A Better Plague Rat: Twitch Rework Discussion
Disclaimer: Numbers in this proposal are purposefully left out. Numbers for Twitch's damage can all be tweaked in different areas to add or remove power where it is necessary. This post is about solidifying a theme and enhancing the play style of this Marksman/Assassin.
Small Phlosophy of Assassins and Marksmen
I believe that an assassin is healthiest when nearly the entirety of his or her pure (100-0) assassination potential is tied to their ultimate. Zed can skirmish a bit, poke at you, and go in for a combo but he will not be able to 100-0 you without using his highly telegraphed ultimate. This is important for two reasons: one is because ultimate abilities are only accessibly at level 6, 11, and 16 and the other is that ultimates have much longer cooldowns in comparison to regular abilities. The combination of these two factors make ultimate abilities more easily trackable by the opposing team for when they need to pay attention to not only to an assassin's power spikes, but also to their periods of vulnerability.
A Marksman's ult can be well defining of who they are but they are built to function by consistently damage opponents primarily through their auto attacks. Marksmen play styles can and do vary by champion but their ultimate abilities are not there solely to burst down a high priority target.
Why I Created This Board
I believe that Twitch's kit lacks a necessary amount of depth and involvement with his poison which leaves many players feeling like he isn't as much of the "Plague Rat" as he could be. To change this I would suggest altering some of his kit.
Passive
First hurdle to tackle is that his current passive does not deserve to take up as much of his kit as it currently does. So, my suggestion is moving this passive to his E and replacing it with something more interesting and interactive.
New passive: Spray and Pray - Every few seconds twitch will load a piercing bolt in his crossbow to replace his normal one. This bolt hits all enemies it travels through and applies on hit effects. Attack speed increases the frequency at which piercing bolts are readied. Twitch can store up to w/x/y/z piercing bolts at a time.
This passive adds a layer of depth to Twitch that he hasn't really had before. You will have to consider this piercing bolt in more situations than just how to get the most damage off in a team fight.
Q
Twitch's Q ability, Ambush, will likely remain virtually unchanged besides some number tuning.
W
Twitch's W is Venom Cask and it is, right now, both the least interesting and the least necessary part of his kit. His W basically only shortens the amount of total auto attacks you need before you can achieve maximum damage from his E. The ability does also slow targets in the field it hits but because this is the only increased benefit you get after further leveling his W you naturally do not want to level up this skill until all your other abilities have been fully upgraded. I'd propose a change to keep the slow on his W while removing the added 2 poison stacks in exchange for increasing the total poison damage Twitch inflicts upon those who have been hit by his Venom Cask. This should add some decision making to the skill by making players ask themselves the question of: "do I need the slow to keep this tank off of me or can I hold on to it and use it to help quickly take out a more valuable target?" The poison damage increase from landing this ability should make it more valuable of a skill to be used. If you want to maximize your damage output then use this skill effectively.
E
Twitch's E ability inherits the Deadly Venom passive but retains its same game role as it does now. Number adjustments will be necessary. Ideally, with the new Venom Cask, this damage should be higher than current but lower without.
R
Twitch's current ultimate gives bonus range as well as some extra attack damage to make his autos hurt just that much more (they also pierce targets but as shown in my last post I suggested moving this aspect to his passive). One of the problems I see in this ability is that it achieves very little in adding to a theme of a poisonous "Plague Rat" marksman.
Because Twitch is a Marksman first and an assassin second I believe his ult should add a noticeable amount of power to his kit but not be an ability he absolutely needs to deal all his damage. Basically, Twitch's ult needs more of an overall emphasis on team fighting than catching out a single target while simultaneously remaining an appropriate aspect towards his success when he decides to sneak up on an unsuspecting mid laner.
Note: We could debate all day as to whether or not the range increase on Twitch's ultimate is actually crucial to Twitch's gameplay and/or if it adds meaningful depth to his character or not so I am going to leave out mention of a range increase in my proposed R ability and leave the questions of Twitch's natural auto attack range vs a temporary auto attack range modifier to someone else.
New Ultimate: Pestilence - While active Twitch will infect opponents with a much stronger Deadly Venom. Enemies who are killed while infected by Pestilence will transfer the plague to nearby enemy champions when they die. Enemy champions with maximum Pestilence stacks deal damage to surrounding units when killed by Contaminate. Plague effect lasts for x seconds but the timer resets if transferred to a new unit. Venom Cask works with Pestilence.
With this new ultimate you still get a noticeable increase of power through effective use of the ability while preserving a good amount of assassination potential. There is the added benefit of maintaining a niche Twitch has historically had as a marksman: killing an entire team with a well-timed ultimate, piercing autos, and the burst from his E.
You don't want to group up around a Twitch who has his passive stacks ready and especially not when he is killing one of your teammates with his ult... that will certainly lead to the apocalyptic (wink) destruction of your team.
Drop a like if this post has something in it you think is good and let me know what it is I did right below. If you disagree with something here then please explain what that is as well as why you disagree. Also general constructive comments and concerns are welcome!
Edit: added effect to ultimate where enemy champions with maximum Pesitlence stacks deal damage to surrounding units when killed by Twitch's E.
