the marksman class requires a complete revision..

i mostly write this after coming back to the game and playing some rankeds/normals, could count lke 60% of the time the enemy team picked or with the occasional as jungler. outside of those three i have yet to see anyone pick from the complete list of marksmen in the game and that brings some concern.

Theory:

my only hypothesis is that the new runes and champions have morphed beyond what was considered the traditional view of the class as a whole (long range damage dealers that rely on basic attacks and have somewhat low mobility and lack of defense to compensate). with the release of it seems that we need a revision of all the marksmen in the game and put them into the new vision.

Redefining the class:

one option that would more or less follow in Riot's style of balancing should be to properly separate the class into at least 3 different subclasses and organize and balance the champions following the defined conventions for each one. the Marksman class would be divided into 3 different subclasses that are focused on an specific playstyle.

1. Hunters: this subclass is composed of marksmen with an emphasis on moving around and killing enemies at close/medium range. they have the best mobility and attack speed growth but their volley damage and range is low. the hunter class role is to chase targets and kill them with sustained damage rather than bursting them down

2. Snipers: this subclass is composed of marksmen with an emphasis on long range sharpshooting, with the longest range to be found in the class but an average mobility and attack speed, they are more focused on nuking people out from extreme distances either with some basic attacks and with the use of their abilities

3. Bombardiers: also nicknamed "Siegers", this subclass is composed of marksmen with an emphasis on the hardest volley damage and defenses in the whole class at the cost of the lowest attack speed and mobility and above average range. their role is mostly to destroy important objectives like structures or large monsters

one thing to note is that this classification is very basic and may not apply too well to how teams work in league but basically provide clear strengths and weaknesses for each role.

marksmen that could(probably) fit in the Hunter subclass ->

marksmen that could(probably) fit in the Sniper subclass ->

marksmen that could(probably) fit in the Bombardier subclass ->

some things to note:

-this isnt 100% accurate because many of these champions would require changes in their kit in order to make them fill the archetype, however they already have some resemblance to what the role entails

-there's a lot of other marksmen floating around that have their habilities all over the place regarding these and would need to be taken as special cases or would have to get reworked to fit in one of the 3 subclasses. for example has traits of bot Sniper and Hunter due to her long range shock, machinegun to rocket launcher swaps and global ultimate; would technically fill the role of a Bombardier but it would mean she would have to become tankier and loose some of her range and attack speed potential in order to compensate if that were the case (otherwise she's kinda like a Bombardier/Hunter hybrid).

Additional changes that may be required to make this work:

1. AD, Defenses, Movement Speed and Attack Speed rebalances: as you can see each role has its own clear differentiations regarding these 4 strengths, some marksmen would become more inmobile, others would loos their burst potential and others would gain either more raw firepower or tank.

2. AD item changes: i think that most of the fat is shed in point No. 1 but if needed, marksman items would have to also reflect those 3 roles (and be ranged specific this time or not provide certain bonuses for melee), items for Hunters would provide bonus damage in the form of on-hit effects with lifesteal for extra sustain, Sniper items would provide CDR with AD for harder basic attacks and more ability spam, Bombardier items would provide Armor/MR with attack speed to ensure less time between volleys during teamfights or 1v1 situations.

3. Remove Crit: i heard this stat may be removed in the future but the sooner the better, its not like there's too much damage nowadays.

note: these item changes will probably cause a lot of rage if other classes use them but the idea is to gate them for ranged champions only and with bonuses consistent with the role so you dont get things like Snipers that can outspeed people or Hunters that become unkillable due to having better defenses and damage.

this is more or less what i consider would broaden the use of the class as a whole, it would probably take a whole patch to implement or even 2 but its something that has to be done eventualy.