3-Hit Passives: Why Are There So Many Of Them?! | League of Legends 

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Pretty biased here but imo Daisy's 3-hit passive is one of the better designed ones. While not entirely necessary, you can reposition daisy so you can knock up multiple people with her 3rd smash. This brings some extra skill expression into the ability for the Ivern mains without making it too difficult to use for the newer players.

I'll say this is the butter of abilities because every class that is direct combat focused can benefit with these abilities(and the only non-combat focused are supports and long-range mages) so ADC the obvious one, mages will be able to do something between abilities and also will probably help with laning and last hitting minions, while tanks don't have those because they would be directly broken with those(I mean, Gnar's an ADC and when he transforms he actually looses the passive) so yeah, my take is because it fits in almost any champ and I can't wait to hear your takes.

I'd say important aspect of Vaynes 3 hit is the fact she needs to do 3 consecutive attacks on the same target. You said as ADC you wanted to attack whatever moves anyways - but in teamfight as ADC (especialy as short range as Vayne) you need to balance attacking the most dangerous target with attacking targets that don't require you to missposition in order to do so. In hectic teamfight it often means ADC wants to switch targets as dangerous enemies pop out of their teams safety and return back, but Vayne wants to keep attacking one target which may lead her to overextend and die.

I think the under looked value of "3-hit passives" are their prevalence. Especially when you consider we have around 150 champions in the game at this point, it is near impossible for someone hasn't dedicated years to the game to learn everything about all the champs and their interactions. In same way in fighting game their are often shared inputs or consistent "gattlings" across characters, I think 3-hit passives are something the champion design teams has identified as something they want to be on a lot of champs, especially they one they want to be more popular and not be overly unapproachable. If all you do is play league then it does maybe get boring to see over and over again, but for people who play more casually, it does help add some familiarity and shared knowledge you can apply to that 25% of the roster once you play of those champions. You could argue at this point it holds a similar place to other more "universal" tools, like auto-resets or dashes.

If its a 2 hit its going to be way quicker to pull off and if its 4 hit its going to be slow to pull off, but the problem is most of the characters with this designed abilities are those who can somehow last the entire fight

My three hit passive on Vars Videos is hitting the like, bell and subscribe buttons.

An arguement could be made that Vladimir's Q works with a 3-hit effect, since every third one deals bonus damage

People don't take it into consideration a lot, but don't forget - Vayne W resets if you hit any other target, she has to deal third blow to the same target to deal damage. As much as i hate Vayne, i think it adds a lot of play and counterplay for Vayne, for a marksman - it adds a lot of skill expression since it becomes harder to focus more then one target.

There are sooo many "boomerang" abilities too (Ahri, Sivir, Akshan, Ekko, Gnar, Lux,etc.) i wonder why tho

It’s not a 3-hit passive but Kennen should be acknowledged for his w that has a 5-hit passive. Especially considering that Irelia and Kayle were included in the initial list

I feel like roping in active ability's and things that get value from a single hit should not be considered 3 hit passives. Calling something like chos spikes a 3 hit passive feels wrong because its not a passive ability and isn't reliant on landing all 3 hits to deal the damage . Ide also say any 3 hit effect that requires you to manually hit a button to enable empowered hits should not count(yone yasuo cho). Jax for example has a 3 hit passive but can proc it on his first auto against a target on the flip side yasuo and yone don't have 3 hit passives because they actively have to press the button multiple times implying its no longer a passive. Part of the reason why 3 hit passives in particular are so annoying is that most champions that get them in the modern champion design simply don't need them to feel like a complete character, champions like nocturne were built around having it for one reason or another in his case it was to help clear and sustain in the jungle, Someone like velkoz does have a 3 hit to incentivize continuous poke using his long range to its fullest.

'Although for kaisai you need 5 attacks instead of 3' Braum: Am i a joke to you?

I just realized that quite a few of them either have jungler as a main role, or a secondary role, so their 3-Hit passive might be there to help them clear faster. (Diana, nocturne, Master Yi, Vi, Udyr, Jax, Mordekaiser, Sejuani and so on) Yes not all of them were designed as junglers in mind, but it I think it still makes sense.

“Marksmen want to shoot everything that move” Vayne doesn’t want to shoot just anything however. She wants it to be the same target 3 times in a row. Which is why she plays so differently to jhin who is happy to just shoot anyone regardless if it was 3 different people with each auto.

the thing about overused mechanics is that they do serve a purpose. There are ~150 characters in league. If you are a casual player, it helps for you to have transferable skills (like playing around a 3 hit passive), so you don't have to memorize every character in the game. And with transferability comes synergy. Because skills should be transferable to make the game feel coherent, they should also be supported in things like items and runes (PTA and rageblade). However, this creates a redundancy issue. Because there is support for specifically achieving 3 auto attacks, they are incentivized to commit even further to the mechanic. This is why gwen is so bad. She has a cool, unique kit, but the things she wants to do simply aren't supported by the current items in the game. This is also why a lot of people think gwen is unfair and terribly designed, she is unique. Her w is a tool that players have never had to deal with before, so it comes off as uncounterable. If her w was a 3 hit passive, then everyone would know what to do: walk away from her before the 3rd hit.

You left out Sona who has a player-centered 3-hit passive with powerchord. "Powerchord: After using 3 abilities, her next attack deals additional damage and has additional effects." This mechanic could also be considered a variant of empowered abilities but it's definitely also a 3-hit. You also left out Nami under the activated 3-hit group with her E, Tidecaller's Blessing, that empowers an ally's next 3 attacks or abilities. Also, Braum's passive is a variant of 3-hit, requiring 4 hits form himself or allies to stun an enemy. I found it kinda funny he was not mentioned when you even games with him in the clips. I agree with your points about skill expression. I play a ton of Vel'Koz and his passive, while crucial to playing him well, is pretty boring. It incentivizes me to hit skillshots in quick succession, which I was going to do anyway, and incentivizes my opponent to dodge my skillshots, which they were going to do anyway.

I don't care they can be repetitive, hit passives are always great and I love them

Draven likes 3 hit passives the way Draven likes *zreal. Draven doesn't like *zreal.

I would recognize the Yu-Gi.Oh Duel Links Kaiba Theme whenever I hear it. I approve

At 5:45 you made Asol cry, he’s weeping in fact.

There are even more out of the champs: Guinsoo and Kranken slayer have also 3 hits passives, and a lot of runes: electrocute, conqueror, press the attack and more...

Damn I love the Duel Kinks theme in the background, nice choice !

Xin Zhao is a good example of a champion that had a three hit passive moved into another part of his kit (his old W would heal him every 3rd auto), but was changed into an active skill that gave him just a bit more skill expression and diversified builds.

As someone who’s been playing Pokémon unite. They do the interesting thing of making basic attacks 3 hit passives and it’s kinda cool since they feel fun and different to use. (Blissey is more of a Zeri auto attack thing but you get my point)

This is the only guys who can talk about passives for 14 mins and still make it interessting

Target-focused 3-hit passives make a lot of sense, balance-wise - the first hit grabs your attention, the second confirms that yes, you are being targeted, and the third hit is the actual attack. Basically it gives you a chance to choose whether to escape or take the hit, similar to telegraphed skillshots, while from the attacker's perspective they have to decide whether to focus on one target or go for easier, but less rewarding targets. But user-focused ones are less necessary - they feel more like a way of including critical hits or randomly-activated buffs in a way that is not TECHNICALLY random, but in a chaotic environment might as well be.

Considering how janky , buggy and mosy useless neekos transformation is, ths w passive is basicly her real passive.

i think on darius the mechanic is one of the best implementations it's very often "can you burst him before he gets 5 stacks" or "can you burst him while has 5 stacks before he can get a hit off", and aside from the turbostack he can get from his ultimate, the alternative is "fight him to 4 stacks, then leave". this is especially interesting in 2v2 / 3v3 fights with a little bit of cc, as the enemies of the darius will often end up with 4 stacks each in winning scenarios, but in losing scenarios they had to tank it all it also provides some interesting stuff around "who tanks?", because tanks are usually the easy way to get 5 stacks as darius as tanks usually don't run away, so in skirmishes it's often better to actually let the dps/burst tank a few attacks so darius can't stack up fully. and there are so many layers on how to approach this correctly, it adds so much complexity to a theoretically very simple champ. oh, and even though tanks are usually the ideal target for a darius to get easier kills on the backline, this is the easiest way to get flamed onto oblivion xD

I think there is a very big difference between "3-hit passives" and "stacking passives" which is kind of overlooked here. I get the point in saying they act the same, but the difference should still be noted between Darius, Garen, and Vayne who are all listed in the same category. Just a thought.

I didn't expect to hear the Duel Links battle theme, absolute banger.

When she was under development, senna's passive was a 3 hit but they made it 2 hit because it felt way to slow

May you do a video about DoTs? Like those who have stacks, interactions and synergies like brand and darius those with just interactions like cassio or malzahar and those who just have it as an extra like teemo and lillia. I think it could be an interesting theme.

I remember Smite had (back in 2014 at least) many characters with "attack chains". Basically some would have different speed and damage for their auto attacks depending on which attack it was. So 1*speed/damage for the first two, then 0.75 for the third and 1.5 for the fourth. Per time each attack dealt the same amount of damage but it gave some skill to players to engage at the right time.

Then there's Kindred with their three hits active

Those SSBU references really make me want to see SSBU videos on Vars II

When you make video on 3 hit passives and you get notiffication: "Riot August wants to know your location"

Neeko’s 3-hit is just really simple. It helps alot during laning to help you clear early, allows some nice damage if your abilities are down during a fight and lastly, it allows the Onhit AD Top build

Ayy my main ekko, and this video comes out when I'm eating too. Amazing

Akshan has a 1 hit and 3 hit passive which is easy to weave in

Love the Duelists of the Roses music in the background.

as an aspiring game designer I can say that three hit passives have one purpose that is to control more easily a character power, we cannot forget that league original characters was made by guinsoo that was a former dota 1 character creator and dota has rpg machanics borrowd from warcraft 3 in dota a lot of heros have passives with percentage chance of activation this makes a lot of then extreme unpredictable one fight a sprit braker can get 5 procs of his E (that have a 17% chance to proc) in a row and demolish you and feel like the most stupid hero ever and 3 mins later get 15 hits with no proc and feel like a useless hero so the three hit passive can give extra power to abilities or hits but in a more controlable way like vars says in the video if jax enpowered atack in his ult was a percentage base you could not interact against him nor could jax set up a guaranteed damaging engage

I like how out of all the characters you said play the same way for smash for sword characters you pick the two unique ones

Shen has the best designed 3-hit passive. There is so much skill expression tied to Shen Q it's insane.

also, about reused stuff: many people also joke about dashes on e, skillshots on q etc. league has been around for years because it also focuses on somewhat being casual-friendly. and every returning mechanic makes it easy to adapt to a new champ. oh, this gnar w is like vayne w, but it also works with abilities. that's easy to adapt to. cait, jinx and jhin are very similar if you look at their abilities. they even all fit in some kind of multi-stack passive cait/jhin passive / jinx q. do they feel like copies? no

Ayyy respect the duel links soundtrack as background music!

That is why I miss season 9 rage blade on diana. It use to be 2 auto and 2 cleaves but now it is 2 auto, cleave, auto, cleave. It and Nashors let you shred stuff with an attack speed build. And before you go, "Just build full ap and one shot things." That gets boring and when you make a Jax start to second guess flat-foot boxing with you...glorious.

Great video as usual. Would you please do a League of Legends VS Wild Rift comparison and what changes can LOL benefit from WD and vice versa, if any?

10:34 but she can only apply it to on target she gets rewarded for sticking to one target and not swapping.

I feel this video missed the mark a bit. I get his point, and I do agree somewhat, but when people talk about 3-hit passives, they are literally talking about 3 hit "passives." Meaning, things which are passively applied and have a lingering duration which discourage the opponent to keep fighting (probably some extra definitions that can be added here, but right now these are the biggest ones.) Some of these would be Braum's passive, Vayne, Akshan and Kennen. If you add Yasuo/Yone into this mix, that would also mean that Vladimir is a part of this mix too, which means Corki is also counted and so is Jhin, and now you'll start adding an incredible amount of champions who are not really part of it, but "technically" they are. A similar case would be if you asked which champions has sustain and naturally things like Aatrox, Lee Sin, Irelia, Morgana and Nasus are good cases, but then you'd say that shielding is also part of sustain. Now we add even more. But isn't health regen also sustain? Now we add even more. This creates a situation where the issue isn't actually "sustain" itself, since that encompasses many things, but rather how prevalent sustain has become. Just as an example. People don't complain about Aatrox or Nasus healing tons, they are built to do this, it is a part of their kits and it makes sense for their character, people complain about Yasuo and Yone since these characters shouldn't be able to sustain that well, but all of the sudden they are able to, this is what people have an issue with, people do not hate sustain as a concept. Now, back to the point. 3-hit passive champions that usually get flack are: Vayne, Akshan, Gnar, Varus and Kai'sa. A pattern here is ranged champions which pretty much summarizes the thing people dislike about 3-hit passives, the ability to pressure your opponent through both short trades and extended ones. You either take a short trade and risk losing out due to their burst damage thanks to their passive, which requires nothing but doing the thing they do anyways, basic attacking you, or you take the extended one or all in, where they can proc it several times and you need to hope you are strong enough to handle it. This kind of gameplay is what people usually complain about, where neither short or extended trades are really unfavourable since it is a passive that never shuts off.

As usual, you're just putting out amazing content on a bi-weekly basis ! Would love to see you talk about 'sweet spot abilities'.

I played Neeko for a while mid lane as a control support before the item reworks. Old Glacial with smite, GLP (Hose) and Twin shadows meant you were strong with base stats, control and jungle assistance (Before smite rework). Then swapped to On hit neeko since W gives a lot of AP on hit, Kraken slayer and BORK giving a ton of true and physical on hit. Combined with the CC from your Ult and E meant you could lock down and kill anyone. Three hit passive was only great as AP to clear minions or extra burst (Nashors tooth + Lichbane for more damage)

One think you might need to consider regarding caster champions who somehow have a 3-hit passive like TF or Neeko: the ability also enable a completely different playstyle for them - on-hit marksman.

If only I earned a dollar everytime Vars brings up empowered abilities.

the 3 it passive rewards vayne for AAing the same champ and no target swapping which is an important part of every other adc's dynamic. And some of the abilities you listed don't require you to hit the same target (i.e shen Q can be applied on 3 different targets) besides shen's shield is his passive and can be activated with every ability at the end of it, not just Q.

Proposition on hit passive that require you to stack it on multiple targets to proc. Closest to that in game at the moment is actually rell, she gets bonus armor and mr from any target she attacks and the more she hits the more she gets, but in her case its purely passive. Hoe about a champion that stack marks on targets and the more targets they hit the stronger the ability becomes. In case of vayne, she is good only for single target dmg since attacking new target removes silver bolts from original one. Ergo she magnetize to duel top lane. This champion would prefer fighting 5v5 or with monions because more target would grant more power and oppositively you could counter them by being solo

3 hit passives mostly work the way they do because there is already an example in game of a champion who's gameplay structure works around one that doesn't offer immediate benefit; Varus, Varus gets cool down refunds for popping his 3 hit passive, he can apply to multiple targets and his AP build can make his E really threatening if used correctly, but at the end of the day when you make a 3 hit passive this back loaded the champion has a hard time using it in full.

Vayne is punished for swapping targets, its not free, obnoxious but not free. You got 2 positioning tools for that ( passive approach speed and Q ) and because its low range it means that she needs to get into danger for her to get the dmg output that she needs. But its broken on 1v1, and stacked rageblade negates the need for the 3rd hit, making it dull as a mechanic since you get an AA reset with his Q ( plus stealth ).

Jhin: Laughs at FOUR!

I really liked the duel links ost in the background

if i can rework Vayne... - Vayne if not so behind cant be killed by most assassins nor most tanks and anything in between.. - i think Vayne should go one of two ways: - (1) the assassin way make her w an active ability that deals flat true dmg (just like master yi) - or - (2) the dps way removing her invisibility and give her more range/dmg - combining Kog'maw and Kaisa into one kit is kinda unfair because she gets best of both worlds. - for the same reason they reworked Azir because he could do everything too well i think they should rework Vayne the same way

Tahm Kench mains: I guess I don't exist

I always though it would be cool for the neeko clone to be more interesting than just another clone+invis. My idea was that hitting the clone would cause it to "lash back" and damage the attacker. I can easily see this damage component replacing the 3-hit passive.

Oh, and Nami for type 3. Her E gives herself or an ally bonus damage and a slow on the next 3 attacks.

Varus' 3 hit+ability is my favorite one. Easy to stack but you have to chose how you execute it and it relies on you using abilities as well as attacks. You also get to chose between more dmg with Q but you're slowed down or less dmg with E but more utility

If you play or ever have played Dota, chance attacks are huge thing in Dota. I don't know how it would turn out in League, but i'd like to see something like that.

I quote some champ designer for all the detailed and thought through reasons "Because it feels good..when I made jhin, they forbid me so I made it 4" you put more thought into this than the designers..

If riot thinks too much about skillexpression they create something like samira I need another sett in my life. Straight forward punchyboy. Very respectable

Quick question: What exact 3-hit passive is Garen supposed to have? There are none I can think of at the moment..

I always say old aatrox would love the season 11/12 items and runes, I miss him so much 😮‍💨

Would kleds W be considered this? It's not TECHNICALLY a passive but it does do more dmg on 4th strike

Three is a magic number Yes it is, it's a magic number Somewhere in that ancient mystic trinity You get three as a magic number The past and the present and the future Faith and hope and charity The heart and the brain and the body Give you three as a magic number It takes three legs to make a tripod or to make a table stand It takes three wheels to make a vehicle called a tricycle And every triangle has three corners Every triangle has three sides No more, no less, you don't have to guess When it's three, you can see Its a magic number A man and a woman had a little baby Yes, they did They had three in the family And that's a magic number Three, six, nine Twelve, fifteen, eighteen Twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-seven Thirty (Three, six, nine Twelve, fifteen, eighteen Twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-seven Thirty) Three times ten is (thirty) Three times nine is (twenty-seven) Three times eight is (twenty-four) Three times seven is (twenty-one) Three times six is eighteen Three times five is fifteen Three times four is twelve And three times three is nine And three times two is six And three times one is three, of course (Now dig the pattern once more!) Twelve, fifteen, eighteen (Twenty-one) Twenty-one, twenty-four, twenty-seven Thirty (Yeah) Three times ten is (thirty) Three times nine is (twenty-seven) Three times eight is (twenty-four) Three times seven is (twenty-one) Three times six is eighteen Three times five is fifteen Three times four is twelve And three times three is nine And three times two is six And three times one… What is it? (Three) Yeah, thats a magic number A man and a woman had a little baby Yes, they did There had three in the family That's a magic number

What I would love to see is a 4-hit aa passive, since it would finally have full parity with rageblade and would make that item a more meaningful purchase for the champ.

Neeko's 3 hit passive feels really good for poking the enemy. Sure, it's unnecessary but if you do it correctly you can hit two empowered autos in the time you get an empowered root on the enemy,and it really makes a difference. Also, why did you mention Kayle and not Lillia? Kayle's passive and Lillia's Q passive are really similar. Playing as Lillia is way harder if you don't stack your movement speed properly.

I agree, TF's E could literally be another champion's passive, because it doesn't really do anything proactive. Maybe they can change it some way without affecting his playstyle too much. I suggest changing its active so that his autos won't stop him from moving for a short time, just to give it uniqueness

How can i focus on 3 hit passives when i want to play Duel Links when i hear the music

As a neeko main that usually goes on hit I actually don't think her w passive is that out of place. Even if I go ap on her an important item on her is lich bane and nashors. Her problem as a mage is that she has to get ridiculous close to get her ablities off (I mean her ult literally only works by putting her in the middle of a team fight.) Her w passive allows her to weave autos between her abilities to kite. Her clone ability as well as her actual passive needs to be rethought off. Honestly if neeko had akshaun's invisibility that would make alot more sense

I think Ryze should be here too! His rune storage on Overload is a very niche 3 hit passive use case

I think three hit passives are just something neet that can be sprinkled into a lot of designs, they’re usually not game breaking and are easily tuned if they are. It’s really just a way to add a little bit of nuance to characters without having to design a whole ability around. Like neekos is just sprinkled in with the dash and Stealth but it makes a noticeable difference if you learn to play around it

I like the Yu gi oh BAM music in the background 👌

Hey Vars… remember that karma video you made? *neither do I*

I'd LOVE if neekos 3 hit passive was changed to something that made her more mind gamey like a way to control the clone or somethinf

I would like to say, if feels appropriot (god i cant spell) on curtain champions. Like neeko for instance, her essentually having no passive (especialy agains good players) and her W dealing no damage. Her super auto allows her to finish of otherwise safe targets, and having to wait for that to be up allows for a surpricing amount of depth to this one ability. And it insentivices her to weave autos in more than most spell casters. And is really fun to shread turrets with natiors tooth. What no im not bias, not like a like that champion or anything *sweats nerviously, knees become weak, arms grows heavy, really be hungering for mom spegetti*

i played neeko in aram with my friends not long ago when i realized how need buffs AA work xD

Champions with the number 3 : Aatrox : Q Ahri : W and R Akshan : Passive Brand : Passive Diana : Passive Ekko : Passive Evelynn : Q Gnar : Passive Heimer : W spawns Hwei : 3 diffeent abilities for each spell Jax : R passive Jayce : R transformation to ranged (3 attacks with high att speed) Jinx : E (3 boxs) Khazix : empowered W (3 spikes) Kennen : Passive Mord : Passive Neeko : W passive Pantheon : empowered W Qiyana : 3 types of W Reksai : Q Renekton : empowered W Riven : Q Shen : Q Sona : 3 different buffs Smolder : Q explosion Seraphine : Passive Talon : Passive and W (3 shurikens) Tf : Q and W (3 cards each) Udyr : Q Varus : Passive Vayne : Passive Velkoz : Passive Vi : W Wukong : E (hits 3 targets) Xin : Q Yasuo : Q stack Yone : Q stack Yorick : monsters spawn at a time Zed : Qs at a time (him + W shadow + R shadow) Zoe : W missiles And the fact that each champ has 3 basic abilities 😂🤣🤣

Can we get a video on knock-ups vs other CC effects? I always wonder why there is no way to mitigate its effects unlike stuns, slicences, or roots (aka tenacity)

Hearing the yugioh master duel music really had me confused if I launched the game on my pc... Not complaining tho, such a banger lol

11:10 Say that one again, but slower. Ah, music to my ears.

gotta love the Yu-Gi-Oh duel links theme

Very surprised that you haven't mentioned items like kraken slayer

Another one of those topics that everyone thinks about, but no one talks about. Cool video as always.

Vayne passive rework: name=Toplane heaven Innate=Cannot go to top lane Upon killing the enemy toplaner Vayne gets a stack of Skill/Fed. Every stack gives bonus 1% AD(Up to 15%)

4:35 Would Gwen's E not also count?

What if that Vayne's 3-hit for pure damage is moved to her ult instead? Or partially moved? Like either switch it in and make her stealth a normal ability or gate its full potential behind her ult so she the enemy knows that if they can stop her during it, her effectiveness drops dramatically. Something like the passive require more hits or deal less damage/non-true damage outside ult would hamper potential and therefore, threat level unless she uses ult and can make her little easier to counter.

I would change Vanye silver bolt passive to the level system. Like 1-6 Vanye needs to hit 5 bolts to champion, 6-12 4 bolts, and 13-18 3 bolts.

What about Varus... his blighted quiver w is a 3 stack passive and is triggered by a ability q or e

Jhin is the unique. One with a FOUR hit passive I'm surprised Senna wasn't mention here since her passive basically functions as a 3 hit passive

I still miss Pet Dragon.....he was the best friend.

I really disagree about Akshan's 3 hit passive feeling unnecessary He gets a shield when he procs it, and it can proc on both his Q and E, making his entire gameplay center around getting it off on enemy champs

by that logic would you say that aatrox's three q's count as a three hit passive?