User blog comment:Willbachbakal/(Champion Concept) Bak Mei, the Iron Fist/@comment-5588011-20150930231110/@comment-1330314-20151003020939

You mention Pantheon's Q as if were his only ability, though, whereas his W and E would both still work extremely well against Bak Mei, and even then his Q interaction would be similar to that of a skillshot, requiring similar levels of timing and reaction. Even in the case where Bak Mei somehow hard-countered Pantheon, I still don't think that would be particularly relevant, as Pantheon's kit is not healthy in itself and needs a rework.

I also think you're making judgments here that go beyond your possible experience and knowledge, and I think the potential for a denial-focused melee fighter would be worth trying, even if it runs the risk of being unhealthy. You mention him being able to support with no downsides, when his defenses are stat-reliant, his kit has no support item synergy and he himself has the severe downsides of being melee, having super short-ranged abilities and having no gapclosers (I also seriously question him having such "sheer damage" added onto his kit, as his total kit damage can be outdone by a single strike of Fiora's passive). Similarly, considering Yasuo's Q is pretty much an extra autoattack, I don't see the issue of having different variations of it on each ability.

I also think the assumptions you're claiming to make would lend a lot of room for Bak Mei being able to fail, even at high levels of play, and so with a degree of reliability. Based on the directionality and the width of each ability, any enemy could sidestep him (again, with perfect play) and avoid his attacks, meaning that even at high elos he would not achieve a perfect success rate or constantly put himself in the best of situations. Competitive-level play goes both ways, and I think the above abilities have enough counterplay to be both used accurately and outplayed by people playing their respective champions at the highest possible level.

I also disagree that the above parceling of power would not make abilities seem fun, as the effects are, as you mentioned across several paragraphs, really powerful if not downright OP, at least if used at the right moment. Each ability is intended to work like a basic attack that, if used at the perfect moment, could have the instant power of a fully-fledged ability, and considering the interaction around each ability I think Bak Mei would be just as capable of making powerful plays with each attack as any other champion, while still providing a ton of gameplay options for everyone involved.