So these Kha'zix nerfs..

Astral Duck·Jun 5, 2014·3 votes·1,821 views

So let me start off by saying I DO NOT play Kha'zix very often but from what I can see these nerfs contradict what the patchnotes say.

"Up to now, most of our changes failed to give Kha'Zix meaningful weaknesses for an assassin because evolved R's damage reduction was letting Kha'Zix force fight initiations whenever it was up while his high base Q damage was letting him take out squishy targets even when they were actively trying to prevent isolation. As an assassin, Kha'Zix should be an opportunistic killer who needs to find isolated targets to munch on while the rest of his team jumps into the mosh pit of the team fight. What Kha'Zix shouldn't be able to do, however, is directly engage a full team fight with the expectation to live while also taking out high priority targets without isolation. With that said, our philosophy behind these changes is aimed at reducing some of Kha'Zix's many strengths while refining his core identity as an assassin. First, we pushed more power to his evolutions so that he'll have to think more about the choices he makes in life (or the game). Kha'Zix's base Q is lower compared to live, but his evolved Q is guaranteed to deal more damage to isolated targets in the mid to late game. The added power to W and its evolution was to give Kha'Zix more fallback strengths when evolving W. It's also worth pointing out that while evolved R took a significant power hit with the loss of its damage reduction, it's still offering a lot of extra mobility for Kha'Zix in a fight (doubling his stealth duration while also adding an extra charge). We'll be watching how these changes pan out, but we're hoping to see more opportunistic Kha'Zixes (Kha'Zixi? Kha'Zii?) who seek out isolated meals in team fights but can't just jump in to scrap with the frontline while also having the mobility and explosive damage to take out the backline."

So you want Kha'zix to go back to his core as an assassin which is fine by me, the damage reduction was so dumb, moving on however you completely scorched his Q, it's worthless now it doesn't have an execute anymore which is hilarious considering you're almost forcing him to be a jungler with those W changes, what made kha'zix a good jungler was the execute so he could secure objectives in a manner similar to Lee sin, Elise and whoever else I might be forgetting, but the worst of it is the fact that not only did you guys remove the execution mechanic Kha'zix had but you even had the audacity to nerf his passive which makes him an assassin. Dissatisfaction intensifies as I quack sadly.

TL ; DR, Why do you guys try to force kha'zix back into the assassin pool and nerf his damage hardcore?

PS : If I seem like I don't know what I'm talking about do the math for me and correct me, that'd be neat.

9 Comments

ChaosThiefJun 5, 20143 votes

So uh... I think I'll give just a small math rundown to explain how this is balanced.

So a simple senario:

Both old Khazix and new Khazix are level 18, with evolved claws. The opposing target has 500 missing health, no armor, and both Khazix have 300 bonus AD.

Old Khazix would have:

190 + 450(1.5x bonus AD) = 640.

640 + 40(8% of the target's missing health) = 680

680 * 1.45(Isolation bonus) = 986.

New Khazix would have:

155 + 180(Evolved claws bonus base damage) = 355, + 672 (2.24x bonus AD, evolved claws bonus scaling) = 1027(It already does more damage.)

1027 * 1.3(Isolation bonus) = 1335 damage.

Do you see the difference? Late game, will have MORE damage from his new scaling, and not even require the missing health or isolation to even do so. The only time he will have LESS damage is when he evolves something like wings or camo first, and if he has less than 100 bonus AD.

So to sum it up: These are buffs, not nerfs.

EDIT: Whoops, screwed up old Khazix 's isolation bonus, fixed it.

MackleDogeJun 5, 20143 votes

All of this is reliant of Kha'zix being able to isolate his enemy, which now that the range has been nerfed all to hell and back and turrets are safe zones, it's neigh on impossible if you are playing against anyone with even a shred of common sense. These aren't buffs, and saying they are is flat out absurd.

RiotMorelloJun 5, 20142 votes

Yep. It's like you have to look for opportunities to kill, and need your team to set that up in teamfights. That means you can't just kill people whenever you want - which is what made Kha OP.

ChaosThiefJun 5, 20144 votes

Tried it out, it's a bit too difficult to isolate targets. Just a bit.

Also, I thought it didn't require isolation, so I had immense trouble with the evolution of claws first, since they are too difficult to isolate.

I have a request: Can you make the evolved camouflage decrease the range needed for isolation by 100? It was a struggle to use the evolved claws bonus, and this may help.

HellioningJun 5, 20144 votes

I feel that all this is going to do is make Kha a pubstomper that's useless to anyone with half a brain. Most assassins can jump in, kill someone, and then jump back out, but if Kha jumps in, he doesn't get a bunch of his damage unless his target is far away from his team, and that's not gonna happen to any half decent carry.

I totally understand that you need to nerf Kha, but I feel that you double downed on the nerfs too heavily. I do not feel you needed to nerf his Q damage and his damage reduction on his R. I agree with you that 'damage reduction on assassins is OP' but did you also need to hit his Q damage as well? I feel that this makes him a far worse assassin than basically any other assassin.

MackleDogeJun 5, 20143 votes

It's also like the isolation range nerfs are compounded by these nerfs. Having Kha focus on isolation to be successful is great, I like that, I don't like you guys telling us to focus on isolation and then make isolation extremely difficult to obtain in any manner of team game (which I'm fairly confident League is supposed to be).

JustKhaZixJun 13, 20141 votes

The only problem is, most of the time in solo que, people are selfish about kills, and will only go about their way trying to get kills themselves, rather than setting a few up. And then when you jump on them, Oh look! your a jungle kha'zix, its mid game, and you have no damage for your Q! Now your in trouble, because one; your at the edge of a team fight. two; you've just used your ult and now have to wait 2 seconds. three; even when you ult, you have no way to survive with the damage reduction taken away. and finally four; any form or kind of enemy CC that probably just went off cooldown, will screw you over.

I get that a nerf was in order, but two huge nerfs in a row? Total Overkill. RIP Khazix

ButthurtJun 5, 20142 votes

All that Kha'Zix kind of needs, or at least in my opinion, is a slight buff to his W. Give it an isolation bonus too, even if it's unupgraded. Make it deal a little more damage, or apply a stronger slow, or something.

It would be kind of cool seeing all of his abilities work with isolation (since that's the core part of his identity/kit). Though I'm not so sure what his E would do if it hit an isolated target. Maybe his R upgraded could give him a damage reduction vs isolated targets? So he can duel a little better.

I personally am glad Kha'Zix is getting toned down, he's more rewarding to play now, and allows for much more counterplay. Though the nerfs are a bit overkill, I'd rather have him at his current state than have him facerolling through whatever he wants.

zenakusgraspJun 6, 20142 votes

I've mained Khazix since he has been released and, I understand your nerfs and where your coming from riot, but its too much, too hard. You can't really expect to nerf his isolation range, one patch and then completely make him reliant on said isolation after making it nearly impossible to isolate a target, especially a even some what organized team that sticks together, it makes him not only useless in team fights, but a handicap for the team with him, as they can only team fight with 4 of their 5 team members effectively. at least do like one of the posters below said and make a evolved skill increase his isolation range.