I feel like I'm standing in line at a soup kitchen, and they decided to stop serving soup before I got any. Why isn't Karthus in this mage rework list? He's been a dumpster-tier champion since before I even started playing, and yet I still managed to reach level 5 mastery with him, in the hopes that one day my Karthus skill would be rewarded. But instead you rework Xerathr? Zyra? Vel'Koz?? Why, oh why?
He's unpopular, but definitely already has a unique design and has some regions he is quite popular in. He's not generally considered weak either.
It's likely he'll receive some changes in the mage update. He just won't receive a full rework, because he doesn't need that much. Other champions like Zyra and Vel'Koz need work to differentiate them and play up their unique aspects (Xerath is not being reworked, although like Karthus he may receive smaller balance work). Karthus already has a unique strategic niche, so this kind of rework would be wasted on him.
Um. Karthus is in a good place in lane and jungle. I play him often. Top 20 champ in both categories. He can also safely go top against almost every top laner. The mage rework will probably include item revamping, which will probably help him a lot. He only really suffers if you build stupidly on him (you cant go Roa AND Seraphs anymore). If seraphs got buffed... holy moly he'd be god tier.
Karthus is in a really interesting niche. He has strong area of control, and incredibly dueling potential. His build paths are numerous, and his play pattern is healthy. If you've ever seen one Karthus 1v5, then you've seen them all 1v5.
I personally don't think Karthus needs any help. The ability to smash down 80% of AP multiple times within a 5 second interval for a low mana cost is pretty good, and his Defile had a wonderful area of effect. The down side is that it can be tough to hit.
Granted, he struggles against mobile assassins and fighters, but that's normal with immobile mages. The idea is to keep them week when they can't hit you, but if they get a hold of you, you can kiss yourself goodbye.
As for the other three champions.
Xerath was reworked a long time ago, and it's because he wasn't satisfying to play as. Players had to sacrifice so much in order to be that long range artillery mage he was meant to be, so it needed to be done.
Malzahar and Zyra need work done because they have similar problems. Zyra doesn't use plants in a satisfying and meaningful way, and her combos leave her pretty straightforward, without much way to branch off into new things. Malzahar simply has little counter play, while also having near useless minions (unless AD Malzahar is your thing), which leaves him with a very awkward kit.
Btw, if he was a dumpster tier champ before you played, you clearly didnt play him before his major passive nerf that cut his respawn in like half or whatever (season 1 and 2 or something like that). TP and Karth...boy did i get a nice handful of pentakills from that haha. Go balls deep. Do a ton of dmg. Die. Come back to life 20 seconds later, tp in, and clean up. Boy i miss those days....fuck you jax and your 6 gunblades.
What if they made karthus q deal double to everything inside of his e? So it makes him more of a balls deep in the middle of their team. If the squishys are grouped in flash e q q kills them all gg
i think they have to rework karthus because its very old and almost anyone use it so maybe they would think in rework him :)
Xerath is not one of the 6 champions included for Mage update.
Mage update refers to giving mage champions a better identity, not a "free buff".
Dont touch karth. Love the guy the way he is. My "balls deep" mage with no fuks given. He has his own niche that works very well if you know how to play him.
