Gypsylord
Okay got response typed up again.
So as Jinx's designer I asked to head up the nerfs coming out for her this patch. Let's talk about them and Jinxy in general.
First full info on the nerfs:
The min damage on the R is being cut. The max damage is staying the same. Additionally, the execute damage is not being touched. SMD rocket will ALWAYS deal 25/30/35% of the target's missing health regardless of range.
Below are the rough damage estimates based on ranges Jinxs should be familiar with:
NUMBERS AND CHANGES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE (or not). ALL THIS IS STILL IN TESTING
R damage @ Point blank: 125/175/225(+.5) >>> 25/35/45 (+.1)
R damage @ Minigun range: 175/245/315 (+.7) >>> 110/155/200(+.45)
R damage @ Level 9 Rocket range: 185/260/335 (+.75) >>> 135/190/245(+.55)
R damage @ Shock Pistol range (max): unchanged - 250/350/450(+1.0)
TLDR summary of the below wall of text:
We like Jinx being strong for a variety of reasons but she may be TOO strong at the moment. Jinx's snowballing and hyper-carry potential is intended to be strong and we like it where it is so this change is targeted at amping up her main weakness (gets wrekt if jumped on). IF THIS CHANGE GOES TOO FAR WE'LL FOLLOW UP ON IT. THE GOAL HERE IS A SLIGHT TONING DOWN OF JINX'S POWER.
Generally we like Jinx being a strong champ in League of Legends. Even when winning she has a lot of inbuilt counterplay which makes losing to her feel a lot less demoralizing. Thanks to her general immobility combined with the delayed and conditional nature of her spells players tend to come out of games against Jinx with gameplans on how they're going to beat her next time.
Going off of this, it is likely that Jinx "at balance" sits at above a 50% winrate. This partially stems from the nature of her power profile. Jinx is highly snowbally, especially in AoE focused teamfights, and is one of the best characters in the game at taking objectives after killing off the enemy team. This is going to contribute to a higher number of wins in solo queue where the "group and push" strategy is so prevalent (Jinx loves grouping and pushing!). People group, teamfights happen, Jinx AoE's things, and 1 kill tends to lead to 1-4 more + towers and dragons.
Additionally, it's worth mentioning Jinx's dedicated player base. If you run into a Jinx player on live that person is going to have 31 games on her on average, That's up there with other "I main dis guy forever" champs like Yasuo, Lee Sin, and Riven. For comparison, Graves has a similar play rate to Jinx (they're neck and neck for most picked ADC), and yet the average Graves player only has 16 games on him. This isn't meant to be a knock on Graves but more a highlight on the fact that many of the Jinx's you run into out there have played her A LOT and as such you'd expect a higher win rate out of her due to player experience.
So I've gone over why we're okay with Jinx being strong so in that case why are we nerfing her? Well the thing is there's strong and then there's I AM THE GOD OF SOLO QUEUE strong. Jinx is trending towards the latter and has only been getting better each patch. She's got one of the highest winrates in the game at 55% across all elos and that combined with her insane playrate is cause for alarm. We felt some light tuning would be appropriate to level the playing field vs. other ADC's so we looked across her kit and asked ourselves "is there anything Jinx is doing right now that maybe she shouldn't be?"
So as her designer I've always felt that Jinx is defined by the following strength and weakness
A) Jinx is a snowball: If you let Jinx get ahead and can't figure out how to get to her SHE WILL TAKE EVERYTHING YOU LOVE AND BURN IT TO THE GROUND.
B) Jinx has a hard time with people who invade her personal space. If you manage to jump on her when she's unprepared you should be rewarded accordingly.
The strength is supported by things like Get Excited (the speed passive), the always-on AS/range+AoE steroids on Switcheroo (the Q), and Jinx's reach in general which progresses from 525 range - to 700 - to 1500 - to global. This power combination ensures that if Jinx has enough gold and manages to get a foothold of safety/advantage in a fight she WILL GET TO YOU, BLOW YOU UP, AND THEN TAKE YOUR TOWERS. This is good, it's character defining and it's what we'd like her to excel at.
The weakness is supported by the ramp up on minigun, the cast/arm times on all her spells/ and the damage w/distance mechanic on the R. If you manage to close with an unprepared Jinx she's going to have a hard time dealing with you. Her spells leave her vulnerable, her AS needs to ramp for full DPS, chompers take a while to arm, and ideally she can't just Graves ult you for a burst of power unless you're incredibly low on health.
^^^^^that last thing is where we found a possible problem. Jinx was winning a number of engagements off the sheer burst power of her ultimate, even at pointblank range. This to me is out of line with her strength/weakness profile.
In summary:
Jinx is a hyper carry who can kill every single member of your team from extreme ranges if left alone but if you jump on her she should be at a severe disadvantage. Nerfing the pointblank ultimate makes the weakness more true and allows us to preserve her strengths in light of extreme power in solo queue.
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