Jhin's Risk to Reward Ratio Feels Disproportionate. (LONG READ)
So after playing a bunch of games as and against Jhin, I can't help but feel that he has far too much risk involved for his reward. Let's go over some aspects within his kit which leads me to believe that he will not be taken seriously as a competitive or high elo pick.
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His main source of damage, his autos, are severely dampened in order to compensate for his guaranteed crit power budget.
Now while this is rather acceptable especially on a champion with such great modifiers (AD per AS/CC%, MS on crit), in the grand scheme of things the amount of power that is being stripped from Jhin mainly in the form of a non-reducible reload speed and huge crit damage dampener, it renders him into a much less worthy pick over someone that can consistently output more sustained or burst damage.
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He is greatly lacking mobility, or any kind of answer to dive.
Given Riot's design philosophy, I fully understand that they more or less intended Jhin to fall flat if he gets jumped on which is fine. But what is worrisome is that Jhin has consistently less sustained and burst damage than other meta or competitive ADC's, yet still has to pay the price of an immobile ADC. The only hope Jhin has if he is caught or dove on is getting a W root off, or outplaying with an E-W combo. The only issue is that Captive Audience takes FAR too long to detonate. Yes the damage is respectable, but 4 seconds is an insanely long time and allows anyone to simply walk out sometimes even if you land W. Additionally, Jhin's movement speed could be looked at as well to compensate, 325 being tied for one of the lowest in game. Mind you there are champions such as Riven and Lee with several dashes and yet still have higher movespeed. Finally, the additional movespeed on crit is nice, but I feel as it isn't nearly enough for the mobility creep we deal with today. Perhaps increase the base movement speed granted, or increase the scaling on the AS bonus or even incorporate crit chance to allow it to further enhance the MS boost.
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**Jhin does not neccesarily excel in any particular field, be it sustained or burst damage. **
In regards to the aforementioned reasons, Jhin currently lacks the burst aspect of a Marksman (Corki, MF, Graves), yet also has low sustained damage to compensate. This is mainly due to the fact that almost ALL of his damage comes from his autos. His Q is decent in lane, but requires very good setup to get the damage stack going and to hit champions with it. This is fairly obvious to anyone with a brain and will hinder your trading capabilities. His W is primarily used for utility which is fine granted it's ridiculous range, however is E is borderline useless. Almost every other trap detonates or activates immediately upon touch. it is fine that Jhin's doesn't, but if the timer will remain at 4 seconds, the damage has to be able to compensate. Jhin's ultimate is aesthetically satisfying as well as pleasing to use, however it seems very counterintuitive and lacking. The damage is measly early although scaling with missing HP (assuming this is where you'll get most of your kills with it), however once midgame fights occur and transition into late, using this actually hurts you more than it helps.
It was designed to be a long ranged scaling execute of sorts, problem being in teamfights the frontline is typically absorbing most of the brunt. By the time you've wasted your 4 shots you could've gotten much more damage off by just autoing targets. The damage is also laughable against tanky targets with it's poor base damage. So what is Jhin's niche? Beautiful execution? One shot wonder? This leads me to my final point which is a great hindrance and seriously needs to be looked at...
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Jhin's non-reducible reload speed is a MASSIVE hindrance and severely limits his potential.
So you've just landed that juicy 4th shot on a target for some respectable damage and they're just about dead? Well jokes on you, Q does no damage and you're a sitting, immobile duck for a whopping 2.5 seconds. The fact that there is absolutely nothing you can do to reduce this reload time is almost baffling. I understand that it's there because of Jhin's power budget, however on the other hand we have Graves with a similar reload mechanic that can be reduced up to an amount by bonus attack speed, and his E shell refill. 2.5 seconds is a huge amount of time in League where people can be bursted within 1 second flat (and sometimes even lower), especially if there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. His 4th shot does not feel rewarding enough in conjunction with the reduced crit damage to warrant such a massive reload time. To put this in comparison, a full rank Morgana Q is .5 seconds more than Jhin's reload time. You might as well be rooted by her because you aren't doing diddly squat during that time frame anyway. Please atleast allow it to be reduced slightly by attack speed, or even a base amount decrease per level. If that's too much then perhaps a mechanic that gives him an enhanced reload, maybe if he lands a root on his W the next reload within 4 seconds will be halved or something.
**TL;DR:** Jhin is an extremely fun champion that is satisfying to play as well as engaging in terms of his playstyle and voiceover. However given the current meta, he falls short in comparison to other ADC picks and doesn't necessarily excel or outperform at any aspects that another ADC would. He currently has too much risk involved for his reward and is in need of buffs whether it be numerical changes, kit changes (_reload speed decreasers, reload speed decrease mechanic_), or power shifts/diffusion.
