Discussion Regarding Caitlyn in Preseason

Hello all. I'm sure everyone's busy calling for witchunts for certain champions, and bashing either Riot or the people bashing Riot, but I would like to take a moment to talk about .

As a disclaimer, I am no expert and have only recently picked her up about a week or two before preseason. So far I would like to think that I've played an acknowledgeable number of games with this champion both before and after preseason, since I binge played her for most of the past three weeks, and here are some of my thoughts.

I have mixed feelings about the Q changes, as the increased initial hit damage is quite a surprising buff, and the whole "expanding after first target hit" is a pretty nifty mechanic. The changes also make it so that you have to actually take the time to aim your Q properly if you intend to hit any kind of target, moving or no. I believe that is great as it encourages counterplay and such, but I am slightly worried about what this may mean against experienced players or champions well equipped in terms of mobility. Regardless of whether this is intended or not, it does make the Caitlyn Q a much more of a situational tool. I think only time will really tell what the skill can and cannot do.

The passive revamp is certainly an interesting change, and I personally believe it is for the better. It does seem to give Caitlyn some more... personality, if you will. However, I have, like the Q, found it to be very situational, and have discovered the hard way that the double range headshot does not always work in a way you would expect or desire it to. I will explain with more detail when talking about the skills that trigger said headshots.

The W changes are a much welcome buff to the traps that make them a bigger presence in Caitlyn's kit. This is most likely personal bias but having spammy traps really... isn't that massive a change. The snare cooldown makes it impossible to chain traps for extended cc, and against players that already know how to avoid traps entirely and those that can nullify the effect of traps, being able to set down more does not make that much of a difference.

So I think it would be fair to call this change more of a quality of life change than an actual buff, which leaves the traps, once again, as a very situational tool. Perhaps to chain crowd control with teammates, or to zone and limit mobility early game. There's also the sad fact that a part of me dies a little on the inside whenever I happen to stray away from my traps and all of the enemies just run into them and essentially reset my meticulously planned layout.

To me, it seems like the E change has had the most impact on her kit than anything else. It is understandable, as much of her power is being shifted elsewhere onto her kit, but the reduced net range, jump range, and projectile speed are all really hard hits on Caitlyn's ability to survive. The reduced range means that your range of slowing enemy champions with gapclosing capabilities is reduced, significantly widening the window in which you are vulnerable to being pounced on by one damage dealer or another. This is a great problem when dealing with champions that may have a dash type gapcloser or otherwise ranged engage ability that emphasizes counterplay BEFORE the killer reaches its target. The reduced projectile speed capitalizes on this weakness, as well as making it significantly easier to dodge.

The reduced jump range, however, is slightly more difficult to gauge. On the one hand, this really emphasizes caitlyn's positioning as it makes some walls harder or even impossible to jump through as well as reducing the amount of safe distance she can gain in an emergency situation. I think that's a pretty good thing. However, like the changes to the range and projectile speed, this really exposes caitlyn to a lot more dangerous situations, even if it is not too often that the 100 range makes a life or death difference. It still does matter.

All in all, I have mixed feelings about the way that Caitlyn now seems to depend more on her team to provide cc, save her from sticky situations, provide vision for better positioning, etc. mainly because that will be very hard to play with at lower ranks or in solo queue. However, I can see how she could be extremely potent in higher level team oriented play just thanks to her sheer range and damage, since she seems to scale exponentially with teamwork and coordination in her current state. There are also certain parts of her kit like her traps and such that really changes around what she can do at different levels of play.

All in all, I believe Caitlyn has become much more situational, and I'm not entirely sure if I like it or not since I enjoy going solo hunting down people like the sniper lady I am. How do you people feel about her changes? Am I stupidly mistaken about something? Also, perhaps most importantly, HOW DO I GIT GUD AT PRESEASON CAITLYN ?!? I came in expecting a buff and somehow feel like it's been nerfed... [zombie-nunu-bummed]

Thank you.

P.S.: rest in peace armor penetration