[MATH] Let's Discuss 5.22

So I though I'd write up what I think on the changes, and apply logic to this (rather than simply yelling "omg op"), and attempt to approach this from a game design perspective (as well as potentially offer solutions). Maybe it'll help, who knows. Edit: this ended up being MUCH more verbose than I had imagined. I will continue writing this later if anyone's interested (so rito gets some feedback from a third party observer with actual data).

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Morning Section: 13/11/2015

Quinn Changes (tl;dr you're worried for nothing)

• AD: Start with ~5 more damage, end up with ~5 damage less at level 18. We see Riot trying to lower the power/time curve here. Nothing immediately wrong with this (as long as other champions have the same applied to them).
• Harrier: removed flat damage (25-215), but instead of 0.5 bonus ad, scaling becomes 0.5 ad. At level 18, Quinn has ~99 base damage. At level 1, it's ~57. Also, crit chance -> cooldown reduction. This is obviously Riot once again lowering the power/time curve : this makes harrier do more damage early on, but progressively less as time goes on.
• Aerial Assault: high base damage -> low base damage. Low bonus scaling -> medium-high total scaling. Less AP scaling. Up to double damage based on missing health. No more blind. Grants Harrier. Halves cooldown if it kills a unit (this is an AoE). This went from a "make this one guy stop bothering me" to a useful damaging ability. If this was the only change, this would be outright ridiculous, however, in view of the other changes, it makes more sense (see below).
• Heightened Senses: No longer gives bonus attack speed when in ult form (not mentioned, but fairly obvious). Duration 50% shorter. Movement speed granted: now % based. Quinn's base move speed is 335. Boots grant 25 more. Upgraded boots grant 45, 65 for swiftness and 105 for mobis. Since you need to be out of combat to proc mobis, but need to deal damage to proc this, we can ignore mobis. As such, with mobis, she ends up at 400 move speed. This means that, at best, before other % based bonuses (e.g PD), this will at best give her a bonus 160 move speed for 2 seconds, if she builds for it and rushes level 5 on this. This makes her no longer need stuff like black cleaver (which you shouldn't be building anyway, harrier cooldowns!) If you rush this over your other skills, you're giving up massive amounts of killing potential, so this is probably an attempt to keep her relevant in the late game.
• Tag Team: tl;dr you get tons of move speed after a channel, taking damage from creeps/monsters slows, champ/turrets cancel it. Dealing damage gets you out. No more bonuses beyond move speed in this mode. Skystrike is now essentially an AoE autoattack that can't crit. What does this mean:
  • You can no longer use this to escape on its own, like old Tag Team.
  • This is no longer useful as a combat ult, (before it gave massive attack speed AND good AoE damage that increased with lower hp AND a ride). This means that Quinn is weaker in teamfights.
  • It costs a good chunk of your mana bar in the early game, making it hard to use as anything beyond a replacement. In the mid game it takes less mana, but still uses some. This makes roaming more doable, but you're missing farm, and if the enemy dodges it, you lost time and mana on nothing. Later in the game? SPLITPUSH!
  • Summary: this is not nearly as unbalanced as people think it is, it has a very high power/time curve, which helps keep Quinn relevant late game, since without a combat ult she can't do much otherwise.
• Summary: The triple passive proc is weaker late game is about as strong as a double proc pre-patch, q is stronger to make her relevant, ult is not as op as you might think due to the limitations it has.

Graves Changes (tl;dr massive number tweaking needed)

• AD: post-patch end game is at 104 base. Pre-patch is 110. He gets ~6 bonus early game. Curve is shifted lower, same way as Quinn, but with higher delta. Range is lower (it better be, see below). Attack speed slightly higher (probably to compensate for the range, but I don't think it's needed considering his e). More armor per level (definitely was not needed, all this does is make him stronger late game for free).
• New Destiny: shoots out four bullets. First one deals 0.7-1.1 ad (scales with level), others add on 25-33% (scales with level). Crits shoot out 9-10 bullets instead (depends on whether or not you have IE).
  • Let's just do calculations for how much damage he can deal at level 1, and compare it to say... Caitlyn (who is fairly balanced at the moment).
    • At level 1, Graves will have ~61 ad, + 20 ad from runes (because if you're not going ad runes on graves you're silly) + 8 ad on Doran's. This gives us ~90 ad. If you only hit one bullet (poking from max range), you will deal 63 damage. If you hit all 4 bullets (point blank), you deal ~111 damage. If you got some crit quints or something, and you happen to crit, this becomes 175.
    • Caitlyn starts at ~54 ad + 20 ad from runes + 8 ad on Doran's. This makes 82 ad. Caitlyn also gets less from attack speed (modifier, see Kalista as an example, she has an ad modifier, but let's not mention this). This means 82 damage per hit (a bit higher than graves at max range, but much lower than at point blank). With a headshot, this becomes 123 damage (a bit more than graves at point blank with a normal attack). If she gets a lucky crit, it becomes 164 damage (lower than graves crit). Headshot + Crit becomes 246, but this is very rare (low crit chances early, and headshot isn't super common when graves can dodge the e with his own e, and doesn't step on a trap).
    • Conclusion: graves gets Caitlyn level damage... as his regular attacks, rather than a conditional / rare-er situation.
  • Also very important is that this is a late power/time curve skill. It becomes much stronger as the game goes on. Something that is already VERY strong early and only gets stronger.
• End of the Line: throw a thingy. Deals damage on the way there, more on the way back in a bigger radius. Instantly goes back if hits wall. This scales with bonus ad. If it hadn't, this would make Graves stronger than almost anyone else. Let's just look at its damage and compare it to say... Ekko Q.
  • At level 1, Graves will have ~28 bonus ad. On the way there, it will deal 60+(28x0.75)=81 damage. On the way back it will deal 90+(28x0.4)=101.2 damage. Total: 182 damage. This scales INSANELY with levels: bonus ad ratios TRIPLE by level 5 on the way back, and flat damage TRIPLES on average in both directions by level 5.
  • At level 1, Ekko will have something like 20 ap with runes (at least, that's what my jungle runes give me). Thus, at level 1, it will deal 62 damage on the way out, and 82 damage on the way back. If Ekko also autoattacks and procs his passive, this adds on 36 damage. Total: 180. Ekko needs his passive proc to get close, and still doesn't beat the damage Graves gives out. Moreover, Ekko's Q's flat damage only doubles by level 5, and scaling does not change at all.
  • Let's look at level 5 Q with a single item (let's say... Ghostblade). We now have 103 bonus ad. Outgoing: 140+(103x0.75)=237.5 , Secondary: 350+(103x1.2)=473.6. Total: 712 damage. This is at level 9, still in laning phase, with a single item.
  • With a single 3200 gold item (let's say... Luden's Echo), Ekko now has 120 ap. He also gets a 112 (120x0.1=12) damage boost on a hit, so we'll add that. We'll also say his Q is level 5. Ekko now will deal 112 damage from ludens, + 134 (outgoing) + 232 (incoming, 160+(120x0.6)=232) damage on his Q. This is a total of 478. Let's add his passive, at level 5 Q, 1 item Ekko should be level 9-ish. We thus add 10+90+(120x0.8)=196 damage. This makes it 674 damage. This is lower than graves Q alone, despite us including Luden's Echo damage and Ekko's passive proc.
  • Here's a little detail to make this sillier: Ekko's Q stays in flight for 2 seconds (this is not written anywhere, so I simply went to the champion wiki and watched the video, timing it). Graves? 1 second. This means that Graves' Q is twice as hard to dodge, even with boots. Moreover, Graves Q can detonate instantly if it hits a wall, removing the risk altogether. Moreover (!), since the back shot is in a "T" shape, a failed initial sidestep almost guarantees you get his by it on the way back.
  • Summary: Graves Q has amazing early game damage, insane scaling in the late game (surpassing Ekko bursts on the power spike) and is harder to dodge. This is outright ridiculous amounts of damage for how safe this poke is. To top it off, it doesn't even cost much mana (only his e costs less, and that's a passive reset, see above).
• Smoke Screen: tl;dr people can't see outside the smokescreen at all. Honestly, this isn't too bad. It was more or less intended that way. However, it's effectively a blind, making trading in his lane (against another adc) easier. This would be ok, but he doesn't even need it with the ridiculous damage he gets.
• Quickdraw: Resets attack timer. Resets passive. Grants defense. Lower cooldowns early game. The cooldown refund is halved, but then you realize that it's per BULLET hit. This means that cooldown refund is doubled if all his bullets find SOME target. If he crits with IE, and all 10 bullets find a target, he gets FIVE SECONDS off the cd. And it resets attack timer. The curve here is once again really high in both low and high time positions.
• Collateral Damage: tl;dr this pushes you back ala Caitlyn E. This encourages its use as a finisher, rather than a way to get some damage while chasing, or teamfights. Nothing wrong with this change.
• Summary: Graves is outright ridiculous. He benefits from virtually every change made this preseason.

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