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Caitlyn, the Renekton of Bot Lane?

SC0RP10·4/4/2014, 8:41:23 AM·2 votes·776 views

Is Caitlyn's identity a bully marksman? Is Caitlyn's identity a safe marksman? Is Caitlyn's identity a poke marksman?

Caitlyn's kit has too many strengths that overshadow her weaknesses. Her weaknesses consist of: bad late game, bad 1v1, bad teamfight, no steroid.

Let me start off by pointing out how Cait's weaknesses are overshadowed by her strengths.

  1. Cait's late game is meant to fall off, but it only falls off compared to marksman designed for the late game. Her high range and ad scalings mean that she will be putting out strong consistent damage in late game teamfights. The fact that she is a safe laner means she is almost guaranteed a safe laning phase giving her the potential for gold accruance. The adc build path also contributes to Caitlyn's strong late game due to how attack damage, attack speed, and crit scale together. Her late game teamfights can be easily swinged by prefiring an Ace in the Hole and a Piltover Peacemaker on a squishy meaning they will start the fight at a huge disadvantage (something I learned from watching the Korean scene).

  2. Cait's supposedly bad 1v1 is also overshadowed by her strengths. Cait almost always has the strength of choosing engagements on her terms due to her range and the safety that her kit provides through her 'w' and 'e'. You can also use the same trick done in the Korean scene when you are going in for a 1v1 to heavily push it in your favor.

  3. Cait's supposedly bad teamfights are also overshadowed by her strengths (especially when you engage using the Korean strat) do to the safety of her range and kit. Getting to Cait through her frontline is quite the ordeal with her 650 range. When you do make it to Cait she will 'e' you pushing her away from you. Meanwhile, you are slowed you must gap close again (lord have mercy on your soul if she was smart to trap up before the fight). Her scaling on her abilities mean she will do a hefty amount of damage to your team through the aoe of her Piltover Peacemakers and a constant barrage of high range auto attacks proccing her passive.

  4. The fact that Caitlyn does not have an attack steroid is one of the few true weaknesses she has. The problem is that she has strong ad ratios on her passive, q, and r to make up for the lack of an attack steroid meaning she scales very hard.

I propose that she has some of her strengths enhanced while giving her some actual glaring weaknesses so that short range adcs such as Corki, Graves, Twitch, etcetera can see the limelight.

Feel free to leave feedback on potential changes below guys, and please take the poll so Riot can gather info. :)

8 Comments

AbiwonKenabi4/4/2014, 2:17:40 PM1 votes

I think Caitlyn has more weaknesses than you think. With the exception of having, say, a Nunu support, Cait's attack speed is meh, and she is slow as molasses. Her mobility is terrible. Let me elaborate on some of your points.

  1. I agree with you here: people underestimate just how strong Cait still is late game. The answer is, well, she scales like a marksman. It seems dumb, but she just falls of when compared to other marksman. She doesn't have the falloff of say, Renekton (Even he is up for debate, but we're focused on Cait here...)

  2. Cait does have bad 1v1: once she gets jumped on, she can't do much. True, her net when used at opportune moments can give her a great deal of safety, but once that's down, it's very hard for her to get at the distance she wants to duel at--max range. While she can do well against some melees (Udyr comes to mind) against somebody like Vayne, or heck even mid Lulu, she just doesn't have the mobility or CC to compete.

  3. Her teamfights I would describe as "good" but not "great". There are better teamfight ADC options. Cait does well enough--as you said, she can ult a squishy to start off at an advantage (which btw, not just pure Korean, I've seen WildTurtle do it plenty of times). She has some kiting power assuming she's getting help with peel/not getting jumped on right away and she's got some AOE. But she's never going to have the teamfighting power of someone like Twitch (Whom WildTurtle just played recently...seriously, it sounds like you're a Turtle fan in the making) or Varus or even Lucian. I can't stress enough how valuable mobility is too, seeing as Cait's gapcloser or whatever you call it, is on a relatively long cooldown compared to Relentless Pursuit or Tumble for example. Looking at the opposite end of the spectrum, we see Sivir and Jinx. Sivir's range is garbage, yet we still see her all the time. Why? Her pushing/harass power combined with the movement speed from both her passive and her ult are hugely valuable, giving her engage and disengage powers (not to mention the spell shield). Jinx's base range is also garbage, but in exchange she gets AOE range longer than Caitlyn's, a more reliable snare, a long range slow/reveal and an AOE execute "global" ult. This all adds up to way more impressive teamfights.

I think the reason we see Caitlyn so much is probably because the meta right now is all about getting out of lane ahead. Caitlyn is a safe pick, as she's always been, and while the tradeoffs may seem lame, they are there. Take for example, the top ADCs in NA LCS (using NA since it's what I'm most familiar with). Their top played champion is Lucian--why not Cait? Well, Cait is a safe laner, but her bullying potential is not nearly as good as Lucian's. Lucian is much better at harass and with his mobility, much better at chasing down an opponent. Sure, Turtle and Sneaky play their fair share of Caitlyn, but it's clear there are other ADCs that are still valuable. Every ADC I have mentioned in this now sprawling post has been played in NA LCS, most with some frequency. I've seen every one of these champions in either a stream or my own games, with even some extras (Draven anyone? ;)) All this said, is Caitlyn overshadowing some picks? Maybe. It's true, I miss Corki too, and Graves surprises me with his seldom appearances. But perhaps there are other changes at play here (Corki got nerfs, and I think that's the main reason why he's out of favor, but that's another conversation entirely.) that go beyond merely Cait's safe lane.

Sir ArmaMalum4/4/2014, 3:24:00 PM1 votes

I think your comparison to Renekton may ring true more than intended. Correct me if I'm wrong, but she hasn't received many changes to her numbers right? almost none compred to other adc's?

Renekton remained largely untouched because he was treated as the standard for a top lane bruiser. Someone to reference when comparing power budgets and estimate their interactions within the game. Caitlyn may have this same effect alongside Ashe for a damage focused adc standard versus (Ashe) a utility focused adc standard.

All speculation of course, but a thought.

utDOOM4/4/2014, 8:00:02 PM1 votes

I think that the ratio on her Q is what needs to be nerfed. Whenever i play cait, (I dont actually own her so everything dont take everything I say as complete truth) I usually dominate my lane, because my Q will do more than 120 damage at level one (plus runes/masteries).

Remlap12234/5/2014, 12:24:31 AM1 votes

Bad late game? You're joking right? It's her early game that sucks. Also, Cait is the standard of what marksmen should be held to, not that she's OP, but that's what you need in a good ADC. It's the same reason why Renekton isn't getting hit by Morello's nerf bat, and for good reason. Nerfing Cait would only add to the top heavy meta. The problem with the meta is that there are only a few good champions, not a lot. Nerfing Cait would just add to the problem, and make one of my favorite adcs worthless. Cait is a siege marksman. She's meant to lock down an area and take potshots. She's a sniper after all. Get somebody that can out poke her (Jinx), or somebody that can get in her face safely (Sivir).