Mid-Year Mage Update

I honestly have 0 issues with Vel'Koz. He has range, but only if he plays properly. Q is a mediocre nuke unless you clip people with the 2 orbs that shoot from the end. W is his only waveclear, which works fine, with an ammo system so he can at least double tap it to fully delete a creep wave. His E is the anti-melee skill, giving him a knock up and a knock away, which can't always be used offensively but soft-peels melees from him. The only problem I have is when I play against Vel'koz, I find that his ult is impossible to escape at medium range, given his high turning speed and a lot of map locations with limited movement (walls and ramps).

Why aren't you touching Swain? He has issues holding targets, given his W has a delay and a short cast range, meaning people can easily walk out of it. His Q, a targeted slow, only lasts for as long as the target is in range of the tether, which is broken very easily since it doesn't move with Swain but sticks to his cast location. His main damage in lane is through Q and E, which are both DoTs, meaning their power is mostly invisible and not properly felt. Swain has no decisive waveclear pre-6, since his only AoE ability doesn't get leveled and has a long CD, whereas his other options are single target DoT, useless for last hitting. After level 6, Swain gains sustained AoE damage in close range, adding more DoT power to his already strong Q and E, but doing nothing to fix his weaknesses for waveclear or target control. Instead, he gains a weakness in limited mana pool and mana regen, giving him issues with sustaining his R. Moreover, the short ranges of his Q and E, both of them being single target and targeted, means that late game he has no effective ways to poke or anything, besides landing lucky Ws, which is his anti-melee tool. He is forced to engage or be engaged on, so that he is in melee range of the enemy and can torment them. This isn't fixable via items or masteries or runes.

That's why I think you should consider looking at Swain as a major target for the Caster Update.

Don't you dare touch Vel'koz! He's perfect.

Honestly I think Vel'Koz is completely fine the way he is. His abilities are unique enough and his true damage gives him his own identity, I think he is already pretty distinct from other mages.

I think Velkoz is one of the healthiest mages honestly. He should be the lowest on the priority list to update.

I hope for a new Passive and more plant interaction

Vel'koz is one of the most balanced healthiest champions Riot has released. I don't understand why he's in need of a rework. Some of the other champions I can see having something unhealthy about them but they are all still viable, healthy, and relevant mages for what they're made for. I feel like this should have been more focused on the mages that are too similar to another mage (Lux, Ziggs, and Xerath), thehe ones who have something anti-fun in their kit (Annie or Morgana), or the ones who have just fallen off the map in solo queue completely (GALIO, Anivia, etc.)

I gotta say, I've grown pretty fond of the guy, but to address his weaknesses:

1. He's pretty mana intensive early game, which I suppose further emphasizes his ability to efficiently use his Malefic Visions to clear waves and last hitting on minions.
2. He's hella slow, with little gap close (sans Rylais)

Most core to his identity (imo) are

1. The Voidlings
2. The Malefic Visions
3. The Suppression

I think on Zyra, she needs a new passive, as it stands, it's currently lackluster, feels weak and is delayed. A death passive on her seems strange when she's a mid/moderate range counter engage mage. I feel her passive and w need some work personally, but perhaps you can incorporate her passive with her seeds to make her THE counter engage mage.

For god's sake make Syndra viable. I can't believe she's being left out of the "immobile mage" reworks. Of all of them she needs the most help.

50 damage on her lvl 1 Q, 95 at lvl 2 Q while having virtually no damage early on from AP ratios unlike AD counterparts, who not only have higher base values, but walk to lane with 80 AD and have better ratios generally. Item costs with combine costs over 1000 just to survive against AD mids don't help either. It's a joke. Syndra literally can't be offensive in lane as she is because the enemy regenerates faster than she has the mana to deal with.

1 - Syndra relied on being a lane bully early game in order to transition to mid game that wasn't trash. Her current damage is in place to make her not able to kill anything early and let's not pretend the goal was anything otherwise. Combined with mana being nerfed into oblivion and masteries digustingly favouring ADs it just compounds the problem. 30% on TLD for AD, 10% for AP, great.

2 - The mid game relied heavily on her being able to pick someone off with a Q E combo which DOESN'T HIT ANYMORE and is bugged up the ass despite all the patch claims that it's been fixed. Reaching this point isn't really even possible anymore now that the game is even more accelerated. Mid game doesn't exist for Syndra. Side note on the topic of bugs: Her R still has the same screen stuttering bug that was introduced in the patch Quinn was released. Press R, enjoy your screen shaking for 3-6 seconds.

3 - Her late game was always trash and late game doesn't exist right now with 26 minute average games, so that's irrelevant.

Your "math pass" to balance mage items seems as if it makes the assumptions that mages have the same ratios as ADs and that ADs don't auto attack. People still build Frost Queen's mid after the nerfs because everything else costs too much, unless they're facing an AD mid, in that case they having to magically come up with 3500 gold and get to lane before lvl 6 or die meanwhile the AD opponent needs 700 gold for 2 long swords and to press R.

This is what I hate about there being so many champions. Some are ignored for years on end after being intentionally nerfed into an unusable state.

I'll give my opinions on since she's my second main champion after Sona. _1.What aspect is most core or sacred to their identity? _

• It's a bit obvious, but I would say that the plant summons are the most iconic aspect to Zyra's kit. The Q is there as a harass tool & wave clear tool, but it's main use is to summon the thorn spitters. The thorn spitters are probably the most useful plant if Zyra wants to do a large amount of sustained damage. A combination of her Q's low cooldown and the sustained plant damage puts her at a halfway point between burst and sustained damage, and I think she is definitely good at both if she pulls off a full combo.

• Her E is the primary source of Crowd Control to defend herself against incoming enemy champions. It also serves to summon the thorn lashers, which are useful for providing a nice little slow zone for incoming enemies.** Grasping Roots in combination with the thorn lasher is an incredibly useful tool for evading ganks**, even if you miss the root! I do think that the snare projectile is a bit slow, but it does hit every single target in it's path in comparison to other linear skillshot roots.

• The ultimate ability is mostly used as a counter-engage or a post-engage tool in a teamfight. However, I don't think many people appreciate the attack speed buff that stranglethorns give to Zyra's plants.

2.What issue bothers you the most when playing them?

• My biggest issue with playing Zyra is that the **Plant AI can still be a little bit frustrating **to work with (despite the earlier improvements). When I manage to do a nice Q + W harass combo on an enemy champion, the plant would auto attack the champion once and then immediately switch to a minion when the enemy champion did not walk out of the plant's range.

• In team fights, I do think that Zyra's plants die too quickly from all the outgoing AoE damage. Maybe we can consider giving the enraged plants more durability if they are enhanced by Stranglethorns?

• As happy as I am to give the plants the attack speed steroid from her Ultimate, it is sometimes hard to presummon the plants before activating her ultimate. Is there a possibility that stranglethorns can leave some sort of "fertile soil" for a short amount of time after it's activation that would allow Zyra to summon more "enraged" plants?

• Her **passive is not very interesting or useful for a "plant mage". **It sounds a bit more appropriate for a suicide bomber type of champion?

• Stranglethorn's damage portion is sometimes hard to hit if you did not initially snare or slow the targets. I understand that the delay is there to give counterplay to the powerful large AoE knock up, however I think that the damaging portion of the ability should be activated a bit more rapidly.

Plz preserve support Velkoz, we love him dearly.

Please do NOT touch vel'koz, I feel his kit is perfect- good range, good damage, itemization, and at the drawback of the limited movement. PLEASE consider looking into Karthas instead! I have no qualms with how Vel'koz operates in the meta.

When it comes to mages I consider their lack of mobility the trade off for the high AP damage they deal. If they REALLY need mobility there's plenty of items that give it a boost as well as flash/ghost. (Maybe consider looking into Annie?)

I feel like Zyra can use a new passive. I love her kits but would love for her plants to be a core tool in her kit. As of now her plants pose no threat and die too easily to pretty much everything. She is my favorite mid laner and hope that this update will help her.

This champ's in a weird spot right now what did you guys think about him

Hey Statikk, I am a Fiddle main and obviously he isn't on the main list, but i believe he needs some work. Though i don't believe that Fiddle needs a full overhaul he needs attention desperately. Can we take a look at his skills quickly?

Passive: although this often gives fiddle an early advantage if offers almost no help in his two main roles. In the jungle this passive is next to useless in dealing with camps, and Fiddle's pre six ganks are unimpressive leaving the passive without out true meaning early in the jungle, while in late game the passive falls off in almost every aspect. Maybe some sort of scaling, or even a mechanic to help with cs (it would be great to make fiddle viable in lane) would be worth looking at?

Q: This has always been a spell that has made fiddle "feared". After the nerf, yes it was a huge nerf, to make feared targets run away the spell was counter intuitive to fiddle's play. Back when a feared target would roam randomly it would often keep them in drain and crowstorm's range. now using fear with either of these two spells actually helps the target.

W: Drain is fine and the true signature of fiddle. The high mana cost is fine and the spell is rewarding and thematically fine.

E: Dark wind is in an alright spot, but was hurt greatly when it would not bounce to targets several times. If this nerf was reverted not only would it help cs but it would also keep fiddle competitive with burst mages.

R: Crowstorm is fine and fun and very fulfilling maybe we can get a quality of life and have it cast at max range always just so we dont walk out of bushes and give away position or delay a gank over certain terrain . CAN WE GET AN AOE FEAR THO. GUYS AMIRITE? lol

So i know he's not on your primary list, but this beloved scarecrow is in dire need of love in some aspects of his game. Mostly reverting nerfs to his Q and E would put him in a solid spot. Thanks. Hoping i can get some sort of answer to this.

I am fully aware that Malzahar is considered by 99.9% of summoners to be a mid laner, but whatever you do to him, please be wary that are a few of us that play Malzahar in the jungle (you can check my match history ;) ).

That being said, some of the core aspects of his kit that should say are the following:

1. Nether Grasp: I don't think any changes are needed to this ability.
2. Voidlings: A fun and unique part of Malzahar's kit that should remain in his kit (you could convert damage to magic if you wanted, but it might get a bit too strong). Although it would be nice if his passive was incorporated into more aspects of his kit aside from simply prioritizing targets with Malefic Visions or Nether grasp.
3. Malefic Visions: Another fun and unique part of Malzahar's kit in that can cause some interesting scenarios.

Things that may not be core to his kit and could use some changing:

1. Call of the Void: Although it's a nice damage tool the silence tool seems a bit out of place and could likely be replaced by another entirely new ability.
2. Null Zone: A really nice ability to help melt tanks, but not a necessary portion of his kit.

Regarding since his theme is about insatiable hunger of knowledge, I think it would be a great idea to include a passive added somewhere on his abilities (not replace "organic deconstruction" but make it a secondary effect) that gives him specific bonuses after killing an enemy. Something similar to Kindred's mechanic, however unlike Kindred this could require velkoz to get the kill (assists wouldn't count) and be capped at 5 bonuses, 1 per unique enemy champion (since he already has learned all he needs to know about a specific champion after he has killed them).

If he were to get such bonuses through knowledge, you could further make them unique by making his abilities evolve, much like how khazix evolves his abilities. Here are some ideas:

1. Q gets increased range and/or missile speed
2. W detonates and/or recharges faster
3. E radius increased and/or stuns
4. R channel lasts longer and/or has a faster turning speed
5. "Organic Deconstruction" only requires 2 stacks to deal true damage

One final thing, his E's knock up is for some reason not treated as a real knock up and therefore can be mitigated by Mercury's Treads, could this be looked at and fixed?

Please stay away from Vel'koz, don't break something that's not broken. He's arguably one of the healthiest mages right now,

Honestly, i would swap Vel'Koz for Ziggs.

Ziggs damage is really unreliable and his win rate is really low for quite some time now.

Many of the "Mage" champions can also be played as supports. As a support main, I would hate to see these changes eliminate the ability to play them as support. Are you planing on keeping their duel role capability in mind with these changes, or could I be saying good bye to my Zyra support?

Please dont make any significant changes to Vel'koz. The other mages on the list are definitely generic/ outdated but Vel'koz already has a fairly unique identity and fun kit.

His identity is that of a poke/comboing mage who needs to land all his abilities in order to trigger his passive as many times as possible. I truly believe that he is a viable mid laner in his current state however he isnt without his problems. His biggest issue is his badish ratios which make him scale somewhat poorly into late game.

If anything he could use some 'touch up' work rather than drastically changing his abilities. If you do decide to make significant changes to him however i would ask that you keep his Q and Ult mostly intact as they are core to his identity and kit.

One idea i have for potential changes would be for his passive to have increased damage for each time it triggers over a short duration focusing his identity and game play more towards triggering passive for damage.

You guys planning on doing anything to Syndra? I think she has her niche and doesn't need any changes, and I was just curious what you guys think of her atm.

Vel'Koz is fine, but you'd better make Malz ult less.. stupid.