User blog:Yorukin/Quinn Improvement Ideas

Quinn is easily my favorite champion in the League right now, but I can see why she's unpopular. Like Vayne, she provides high mobility and high burst. Unlike Vayne, she's counterintuitive to play as, with worse cc and better utility. I actually like Quinn's niche in the game, and I feel that she's an extremely balanced champion. However, as the blog title implies, I feel she could use a few improvements to her kit, making her fit better into the game, and making her less frustrating to play as. Let's dive into it, shall we? NOTE: ALL SEPARATE SUGGESTIONS FOR EACH ABILITY ARE MEANT TO BE TAKEN SEPARATELY

(tl;dr version: skim through and read the bold)

Passive: Harrier
The main things that I like about this ability are that it reminds you that Quinn and Valor do work together, and that Valor has a mind of his own. Unfortunately, relying on the falcon for your main damage output causes some issues; notably, when he marks the wrong target. As such, this one is extremely in need of improvement, as it causes a lot of my frustration when playing as Quinn.

Idea number one: If a target dies while marked as Vulnerable (i.e. when Quinn hasn't consumed the mark), Harrier's remaining cooldown is reduced to 0.5 seconds. This way, if Valor decides to mark a target that you or a Relic Shield user is already in the process of last hitting, you don't miss out on very much.

With another, separate buff, it could have more of an impact on fights and dealing with multiple enemies. If an enemy champion dies within 3 seconds of Quinn consuming their Vulnerable mark, Harrier's remaining cooldown is reduced to 0.5 seconds. I'm unsure about the balance on this one, so I'm listing it separately. Having this would enable Quinn to switch from target to target, making it much easier to get that juicy Pentakill without needing to burn a Skystrike. Of course, this would have the drawback of increasing her snowballing by quite a bit, which provides an unhealthy game experience. But then again, any fed marksman is a dangerous marksman, amirite?

Finally, I have a slightly more personal one. I tend to favor sustain-focused supports like Soraka or Alistar by my side when playing Quinn, and I feel that she could use a bit of extra free cash to compensate for her so-so early game. After all, Ashe and Twisted Fate get away with it (yes I know TF is a mage shut up). '''If you last hit a Vulnerable target, you gain 3 bonus gold. This bonus gold is doubled against large minions, monsters, and champions.''' I'm having trouble seeing how this would fit thematically, but Ashe's E passive makes about as little sense to me, so I don't see why not.

Q: Blinding Assault
Quinn's only skillshot. It's, uh... it's a thing. It feels rather weak at all stages of the game, and its low blind duration doesn't help. Yes, it can theoretically blind several targets at once, but in practice that's unlikely to happen. The skill's tiny splash radius and inability to pass over minions really limits its usefulness. While it remains extremely useful as a toplaner, in most games you'll find yourself only using it to give yourself a slight edge in AA exchanges--an edge that doesn't even exist against ability spammers like Ezreal. What Quinn's version of this skill needs is poking power and damage.

First: Adjust the cooldown from 11 / 10 / 9 / 8 / 7 to 8 (or 9) at all ranks. This ability is a one-point wonder, and it should feel like it.

As for the poking, Increase the AOE radius to 275 (325 during Tag Team). Not much of a buff, but it feels like it should be bigger than Valor himself. He does fly in a pretty little circle when he hits, after all.

Third, the cc. Increase the blind duration from 1.5 at all ranks to 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 / 2 / 2.25. If Teemo gets scaling on his blind skill (which, I may note, hits a lot harder and is easier to land than this one), then why can't Quinn? It'd give her more incentive to level it for exotic builds.

W: Heightened Senses
This is definitely Quinn's most solid ability. Seriously, I could only think of one improvement this could use.

'''Passive: Quinn's basic attacks against targets not marked by Harrier grant her 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 bonus movement speed for 1 second. This bonus is not applied during the speed boost from attacking a marked target.''' Because of Quinn's close-but-not-too-close range, I find that one of her biggest problems is consistent stickiness. Aside from the larger boosts from attacking a marked target, she pretty much needs to build either Furor, Phage/Trinity Force, or a Frozen Mallet in order to make sure she keeps the target at the right distance. This buff would free up some of her itemization options without changing her gameplay all that much. Of course, Valor wouldn't benefit from it, but that's because he doesn't really need it to stick to anyone. If he gets peeled, he has about as much trouble as Xin Zhao at keeping up.

E: Vault
Quinn's handiest tool, by far. While an extremely awkward dash to get used to, it's also one of the main reasons she's such a unique champion. However, I feel like it could use a bit of extra utility.

'''Quinn becomes untargetable while bouncing back. However, if afflicted with crowd control that prevents movement (snare, stun, etc.) before completing the dash, she will not bounce. The damage, knockback, slow, and mark will all be applied as normal.''' Careful usage of Vault ensures that Quinn remains elusive and hard to catch. This buff simply reinforces that, as well as punishing her when she mistimes it/rewarding enemies for seeing it coming.

During Tag Team, Valor knocks back enemies he passes through on the way to the target, doing 75% damage and knocking them aside. As small reinforcement for bruiser Quinn, this enables Valor to live out his totally real fantasies of being a one-bird wrecking crew.

During Tag Team, Attack Damage ratio increased from 20% bonus AD to 80% bonus AD. Valor's a melee champion, so I'm amping up his gap closer to be more on par with similar abilites on other champions (these tend to vary from 60% to 100%, depending).

R: Tag Team / Skystrike
This, along with Quinn's passive, is one of the main sources of her problems. Compared to other marksmen's steroid ults, such as what Vayne or Twitch have, Tag Team is definitely one of the game's more powerful examples. However, unlike the other examples, Valor's times to shine are relatively few and far between, with a whopping 140 second cooldown at level 1. When laning at level 7 and seeing the enemy marksman already have their ult up again, it gets frustrating to not be able to counter with your own, equally useful ultimate.

As such, Reduce Tag Team's cooldown from 140 / 110 / 80 to 110 / 85 / 60. Yes, this provides some extremely powerful buffs to your mobility, but Valor is balanced by being a melee champion with a marksman's stats and build. The sheer risk of closing into melee range is more than enough of a tradeoff for that kind of power; having a mage's level of cooldown is hardly worth it. And for comparison's sake, Vayne's (much safer) ult has a CD of 100 / 85 / 70. I realize I may have a bit overboard with the cooldown reduction here, but that's what constructively criticizing comments are for, right?

But enough whining about a big gripe. When activating Tag Team or Skystrike, Quinn and Valor's basic abilities' remaining cooldowns are each reduced by 1 / 2 / 3 seconds. I frequently find myself using Tag Team to chase a fleeing enemy or give myself an edge when a seemingly fine situation gets hairy, only to remember that I already burned my cooldowns and can't dash to anyone. This doesn't remove that issue, but it does help make it less stressful, as well as making late-game Valor a little scarier.

'''After activating Skystrike (whether manually or by timeout), Valor's bonus in-combat movement speed is transferred to Quinn. This bonus decays over 2 seconds. In addition, upon switching back to Quinn, Harrier is placed on a 2-second cooldown.''' The sudden speed boost from tagging out for Valor is exhilarating. The sudden speed drop... not so much. This makes it more worth it to use Skystrike on a fleeing enemy, and still allows you to give chase if they survive. Just without your easy burst damage.

In Conclusion
Lots of ideas here, which hopefully means lots of feedback. I want to see moar Quinn in games, but her playstyle will forever be unappealingly complex. At the very least, these buffs should open up the doors for more gameplay options, as well as making her overall more fun to play.

Also, I would've provided images and colors for everything to make it look pretty, but I is a wikinoob who knows not how to edit that in.