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Skill Shot Champions

FarRockBF··1 votes·1,078 views

I know there are a few that do rather well. But the likes of Ezreal, Brand, and co. seem to do poorly very often. I recently started playing Brand and on YouTube almost all of the challenger games LOSE when playing him. Even the Ez games, they can win games but rarely win lane (Ez mid). I was wondering why. Here is my conclusion:

Skill shots; delayed ones in particular (Brand W, Ez ult, Velkoz) need to be stronger because of the ease of dodge. With boots it is quite easy to dodge Brand's W. Problem is, top tier players can read your mind - they know what your reaction will be and cast accordingly. So the skill shot damage needs to be toned down so that all Challenger players don't play these champions. Then the lower level players who miss often now do less damage even when they manage to hit.

Seems skill shot champions are very hard to balance. I say this as a player who plays at a low gold level - I do very well with champs like Annie, Nunu, etc., and pretty poorly with skill-shot champs like Ez.

2 Comments

MadDoughnutz3 votes

Ironically, skillshot champions take just that: More skill. Because of this, however, they are given stronger abilities compared to others, not because of it being a skillshot itself, but because skillshots are unreliable. I play a lot of Vel'koz, and I can say for a fact his burst is almost always 100-0, IF you land his skill shots(Which is everything). High reward, for a high risk of missing. Did I mention all his damage is AoE, too?

Brand is a bit like this too, but his ultimate is the stand-out of it because it requires multiple targets for max damage. Brand puts out insane amounts of AoE damage, once again, if he lands the proper combo and has the proper setup.

Ezreal is a bit iffy on this because while he is a skillshot champion, he is also very safe for one, too.

But, yes. At higher levels, challenger players will be able to dodge more skill shots then get hit by them, but you also have to keep in mind that there are other challenger players using said skill-shot champions, who know how to land and counter-predict movement. But, it goes back to the source then: Skillshot champions take skill, and it's almost always a case of the skill shot player playing better(Or worse) then the other player.

TL;DR, skillshot champions are fine if you have the skill to use them.

The Whamboozler1 votes

Yeah, this is most certainly an issue. I love me some skillshot champs. Lux is probably my fav champ in the game, and I'll admit she's just a poor pick now. There are so many things acting against you when you pick someone like that. Simple targeted abilities rule the roost now because you can't mess them up. Miss your ult as AP ez and you lost a HUGE portion of what made you matter in a fight. Miss your Q as Lux and you can forget about doing much for the next 10 seconds. It might even kill you if they can dive you.

That's the second problem. Mobility creep isn't just pushing out immobile champs, it's ruining skillshot based ones. Champs like Lucian, Kalista and Yasuo are incredibly hard to land anything on unless it has a huge area of effect, and most skillshots are lines. A champ who takes skill to hurt you should have more to offer than a character with simple point and click skills due to how they can be outplayed easier. No force on earth will keep Kayle from landing her Q... or WW from ulting you... Or Ryze from landing EVERYTHING HE DOES. It's very simple to understand really. Unless a skillshot champ offers decidedly MORE than a targeted one, the skillshot champ is always worse off. Why would I pick a skillshot champ if there is another champ who can't mess up his abilities and who offers equal damage, CC or utility? In the era of super-mobile champs you NEED that reliable attack to keep the enemy from facerolling you with some obnoxious mobile hypercarry or assassin. Compounding the problem is that a lot of skillshot champs are very immobile (And often rather squishy) themselves and you can see how disadvantaged they are against a team that can dodge their spells and jump onto them in an instant, blowing them up while their cooldowns are up. Yes, this is an inherent weakness of skillshot champs, but if you land your skills despite this... shouldn't you be able to do something at least as devastating to them as they could have to you if they'd evaded them and got in on you?

Then there's the fact that ping is NOT created equal. If you live on the east coast and you like Lux or Ezreal... expect to get wrecked by west coasters playing nearly anything. They just have a natural edge in reaction time due to their better ping. Of course, if all the skillshot champs were buffed this would STILL be an issue, as they'd be far, far better at LANDING those skills too. I merely mentioned it because #eastcoastserverspls.

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