I've seen quite a few people bashing CertainlyT over the years and a point that is continuously brought up is that all of his champions are a great big walking ball of stats. There's actives, there's passives, there's passives on actives; CertainlyT champions seem to have a running theme of having everything under the sun, of simply having so much that they can do that they crowd out other picks, and people continuously throw mud at the designer for these problems.
First of all, I'm not necessarily here to argue that Zed, Kalista, Zyra, what-have-you is fair and balanced, what I am going to explain that the design principles behind some of the often most heated arguments against his champions -- lots of passives and mechanics in places they don't belong -- are actually good in concept, especially when compared to the alternative.
Now then, let's look at the specific skills I am going to be bringing to the focus today.
: Apprehend -- Armor Penetration: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25%
: Living Shadow -- Bonus Attack damage: 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% Bonus AD
: Rampant Growth -- Cooldown Reduction: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10%
Do you see a common theme here? All of these skills are considered core to the champion's theme and kit and each skill individually is incredibly powerful. Darius' Apprehend is his only method of really taking the fight to the enemy, Zed's Living Shadows and the mimicked spells are his identity, and Zyra wouldn't be Zyra if she couldn't even summon plants. I don't think anybody would argue that these skills are weak whatsoever, so why are there bonus stats given on top of already powerful skills?
The Answer : without them, these skills would be as powerful at level 5 as level 1.
The infamous One Point Wonder -- wherein the benefits of leveling a skill past level 1 are either minimal or downright nonexistent -- is an absolute travesty. Not only does it stifle or punish flexible skill acquisition, it also distorts the champion's power level throughout the entirety of the game as the champion has to be balanced around a skill that both not only reaches near maximum effectiveness at level 1 but one whose power level doesn't increase as the game goes on.
Here is a comprehensive list of what I feel to be the current "One Point Wonders" in the game :
Current One Point Wonders :
: Moonfall -- 2 seconds off of a 26 second cooldown and 5% extra movespeed on top of 25% is honestly not going to matter. Sorry.
: Howling Gale -- heavy increases to mana consumption for marginal increase in damage and slightly lower cooldown; you're often better off with just one point.
: Aegis of Zeonia -- 1 second stun at all ranks, very marginal damage increase, very marginal cooldown reduction. it accomplishes its purpose at rank 1 and doesn't improve very much at all with more points.
Fracture -- increased mana cost for 20 damage and 5% extra slow per rank. Barely any change.
: Song of Celerity -- 1% extra movespeed on top of 10% and 13% for allies / self, respectively is barely marginal, if that.
: Shocking Orb -- it's a stun. You use it to stun people. The stun is the same every rank and the damage increase / cooldown decrease isn't very noticeable. Mana cost also increases per rank.
: Wind Wall -- with the removal of the extra flow generation, this is a fully one point wonder now and I cannot imagine a scenario in which you would want to put any more than one point in this early on. The wall width increase and cooldown decrease isn't worth wasting a rank on, and rank 5 feels almost the same as rank 1.
Somewhat One Point Wonders :
: Twilight Shroud -- basically accomplishes its goal at rank 1, but still benefits from having points put into it.
: Crescent Slash -- the skill itself is a touch lackluster in comparison to the others and doesn't scale with levels very well, but can work.
: Arise -- there's no difference between a rank 1 and a rank 5 Arise except for the recharge time, but the recharge time alone is often enough to warrant points into it because of how integral it is to his kit.
: Pale Cascade -- most of the power is in the AP scaling, not the ranking, especially since the mana cost increases for each level.
: Smokescreen -- its primary function is vision denial and a marginal slow, which it accomplishes at level 1, but the damage increase per level can also occasionally be desired for one or two extra points early.
: Sentinel -- 2% extra damage per rank isn't particularly amazing but still "ok" -- as is the reduced recharge time -- but almost all of its effectiveness is in the rank 1.
: Impure Shots -- it accomplishes everything it wants to do from rank 1 onward and the scaling attack speed per level is only barely enough to keep it from being a true one point wonder.
Move Quick -- though it still accomplishes its purpose at rank 1, 4% / 8% movespeed per rank is considerable enough to be noticeable.
Venom Cask -- nothing really changes at all except a marginal increase in slow and reduced CD, functions almost as well at rank 1 as rank 5.
Tectonic Disruption -- very minor increases in damage and reduction in cooldown, with increases in mana cost. The knock back is the most important part of the skill, and you get that at rank 1.
: Gravity Well -- the skill will slow and stun even at rank 1, but increased ranks improve the slow which makes the stun itself more reliable, making its per rank benefit enough to occasionally warrant maybe one or two more points early and be felt later on.
: Satchel Charge -- displacement and potential escape from rank 1 to rank 5 with only minor cooldown and damage improvements. Still, it can be noticeable upon occasion, so not a full one point wonder and potentially situational to rank even early.
One Point Wonders Done Well :
: Crystallize -- though it accomplishes its aim from rank 1 onward, it becomes more and more disruptive with points put into it, meaning that leveling up can be situationally impactful and rewarding.
: Hawkshot -- while its function doesn't change with level, its cooldown and range improves with each rank, making it an occasional, situationally alluring choice for an extra rank or two dependent on its users needs while having beautiful utility scaling.
: Spell Shield -- though its purpose doesn't change with ranks, it can become situationally strong to rank it up depending on the circumstances due to the lovely reduction in cooldown as well as the increase in mana returned, on top of late-game potency.
: Pillar of Ice -- the function doesn't change but the drastically reduced cooldown and moderately improved slow makes it situationally potent to rank up early and definitely felt later on in the game.
: All of him. Every one of his abilities has the potential to be a one point wonder but all benefit from being ranked up.
: Sanguine Pool -- doesn't improve upon the potency much per rank -- you get this skill for the period of invulnerability -- but the rather high cooldown at rank 1 and decent reduction in cooldown for ranking makes it alluring and ranks can be potent.
: Blood Scent -- you still gotta go fast regardless of rank 1 or rank 5, but each rank marginally increases the speed and -- more importantly -- increases the range, making it a situationally very useful skill depending on the flow of the game.
Champions that have the "Ball of stats" on their One Point Wonder :
: Demacian Standard -- required for his Flag-Drag combo, but gives him armor and attack speed per level.
: Caustic Spittle -- increases attack speed by 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30% on top of the resistance shred active effect.
: Shroud of Darkness -- despite the spell shield and the attack speed on blocking a spell with it, also gives attack speed passively.
: Heightened Senses -- extra attack speed and extra movespeed on Valor / Harrier, despite its active giving vision.
: Living Shadow -- 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25% extra bonus AD. You know this one.
: Rampant Growth -- 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10% Cooldown reduction. You also know this one.
The first thing we'll notice is that CertainlyT's champions are definitely not the only ones that rely on ball of stats on passives in order to keep ranking up a skill feeling meaningful or to assist the champion in its power curve scaling. Kog'Maw, Jarvan, Nocturne, Quinn, these champions all have "ball of stats" on their one point wonder to make leveling them up feel worthwhile. If CertainlyT is guilty of anything, it is trying to make a character that is iconic with neat mechanics or roles, and these characters and mechanics by design tend to have at least one One Point Wonder (such as Zyra using seeds for plants, or Zed using shadows for spell duplication, or Darius being a meatgrinder that can occasionally pull you close). Whether this is good or bad design is debateable, but if I had to pick, I would much rather have "balls of stats" on an ability than have a true One Point Wonder, because then I'm stuck with a champion that has an irregular power curve. Does Akali care what level her Twilight Shroud or Crescent Slash is? Not really, and yet if they were tuned in such a way as to be good at higher ranks then her power budget could be spent on things other than her Q and Ult : she wouldn't suddenly spike at six, nine, and eleven because that's when her only two useful skills become maxed / available, it would be spread out over her entire kit.
How much extra base damage or scaling would they have to put into Zed's Q and E in order to ensure he can continue to output damage if they were to remove the scaling passive on his W? He only has three damaging abilities, and one of them is almost a pure amplifier that doesn't do much damage alone; what would they have to do to make up for having only 3.5 abilities, if that? Argue about Zed's mechanics and numbers all you want, but I shudder to think of a Zed that is designed and balanced around hitting peak effectiveness at level 13 instead of level 18.
TL;DR -- Zed's AD scaling on his W is a good thing and, honestly, I think more should be done to other champions to bring them more in-line with this kind of philosophy to stamp out other One Point Wonders, since those that have these kinds of patterns tend to almost always be problematic in regards to power scaling throughout the game, which you'll notice by looking at the champions above that have those kinds of skills.
