A Critique of Jihn

Disclaimer This is obviously not going to talk about balance or potential place Jihn may have in League. Don't expect anything of that sort.

A virtuoso, an artist, the best at what he does, these are the elements of Jihn we had been given in his teasers. We also knew he would use guns and with the quote of "Making them beautiful" implied that he would have a sort of artistic flair to him. There could have been a lot of supernatural elements handled that related to art, paint, or something of that sort which, correct me if I'm wrong, we don't really have yet. His kit, however, is the exact opposite of expectation. In fact, he is a gross amalgamation of absolutely everything that is currently wrong with the state of champion design.

How do I mean? Nearly every ability is reskinned from other champions loaded on with contrived and forced kit synergy to feel coherent and topped with generous amounts of %Health damage. To be honest, Jihn's kit is borderline insulting to the player base. Don't believe me?

His passive is obviously very similar to Grave's. Q is bouncing blade, W is generic line skillshot #47 and the E is Teemo ult mixed with cait E. Let's not forget his ult is basically just smashing together MF and Xerath. Illaoi wasn't exactly super original either but her passive allowed her otherwise generic kit to be rather interesting. Kindred was also an ADC jungler, something new. The last five champion releases have all felt pretty lackluster but they at least delivered on the themes of the character, something Jihn does not do.

Why does an artist use grenades and traps? Is it because we haven't had someone in awhile tossing them around? If anything, he provides the idea of a long range sniper fantasy better than Caitlyn currently does. With such a massive W and R, along with traps to watch your back, it's kind of silly to put him in a game alongside someone like her and expect it to feel right. Not to mention, if his title as a virtuoso was supposed to refer to music instead of art, why does he lack any sort of musical concepts either? The only artistic thing about Jihn is the rose that flashes after his E explodes. Guess who else shows a rose crest when they do something? Fiora. Even his only redeeming quality is recycled.

JIhn could be better, Riot could do better, and we as players and customers deserve better.