The idea of the basic attack

Ah hmm, hello, I see a lot of discussions centering on the power of ADCs and what their power spikes should be. I thought about it for a long while, exactly what marksmen were advertised as, and what they actually are in game. II'll be covering some side effects and causes to the current problem. I also wanted to talk a bit about crit, and give some ideas as to what changes could be made to improve diversity among marksmen and their play styles.

The Auto-Attack So when people talk about autos, they rarely bring up the idea that Auto attacks are among the shortest CD spells in the game. That's right, technically they're just spells with their own CD displayed as a frequency rather than a period, under 'attack speed' and their targeting system is point-and-click as opposed to a skill shot. They have 0 base damage , but scale with 100% of your total AD. They scale with multipliers such as armor penetration and most importantly CRIT. Their CDR is called Attack speed. It can be 'consistently' as low as 0.4s (2.50 attack speed). However, most marksmen don't go much higher than 2.08ish without an attack speed modifier. 2.08 attaack speed is still a CDR of 0.48s. This is 0.48s on a spell point-and-click spell that can deal anywhere from 100% Total AD to 250% total AD (ignoring resistances). However, given that most marksmen don't build 100% crit, the average of that is lowered to about 70-80% of that damage, about 175-200% damage depending on if they go ER-IE-Zeal or IE-Zeal-Zeal. This is still an incredibly large amount of potential damage being output at the rate it is.

Damage-Per-Second Now, the class is often declared to be a DPS source. See, DPS is traditionally known as a low CD Not always HIGH DAMAGE source. The benefit of having a DPS is that if left alone during a fight the user will output consistent but not necessarily high damage over the course of a fight. It's this mindset that created the support role in the bot lane with the marksman, as the marksman required protection to ensure that it could matter as a damage source. Ordinarily the base roles would be Assassin: single target burst damage Marksman: consistent damage per second, Tank: could absorb damage and protect/disrupt using CC Support: used buffs and debuffs to alter the course of a fight (CC may be included) Mage: Higher CD AOE damage Fighter/Bruiser: Semi-tanky single target damage.

• nowadays there are several subclasses and niches, but overall, these were the main roles.

Defense

See the problem isn't marksmen, they're just a symptom. The problem is tankiness * not necessarily tanks, just the stat itself.* The idea of what it means to be tanky has changed over the course of a game, and the value of CC has as well. And the problem is a mix. The first part is aggro. Now in an RPG, tanks and the like aggro through taunting, and while that exists in league, every tank does not have it So the tanks require a different way to draw aggro, and the result is damage. The idea that a tank can and would kill you if you do not kill it. And that is what began the damage creep. Now, here's the issue, the process changed from drawing aggro over the course of a fight, to needing to burst the tank down before you die first. And that led to marksmen getting huge damage through crits. This is often cited as a necessity as tanks now aggro through high base damage. The original tanks would have instead focused on using repeated CC to disrupt an enemy team's DPS. However, CC is now used to create "windows" in which a target is not damaging anyone at all and within that window that target must be killed. This leads to champions - especially squishies- getting bursted within one or two knock-ups or CC. Now that tanks are easily shredded with crit, they're on a timer, before their item purchases are invalidated. with such high damage on 0.48s CD, they're not tanks, and only exist to use one or two types of CC before they die, and if the enemy carry does not die within that window, it's fight over.

CDR Another major issue is CDR creep. Not just in mages, but in marksmen as well, If crit is intended to be a marksman stat, then it should not come coupled with CDR (attack speed), it's as if each CDR item mages had, came with death-caps's passive. Mages should either have lower-damaging skills on a low CD, or a high-damage skill on an equally high CD. That playstyle made it easier for tanks to apply CC on a "high point" in a fight where a spell could change the course of the fight. If DPS is relegated to lower consistent damage, then it allows tanks to feel tanky again and begin applying CC to disrupt a damage stream multiple times, rather than just once. What if knock-ups weren't 1s, what if they were only 0.5s, but had a lower CD? Sure it would be a little annoying but you would only be disrupted, not powerless. It would be easier to cancel channeled spells, and then high damage spells could be given a channel if a low CD was still desired.

Slows Slows now seem a little underwelming because of the abundance and effectiveness of hard CC, this is because of how fast paced the game is. If it's not called wither, or Time Warp, or consistently applied like rylai's or mallet, it's not as effective as, say, Shield of Daybreak, or Terrify. If outright damage from marksmen were lowered, then it would be easier to see the usefulness of slows, as it cuts escape and kiting options for priority targets.

** Kai'Sa** So I began thinking about this with Kai'Sa, because of her 5 hit passive. Now I know it's that many hits because it's meant to deal missing health damage, but I really enjoy that extra that comes with auto attacking. Make it utility based, like Ashe, realize that auto attacks are basically spells too, and give them more spell-like effects.

What to do instead of Crit? Make little mini effects caused by weaving in spells and autos like Kai'Sa, or Ashe, and for god's sake please lower up front damage from crit, while I understand that it's supposed to be a tank-busting stat, tanks only need to be bursted because of their high base damage needed to draw aggro, which only exists because marksmen deal so much damage to others. If marksmen dealt consistent, small, BASE damage over time, and had small mini-missions which allowed them to deal increased damage within small intervals of 2-3s, that would be perfect, and it would allow tanks to use CC multiple times in a fight to draw aggro instead.

Mage Side effects If Marksmen damage goes down, then lower DPS mage damage as they no longer have to compete, and widen the gap in CDs between Burst combo mages, and DPS mages. If a mage has a single high damage spell, give it a huge CD so they use it once or twice in a fight, but not ever 2-3s. If you want to continue with low CD, high damage spells, give it a channel, which allows for skill expression through using it at the right time, or being disrupted by a tank.

Tank Side Effects If overall damage goes down, tank damage can take a huge hit as their ability to apply CC multiple times in a fight becomes their main source of drawing aggro. Their feeling of being tanky stays and DPS can still kill them as their CDs on auto attacks are low compared to mages and assassins.

Fighter/Bruiser side effects With auto-based dps lowered, the fighters will feel tanky again after their two-ish tank item purchases, once again allowing them to fulfill their roles as divers alongside vanguards as a frontline and allowing them to regain CDs for more than one combo before death, exceeding marksmen DPS for a small interval in which their combo is being executed, allowing for a kill onto priority targets while being able to survive afterwards if the target was not properly protected.

Support Uses of heals and shield will become more important as marksmen will actually need them to overcome a diver or assassin long enough for the team to switch focus to the perpetrator, But NOT allowing the marksman to kill said perpetrator on their own This, in turn, allows assassins and divers to feel successful when choosing a good time to go in. This can also allow game devs to lower item effects and focus more on kit design. Redemption, Ardent Censer, Locket, and other similar items no longer need excessive effects to deal with a high burst game style.

Warden-type supports also benefit as their peeling CC is more valuable as the marksman requires actual protection for their damage to matter. If a marksman is killed 3 seconds into a fight, a mage will have dealt more damage in that three seconds, but a protected marksman would deal more damage than a mage in 6 seconds.

Assassin side effects With lower burst damage, the marksman can no longer fight back at all when alone, making solo rotations dangerous, and even during teamfights, they will not be able to burst you down, even with the 2-ish second delay implemented on most assassins. This makes choosing when to go in a more...obvious skill among assassins. It also makes it slightly easier to do as a marksman is not blarging 1k+ crits from the beginning of a team fight.

TL;DR Lower marksman crit damage, and it allows tanks to tank, lower tank base damage now, as they can use multiple applications of hard CC to draw aggro in team fights instead, then Mage damage lowered OR CDs higher in order to differentiate between a "high point" that will need to be on the look out for in team fights, and simple poke. Once Marksman damage is lowered and mage damage is lowered, Assassin kill Delay won't feel shitty, but will allow teams to refocus if they are smart enough to do so. Supports will become more important for their skills, rather than the buffs they give using "OP items". Bruisers will be tanky enough to do their job again, and teamfights won't be over in a single "window" that a single CC would create. IF crit is still necessary (Jhin) ensure there is a wide gap between marksmen with high attack speed, and those who like to crit, as the overall DPS would be similar. Avoid merging the two else we get an exponential damage amp instead of simply multiplicative.

I'm super sorry for how long this was, but marksman crit damage isn't a root, it's simply part of a cycle. And that cycle has to start somewhere, but you can't change one without considering the others. I hope this was a reasonable post and um, comment if you agree with anything or have something you'd like to bring up.

Cheers, KuroCaliber