurd amounts of true damage with high attack speed and on-hit builds. While this does mean Guinsoo's Rageblade can still allow up to 600 true damage per activation, this is far more reasonable that the output Vayne's passive currently allows.

2.) Stop Guinsoo's Rageblade from stacking on non-champion auto attacks. While this will decrease the overall effectiveness of the item, it alters the idea of ADCs shooting minions in team fights. This allows players to really get their rage on players in team fights instead of exploiting the attack speed increase, switching to a player for 28% of their max hp as true damage, and returning to creep scoring.

3.) **Reduce the percentage. ** Again, 14% of a target's health is significant. Between the amount of attack speed an ADC generally builds and the attack speed cap (ignoring Lethal Tempo, Hail of Blades and auto attack resets for now), Vayne can deal 100% of your hp as true damage in 14 seconds? Idk, I messed up the math very quickly. Considering this, the damage percentage could also be reduced 2/4/6/8/10%, with minimum damage dictating early game.

4.) Change the percentage from maximum to current hp. This suggestion will provide Vayne with the same true damage at maximum hp, with less damage on lower health targets. While Vayne ruthless hunts evil doers, how can a half dead Poppy deserve 420 true damage. [poppy-wink]
This also balances out as Vayne will now require actual lethality, black cleaver or another from of armor penetration to finish what he started, while making building armor against Vayne viable.

5.) Change the ability There are many ways an ability can be changed, but the best I've heard so far was to make the ability deal a small amount of true damage each shot instead of a larger burst of true damage. Akin to Twitch, but not a damage over time, 10/15/20/25/30 true damage (+4% of the target's maximum hp) would allow Vayne to deal more consistent true damage without reducing the nature of Guinsoo's Rageblade or Silver bolts. Logically, why is only the 3rd bolt silver-tipped and not all of them?

Conclusion: In conclusion, Vayne's trademark true damage output is too high to be ignored, relatively hard to build against, and really just lacks counter play. I rest my case. Feel free to share comments about Vayne, my points or Teemo below. Thanks for reading.

TL:DR 14% is a big number.