How to make Buck a viable character?

[Silbergeist]

Note
I've made a post with these ideas before, but it was a big wall of text too tiresome to read, so I've summarized those ideas and made a better formatted version of them.

Introduction
Going directly to the answer: what I think should be done about Buck is to give him more sustain and a shorter cooldown on his Net Shot, as he's extremely dependent on it. It would also be great if we could have a better supreme, it should feel like something special, something that only a powerful skill could do, and that actually helps the team, and not just some stat buff.

Buck seems to be the most unique champion in-game: he's bulky, with sustain skills and high mobility, while being able to liquify enemies using his combo or just fighting for a prolonged time, a position no other champion holds, but as of now, he lacks this sustain, as his health isn't comparable to other bulky characters, and his regeneration skill is too weak, allowing any high damage to nullify it. Also, his combo is hard to handle as it has a high cooldown, so he ends up being weaker most of the time.

Currently Buck can lose a 1v1 against Pip quite easily or be burst down by Cassie in 3 seconds, even with his 3000 health.

My suggestions would go like this:

1. Buff his regeneration skill.
   
   Regeneration
   Gives Buck 30% damage resistance and heals for 1000 health through 4 seconds.
   10 seconds cooldown
   
   With this 30% damage recution Buck wouldn't suffer as much from high bursts.
   
   
   
2. Give his reload a passive to compensate the time it takes.
   (This could also be adressed by giving Buck a reload the same speed as other characters, or by giving him a higher ammo cap, while he reloads more bullets at a time.)
   
   Passive
   For every bullet that Buck reloads, after the first one, reduces the cooldown of Net Shot by 10%.
   
   Now Buck has a way to shorten his Net Shot cooldown, being able to do his combo more often while not being as hardly punished if he misses it.
   
   
   
3. Remake his supreme.
   
   Great Net
   Buck throws a ball that opens up into a giant net grabbing any target in its AOE and pushing them to the center. Deals damage, applies slow and gives bonus damage to Buck and his allies.
   
   A special animation for a special skill, with a mechanic that's unique and helps the team, it can also make some great team combos.

Conclusion
With changes like these Buck would feel more rewarding without the need to mess with his weapon's damage, he would maintain his spot as a sustained damage dealer able to flank, while still depending on his skills for such.

[Ellezard]

With this kind of kit, he's even more of a tank/bruiser than a flanker.

[Silbergeist]

Let's not cling too much with the flanker idea, it doesn't make that much sense with Buck anyway. He was a "Warrior" before, so let's base ourselves on this. I think they only label him a flanker because of Heroic Leap.

[Ellezard]

Considering that he used to have wall and stuffs, he really had more of a front liner kit in everyway.

But with them placing him in Flanker now, I'm just hoping they rework him entirely like what they're trying to do with Ying if they don't plan on moving him back to Front Line to prevent him from clashing with Barik in term of weapon choice (shotgun user).

[Silbergeist]

They could remake him entirely, of course, but that would throw him into unknown ground, which's really risky. It could come out great, but it could also end up horrendously. And well, they would have to maintain the core of his playstyle, or he would be just another character, like I see some people talking about the new Ying. Ying's core's still untouched though, so I think that's good enough, but if you take Grover, for instance, it's a completely different character, and those that liked playing him before, probably don't even touch him now.

[LascarCapable]

What was wrong with his old kit actually ? That old kit seemed more interesting than his current one. The abilities felt a bit more fancy.

[Silbergeist]

The only thing that was really different in old Buck was his ult, that created a wall around him, giving damage resistance while inside it. But many characters could just get out of it with ease, and others would just use shields or avoid you while inside it. The best way to use the old supreme was to cap a point or try stoping the payload, but that was kind of a waste in my opinion, oftentimes the supreme would even work against you, as Buck himself would be kind of trapped in there, so that characters with AOE supremes would abuse this and counter yours that wasn't even that much powerful. It was also a supreme that relied a lot on team synergy, so if you were solo it was lackluster.

The rest of Buck's kit was kind of maintained, with his shotgun receiving this little rework, Heroic Leap's cooldown being shortened, Net Shot's root turning into slow and Regeneration's heal being buffed to match the new TTK.

[LascarCapable]

The only thing that was really different in old Buck was his ult, that created a wall around him, giving damage resistance while inside it. But many characters could just get out of it with ease, and others would just use shields or avoid you while inside it. The best way to use the old supreme was to cap a point or try stoping the payload, but that was kind of a waste in my opinion, oftentimes the supreme would even work against you, as Buck himself would be kind of trapped in there, so that characters with AOE supremes would abuse this and counter yours that wasn't even that much powerful. It was also a supreme that relied a lot on team synergy, so if you were solo it was lackluster.

The rest of Buck's kit was kind of maintained, with his shotgun receiving this little rework, Heroic Leap's cooldown being shortened, Net Shot's root turning into slow and Regeneration's heal being buffed to match the new TTK.

That's definitely good to know. Thanks.

[GMAK2442]

For Buck to be balanced with the rest of the Champions that I have, I say that he should do like 500 of damage under 10 meters and 250 at 20 meters with a dégradé between 10 and 20 meters(350dmg at 15 meters).

That's the only thing that has to be done imo. Of course I did not test that.

[Silbergeist]

Playing at a lower ping you can actually see that Buck's falloff isn't that high, he can do 400 damage mid range, which's quite good, considering he's not a ranged character. It's great for that last shot to a fleeing enemy.