Kog'Maw: Hungry for some gameplay improvements

Yousonerfed·Dec 26, 2013·5 votes·390 views

Kog'Maw has fallen into obscurity once again with the onset of the current mobility meta, as well as with the introduction of Jinx. While Kog'Maw has always been known as one of the nastiest damage dealers in the game, that asset has not proven to be quite as useful as of late since he's so easy to catch.

In my eyes, this is due to a couple of key problems Kog'Maw has.

The first is his over-reliance on Bio-Arcane Barrage to engage in combat. Kog'Maw's base attack range is a measly 500, which is very short for a marksman. While Teemo and Sivir get along fine with it, both of them are fast movers, while Kog'Maw is not. Koggie can extend to 710 range while using BAB, but this gives him a very awkward scenario where unless he has his W available, he just won't fight because it's too risky or he can't get in range to attack due to his stubby legs.

The second is the existence of a desynergy between Kog'Maw's BAB and his Caustic Spittle. While BAB is active, you never want to get in close to shoot someone, but Caustic Spittle's range is only 625, less than the 710 maximum auto-attack range of BAB. Essentially, this is the same issue that Tristana had before her passive was changed to extend the range of both her auto-attacks and her E's active.

I have a few suggestions for changes, hopefully ones that won't hugely impact Koggie's power. These don't involve suggestions like "give Kog'Maw more mobility", but are angled at improvements in play control and making him less reliant on BAB to attack someone.

Increase Kog'Maw's base attack range to 525 from 500
Reduce the range bonus of Bio-Arcane Barrage to 95/115/135/155/175 from 130/150/170/190/210
Reduce the casting range of Caustic Spittle to 525 from 625 (see next point)
Bio-Arcane Barrage now extends both Kog'Maw's attack range and the casting range of Caustic Spittle while active

These changes greatly improve play control, while not giving totally free power to Kog'Maw. The range of Caustic Spittle will now always match Kog'Maw's attack range, and can be cast at a farther distance if you first use BAB. The tradeoff is that without BAB, Caustic Spittle now has less range (compared to live). BAB will give you 10 less maximum range now, but this is to give Koggie 25 extra base range on his basic attacks, which matches Vayne, Quinn, Graves and Jinx. Since Koggie's mobility is bad, he shouldn't also have really stubby reach when his W is on cooldown. 525 is still fairly stubby, but not SUPER stubby.

This is just my opinion, but I think it's reasonable. The numbers might not be completely right, but the idea behind it is to improve Koggie's quality of life, not straight-up buff him.

4 Comments

JackAquaDec 27, 20135 votes

Kog' Maw is one of my favorite adcs, I think this is justified and I don't see why it shouldn' t be considered.

OzbirtaDec 26, 20131 votes

I don't see them increasing his base attack range.

What I could see (and would like to see) is the range extension of Caustic Spittle when W is activated.

So basically, a "no" to points 1-3, but a "yes" to 4. I'm not sure it would bring him soaring back into viability, but it would be a very nice QoL change.

YousonerfedDec 26, 20133 votes

25 extra base attack range wouldn't make him OP. Right now, Koggie's laning phase is far too difficult for him because virtually everyone can harass him or even outpower him. The fact that he has to get in much closer to minions to attack them doesn't do him any favors, especially with him lacking Sivir and Teemo's speed and having poor disengage. Void Ooze might slow enemies, but it costs him too much early.

Additionally, once you get into team fight situations, Koggie basically will never want to attack someone without BAB. Reason? Too short range, and Living Artillery isn't efficient in his AD builds due to burnouts. His lack of mobility also means that once your W runs out, if you're forced to chase someone, you will never get back within range to attack.

I know my points don't sound the most appealing, but we can't just give Koggie free power or he becomes OP again. There has to be a couple of tradeoffs for him to get buffed.

OzbirtaDec 26, 20131 votes

The 500 attack range is part of his niche, and the tradeoff for why he can do such crazy damage lategame. Same as with sivir, they are pretty unmoving on their attack ranges.

I do believe laning isn't as bad as you are making it out to be, though. With an attentive support and solid animation canceling, you can take full advantage of your w cd, and put poke damage out uncontested to make the lane opponent think twice before trying to harass you while you are csing with it down.

I actually have quite good adc kog stats for this season, but I don't have too many games played because there aren't that many situations you CAN play him, but if your team is a well-peeling comp, and the enemy team is lacking dive, he is still a quite viable pick.