Howdy children. Gather round to grandpas campfire to hear the story of what playing Jhin was like long ago. Jhin was released in January of 2016. Wow! Almost 10 years ago. At that time it was clearly known that low DPS utility AD carries were countered by high durability champions. Let me list the ones you had to watch out for.
Rammus, Nunu, Cho’gath, Maokai, Leona, Skarner.
That’s it. Those were your high durability champions.
• Rammus you could kite.
• Leona had to ult you directly.
• Maoki was almost never bot.
• Cho’gath was a nightmare as well as Skarner
• Nunu you just ward against.
Welcome back to 2023. Riot has decided that super high durability brusiers are pretty cool. Isn’t it super fun that you can come through build tank and do damage?. Ornn sure is exciting. The counter play for Jhin includes… uhhh… gotta sit further back. They reworked Sion and added Kled so that you could get insta run down. Added Rell and changed Mao ult so that it could knife you from long range with hard CC. Sett came around and does whatever he does to you. K’sante can dive you from across your screen. Tank Ekko? Best of luck, sir. Lillia now has 550 ms while dodging your slow skill shots and healing. Rakan dives at you. Bel’veth gets 70% Damage reduction while killing you. Gwen? Ha. Good luck, man. Gwen is immune.
The problem fundamentally is not Jhin. It’s riot’s obsession with absurd durability and spell kits that can hit you across your screen. Big CC wave coming right at you? Didn’t exist back then. Tanks absorbing all your damage and still killing you? That was Rammus or Cho’gath only. Tanks crossing your screen in a second to engage? Didn’t exist. If it did, it was Leona and you had to hit multiple difficult skill shots to do it.
You guys just don’t remember that utility ADCs used to have a place. They do not have a place in modern League. It’s frustrating and it’s bad balancing.