Vel'Koz rework made his design worse and 6.10 changes accentuate the worse-ness

I would have posted this sooner, but I was away on vacation and literally just got home. Doing this was one of the first things on my mind.

Disclaimer: I don't think Vel'Koz is currently clearly overpowered or underpowered. This post is not about his balance, but about his design.

I don't like how Vel'Koz changed from a design perspective (and how he subsequently feels to play) because his kit is now much less coherent. Here's what I mean by that:

There is now a conflict between building AP and building MPen. Building MPen used to always be the right choice on him, especially early, because his true damage had no scaling and he had high base damages with low ratios. Two of his ratios are now lower. Although his ult ratio is higher, the base damage is still extremely high and MPen is still very effective with it. However, it's now a completely useless stat on his passive and his ultimate w/ passive. Vel'Koz still wants magic pen to do damage to multiple targets, but building it is a waste for his newly designed "optimal play pattern".

He has four AOE skillshots but is now best at dealing single-target damage. With the changes to itemization and his passive/ultimate interaction, Vel'Koz is best off building raw AP to take advantage of the true damage in his passive and the higher ratio in his ultimate. Even with a deathcap rush, his mid-game damage still suffers compares to his old kit. Even while building raw AP, he does less AOE damage now, but more to the targets he manages to proc a passive on. Procing your passive used to be likely on many targets, thanks to your ultimate, but with the new kit you are much less likely to proc it on multiple targets. His teamfight pattern used to be simple and satisfying: throw down as much AOE damage as you can. Now you have to weigh successfully procing your passive before ulting with ulting at the best moment for the teamfight. More decision points isn't necessarily bad, and raising the skillcap isn't either. However, there are now many more situations where the choice you made, even if optimal, feels worse than it used to.

Your full combo is less fluid. This one is pretty simple. Whereas it used to behoove you to throw everything and ult immediately once you saw your E would land, now it's optimal to wait until the target has landed for the full passive proc and maximum true damage. This means less time in suspension while ulting, and more time to flash/use mobility spells. Frustrating and an indirect nerf.

The changes in 6.10 put more strength into his passive and ultimate. I honestly thought he was in a decent spot already and that his winrate problems were due to people not knowing how to play his kit both because of the problematic design changes outlined above, and because of the redistribution of his power away from mid game towards late game. Either way, if Riot thinks these are necessary then that's fine; I'm not talking about balance in this thread. However, I do think these changes only exacerbate the design flaws I discussed above.

To recap:

• I don't have a strong opinion on whether Vel'Koz is imbalanced
• I think the changes were largely balance neutral
• I think the 6.9 changes made the overall design and play experience of his kit worse
• I think the 6.10 changes are running in the wrong direction

Thank you in advance for the insightful and polite discourse I'm sure will follow.