Aaron’s League of Legends Column: Quinn Champion Overview

League of Legends has a huge champion roster, and when it comes to buying a new champion, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the immense amount on offer. This article will help you decide whether the new champion, Quinn, is worth your hard-earned IP, by providing you with a brief overview of her skills and playstyle.

So I spent RP on this and bought the Champion and skin bundle because damn, Quinn looked all kinds of fun. If you want to buy Quinn, she is going to cost you 7800 IP or 975 RP. These prices might change, but right now, it is what it is. If you’re not in a hurry to play her, you could always wait until she is placed on the weekly free champion rotation, but if you’re expecting that to happen overnight, don’t hold your breath.

I’m going to go over all of Quinn’s background and must know information, as well as basic builds and even showcasing example games. I’m not guaranteeing this information will constantly melt enemy faces as these are just pieces of information I have gathered whilst playing as her. It will, however, give you a better understanding of what you’re dealing with.

Skins and Purchase options:

Ah, skins, something every League of Legends player gets a bit excited about. Quinn currently only has one skin to purchase and this is the Phoenix Quinn skin (try saying that three times fast). This will turn Quinn into a redheaded killer whilst her faithful companion, Valor, will turn into a fiery Phoenix.

As of now, these are the only purchase options for both the champion and the skin:

• Quinn (IP) – 7300
• Quinn (RP) – 975
• Quinn Skin and Champion Bundle (RP) – 1950

As you can see, the price is reasonable. If you are looking at getting the champion with RP and want the skin, I would recommend buying the champion with IP and the skin with RP. That way, you are only spending real world money on the skin, not the champion. If you are looking to buy the champion by itself, as always, I’d suggest just waiting it out and buying her via IP, unless you want her right away.

Introduction to the Champion

Quinn is a ranged ADC. This means that, when playing her, you should be carrying the team damage wise and maintaining a good farm to get your high cost items, such as Infinity Edge. As with most carrys, you will be a bit squishy early game, but when it comes to late gameplay, you’re going to be rolling out the damage across the width of the battlefield. Quinn, in my opinion, has the steepest learning curve when it comes to any of the ADC champions in the game, and in turn, this means she will not be much of a friend for newer players. Before attempting to play as Quinn in normal or ranked games, you should make sure  you can at least hit effectively so that you can maximise your farm early game, and ensure you have a feel for the range of her standard attack so that you can poke efficiently.

Quinn is reliant on fluent skill usage so that her passive can be used at the summoners leisure. This ensures that poke and damage output is at the highest possible quality it can be. Quinn has both a range of passive skills (Constantly active) and active skills (Activate on button press) that can be combined to give her huge mobility, attack speed and a high damage output. With that being said, I think we should take a look at her skills:

• Passive – Harrier

• Harrier is one of Quinns most useful traits.  Harrier marks enemy champions or minions next to you as a vulnerable target. When the targeted enemy is hit with your standard attack, bonus physical damage is dealt. In addition to this, any enemy that is marked with a target will remain visible for 5 seconds. This means if a champion is marked and then flees into a brush they will remain visible. The only negative to this skill is that the target can be seen by both enemy and friendly champions.

• Q Ability – Blinding Assault
• Base Mana Cost – 80
• Base Cooldown – 11 Seconds

• Blinding assault allows Quinn to throw Valor at a target to blind them while dealing physical damage. Blinding Assault is a skill shot, meaning it will not lock onto anything but instead will require aiming from the summoner.

• W Ability – Heightened Senses
• Base Mana Cost – 0
• Base Cooldown – 50 Seconds

• Heightened senses’ passive grants Quinn with a temporary attack speed buff when she attacks a target that has been marked by Harrier. However, Valor receives a permanent increase in attack speed. In addition to this, the active of the skill allows Quinn and Valor to reveal an area in a given radius around them.

• E Ability – Vault
• Base Mana Cost – 50
• Base Cooldown – 12 Seconds

• Vault allows Quinn to dash a target champion and instantly mark them as a vulnerable target (see passive). This ability can be used to either gain, or shorten distance between you and an enemy champion, all the while slowing them down to mere walking speed.

• R Ability- Ultimate – Tag Team
• Base Mana Cost – 0
• Base Cooldown – 140 Seconds

• Tag Team is one of my favourite ultimate abilities in the game. Tag Teams allows Quinn to change into Valor. When playing as Valor, Quin’s movement speed will be increased by 80% and all of her standard abilities are buffed, turning them into a high damage, high mobility, bird of prey.  Nice.

Overall, I love Quinn’s skills as a champion. When all of her skills are used in harmony, you can have a huge damage output allowing you to tip the tides of any battle. When playing as Quinn, if you use your E ability to vault to an enemy and mark them, you can do a huge bust of damage. Tactics like this give Quinn quite a lot of poke damage, but in turn, they put her in a very vulnerable situation as she is forced to get up close to enemy champions. When playing, there is always a high-risk, high-reward element to take into consideration. This applies greatly early game when Quinns health is so low, yet her damage so high.

More often than not, you can kill at least one member of the enemy team by successfully Ganking early game. If you fail, however, you can be killed in an instant unless you have sufficient sustain in the form of boots and pots.

Early game 

My experience with Quinn early game has not been a lot of fun. After playing her for two days, I can safely say she is horrendously squishy until level 6. Her low health, combined with her low range, mean that she’s a walking target until she can buy some lifesteal or defensive items. However, she can be used effectively early game, in conjunction with a support, to crack out some intense damage.

When laning as Quinn, it is important that you keep a high minion count whilst maintaining good lane control. Quinn’s passive often marks nearby champions and lets you know when they are close enough to poke for damage. If you maintain poke and get a champion down to half health, its usually a more viable option to go in for a kill using the Vault ability. However, this is dependant on your health at the time, as well as lane control.

When playing as Quinn, I often ask for a Taric or Lux support character to back me up on the bottom lane. I do this with good reason. Quinn’s high damage output, combined with the support’s stun or snare ability, allow me to pull off some easy ganks right as the game begins.

For example; just as Taric stuns an unaware enemy, you can pull off some fast damage by auto attacking. Then as the stun ends, you can vault to the target, slowing and marking the champion, letting you deal bonus physical damage. That is an easy kill, especially if you use flash if they are about to escape. Again, this isn’t fool proof, as players will often back away and play safe, but when it works it’s damn satisfying.

Late game 

Late game, Quinn is, as you might expect, very, very powerful. When building her, I usually go for items such as Bloodthirster, Frozen mallet and Phantom dancer. This allows Quinn to fire off multiple attacks very quickly, while maintaining a good health level. If played right, she can have huge control over the arena due to her W active ability and mobility.

Endgame, the usual build I go for is the Berserker’s Greaves with the Furor enchantment, along with the Bloodthirster, the Blade of the Ruined King, the Phantom Dancer, the Frozen Mallet and Infinity Edge. All of these items combined allow Quinn to survive for prolonged periods, while giving her huge damage and attack speed buffs. In addition to this, passive effects from items such as the Frozen Mallet, allow Quinn to chase enemy champions effectively by slowing them and making them vulnerable to attacks. As I previously stated, this is not a sure-fire way to kill people as Quinn, but I regularly use this build as it acquaints for mobility, sustain and high damage.

Example games and builds

I’ve been playing Quinn quite a lot recently and regularly tinker around with the items I use. Here are some examples where my score has been reasonable and build to my liking:

As you can see, Quinn is more than viable ADC. She can crank out a lot of damage and is probably the most mobile ADC in the game. When all of her skills are used correctly, she can do huge poke damage and bring enemy champions to their knees with ease.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Very high damage output
• High mobility champion
• Quite good at poking early level even if she is a bit squishy
• Two skills that improve CC, and her W active allows Quinn to see her surrounding area, meaning enemies in bushes can be seen, preventing ganks

Cons

• Squishy at low levels
• Has a very steep learning curve
• If focused, she can be taken out with ease if you don’t use your vault and summoner spells effectively

My Impressions

After extensive playtime, I’ve come to accept that Quinn is probably my favourite ADC in League of Legends. One of the things that makes her great is her mobility. I love nothing more than being able to chase a champion down the map and slow them to the point where they might as well stand still and accept death. Every game I’ve played as Quinn has proven her as nothing more than a fluid, versatile and sensational champion late game.

One of the things that does let her down, though, is her very low resistance to damage early game. If a team focus you right at the beginning of the game, you can pretty much be killed instantly unless you buy your E ability first. Your E can more than often save your life as it increases the distance between you and the targeted enemy, all while slowing their movement speed.

I wouldn’t say Quinn is the best ADC in the game, but she is an absolute blast to play. Champions like Vayne and Draven can still compete with Quinn with ease, as they also have huge damage output. That said, any summoner who is used to playing ADC champions should definitely try Quinn whenever they get the chance. They might just fall in love.

I personally think she is worth the 7800 IP, as long as you’re patient, persistent and able to push through her steep learning curve. If you’re still struggling, keep practising. She is definitely one of the most fun champions in the game, and when you’re adjusted to her playstyle, she is also one of the most versatile and rewarding ones.

Do I recommend her? Hell yes. As always, Riot have managed to produce a champion that feels unique, yet maintains genuine LoL familiarity. A genuine delight.