Literally the best example of balance that this game has. Clear strengths and clear weaknesses. Please tell me that riot agrees.
Don't change him please. No buffs, no nerfs, no anything. If he ever becomes unbalanced in some way it's probably because of an item, not him, so just balance the item(aka dont SEJ him).
People who say he needs some sort of help in mid lane honestly just need to learn to play better.
Signed, a diamond 2 vel'koz fanboy.
RiotMeddler58 votesWe feel Vel'Koz is pretty balanced, generally feels fair to play against and has some solid points of mastery for the Vel'Koz player. Only real issue with him is that what he does isn't sufficiently differentiated from other mages/poke champs, so we'd like to find him a unique strength or aspect at some point.
Dominick Destine11 votesMeddler, you are a very hard working man, with courage, integrity and skill. As a long time player of your magnificent product I must ask a favor of you; Could you tell CertainlyT that Yasuo's design sucks and the character is blatantly overpowered? thank you.
Have a lovely day sir.
Transgressor10 votesHolly molly, the door is that way.
Dominick Destine5 votesIt was (partially) a joke. Get a sense of humor.
I know that Meddler would never do that, I also know that CertainlyT tries his best (even though his champs are overpowered). It was meant to be a humorous juxtaposition of proper request with formality and a "WTF YASUO OP" in the same comment.
ChaosThief9 votesIt isn't really a "get a sense of humor" in this case. It seems like a poorly executed joke in my perspective.
Irrelevant and inappropriate for the situation.
SrirachaLimes4 votesI may be wrong, but I believe the entire point of the joke was that it was inappropriate and irrelevant for the situation, as it was meant to mock the individuals who constantly complain about "Yasuo op" and hate on CertainlyT.
Well, maybe people don't like those kinds of jokes.
WiegrafOfValor2 votesI like the way he is, but maybe he could gain some flat MS after triggering his passive or/and after he Ult.
Besides, any chance of lauching a MS+AD item for Melee only? Feel like Udyr/Hecarim/Mordekaiser/Pantheon/Wukong are falling behind on itemization against ADC mobility and that could fix it.
Perhaps another upgrade to 
Spicy Rice7 votesHonestly, i don't think he really needs the movespeed you are suggesting. With how his kit work, he has enough cc and damage to either peel for him self, or flat out kill anyone who approaches him.
WiegrafOfValor3 votesI agree, but they are planing a APC overhaul for low mobility casters, I only suggest because they are planning something like this. But I'm fine with the way Vel is right now, but if other mages are getting buffed if he didn't he'll fall behind.
RiotMeddler22 votesIf we do work on Vel'Koz it'll likely be with the aim of it being power neutral (so if we're adding power somewhere we'll be trying to take an equivalent amount out somewhere else and vice versa).
Pierce The Veal8 votesHonestly, i don't think he really needs the movespeed you are suggesting. With how his kit work, he has enough cc and damage to either peel for him self, or flat out kill anyone who approaches him.
Vel'koz is a ranged singed.
People don't seem to know this.
Spicy Rice2 votesIts really funny actually. I got ganked mid lane and ran into the river with around 50 hp. My cooldowns came off and i turned and got a double kill.
Pierce The Veal2 votesIts really funny actually. I got ganked mid lane and ran into the river with around 50 hp. My cooldowns came off and i turned and got a double kill.
Pretty much.
I tend to build boots+ rylais+ liandries+ mana regen item+ void staff and from there either a damage item or a tank item (warmog's is hilarious). So I end up getting 3k-4k hp. Needless to say I am very hard to kill and kite for daysss.
SwordGrunt1 votesPretty much.
I tend to build boots+ rylais+ liandries+ mana regen item+ void staff and from there either a damage item or a tank item (warmog's is hilarious). So I end up getting 3k-4k hp. Needless to say I am very hard to kill and kite for daysss.
Rylai's is nearly useless for a good Vel'Koz seeing as it only applies to your W and that only helps if you can't land your other skills.
Deadman's Plate is a fantastic defensive item, even though it got nerfed hard this patch it'll still be good.
Pierce The Veal3 votesRylai's is nearly useless for a good Vel'Koz seeing as it only applies to your W and that only helps if you can't land your other skills.
Deadman's Plate is a fantastic defensive item, even though it got nerfed hard this patch it'll still be good.
And then you realize rylai's gives his ult a 40% slow.
And that his w having a 40% slow twice is godlike.
And that slows stack (albeit multiplicatively).
But good catch on the deadman's, that would be great on him!
SwordGrunt5 votesAnd then you realize rylai's gives his ult a 40% slow.
And that his w having a 40% slow twice is godlike.
And that slows stack (albeit multiplicatively).
But good catch on the deadman's, that would be great on him!
Slow stacking was removed entirely a few patches ago.
I don't ever feel like I need more CC on Vel'Koz so I don't buy Rylai's.
I don't think it's a bad item because the slows are bad - they're not, they're powerful - but I usually don't have room for Rylai's in my build. I get Athene's, Sorcs, Liandry's, and in most circumstances Void Staff next. That leaves me with two more item slots that I rarely get to even choose for given how fast games have been going, but if I'm confident in my ability to dish out damage without being caught off and go for another offensive item I get Rabadon's over Rylai's, because by that point in the game I feel I will need the extra AP to be relevant damage-wise over the utility from Rylai's. That's just how I play him, I'm sure there are some teamcomps you'll be more useful with a Rylai's for and against.
Pierce The Veal2 votesSlow stacking was removed entirely a few patches ago.
I don't ever feel like I need more CC on Vel'Koz so I don't buy Rylai's.
I don't think it's a bad item because the slows are bad - they're not, they're powerful - but I usually don't have room for Rylai's in my build. I get Athene's, Sorcs, Liandry's, and in most circumstances Void Staff next. That leaves me with two more item slots that I rarely get to even choose for given how fast games have been going, but if I'm confident in my ability to dish out damage without being caught off and go for another offensive item I get Rabadon's over Rylai's, because by that point in the game I feel I will need the extra AP to be relevant damage-wise over the utility from Rylai's. That's just how I play him, I'm sure there are some teamcomps you'll be more useful with a Rylai's for and against.
Rabadon's is trash on him because his ap scalings aren't good enough to warrant it. Penetration is his core damage build, buying purely offensive items is wasted on him because it doesn't increase his damage by all that much.
SwordGrunt2 votesRabadon's is trash on him because his ap scalings aren't good enough to warrant it. Penetration is his core damage build, buying purely offensive items is wasted on him because it doesn't increase his damage by all that much.
That is exactly why, as written in my post, I build Liandry's and Sorcs followed by Void Staff.
However, the game can get to a point where your ult's base damage is no longer strong enough to keep your damage high exclusively with penetration items - if I feel I need more damage, Deathcap is the best item I can buy. You can only get so much penetration: Void Staff, Guise and Sorcs means you deal true damage to targets with less than 65 MR, and at that point, despite your AP ratios being fairly low compared to other champions, it is still worth buying to increase your damage significantly.
With Athene's, Liandry's and Void Staff, you have 220 AP - let's say you're using flat AP for whatever reason and have 235 AP instead. Your Q does 380 damage. With a Rabadon's your AP is increased to 480 and your Q's damage, to 530. Honestly, I rarely build Deathcap but I don't think it's as terrible as most people say in the right situation.
Pierce The Veal2 votesThat is exactly why, as written in my post, I build Liandry's and Sorcs followed by Void Staff.
However, the game can get to a point where your ult's base damage is no longer strong enough to keep your damage high exclusively with penetration items - if I feel I need more damage, Deathcap is the best item I can buy. You can only get so much penetration: Void Staff, Guise and Sorcs means you deal true damage to targets with less than 65 MR, and at that point, despite your AP ratios being fairly low compared to other champions, it is still worth buying to increase your damage significantly.
With Athene's, Liandry's and Void Staff, you have 220 AP - let's say you're using flat AP for whatever reason and have 235 AP instead. Your Q does 380 damage. With a Rabadon's your AP is increased to 480 and your Q's damage, to 530. Honestly, I rarely build Deathcap but I don't think it's as terrible as most people say in the right situation.
Honestly I won't say it's an absolutely horrible item. It can increase your damage by 15-20% later in the game. Usually, however, tanky/utility items work better on him as items after the intial void staff, liandries, athenes. Like spooky ghosts used to be great on him. Zhonya's is practical. Randuins is pretty nice too.
Now that I mentioned it, I wonder how spellthief would be on him? See some enemies, unleash the spook, press R, RIP.
Spicy Rice2 votesAt the point of the game you are talking about, you should be relying more on your passive true damage, rather than your base damages to wreck a team.
205 true damage per 3 stacks is nothing to scoff at, considering how much you can spam vel's skills lategame, and how hard it is for anyone to dodge everything in teamfights, especially with minion block.
Slamurai Jack7 votesVel'koz is a ranged singed.
People don't seem to know this.
Please chase me more, you definitely won't just die. Look at how vulnerable I am!
Pierce The Veal2 votes[{quoted}](name=Slamurai Jack,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=5dJN5vf7,comment-id=00000001000000010002,timestamp=2015-12-10T22:57:37.830+0000)
Please chase me more, you definitely won't just die. Look at how vulnerable I am!
I'm a mage. I'm so squishy. I'm a free kill~
sp4412 votesI think most of my kills with Vel Koz are due to people chasing him without realizing that it's a fool's errand.
AMYS GRAVE10 votesHe has one of the most unique skill shots in the entire game in his q, and his ult is very satisfying to land well. What makes you say he isn't sufficiently differentiated?
RiotMeddler23 votesHow Vel'Koz does stuff's pretty unique, so he's got a learning curve with distinctive elements and a different feeling playstyle.
What Vel'Koz does however's very standard stuff - damage (with a fair bit of poke), plus some light amounts of CC. That's where we think Vel'Koz could use some work, find something that's pretty unique to him in terms of the effect he has on the game (in the same way that Anivia has her Wall, Karthus his ult, Heimer his turrets, Ori her ult etc).
AMYS GRAVE19 votesAhh, so his inputs feel unique, but his outputs are the part you feel is too genaric.
As an idea what if his ult prevented enemies from getting closer. It would feel like a repulsor beam meaning he would have good anti-engage but only in that one direction. That would certainly give him a reason to be picked over the others.
EDIT: elaboration: Enemies in the beam would be able to walk to the side or away but not towards velkoz. Once out of the beam they can of course walk any direction.
RiotMeddler29 votesAhh, so his inputs feel unique, but his outputs are the part you feel is too genaric.
Bingo!
As an idea what if his ult prevented enemies from getting closer. It would feel like a repulsor beam meaning he would have good anti-engage but only in that one direction. That would certainly give him a reason to be picked over the others.
Might be some room to make the ult do something more unqiue, inclination at present would be to look at Research (likely via his passive) as a theme though, see if we can find something there that's not just damage.
Rakan Garfield2 votesYo Meddler, idk if you give a shit, but what if you made his damage scale off of how many times he procs his passive on a champion? It would give him more incentive to try to land that 3rd spell, which would give the enemy a chance to take advantage of him if he overextends.
Another option could be give him a counter for each champion on the enemy team, and give him bonus damage depending on how many times he's fully stacked his passive on them. This kinda seems like a lot of work, and kinda messy with how to show the player(s).
Crowe Stalker2 votesI think if they wanted to buff his passive, move from true flat damage to percent health magic damage would be cool.
kile1471 votesFrom the sound of it they don't want to buff it so much as change it to be something more than just damage.
My Waifu Vanilla3 votesMR Shred maybe? Slow seems too obvious and he already has one of those in the kit so giving them reduced MR or something would be the next best thing since he did "Research" them and found a weakness perhaps.
kile1473 votesI feel like it would either have to be a pretty ridiculous debuff (long duration or high value) to work for MR shred, since you basically just blew most of your combo to get it off so it would need some serious power to make what little follow up you could manage worthwhile.
The Sword Saint5 votesMaybe something like getting a % xp gain increase for a few seconds (or just a flat burst of xp) whenever he procs his research passive on a champion? Would allow him to get ahead in terms of levels in the early midgame if he's good at doing 'research', but eventually he'll hit level 18 and have learned all there is to be learned from combat with the champs in that match and his passive will stop being useful in that way.
TotalJerk2 votesHmm. I figured it would be cool if a champion had an ability that slowed movement speed of enemies when moving towards them. That could be cool on his ult.
OneSmoothDude3 votesFantastic. :D
That's something I really appreciate about some of these reworks, like Ashe or Garen, for example. They weren't in a terrible place before their changes, à la Poppy and Sion. Much like Vel'koz, these champs didn't need huge reworks, just little alterations that change them up in some way, either by making new gameplay-oriented goals or by spicing up their play pattern a little.
Garen's new passive isn't a huge deal, but it gives him some potentially rewarding goals that go in line with his Neutral Good personality and his kit (anti-carry damage extraordinaire). With Ashe, her Q was lame so it was changed to feel more impactful if stacks were acquired. These are great examples of subtle changes to characters that can vastly improve them while simultaneously not alienating people who already liked them.
I look forward to seeing what you guys cook up for Vel'koz and beyond. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]
Silents4292 votesI think it should just have a huge slow to any champions running towards it actually, not just flat out preventing movement.
Hyrum Graff3 votes-Research-
Through... DISINTEGRATION?
Spicy Rice4 votesVel'koz does have his deathstar ult
badooga3 votesEveryone does damage, and most do CC. His ult is already very uniquely impacting the game, and his simple style is good enough. He doesn't need any unique and new concepts, because his general feel is already unique.
IceEffect33 votesThank you for the reply sir. Personally I feel that his ult and q does a great job of differentiating his playstyle from other mages, but I guess I can somewhat understand an argument about him needing more uniqueness
Lovely Pants35 votesIf by "uniqueness" the meaning is "somehow even more lasers" I can dig that.
TurquoiseYoshi16 votesImagine a 
vs. 
midlane fight. 3 many lasers 7 me
SSJTribe11 votesYou should've seen one for all Vel. It was a terrifying light show for the other team.
kaltenashes6 voteshttps://fat.gfycat.com/FriendlySpotlessAfricanbushviper.webm
=/ have to click on it
WookieJesuz2 votes
Wheatloaf3 votesViktor does not like that matchup. No amount of compensation could make up for the difference in laser impact.
Neswii4 votesVel'Koz's whole theme is Learning through Killing, and his main rival is Zilean. What he should get to differentiate him is an xp effect like zilean has but different. maybe his ult can get the added passive that for every 3 stacks popped by the Lifeform Disintegration Ray gives him bonus xp. The things he learns from those vaporized will be reflected as bonus experience.
Wullf1 votesI always feel restricted by his immobility, i feel that i am not allowed to use his full potential because he is mostly taken out of the fight before he gets to the real bussines.
When I look at his quotes. He always talks about learning and examining "humans". Yet he lacks terror of Veigar stacking his damage or the utility of Fiora finding weak point in defence. He just does not learn anything.
Also by his quotes he appears to be terrifying, emotionless and cruel. But in game he is just little laser octopusp poking bit by bit.
I truly believe that he should be a big terrifying space monster which will disect you just by its stare.
I think he should generate the feeling "shit, i dont want to get close to it"... just imagine what this kind of monster would do with its tentacles to you if got too close.
I think his passive could provide the "learning" feel, by scaling its true damage into late game, or something like that. And if he were to increase his size by amout of AP/Kills/Time would be friggin cool.
simply put I dont believe that Velkoz represents Sapce sicentist monster at all. Shouldnt he be able to rip his enemies apart? Not just poke them from afar?
Spicy Rice3 votesHonestly, his lack of mobility is the only thing that keeps him balanced. His mid-lategame and teamfight is so strong, that people should be rewarded for getting to him.
sp4412 votesI feel that he has, his Ult is fairly unique and VERY satisfying to pull off, and I find that his Q gives him enough of an identity. Sure, he boils down to "Poke 'em until your ult is primed up", but I think there is a place for champions like Vel'Kozby, who have low skill floors and high skill ceilings.