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Current AP Kog'Maw state?

SPAVVN··5 votes·977 views

I played this game since closed beta (high5 to all king Rammus skin owners!) and one champion along with his playstyle really stuck with me. After ADC Rework I have to admit, it made him more unique, but at a cost of his AP side. You might argue that he was not fun to play against before, on which I could partly agree, but he had distinct and exploitable weaknesses. He was rarely played on the pro scene, and he wasn't highly contested pick on solo-q either. So I'll have to conclude that his AP side was not toxic to the gameplay.

Riot said that they were keeping an eye on the AP Kog'Maw while ADC Rework was in progress, but, his current state says it was not enough to keep him viable. I am not going to go into details on how it negatively affected AP Koggy.

I can make a few prepositions on how he could be included in upcoming mage rework, so he can see light of the day again. Keep in mind that I am low Plat player (Currently on EU playing) and that I have 2000+ pre-rework games and 300+ after rework:

  • Just alter the numbers - Although, I like this option the least, it is easiest to do, and might give some more insight on what is the best approach to solve this problem.
  • **Rework Ulti ** - Make it reward chaining in a way that doesn't make poking op. Like hitting same champion more than once increases dmg by certain number, which could scale more with AP so it doesn't affect AD Kog too much. Current ult is just not satisfying to use at all. Except maybe to execute champs, but even then it often surprises enemies with dmg (even me, lol) which is hard to anticipate.
  • Passive - Like, really, this is probably most useless passive in game, especially for very high range carry (I wonder why wasn't it changed in last rework, I hope Riot saved it for mages one ;) ). Give it some distinct mechanism that scales only with his AP side. AD Kog'Maw will not be affected at all and you could make totally new perspective to playing this champ. There are so much options that could work wonders here.

I would really love to see void puppy back in the mid lane, if there is at least one Rioter who plays AP Kog, some insight would be very appreciated.

14 Comments

ofart3 votes

if you want to play him as a poke mage his state is pretty bad

now on the other hand, if you want to go a Rageblade-Runaan's-Bork style build, his state is still pretty bad lol

I have a nightmare where I see Morello chop off Kog's head whenever he's header mid lane - scary

this sums it up nicely

SPAVVN1 votes

I was getting ready to argue you about that second point up until last part, lol. I just don't see why would anyone pick him over Corki because of that AD/AP dmg.

Haven't seen that post before, but some things I couldn't have said better myself.

SPAVVN2 votes

I am trying to raise awareness before mages rework occur so Rioters, and the community, have enough time to work on it!

KogMaw (Isn't he the cutest character?)

Aennya3 votes

he is. and i miss the old kogmaw KogMaw

Aennya2 votes

i really agree with u in every point. i loved the poke ap kogmaw last season and had so much fun playing him. it would be enough for me if they would just change the ulti so its no execute anymore and u can use it for poking again. i would be so happy^^

Seenan1 votes

One time I was supporting a Kog bot...And everyone including me were like 'noooooooooo don't kog he sucks atm'...Starts carrying by literally rushing a Rageblade. I'm not saying he's strong, but that shut us all up.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

One time I was supporting a Kog bot...And everyone including me were like 'noooooooooo don't kog he sucks atm'...Starts carrying by literally rushing a Rageblade. I'm not saying he's strong, but that shut us all up.

He's 'strong' if you under-estimate his damage and try jumping on him when he has Rageblade stacked. That ends in disaster for a pretty large portion of the game's cast. Kog is very weak against champs who can just disengage when he pops W and then come back six seconds later to kick his teeth in.

SPAVVN1 votes

Yes, but all that is beyond my point. I am talking about AP Kog'Maw. Current AP Kog'Maw doesn't even put points in W, except maybe one for easier farming.

Rebonack1 votes

Best possible thing for AP Kog: Make his Ult scale smoothly with 2.666% bonus damage per 1% missing HP. That would make it hit 200% bonus damage at 25% health, just like live. However, it would be vastly more useful at all other health levels aside from 100%.

I don't think giving Kog back his relentless poke is that great of an idea. Corki and Ez have that covered on the ADC side while Xerath and Ziggs are supposed to be covering that base for Mages. Kog can keep his execute, it just needs to be more flexible.

SPAVVN1 votes

So, have ultimate ability just so it can execute really low hp enemies? I don't see how is that supposed to be fun. And besides, that bonus damage in 90% of cases is not even needed, its just an overkill. If you are not going for poke, at least give him useful W for AP.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

So, have ultimate ability just so it can execute really low hp enemies? I don't see how is that supposed to be fun. And besides, that bonus damage in 90% of cases is not even needed, its just an overkill. If you are not going for poke, at least give him useful W for AP.

An ideal fix for AP Kog would be something like-

  1. Lower the cooldown on his Q so that it is on par with other long-range Mages to give him a reliable source of damage against healthy targets.

  2. Smooth scaling on his Ult would make it break even with the old Ult at about 60% HP, give or take. It would still be primarily an execute tool, but it would deal more damage to healthier foes. However, a more spamable Q would now be Kog's primary tool for wearing targets down.

Because let's face it. Riot might tweak numbers, but they aren't going to revert the fundamental changes they made to W and R.

SPAVVN1 votes

  1. I am really not in favor of Q change, because that would affect AD Kog too much. And it is pretty boring ability and low range. I want him to have distinct role as Mage. Maybe give it new passive, that could work.

  2. I was thinking about altering numbers to 66% and 33% instead of 50/25. But still it is pretty unreliable, if they wanted to make it execute tool, why wouldn't they make it scale with missing HP is beyond my reasoning. He is supposed to be able to kill tanks after all.

I was thinking about giving him more unique playstyle, Maybe having minimum range of 300-500 on ult and increasing numbers? It is artillery after all.

After all, I am quite sure i read red post saying that they are not happy with Kogs rework.

Rebonack1 votes

{quoted}

  1. I am really not in favor of Q change, because that would affect AD Kog too much. And it is pretty boring ability and low range. I want him to have distinct role as Mage. Maybe give it new passive, that could work.

  2. I was thinking about altering numbers to 66% and 33% instead of 50/25. But still it is pretty unreliable, if they wanted to make it execute tool, why wouldn't they make it scale with missing HP is beyond my reasoning. He is supposed to be able to kill tanks after all.

I was thinking about giving him more unique playstyle, Maybe having minimum range of 300-500 on ult and increasing numbers? It is artillery after all.

After all, I am quite sure i read red post saying that they are not happy with Kogs rework.

Riot Repertoire is the one who worked on it, and he doesn't seem super-happy with how it turned out. Unfortunately, there are quite a few folks on the balance team who want Kog to be balanced purely around LCS, even if that means he's dead weight in Solo.

'course, the Pros won't even touch Kog.

So there's that.

Bemapon1 votes

I mean I had a pretty good game as AP Kog...

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