Kai'Sa the last playable Adc ?
LoL: Fans Happy About Kai'Sa Nerf
ADC's don't have it easy in the current meta. High mobile and damage oriented bruisers in the top lane, one-shotting assassins and mages in the mid lane and engage supporter on the bot lane, sounds like fun for the poor ADC.
Now it was announced, that Kai'Sa will receive some nerfs in the upcoming patch. The community is mostly happy about it, but some are questioning which ADC will be viable after the nerfs. Since Kai'Sa was one of the most popular and safest picks in this harsh meta.
Kai'Sa To Be Nerfed in LoL Patch 13.15
A new thread in the League of Legends Subreddit is picking up steam right now. In there a lot of players are discussing, or rather cheering, about the nerfs for the AP variation of Kai'Sa. These reactions were triggered by a tweet of Matt "RiotPhroxzon" Leung-Harrison, Lead Designer of the LoL Balance Team.
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According to Phroxzon Kai'Sa will receive nerfs for her AP build, how these nerfs will look like wasn't specified by him. Also, the synergy between the two items Statikk Shiv and Night Harvester will be changed, and other ADC are set to be "monitored" in the near future.
As you can imagine, the community reactions were pretty positive, since Kai'Sa and especially her AP variant is a popular pick in the ADC role. And while nothing was said about the classical AD build, the discussions evolved around the viability of the champ in general.
A nerf for her AP build is totally understandable by the way. Her W just deals way too much damage and the abilities range is insane, additionally the cooldown reduction for hitting the W makes her more of a long range poke champ than an ADC.
The Community Reactions
The creator of the thread, a user named "OK-Connection-2442" started the discussion with the comparison of AP Kai'Sa and the long gone AP Zeri from back in the days. The thread was fittingly titled : "AP Zeri was so unhealthy for the game that it was gutted but AP Kai'sa is allowed to dominate all levels of play from Bronze to Pro?"
In the thread the user describes his feelings toward the Kai'Sa build:
AP Zeri was a pain to play against but it was no where as oppressive as Kaisa, Kaisa rn dominates all levels of play. Zeri's gameplay pattern was deemed unhealthy for the game and subsequently had her AP ratios gutted killing off AP Zeri build, despite her not having as much success as other Zeri builds so why is AP Kai'sa treated any different? At least AP Zeri didn't shoot her W from 3 screens away and had to actually position around terrain. Here's hoping Balance team does something before worlds
His opinion was shared by many more community members, for example the user "S890127":
I hate AP Kai'sa because I played Aram for years and I've had enough this W poke shit.You hate AP Kai'sa because you watch pro or grind soloque. We are not the same.
Seriously, they need to change the W evolve into something else. A 2000 range high damage poke ability should not get cooldown reduction as reward for hitting people.
Needlessly to say, that there were some users with a different view on the topic as well. Since Kai'Sa is one of the few AD/AP carries that are playable in nearly every situation, some users fear a lack of diversity in the bot lane role. For example the Twitter user "Dead Botting":
Great, nerfing the last playable adc! Hope people like watching perma Ashe prio at worlds!
Or the user "Pioppo": But what do you nerf about Kai'sa without killing the champion for years? Lol That's crazy, you are trying to nerf the last ADC with somewhat of mobility.
It will be interesting to see, how the nerfs for Kai'Sa will look like and how they might impact her play style. But it's safe to say that her AP variant was just too strong in the current meta. She was able to poke over a high distance and could one shot squishy targets. Additionally, she is able to melt tanks and possesses a lot of mobility.
Also, it will be interesting to see, which ADC might be the winner of the announced nerfs and get picked in the upcoming games.