Can we get Veigar out of limbo?
This is gonna be a long post, so TL;DR: Veigar needs to be properly defined as either a solo-lane Carry or a Support, and have his kit adjusted accordingly.
After his nerfs following the removal of DFG, Veigar has been in a limbo state where he can be played as Mid or as Support, but doesn't really excel at either.
Before he gained huge popularity as a support, he was a niche pick in mid-lane. His kit may have needed some tweaks, but he had his strong and weak match-ups as well as clear moments of power and moments to take advantage of his weaknesses. As a mid-laner, the changes to his E seriously hurt his dueling potential but perhaps more importantly it made his laning incredibly unsafe. Before the significant delay was added, it could be used offensively (leaving you open to ganks) or defensively, but leaving you to be harassed in lane. His Q was arguably better as a single-target spell. You had to choose whether you were going to farm AP or harass, and it made him especially vulnerable to being pushed in.
Furthermore, the advantage that Suppport Veigar had (even after the stun change) of being able to poke and use spells more due to slightly better mana regen from his passive, is gone (and Veigar's passive, 1.5% increased mana regen for every missing 1%, was still laughable). With the new mastery changes in 5.10, ANYONE can get mana regen that is essentially on par with Veigar's passive. Doing the math, to gain a significant advantage in mana regen, both Veigar and opposing support need to be at essentially 0 mana. Around 50% mana, the 'Meditiation' mastery becomes roughly the equivalent of Veigar's passive (with it being slightly better/worse depending on the enemy support's mana pool/build and Veigar's level).
- SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE VEIGAR
Define him specifically as either a support or a carry! It does no good to have someone who can kinda do both if they can't do either well
Veigar as a Carry
- Get rid of his equilibrium passive; increase the power on his Q's passive and make it his real passive.
Veigar's current passive simply doesn't make sense in his kit. Often this mana regen is entirely negligible. Champions like Xerath/Lissandra have a much more significant interaction with either gaining a free spell or mana for multiple spells based upon different circumstances. Passives like these would be better than his current, but don't fit his theme as a tiny master of evil who is going to grow more and more powerful. Giving him something like .5 AP per CS (still doubled on cannon minion) and a flat 5 for kills AND assists would make it so that Veigar has to put more emphasis on helping his team rather than AFK farming for AP, as he'll only get half the AP of what he would each wave currently (and that's if his CSing is 100% perfect)
- Decrease the AP ratio on W from 100% to 75%-80%, or lower the base damage.
By changing his passive to increasing AP on CS, W would now a viable option to level first over Q, primarily in situations where he is subject to being fast pushed. Even an avid Veigar fan must admit that a 100% AP ratio combined with the high base damage on W becomes a little too good at this point.
- Change his E to be cast like Lux's E. You can now see the direction it is traveling, but not the EXACT LOCATION where it is going to land. Additionally, this makes the time delay increase with how far away it is cast, while being quick when cast close to one's self.
This one is really important! A lot of Veigar's dueling potential came from his ability to lock up his enemies to ensure his W (with a 1 sec delay) actually was able to hit. Lux's W comes with a slow and significant damage, yet nobody complains about it being impossible to avoid. Removing the slow/damage in favor of a stun and you'll have Veigar's E in a mostly balanced state (might want to lower stun time from 2.5 to 2 at max rank, but that can be adjusted later). He'll be able to use it offensively again, as it isn't going to telegraph exactly where to stand to avoid it (the big problem with it currently); but it won't be in the oppressive state like before, where you could instantly stun someone and delete them without their being able to react. If you want to guarantee a stun, you'll have to be dangerously close. If you pick someone from afar, they have ample time to react to it.
*Veigar's ult should once again scale with 120% of his own AP. No longer scales with enemy AP.
Before the nerfs, Veigar's ult was 120% his AP scaling, 80% enemy AP scaling. Many people classified Veigar as an "Anti-Mage" for this reason, but that is not quite accurate. His role was more of an Anti-Carry, where he would either delete your carry (be it mage, ADC, etc) or get them so low they'd have to retreat. By removing the enemy AP scaling, Veigar does take a hit against other mages, but this solidifies Veigar's intentions (both for the player and the enemy) that his goal is to destroy the other carries. It also allows AP mages a more viable option to itemize MR, as Veigar won't be using their own AP against them.
Veigar as a Support
*Make his equilibrium passive meaningful; remove the AP farm from his Q.
Giving Veigar actual mana regen benefits, such as occasional free spells, or refunding mana when spells hit an enemy (or something else entirely), as well as removing the Q passive to make his real passive stronger, is necessary so that it isn't like he is wasting 2 passives.
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Q: Now slows champions by (Scaling amount here) if the Q is used to hit 2 champions.
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E: Now his ultimate (R) Same mechanic as described above (Like Lux's E), Stun at max rank is 2.5 seconds. Range is 750 (increase of 50 from live). Denies vision outside of stun walls for those caught inside but not stunned. CD 110/90/70
Moving his E to his R he'll retain the name of Event Horizon. But in being an ultimate skill, it should have ultimate effects. Currently what bothers me is that his Event Horizon doesn't quite live up to what it should. I like the mechanic added to prevent dashes outside, as a black hole would would not let anything out once it sucks it in (Flashes/blinks understandable for need of some counter). So I thought, why not take it further and make his ultimate a true black hole, limiting vision for all caught in it? I think it's a good idea, at least for an ultimate skill. I also elected to argue a slight increase of range as it is an ultimate skill, after all.
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R: See above
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New E: Dark Energy - Creates a 200-radius zone for 5 seconds, damaging enemies for 10/20/30/40/50 + 10% AP Magic damage per second (for a max of 50/100/150/200/250 + 50% magic damage) and adding a stack of "Dark Energy" each second, up to three stacks.
New ability to replace his old E, which in this iteration was moved to his ult. As for what "Dark Energy" stacks do, keep reading :D
- W: Significantly lower base damage (10 lower rank 1-50 lower rank 5 at least) and AP ratio is reduced to 60%. Slows for 15/20/25/30/35% based on rank. Upon dealing damage, Dark Matter consumes all stacks of "Dark Energy" dealing an additional 25 + 10% AP magic damage and stunning enemies for .25 seconds per stack, to a maximum of 75 + 30% AP bonus magic damage and a .75 second stun.
Final thoughts: These suggest changes aren't necessarily perfect, but something should be done to put Veigar on the path to being a viable niche pick as he was before.