the ult is definitely the worst hing about him. Requiring a shard to cast it, the delay/ lockout animation when u do cast it, upon casting it having to charge up takes too long to even have access to r2 before people just walk out of it since nothing is stopping them from doing so, r2 auto cast at the end of his ult duration but casing it as soon as u can ends the hp drain part.
why am i loosing that part of my ult if i successfully manage to drain enough hp with all the restrictions already on the ult? its like being punished for doing what the champion is supposed to do.
hitting 6 feels bad. lv 1-5 i have worked to acquire the max soul shards so i should be at the peak of my power but im a solo laner vs another solo laner so the realistically i will never drain enough hp to r2 a mid before they manage to run back under tower an i wont manage to r2 any melee tops before they just kill me for getting too close as a squishy mage with just +150 hp from ult at rank 1.
the shards should honestly do more than be demon flares damage modifier. they could increase the rate of hp he drains or increase his max hp from ult or increase his healing from just obtaining further soul shards or give him a stacking magic damage on hit effect on his autos to make him more threatening within his auto attack range or increase w cast speed/damage/radius.
My point is the shards can do more than what they do but honestly should do something entirely different to make the champion more cohesive. Also these are just issues i have experienced and seen with his ult, i dont feel like talking about the rest of his kit right now.