I just found that without some form of damage he's too lackluster compared to when he does build some. I think boomerang cd is low enough (if you catch it) that you can generally get a lot of procs off as mini Gnar, which works well with the kite and poke with autos playstyle he's got, and Mega Gnar I'd say gets a lot of benefit out of the movespeed (he's like the slowest champ in the game, or tied for that), and is just a lot scarier with the extra damage.
Course that's my opinion after only a few games of him, but my thoughts on him going full tank is kinda why would I pick him for that over something more reliable that does more damage, at the cost of a bit less disruption? I think he definitely wants one or two damage items to differentiate enough from say, Shyvana, as it gives him the power to burst people a lot harder than the other tanks.
Although I do think he could do with some faster animations when Mega on his Q and W. The W in particular is the clunkiest thing ever to use.
The builds I've seen have gotten a Brutalizer ---> black cleaver at some point for damage. I think that auto-q-auto will proc your passive, which does really solid damage, and makes you a pretty good mixed damage source. I just think that Trinity is far too expensive for what it gives you.
I honestly think Gnar is going to seem a lot less powerful than he actually can be for a while, until people learn how to properly manipulate his rage bar and how to teamfight/engage well with him. Mega Gnar is absurdly powerful used well in a teamfight, but being in the right spot at the right time with the right amount of rage is tricky.
Also, after trying him out for a few games, I'm pretty certain the best build is basically to channel Jax. Triforce and/or bork -> tank items gives him a LOT of damage and surviveability. If you skip the damage items then he lacks the punch to do anything more than be a nuisance/disruption (mini Gnar does like no damage when building tank, and Mega Gnar benefits so much from being able to really spike an adc/mage out). Laning is pretty interesting, he gets trashed by stuff that can do decent damage from his range or longer (a Zed wrecked me), but he does surprisingly well aginst stuff that has to run/dash at him (was able to slug it out with a Riven).
I think the transparancy of his transformations is fine, you can use an imminent Mega Gnar to zone people quite well, and for engages you probably want to flank from fog of war so you can jump on top of a squishy and utterly destroy them before they can start kiting you (Mega Gnar is SO DAMN SLOW). Mini Gnar is good at kiting anyways, so you can keep them off you while you wait for your rage to refill without a huge amount of difficulty.
The builds that are doing the best for him are going pretty much pure tank with a bit of CDR as well. I really don't think that T-force is that good on him. His CD's are decently long, so he can't really proc the spellblade passive that much. It also doesn't give him much for when he goes into Mega form. I don't know, I've not been impressed with him too much. Maybe after the buffs he'll be in a better spot though.
I said the same thing 2 days after release. The benefits of having a Gnar on your team just aren't high enough to sacrifice any of the other top lane picks. We'll see if these buffs help him reach a more comfortable spot.
Getting attacked/using skills/last hitting is also going to charge the meter, and the time it takes to cooldown is quite some time. His transformation isn't very controllable if you want to stay in lane, especially because his late game is lackluster, so you NEED to get ahead in lane. I just don't think he's strong at all right now, not with the way the meta is.
Do you think the champion looks fun/viable? Do you think that the skin is of sufficient quality to spend money on? If the answers to these questions are yes, then yeah, it's worth it. If either is no, then it's not.
Personally, he's a fun champ to play, but I really don't think he's viable right now. Skin is freaking adorable, plus, you know, Reptar and all. I don't regret buying it.
A random passing question: How many champions do you think can kill an enemy champion in the fountain (assuming goldfish)? In theory, I can imagine Trynd and Karthus being able to pull it off; as in, theoretically, Trynd can spin in, Ulti, then start whacking for 5 seconds straight hoping one will get killed, while Karthus can activate Requiem, activate Defile, Flash in as close as possible then tear away with Lay Waste. Any other ideas?
AP Ezreal can do stupid amounts of damage from high range late game. Late game Kog could maybe do it as well, not sure if his W boosted auto's can reach out of range of the laser.
Also, new Sona's poke is pretty stupid. That extra magic damage on auto's is insane. 120 damage plus 100 percent of your AP is sickening at level 1, and that's before factoring in powerchord. I kind of want to try Sona-Ashe, and see if you can't solo out a squishy support/adc at level 1.
Play a bruiser against him, wreck him because you're mobile as well, and you have better base stats?
Just had to lane against a Yasuo as Irelia because my mid wasn't dealing with him well. Went into lane while he was 2 kills up on me, killed him twice no problem. Yasuo can't handle the stronger bruisers, at least from my experience. I'd imagine that Jax/Renekton/Trynd/Riven would all give him fits.
Next time Riot makes this sort of crap like Doom Bots, they should explicitly make it available only to the top 100 players per region or something and NOT to public. I know they did say the bots get special abilities, but 16 Ezreal ultis is just ridiculous. The absolute definition of unfun.
I miss URF. Really. Hell, I bet for most average players, even URF humans will still be in trouble fighting these doom bots.
Just split push against them. Super easy to win doing that. 1 person in each side lane that can hold tower, 3 people in the middle to shove down the mid inner and outer turrets, then hold as best as they can against the bots when they finally break the 2-1-2 lanes. The side lanes then just shove in and drop wards so they can TP to them.
Or, just play to have fun and don't worry about winning? Half the fun of playing against them is seeing the insane things that can happen...like walking into a Garen/Fiddles ult in a random bush in the jungle, or trying to take down Doom-bot Cho-Gath with Swain ult and 6 stacks.
Eh, not that bad. Just need to get two people that can handle the side lanes and 3 in mid. You'll go down to your inhibs probably, but the bots can't handle a splitpush/backdoor strategy.
If you try to teamfight though, it's rough. Also, Lux is a pest on that. Still haven't had to deal with Cho or Blitz yet though.
I pulled a stat that had her as the second most picked, but I think it was a bit out of date (it was definitely NA LCS 2014 though).
The rule of thumb is if something is grotesquely overpowered (Lucian/Twitch, now Kog/Lucian/Trist) that gets picked. Otherwise Cait gets picked. She's never not been extremely relevant to the pro scene.
Except for now. Also season 3 worlds(somewhat relevant, but not extremely so. Huge variety of ADC's picked). Also season 2 worlds (Got picked once. Never banned). She's been dominant in certain meta's, and she's going to be a strong pick frequently, because she's strong at laning. She's also not nerf worthy, because she isn't the constant dominant pick, and doesn't crowd other champions out of the role.
...popular ADC picks? At the LCS level, she's the #2 contested ADC behind Lucian. In regular play, she's the most popular champion in the game, yet still posts a > 50% win rate despite the fact that popular champs are universally lower win rate because of that popularity.
Caitlyn is the definition of a popular ADC pick. And she has been for more than 2 years.
And no, she doesn't have a Lee Sin power curve. She has more of a Trist power curve. Steroids mean almost nothing to an ADC's late game unless they're Kog'Maw level. Safety is EVERYTHING. Trist has a better late game (higher damage and even safer to play in teamfights), Cait has a better early game, they both suck mid-game unless fed.
I don't know where you get the idea that she's highly contested in the LCS, in fact Lucian wasn't even the most contested ADC pick this weekend. That was definitely Kog and Trist, two late game powerhouses. I don't have much of an opinion on Cait because I'm not terribly fond of bot lane, but don't just make claims that are blatantly false.
I just tried out Mao'Kai for the first time since the patch. It worked out late game, but was still good late game. Lots of power in Ancient Golem.
The might be the most recent LCS, but for the longest period of time, it really was CAitlyn/Lucian lanes all day, all the time, with the occasional Jinx/Sivir/Twitch popping up every now and then.
This year it's been Twitch/Lucian since the Twitch remake. Before that, Sivir/Cait/Lucian were the top three, though Corki has seen a decent amount of play, as has Graves. There has been a pretty big variety of ADC's in the LCS, probably a wider variety of those than supports/top/jungle, honestly. Cait hasn't been a priority pick/ban for quite some time, though a lot of people do default to her if what they wanted was banned/picked.
New Viktor with Lich Bane blows people up. That Q damage on next auto is absurd.
The builds I've seen have gotten a Brutalizer ---> black cleaver at some point for damage. I think that auto-q-auto will proc your passive, which does really solid damage, and makes you a pretty good mixed damage source. I just think that Trinity is far too expensive for what it gives you.
The builds that are doing the best for him are going pretty much pure tank with a bit of CDR as well. I really don't think that T-force is that good on him. His CD's are decently long, so he can't really proc the spellblade passive that much. It also doesn't give him much for when he goes into Mega form. I don't know, I've not been impressed with him too much. Maybe after the buffs he'll be in a better spot though.
Do you think the champion looks fun/viable? Do you think that the skin is of sufficient quality to spend money on? If the answers to these questions are yes, then yeah, it's worth it. If either is no, then it's not.
Personally, he's a fun champ to play, but I really don't think he's viable right now. Skin is freaking adorable, plus, you know, Reptar and all. I don't regret buying it.
AP Ezreal can do stupid amounts of damage from high range late game. Late game Kog could maybe do it as well, not sure if his W boosted auto's can reach out of range of the laser.
Just had to lane against a Yasuo as Irelia because my mid wasn't dealing with him well. Went into lane while he was 2 kills up on me, killed him twice no problem. Yasuo can't handle the stronger bruisers, at least from my experience. I'd imagine that Jax/Renekton/Trynd/Riven would all give him fits.
Just split push against them. Super easy to win doing that. 1 person in each side lane that can hold tower, 3 people in the middle to shove down the mid inner and outer turrets, then hold as best as they can against the bots when they finally break the 2-1-2 lanes. The side lanes then just shove in and drop wards so they can TP to them.
Or, just play to have fun and don't worry about winning? Half the fun of playing against them is seeing the insane things that can happen...like walking into a Garen/Fiddles ult in a random bush in the jungle, or trying to take down Doom-bot Cho-Gath with Swain ult and 6 stacks.
Eh, not that bad. Just need to get two people that can handle the side lanes and 3 in mid. You'll go down to your inhibs probably, but the bots can't handle a splitpush/backdoor strategy.
If you try to teamfight though, it's rough. Also, Lux is a pest on that. Still haven't had to deal with Cho or Blitz yet though.
Except for now. Also season 3 worlds(somewhat relevant, but not extremely so. Huge variety of ADC's picked). Also season 2 worlds (Got picked once. Never banned). She's been dominant in certain meta's, and she's going to be a strong pick frequently, because she's strong at laning. She's also not nerf worthy, because she isn't the constant dominant pick, and doesn't crowd other champions out of the role.
This year it's been Twitch/Lucian since the Twitch remake. Before that, Sivir/Cait/Lucian were the top three, though Corki has seen a decent amount of play, as has Graves. There has been a pretty big variety of ADC's in the LCS, probably a wider variety of those than supports/top/jungle, honestly. Cait hasn't been a priority pick/ban for quite some time, though a lot of people do default to her if what they wanted was banned/picked.