Caitlyn Will Be Buffed In The Near Future - Jatt

Hey guys, I just wanted to give some updates on the state of Caitlyn. In the past She has been immensely powerfull in competitive games. The nerf that took her out of viability was 20 damage off of Q at max rank and a 15 radius reduction on her traps. Obviously, other factors have contributed to her demise; however, I want to stress the fact that she is extremely close to being competitively viable.

Let's talk about what Caitlyn does well:

Caitlyn has 650 range, 50 higher than all other champions at level 1. Q also has 1300 spell range. Caitlyn has enough range and safety that she can sometimes hold 1v2 lanes by herself.

Caitlyn's snap traps have amazing area denial. Back when people played her in pro games, a common strategy was to place 3 traps in middle lane, making it nearly impossible for the enemy mid to manouver around the lane. They are also great scouting tools for bottom lane brushes, or for suspected gank paths from the enemy jungler

Let's talk about where she is weak:

She doesn't have the damage output other AD carries have. straight up. This is an intended trade-off for having a sniping ultimate and the highest base attack range in the game.

When new aggressive laners close to her (Graves!) she doesn't have the damage to fightback, nor the speed to retreat (E has a slow cast time/long delay)

Her ultimate, while doing alot of damage to low armored targets, is a slow channel and is easy to block by tanks.

Solution?

We're lowering the cast time on E to be more responsive. If Caitlyn wants to retreat from aggressive laners she can do so much more rapidly. Conversely, if she sees a window to attack she can go in for a kill and get more damage out faster. 

Ult cast range going up, channel time dropping. While Ace in the Hole had a long range already, it had been failing to deliver on the "sniper" feel that was intended. Making it a faster cast time that can be channeled from further away, should both increase the fun and the effectiveness of that ability.

tl;dr Caitlyn is a unique AD carry with defined trade-offs. As always though we'll monitor what you guys think of these changes once they go live, and make more adjustments if necessary. 

Happy hunting!