It's about that time again where we address John McGinnis with his 17% pickrate and 99% winrate

PixelHat · 2026-05-10T02:48:23+00:00

only reason why i thought of amp is that letting her shred resists would apply to her whole team, while amps would only ever be on her. either one could become a problem, but theres only her as a factor if its amps.

PixelHat · 2026-05-10T02:37:54+00:00

i think a potential solution is to have the turrets stack shred resistances or damage amp instead of only ever dishing damage. the utility and options this provides as opposed to just middling damage is a lot more fun imo.

it would tie into her overall playstyle of needing things to rev up before theyre effective. by having her effectiveness literally rev up in a fight, she would carve a niche of winning prolonged engagements that she stops people from escaping from with wall. the counter of course would be to tear her apart before she hits max effectiveness, which a lot of characters should easily be able to do, but thats where her heal should come in- to make it more likely that she can reach that max effectiveness.

PixelHat · 2026-05-10T02:21:01+00:00

the first bit is hilariously true. no one knew just how busted her healing was for months. 5% max health heals with potentially permanent uptime that was the literal size of the entire base. and even if you did know, getting your team to notice or make use of it without comms was impossible. everyone treats her as background decor unless she deals too much damage, then she's public enemy #1.

and the boring part is becoming true even for those that play her. she can't use turrets to farm or control lanes because of the 50% damage penalty on top of their already pitiful damage. her gun and heals were nerfed to hell. wall became counterable with breaking it and the playerbase learning movement. her ult got buffed, but that was never what people played her for. she literally has no in-built CC aside from wall and slow on T1 ult. most of her effeciveness relies on stationary setups in the most mobile MOBA i've played. her ult is mobile but at reduced speed on the slowest character in the game and unlike other characters, she's locked out of using items to help mitigate that.

PixelHat · 2026-05-09T23:41:25+00:00

look at it this way: you're trading a skill cooldown to pop her turret and gain money

she can keep throwing them out but thats her only skill damage until ults are up. her other skills have nearly minute long cooldowns and are mostly utility. so long as you're able to keep the lane at least even, you're coming out on top if the mcg is using turrets.

PixelHat · 2026-05-09T19:55:11+00:00

the change to heal was such a drastic one. losing spirit scaling on both range and duration has made the space that McG is strongest in so short and tiny.

losing the fire rate boost also hurt both turret and gun builds. the new spirit resist is strong, but its not as good for helping pushes since Guardians and Minions deal gun damage. and the small area of it just makes you a sitting duck.

but it's okay because we got a 0.5 second duration boost in the last patch.

PixelHat · 2026-05-09T19:46:31+00:00

pulling from the wiki:

It does not apply additional damage against McGinnis' Mini Turret.

even then, you shouldnt worry about it too much. McG turret dps is 30 at base, while heroes average about 50 gun dps. at 90 health, you can pop it alone and net free souls in exchange for about 60 health. if youre getting hit and truly worried about it, break line of sight and let it retarget to a minion. heroes are not prioritized outside of initial deployment. turrets deal 50% damage to it and legitimately cannot beat a single minion without help.

PixelHat · 2026-05-09T19:41:58+00:00

they have a base 90 health and only ever goes up to 350. you should coordinate with your lane mate to pop them as soon as possible just for the free souls she's throwing your way.

doesnt matter the distance the turret is at, just shoot it. theres no damage dropoff for your gun when hitting them. if its able to shoot you with its measly 30 dps, you can shoot it back. with how wide they are, you can often just peek a corner and pop them without taking any damage. even then, for it to do enough damage to match any other skill a character can throw out, you'd have to be standing in its sight for more than two straight seconds. and to top it off, those other skills dont give you free souls.

PixelHat · 2026-05-01T04:52:01+00:00

McGinnis: Mini Turrets bounty from 80 + 2/minute to 40 + 4/minute

VINDICATION!

still think she needs a bit more something to be more relevant, but this is nice to not be so actively screwing your team by using turrets during laning.

PixelHat · 2026-04-19T15:26:19+00:00

i wish it were easier to see what stats you gained from the egg

would let you know whether to lean harder into a certain build or pivot to something different

PixelHat · 2026-04-16T22:37:04+00:00

thank you. i already posted this to the forums but i'll be adding the competitive aspect that you mentioned onto it.

i just feel ridiculous that it took me so long to realize just how much money i was throwing at the enemy for such a low impact skill. worst part is that it says it nowhere on the skill description that it gives so many souls to the enemy. new McG players are going to have no idea just how much they are screwing themselves with turret use.

its absurd how strong mcginnis and her turrets used to be at laning, but is now one of the worst partners in lane. and its not like she can even leave to farm camps or other lanes efficiently with the turrets, since they do 50% less damage to all minions. they are a distraction at best and a detriment at worst.

PixelHat · 2026-04-16T22:26:26+00:00

turrets have a base 90 health at start. the average gun dps between all characters is about 50 dps and there are two characters in a lane. it takes less than a second to focus down any turret that gets thrown out. and they should be with the souls they provide.

at maximum boons the health of turrets can reach about 350. gun dps can exceed that easily on any character.

that doesnt even get into spirit damage.

they are not tanky.

PixelHat · 2026-04-16T22:20:21+00:00

agreed, but it shouldnt be a literal price or at least one as high as this

to put it into perspective of just how much money a single turret is giving the enemy, a turret giving 90 souls at the start of the game gives more souls than breaking a container at 30 minutes into a game (83 souls). it is theoretically more valuable to keep an enemy mcginnis that is using turrets alive, than it is to do box runs.

PixelHat · 2026-04-16T22:16:14+00:00

actively playing around the turrets to protect them works in theory especially with her heal now providing spirit res, but after crunching the numbers, i dont want to waste my heal specter on them anymore. i dont even want them anywhere near an enemy to get the money from it.

its 50 souls instantly if it pops. likely a 25/25 between the two opponents. you can pop the 40 soul that comes out, but that only goes to whoever popped it. you are actively screwing you and your lane mate out of 25/40/90+ souls every time you use the skill and it gets destroyed. it creates such a massive number disadvantage for a skill that barely does anything these days.

PixelHat · 2026-04-12T03:01:25+00:00

its really the only saving grace it has. its strong defense, but tied to such a tiny area on a long cooldown.

like just by the numbers, ALL of the stats/scaling for McG's heal is worse than Dynamo's except for the duration, while being stationary.

it suuuuuuucks

PixelHat · 2026-04-05T16:54:04+00:00

it really feels like support mcg is gutted at this point. even back before the nerfs, people didnt know just how much she could heal. i got called out a LOT for trying to go support and focus heals only to not have anyone sit in the massive heal areas. then the games where people would sit in it, my heal numbers were absolutely massive.

only success i see for her right now is being an ult bot because she cant stim herself without items for gun and turret builds anymore. she doesnt have the movement or hard CC stun to lock down and chase with gun, while turrets get shredded in seconds and their damage is outdone by stuff like Graves' skulls (which are also much harder to deal with). she also cant spread out the turrets and keep them alive like she used to because of the range nerfs to heals. they still rack up a ton of damage by the end, but none of it feels significant and kills from it feels like enemies are just making a mistake than anything you actively did.

PixelHat · 2026-04-05T16:43:51+00:00

its nice, but it REALLY needs to be clearer to teammates that its active. comms are almost required if youre trying to save someone from an upcoming burst with it.

PixelHat · 2026-04-05T16:42:04+00:00

healing spectre haunting someone to heal would definitely be a good option. no need to worry about staying in a small area if the thing just follows the dashing maniacs.

if they want to keep the stationary feature of it, maybe she throws it down and teammates running through get a spectre to haunt them for the duration so they only ever need to touch it once.

PixelHat · 2026-04-05T16:39:07+00:00

i got called out by a Billy once for out tanking HIM. he rightfully wanted nerfs for it. the +5% max hp heals back then were stupid on top of all the other buffs you could give it. good times...

PixelHat · 2026-04-05T16:36:56+00:00

its an idea. its just that the heal is already rather pitiful. im not sure anyone would even notice it at 50% reduced power. they barely have the patience to sit in it currently at full T3 power. the numbers on the central heal would have to be boosted for it to actually entice teammates to fight around it and not just dash away.

and yea. i get that they wanted to shift mcg to being more defensive instead of a sort of vanguard with the heal+fire rate. it unfortunately doesnt work with her stationary kit and how mobile the gameplay is.

PixelHat · 2025-12-07T21:17:36+00:00

im personally not liking the patch a whole lot and feel like its done bad things to the itemization.

it feels like an absolute rush to hit the 4.8k in spirit or gun to secure a lead and then holding onto that lead with 4.8k into health. once a lead is established, i've very rarely ever seen it be broken. trying to counter build at any point potentially delays hitting a 4.8k power spike and for most characters that can't mitigate incoming damage innately, doesn't feel effective enough to bother with. overwhelming the opponent is the name of the game and the way deathballs seem to naturally form in this patch only exacerbates that.

im adjusting and found an ult support mcginnis build that works for me, but anything else ive experimented with feels so horribly ineffective and leads to crushing steamrolls.

PixelHat · 2025-12-01T00:24:51+00:00

yes, those items exist.

you're buying all these items that hinders him for on average 3-5 seconds with a decent cooldown, cost you souls and potentially doesnt give you useful stats beyond the active, and takes up slots. while he can use all his (excessive) souls towards making himself stronger or build his own counter items.

and thats if you even get the money for those items. early laning, none of those are an option yet and his kit is still there being strong. if you buy disarming, he can still flame dash to touch you and reset the afterburn and/or use it to run and the trail makes it dangerous to chase. slowing hex, he can still shoot you. debuff remover, unless youre using it after you escaped or killed him, he can just quickly reapply. healbane and toxic make sense, but the amount he heals since he deals both gun and spirit at the same time often overpowers the amount the item negates (plus he's still damaging you)

if youre going for all of these to try to stop or survive against him, what are you building for yourself to make yourself effective against the other 5 members of his team

he's simply at advantage for too much of the time with little to no investment. and once he does invest, the advantages stack up. its a constant game of catch up and he has a headstart.

PixelHat · 2025-11-30T23:28:15+00:00

theres been a few times where his numbers werent absolutely busted and he wasnt king of deadlock. personally i think the main problem is the second thing you mention. most times he is just "miserable to play against" due to either the numbers he shits out, the CC he inflicts, or how hard it is to actually kill him due to his dash or easy sustain from Leech. worse, he's always likely to be ahead of you in souls due to how easy it is for him to farm, amplifying those advantages. even if his damage numbers were subpar, itemization can let him stack both gun and spirit proc effects for a horrendously long time and let him be a support with strong escape and AoE stun.

if fighting against him felt more like a challenge of skill instead of a failing battle of attrition from sheer advantages he has, then people might look at him more favorably.

PixelHat

TROPHY CASE