Caitlyn being anything remotely viable has been the cause of this game's toxicity and downhill trend ever since they buffed her to not be ****.
There never was a realistic way for a metagame to deal with "free" 650 range auto attacks without significantly upping the power creep scales. They've been biting themselves in the ass ever since.
Here's a conversation I had with Ezreal about Caitlyn 3+ years ago (
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=6868212#6868212)
About Caitlyn.
In my opinion last patch she wasn't that bad, she had a strong early game, a very very mediocre middle game but a feasibly very strong late game. In comparison to many other carries, it's a great dynamic (I often find that team comps should be more than just the basic character archetypes but also consider game phases [i.e. you want good early game characters, mid game characters and late game characters]).
Anyway, that wasn't the main point.
The main thing I have an issue with is the
power creep that has been instantly added to the game by having a character with 650 range carry throughout the laning phase (Trist isn't that high early levels, kog is only temporary, twitch is only temporary [at level 6], etc).
Through this one stat, you've instantly made a ton of characters absolutely fail against her who aren't getting outplayed, they just do not have the options to over come her.
She isn't too bad in solo lanes, because yes, she has a lot less DPS than other carries early on, just very nice harassment and pretty much always the ability to last hit. But I think its almost obnoxious when played in a duo lane. As a melee character, I can be sitting
next to a turret and not be able to last hit MELEE MINIONS AT THE TURRET without her being able to freely auto attack without getting tower aggro. If she pushes someone with range to their tower, the standard 550 can't auto attack range creeps without being in her auto attack range either.
Most characters don't have gap closers, most characters who do don't reach 650 range with them. This is amplified with her [now] high damage q being able to be shot towards creeps with low health, denying your ability to last hit them without getting hit...
Do you really think this sniper champion will ever be able to be fairly balanced with such a large upgrade to the standards? Annie has 625 range, I know, but she doesn't scale with AD at all, doesn't carry armor penetration, doesn't have an aoe ad scaling skill shot at twice her range to supplement harass, etc etc.
No I don't think Cait is OP; hell she may still be a bit UP, I
just think you're going down a very dangerous path of making a large majority of older characters unviable unless they're bunked up to be able to handle this new standard.
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Re from Ezreal:
While I understand you citing power creep on range, I would like to assure you that you shouldn't worry about that. Caitlyn is our 'Sniper' champion, it's not like we will release a sniperier champion in the future. I honestly don't see us increasing the range again, or at least not for a very long time (I could see an artillery based character, but to me that was Kog'Maw).
You may recall the Caitlyn powercreep post, I think you misinterpreted.
I did indeed doubt that you would make another 'snipeier' champion, but more that for other characters to actually handle 650 range (if she ever was to become a high tier ranged carry), a lot of character's specs would have to be buffed.
That foresight + lol at pre-ad carry + support bot meta.
