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Design patterns to further define marksmen as a class moving forward

i cant move wtf··2 votes·247 views

Let me start off by saying that I like the current state of League and I'm an ADC main. I don't think ADCs are particularly overpowered and the game in general strikes a good balance between all classes at the moment. I also don't want to change anything about any of the current ADC champions, I think they're fine how they are. My only intention with this post is to present some ideas that I think would be cool on a marksman if a new one were to be developed. I should also mention I have a bias toward designs that have strong strengths and weaknesses vs. generalists that are decent at everything and only slightly better at one.

##1. A marksman with a minimum attack range I think it would be interesting to explore a champion that can't auto attack in close quarters. This would make sense on a champion with a long rifle. As a tradeoff they would have an increased range (maybe 700-750) and perhaps better than average damage or attack speed for a marksman. Maybe a small dash with a root (like caitlyn's net) on a hefty cooldown as well so they can get out of that minimum range and have more counterplay against melees.

##2. A marksman with charge-up accuracy This would be a marksman that needs to take aim and focus every auto attack. So you would right click an enemy and your champion would stop to focus while a meter charges up. If you move or attack another target (or the meter reaches 100%), the auto attack fires and hits with the accuracy the meter got to. The charge time would increase proportional to the distance the target is from you, being almost instantaneous when shooting directly in front you. To take this even further it would be interesting if this champion also had a global range. So if you attacked a visible enemy top laner from bot lane, maybe the charge time would take 10 seconds to reach 100%.

##3. A marksman with fixed, less than perfect accuracy So maybe this marksman would have a 70% accuracy but with good attack speed and higher than average damage. This would make sense on a sloppy, slob-like champion. They could also have an ability that gives them greater focus and 100% accuracy for a short window. They should have superior damage over time compared to other marksmen, but they need to get a lot of auto attacks in to realize it since they're accuracy is less than 100%.

9 Comments

Drugoth2 votes

I like the minimum attack range idea but I feel like they would need a melee stand in attack for inside that range, otherwise if a melee closes on them and they are out of options there would be no way to fight back. Say for example this rifle toting guy were to bust out a sidearm like a pistol for close range encounters but at a slightly reduced damage ratio as a slightly less punishing alternative.

The idea for <100% accuracy sounds very clunky and way too RNG to me. However, the charging auto could definitely be a thing, but not accuracy dependant and rather damage ramping imo.

ZT Xperimentor2 votes

Could just animate them butting the enemy with their gun for the melee range. And for rng, critical hits revolve around that already, so why not add more? lol

Drugoth1 votes

Critical hits vs missing entire shots is not comparable at all. Also, can we call someone who can't land all their shots a marksman?

The rifle butt is a good point too.

i cant move wtf2 votes

The crit mechanic is actually really similar to how an accuracy mechanic would play out. The math works out so that crit chance effectively increases your damage by that percentage (normalized over the course of many auto attacks), while an accuracy percentage is the percent of the total damage you deal (normalized over the course of many auto attacks).

Drugoth1 votes

[{quoted}](name=i cant move wtf,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=ysbwBayE,comment-id=0000000000000000,timestamp=2017-07-10T19:59:48.461+0000)

The crit mechanic is actually really similar to how an accuracy mechanic would play out. The math works out so that crit chance effectively increases your damage by that percentage (normalized over the course of many auto attacks), while an accuracy percentage is the percent of the total damage you deal (normalized over the course of many auto attacks).

I see where you're getting at where the crit can be averaged out over a course of auto attacks and that the same can be said for accuracy. My issue with this is having both exist at the same time on one character could cause some really chaotic extreme examples, for example: one fight you could miss several shots in a row and then the next fight every single shot lands and is a crit. This creates some huge mountains and valleys in terms of actual performance which could lead to hair-pulling frustration.

i cant move wtf2 votes

Agreed. However, the only reason I think it actually works on a class like marksmen is because they're supposed to do the most sustained damage but also be bad at dueling. How do you make something that can reliably shred tanks but not one-shot a squishy assassin? Well, you can make their damage unreliable in the short trades but reliable in extended ones. Accuracy is a pretty simple way to fulfill that (and crit as well to a smaller extent).

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

At least it'd put them on par with everyone else that relies on skillshots to do damage at range.

i cant move wtf2 votes

Butting them with the rifle at close range... what a great idea!!

i cant move wtf1 votes

I think the sidearm pistol is a great idea and a cool variation on the concept!

Regarding the charge-up, what if in lane at the normal attack range for a marksman, the charge-up to 100% accuracy was about the same time as a standard attack animation? Would you still be as opposed? Also charge-up damage is an interesting compromise and serves a similar purpose... I could see that working as well.

And about a champion with a fixed <100% accuracy (say 70% like in the example), I'm not advocating all champions adopt this, just that it could make sense thematically on a sloppy, grotesque champion like an urgot. And if you gave them a skill that buffed their accuracy to 100% for a time, I think there would be plenty of room to make them effective consistently. It's essentially the crit mechanic but on steroids. (Again, not for all champions though!)

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