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Low risk champions

Rozg··2 votes·1,195 views

Hey guys. I wanted to ask if anyone else noticed this, but thesechampions - Lux, Ahri and Xerath seem to be... in a kinda weird spot. What's my problem with them? You at instant probably noticed their similar gameplay: long range poke, strong combo, powerful crowd-control and a perfect late-game scaling. I named this discussion "Low risk champions" because, in fact, those are low risk champions. They will prevail against anything - assasins, battle mages, hyper carries. What's going on? At the moment, their early game, mid game and late game seem to be without any flaws. At early, they cannot be punished - as if they land their crowd-control spell on you, you will massively lose the trade, you'll even probably get yourself killed. "Just evade" duh. We are talking about melee range. Anyone with half of a brain will not waste their crowd-control spell to poke you from afar, especially that these fly quite slowly. Lux has a 2.5 sec. root, Ahri has 1.5-2.75 (if I remember correctly) sec. charm (!), and xerath has a 0.25 to 2 sec. stun. In all three cases, being hit by it, means that you're pretty much dead (even in that 0.25 sec, Xer can land his WQ, and that's lots of damage).

Overall, I think their lategame, damage output, crowd-control and roaming & gank potential is without any trade-off. Their early game is strong, their mid game is strong, they even snowball comparably to any assassin. The question is, why? They lose nothing, even if they lose lane, they can comeback, since crowd-control saves the day, they outrange everyone, their base damages allow them to deal huge damage to the squishies even when behind.

TL;DR Burst mages with CC have no trade-offs and perform better than any other midlaner champs.

inb4 just dodge their skillshots 4Head

7 Comments

Jamaree2 votes

I wouldn't call Xerath and Lux low risk, as they get to have that poke at the cost of no mobility.

MankeyMadness1 votes

{quoted}

I wouldn't call Xerath and Lux low risk, as they get to have that poke at the cost of no mobility.

Theyre just Artillery mages just like Zoe and Ziggs, but with more reliable range in exchange for not having the partial/situational mobility the other two have. I forget if Syndra is considered Artillery or not, but Jhin is also an Artillery Mage iirc despite building like an ADC. And Kog, but only after level 6

And then Ahri is an Assassin so Im not sure where OP thinks she has long range. Q travels what, 600 units? Might be longer but its not Artillery tier. Bard and Liss can hit you from that range if played well.

Zed and Azir can do it while parking their hitbox under a turret.

The Ecdysiast2 votes

Well the issue is you're wrong. The risk is that they're completely immobile and rely on skillshots. But you for some reason lumped them together with Ahri, who is mobile.

That said though, you're complaining about three of the easiest champions to build against in the game. Maw and Nullifying Orb can almost remove their ability to kill you at all, and unlike champions with knockups, you can just stack tenacity against them.

You've got Legend: Tenacity, Unflinching, and Merc treads. I'll test out how much you can get with a reasonable build for you in a sec, too. Since the wiki only shows how much the max is when a champ already has it.

Alright, got it. So with just those three things, very few changes to your runes/items, you get 63% tenacity. Cutting their stuns and charm down below half the normal duration. An Elixir of Iron on top of that bumps it to 71%.

Boltonator1 votes

The only one I will agree on needing perhaps a slight adjustment is Lux. Her Q is deceptive in its hit-detection sometimes, her mana costs early-game don’t seem harsh enough yet, aside from that, there really isn’t anything that makes her less oppressive than say Leblanc who melts your face before you can even register that she is there.

Ahri is heavily-dependent on landing her E in order to really do any burst damage, even late game in a cluster. She is technically an assassin and her kit is reflective of that (with the exception of her W imho) but, as with any champion, when she is fed then she can be downright oppressive to play against. Since she is an assassin you cannot afford to go easy on her, even if she is struggling and even if your team has a solid lead. The best thing I can suggest is to use your minion waves to block her charm, since it will CC the first unit hit, even a non-champion.

Xerath is an odd choice as far as “oppressive champions” are concerned. Xerath is entirely skill-shot based and sacrifices a lot of mobility to reach the damage output he is capable of. His stun is a bit of a nuisance but it only stuns for longer if you are further away from him when it hits you. Fight in close quarters if you can and, when he begins his long-range charge skill, it slows him down immensely, a death sentence if he is caught out of position. Watch for him in teamfights and, if he isn’t visible when it starts, assume he will be looking to pick off stragglers with his ultimate. His R immobilizes him and is really only used on retreating enemies (just like with Jhins R) so if you can get to him/find him during this time he is essentially a sitting duck and will be forced to cancel the channel early.

Dokueki Kenshin1 votes

So, I get where you’re coming from, but I think you might be misinterpreting what roles these champions serve. While I suppose Lux could indeed qualify as a “burst mage” (her damage output is quite ridiculous late game), I believe she technically Lux technically qualifies as a control mage: hard CC, mid-range spells, self-team shielding. Her weaknesses are her prohibitive mana costs early game, her lack of mobility, and her reliance on skill shots. Lux can be frustrating to fight against, especially post 6, but remember that you have a reasonable chance to avoid most of what she throws out at you 1v1.

Ahri is honestly more of an assassin, considering the movement her ultimate offers her and how quickly it comes off cooldown, but I totally agree that she’s obnoxious, and I personally feel she needs a nerf or five.

Xerath is what is classified as an artillery mage. Him having very long range is kinda his schtick because once you get on him, he has very little, if anything, he can do to stop you. A good time to go in on him is when he’s trying to proc his passive, since he has to auto a minion or champion to get mana back, and his abilities have high mana costs. Also, he moves about as fast as a drunk sloth, so there’s that, too.

ROYALR3IGN1 votes

Artillery Champions have always been like this. Although I wouldn't call Ahri one as she's more of a skirmisher/assassin.

They do have trade offs. They have high mana costs, and lack mobility. If they use their spells for wave clear they're vulnerable to all ins, and their predictable defensive skills have a slow projectile speed especially when up against the instant reposition abilities that someone like Zed has it's no contest unless it's timed and aimed perfectly.

Ahri Baka1 votes

Being Low risk means also low reward Except for Ahri when she has her Ult , she becomes Medium Risk Medium reward ( not too high nor too low ) Ahri doesn't scale that high Lux scales good but she has so much counter play , any class in the game has tools to avoid her damage if they even get caught Xerath is the one that actually becomes Low Risk high reward but that's in late game when he really scales well as he is supposed to anyway since he is a mage However , all those champions can die the moment they get caught especially when they use their cc ability ( in case Ahri has no Ult )

Lower range champions usually mean more damage , assassins are the best class to reach them , despite being melees , they have mobility and high damage to cover being melee , the moment they reach their targets , they usually kill

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