Fizz: A plea from a friend of fish

Let me first say that this post is not intended to focus on if fizz is "over powered" or anything. I am going to make a prediction, speak my mind from my knowledge of the game, and hope that I get heard out. Right now I'm scared. I'm scared for and that's why I'm making this post. Fizz has from what I can tell, become for the most part thought of as a top laner. Not because he has (because he hardly does) any ad scalings or hp scalings whatsoever, but because for 5 seconds he can do 8% of a targets missing health on hit. This change seems to have grabbed everyones attention and most of the time I see fizz being played ad bruiser top lane so that he can build attack speed for this.

Why am I concerned? Here's the thing, Fizz mid is actually still very good. It has gotten very slightly worse in some places because of the changes, but because of how he was changed nothing was drastic to his capability of carrying in the mid lane. Although I know that there are plenty of people who will disagree with me, I believe that fizz is still better mid lane than everywhere else. Of course theory and arguing over numbers can only take one so far, I made a point to seeing Fizz mid in a diamond solo queue setting. I would intentionally pick him into what would previously be even or hard match ups and see how I fared. Of course I did really well and have continued to do really well with fizz mid. He still carries to nearly the same effect, despite what the nerfs may lead you to believe.

(Note: This section is how I see the changes effected fizz mid for those who are interested. This is not my primary concern of the post) I still think fizz is better as a mid laner, and although I do not intend for this to be the main topic of discussion, I will share my logic and reasoning with you. However, I can't share my own in game experiences you that I've had with fizz. Here's what the changes did to fizz mid (if you ask me): 1). His last hitting got a bit harder. Before it was easier to let the damage over time last hit the minions but now that the passive isn't based off of missing health, it's a bit harder. 2). He can no longer can be picked to counter things like soraka or swain. (Grievous wounds removal) 3). His early game is a bit harder. He doesn't deal as much damage early. He can still solo kill people before lich bane, it's just not as easy. 4). You can't miss your ultimate anymore. 5). Your late game is actually scarier since the changes, in a sense. At the very least, his mid to late game (by this I mean any time after lvl6+lich bane) has not been hurt overall. Here's the way I can help you think about this. Your Q (Urchin Strike) scaling got nerfed by 30 percent. OK, at a glance that does seem pretty bad. And your W (Seastone Trident) scaling was also reduced. If they touched his E (trickster) it would've been bad but they didn't. And they buffed his R (Chum the Waters) to give you 20% bonus damage towards the champion you hit with it for 6 seconds. Remind you of anything? Cough cough DFG. This is actually the buff that saved fizz mid from being gone to still being good. 5.1). More on this part: The W changes really didn't even hurt that much. You instantly killed them before right? Well I've got good news for you, you still do! A couple of seconds of damage overtime does not matter if they are already dead! This was primarily a nerf to his early game as well as his Q. The scaling on Q was more significant because you do use it a lot for damage and rely on using it to kill people at all stages of the game. (I say this versus W in the sense that I don't ever expect for a champion to live after I go in on them, nor do I feel I should rely on W to magically kill them if they get away. I don't rely on W to burst people down, though it does help with dealing damage) . The shark buff means you can kill just about ANYONE you want? The AP scaling nerfs can honestly be ignored because of this 20% damage. With Trickster alone this is a ton of bonus damage. (This bonus damage also includes lich bane and with lich bane alone you already scale 15% more with ult). The counter argument to this would be 'What if I don't use ultimate to kill them?'. Well you may not be able to kill anyone in the game super fast, but you can still 2 shot the ADC and mid laner no problem. Assuming they don't have banshee's veils and that if they have stacked MR then you have void staff. Also, I don't think it's a bad thing to have to use your ultimate to be able to kill ANYONE in the game. I'm sorry but when's the last time you saw a zed ult onto a fully built tank and destroy their health bars? You don't see that a lot with other assassins like ahri to be quite honest. I don't think it'd be fair to say that Zed or Leblanc are bad champions because they need their ultimate to kill things, which, not entirely but for the most part, is a pretty fair statement. He still has a lot of AP scalings that go a long way when you build him up. Scalings that don't get abused when you stack AD and Attack Speed. Aside: I have pulled out fizz mid in a solo queue and more than a solo queue setting and will continue to do so.

Now back to why I spent all the time to write everything and make this post. The change to W has made fizz jungle and top a thing and has made it significantly more popular than fizz mid. I realize this. I have played this game long enough to fear nerfs based upon popularity. I predict that in the future, nerfs will be put into place to reduce the effectiveness of fizz top and jungle. I ask, with a very kind heart, that when and if this is done that the changes are thought out well enough such that Fizz's mid lane is not hurt in the process. Example: Let's not kill the base damages and assume they only apply to fizz top. There are changes that can be made to specifically target Fizz top or jungle without targeting his mid lane. If I were to do this (and this is not what I'm suggesting Riot to go do right this minute but to give what I would consider an example of a fair nerf towards Fizz without hurting his mid lane too much) I would look right at his Q because that's what got him here in the first place. You could touch up his attack speed but that would be felt by fizz mid and people would still just stack attack speed on him. OK so I identify the problem as, Fizz top lane or jungle does too much W on hit damage when he stacks a lot of attack speed. Observation: I don't want to touch his attack speed and risk hurting his early game mid. Now, what if I gave his W a cooldown? How can I do this without hurting fizz mid? It would be kind of like a nautilus CD on his passive, but not nearly as long. Let's say that you can only proc the % missing health damage once on the same champion every 1 second. The only exception would be if I use Q, then it may proc again, but I may only count on the damage being applied in an AUTO ATTACK every 1 second. This way fizz's mid damage isn't hurt because he doesn't stack attack speed or attack faster than once a second anyways. It also means that his passive can't be abused in other positions by stacking a bunch of attack speed.

I am not saying that Fizz is overpowered and needs a nerf, nor am I saying he is under powered and needs a buff. Fizz is my friend, my main fish. I am asking, begging, pleaing, that if Fizz gets changed that any effects on his mid lane get taken into account. Thank you for any and all who have read this and have a nice day!