Fizz's nerf was a bit too hard IMO
I understand the nerftrain is making its rounds with little mercy, however, Fizz has gone from A very powerful assassin to a weak champion. I am curious for anybody's feedback on the topic
6 Comments
Riot did go to far and I'm sure they know it by now. Any time a champion goes from one role, gets nerfed, and goes to a completely other role that was never planned means you've gimped the crap out of the champion.
Nerfing his AP scaling across the board and all he got in return was 20% damage bonus while you have the shark on someone was not an equal rearranging of power between his abilities.
My biggest complaint was them switching his W passive and active. It took away ALL of his ability to trade in lane. He was already a weak laner that didn't do anything until he had lich bane + zhonyas... And wasn't even able to start deleting people until he had 3 or 4 items, which is the power curve for most AP assassins and mages, but literally his only way he could trade with you in lane without draining his entire mana pool or making himself incredibly vulnerable was to auto attack you and get a little bleed damage on you. He wouldn't by any means win trades in lane with it, but it did enough to keep his lane opponents honest and not just steamroll over him.
It's pretty disgusting what they did to his Q though. Made it insanely easy for people to avoid his Q entirely, while also making him exposed to getting exploded, and it wouldn't even chunk people while doing it.
Based on my experience, his q is only useful for w/sheen procs because its damage is just too low to be effective unless someone is marked by his ult. It saddens me to see that AD Fizz is stonger than AP Fizz at the moment, and I, personally, would like to see some buffs on Fizz's q, even if it means removing the buff on Chum the Waters.
Asking if the nerf was too much on a Boards/Forums that mostly has an undisputed hate for Fizz is kinda useless, especially since you've even given TWO answers that say No.
The simple fact is that these changes to him disregard him as an effective assassin (primary role) and is more fitting to be a bruiser-type. Can he still assassinate? Yes he can, but he has a MUCH harder time now. Should he be alone to 100-0 in one shot? Eh I think more like, more like 70-0... I think within a two move combo (that's not ult reliant) he should be able to get in against someone who lacks proper resistances. I think a better way to have done the balance is to shorten the range of his Q. With that, it will truly show who got counterplayed. If Fizz is really desperate, he'll have to get in closer, even if it means using his usual disengage (E) as an engage. His usual matchup is against someone who is ranged/has ranged abilities, so getting in should be troubling. Double that since he has no ranged poke, means he has to go get close to do ANY damage (expect Ult, which is not a poke, but a skillshot with a medium cooldown).
If ANYTHING, I would expect a mana cost reduction for Q at least. Another idea I just thought of is to maybe apply a small temporary slow to the Q on-hit. (One or the other, not both.)
On the flipside, I'm trying something new (Jungle Fizz, it's not THAT bad, and I'm finally trying Jungling again!) and his AD building is pretty decent. (AD Bruiser who has an untargetability/escape/chase... AND outduel an Udyr... I think I may have just gotten lucky that game).
Just some ideas... but yeah, about the nerfs, I think they could have given him some sort of tiny buff for lack of damage (- mana cost or small cc).
That's just my two cents on it though.
~GL