Jhin/Xerath Ultimates

GhostOfHarrenhal··2 votes·806 views

When I first saw the new champion Jhin's abilities, I found his ult familiar. As a Xerath Xerath main (yes, we do exist), I immediately recognized the similarities between Jhin's ult (Curtain Call) and Xerath's (Rite of the Arcane). Both are long range, sniping skillshots that lock the user in one place, and are useful for securing kills of fleeing enemies. Their shapes are different, and their functionalities set them far enough apart, but the basic concept is the same for both ults. Jhin's ult feels very smooth, zooming out the camera, giving you full vision of your target area.

Despite the similarities, Xerath's ult lacks the same "pan out" feature. His ult is very hard to use in quick situations, not because of the difficulty of the ability itself, but because of the constant panning the ability requires. Constantly slamming of the cursor against the side of the screen or frantic guesses on the minimap cost precious seconds, and thus, precious kills, making the ability feel rather clunky. In such a fast paced game, a poorly designed ability can mean the whole match. His clunky ult likely contributes to him being one of the least played champions in the game.

However, if the pan out feature of Jhin's ult was added to Xerath's as well, the ult would feel much more streamline, and could be used more effectively. It would enable his ult to be used more in the fashion that it was intended to. I'm not proposing that we change anything at all in how the ult is casted, but rather make it more streamline, and fit more with the ever-smoother direction that the game is headed.

TL;DR Give Xerath's ultimate a similar "zoom out" effect to Jhin's ult.

Please tell me what you like/dislike about the idea! If you agree, lets get this idea big so we can see it in-game!

1 Comments

Xealchim1 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/wu5LK1IO-can-we-make-xeraths-ult-zoom-out-like-jhins?comment=0011

{quoted}

Sadly, not with the current tech.

Zoom outs can only go so far before things start looking bad, FPS goes down, and possible buggy stuff gets more prevalent. Jhin's R only zooms out to a 3500 range cone. Xerath's would have to zoom out to a 5600 range circle. That's a huge difference in amount of visible area.

Additionally, from a mechanics standpoint: while it would be nice for Xerath to be able to see himself while ulting (so he doesn't get killed) it's not actually important for him to see the area between where he is and where he's aiming since his shots can't be blocked. Jhin's R stops on first champion hit so being able to see the whole area is needed for the spell to feel right.

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