Veigar's future - Patch 5.3

Veigar was my very first champ in League. He's been my main ever since and I feel like I've learned a lot about the champ's strengths and weaknesses and the nuances of his gameplay. I'm very concerned about his future because it seems like his identity MAY be in jeopardy here. I'm paranoid that Veigar has probably been on the nerf watchlist for sometime and the balance team is just using the DFG removal as an excuse to fix up some 'rework'. The language you are using is kind of troubling considering Veigar has tons of counterplay that is hidden in nuance and isn't overtly obvious like a lot of other modern 2.0 league champs.

First some of the obvious counterplay options.

1. Mag res.

2. Tenacity and debuff.

Now the more nuanced counterplay.

3. FARM

4. TEAMMATES

Veigar is probably the most underwhelming champ in the early game. No damage. Unreliable stun, long cooldown. Mana hungry. Team dependent. Let me clarify these points. I literally BEG my junglers to NEVER ever gank my lane. In the early stage, Veigar is just a glorified farming machine. A mana hungry farming machine. Ganks often deplete his mana and if they do not reap a ks (because pre 6 Veigar doesnt have the damage output to kill his own laner), then it forces him out of lane and probably 4-8 ap worth of farming.

The number one counterplay aginst Veigar is to deny him farm early on. Push lane. Zone. Roam. Veigar is extremely immobile and has trouble chasing down his laner if they roam. Early to mid game his W can't clear jack! Denies him precious ap and takes a good chunk of his mana away. Mana + Time in lane = AP. AP = viability. The fact that you don't even have to kill Veigar to counter him is a nuance a lot of players (and maybe the balance team) seem to not appreciate. Let me reiterate, without ap farm, Veigar is essentially 'countered'.

Lastly his carry potential. If you are Veigar, and you are the carry on your team, you will probably lose the game. Veigar cannot carry. He bursts down one enemy champ and then he's useless. He takes a backseat and watches his teammates either win or get beat to a bloody pulp. If your team isn't strong, then they will get the bloody pulp. If you have a lot of kills with Veigar, that means you have starved your team of those kills/gold that they need to fight after you have bursted your own self right out of the team fight. When I mastered Veigar, I always snowballed in my games. But my win rate was abysmal. After looking at tons of replays and some of my stats.. I realized the problem. I was starving my team and unlike other 'carry' champs, I couldn't carry my team to victory. I burst one of their champs and then watch my indigent team try to pickup the fight. It was depressing.

This was a long post, but in it are the nuances that people seem to always miss when it comes to Veigar. I fear nowadays that the term 'counter play' just means whether or not a champ can dodge a skillshot. Veigar is a champion that has beautiful emergent counterplay potential. You just have to look past the LCS 'jukes' and 'skillshots'. He's a macro champ that takes mana, gold, ap, and k/d management to a whole new level. Please don't destroy my tiny master of evil.