Can we talk Kassadin?

You know, i was watching LCS and the lolking stats. It seems to me that he really doesnt deal much dmg most of the game until it reaches really late if he didnt get crushed first.

I dont think a champ like him should be only getting kills cause his team did all the dmg and he uses his mobility to finish the job. Lolking says hes 22% under average in dmg. which includes all assassins to the supports. When i watched LCS. i was giggling everytime he tried to do dmg. i think I even saw some champs gaining health after his attacks. If he is an assassin, something has too change because hes not doing his job (unless he uses his ult to clean up, which is essentially all he can do) if hes not an assassin, what is he?

I think seriously his base dmg should be reverted to season 3. BUT his scaling brought back to leblanc's level for instance. its so not satisfying to be countered by almost everyone, not dealing dmg most of the game, being forced to only farm. its the tank meta with some strong assassins. hes among the worse champ in solo queue atm (beside elise) If champs like can get love and enjoy GREAT success. i dont know why he shouldnt :(

EDIT: why downvotes? im not qqing lol. im just saying i want his late game brought down but give him some dmg back in his early game. lolking shows hes down in almost every category. pros loses with him aswell or dont do well with him.

EDIT 2: It was also brought to my attention that his MR scaling was removed a while back which mean that, as an anti mage, an enemy with sorcs boots and void staff (and in lot of cases abyssal) he eats true dmg and even more than true dmg. at this point his passive is equivalent to 15-20 mr. so he needs a low ap mr item. which reduces his dmg aswell. its a lose-lose situation no matter what items he picks (besides RoA) his scaling is actually not even that high compared to many mages and even leblanc. The point of a passive is to benefit from it. Not switching around base stats to compensate...

EDIT 3: I think if Q and E at lvl 5 base dmg was like 340 each with .8 scaling (instead of .7) BUT YOU REMOVE W ACTIVE DMG ENTIRELY. (you leave the passive as it is) Kass would be a bit safer, but his laning still weak (since he doesnt have W anymore to help to get E) and he would deal dmg. But with two spells instead of 3.

EDIT 4: I dont think i know of any champ that is late game exclusive. (ryze, vayne, nasus, sion etc..) can crap on you hard mid game. (early they are weak, compared to lets say renekton and pantheon) His mobility is short that champs like kha, kat, even leblanc can catch you in many circumstances and crap on you pronto. Yi and nidalee too.

{quoted}

The ways they've buffed his ultimate don't make up for the range nerf. Not in the slightest.

The ways they've buffed it is in lowering the mana cost (75->50) and lowering the cooldown (3 sec at max ran to 2 sec at max rank). Here's the thing: Kassadin can't effectively chase people. "What you say? That doesn't make any sense!! He has a teleport ult!"

Let's say you're Kassadin at lv 9 with tier 1 boots and you've got the jump on someone swooping from the jungle like some crazy void ninja, we'll assume your target has the lowest move speed (325) and for some reason hasn't bought boots yet. You are about 500 units from your target - they see you and flash away, putting them at 900 units away from you. You use your ult to close the gap, but it has a .25 second cast time which means they run 81 units away from you before you close the gap, putting you at 481 units from them when you appear. You're out of melee range so you perform your E Q combo of which the Q has a cast time - they're still alive, you must chase them; not factoring the cast time of Q (mainly cause I don't know what it is) their move speed has been slowed to 130 for one second (assuming lvl 2 force pulse) so you run directly at them and they run directly away. In the time they're slowed they run away 130 additional units and you run forward for 365 units putting your distance from them at 246 units, still well outside of melee range.

Now we just need a little algebra to find how long it takes for Kassadin to get into melee range for one hit (and who say's you'll never use this stuff after you graduate): 325x + 246 = 367x + 150 246 = 42x + 150 96 = 42x 96/42 = x = 2.28 seconds

This means, even after you've slowed them, it will take you a total of 3.28 seconds to get within melee range to perform an auto->Q combo, the time is a bit shorter if you use your W due to the extra range (1.69 seconds then), but attack animation will create more distance from you for your target.

What are your options then? You can flash to reach the target earlier, but that's taking your flash now, and you only get to perform an auto Q combo. For the next 5.5 seconds after your opening EQ combo, you have no abililties available whatsoever other than auto attacks. Even after a second jump, you don't have any abilities available for the next 3 seconds, and we've seen how long it takes you just to get into melee range when you have the slow. Also you have to consider the distance traveled - at the point where you've gotten into melee range (assuming you don't flash) your target has travelled a total distance of 1402 units, almost 3 of your ults! It's very possible that they've gotten well within turret range at this point, and you don't have any more burst tools at your disposal.

And this is in the BEST case where they have the slowest possible move speed, without any dashes of their own, and don't hit you with any kind of disables whatsoever. If they have even one slow or a dash you're basically screwed. He NEEDED that ult distance - he had nothing else. I would say the determining factor for whether a champion is worthless is if he follows the following criteria:

1. He's not especially good at doing the thing he's supposed to do (i.e. his role)
2. The thing he's good at doesn't matter
3. Other champions do the thing he's supposed to be good at, better than him

What is Kassadin's strength? He's more resistant to magic damage, which would be great on a fighter, but is wasted space on an assassin as dead mages don't do damage. He has very low base damages with a respectable scaling, low utility and is melee ranged. His strength is that he can perform multiple mid range dashes in a relatively short time frame. But what can he really do with those dashes? At max level he can ult 3 times in the time it takes for him to throw out one E and 4 times in the time it takes to use his W or Q - so his only offensive tool at that point is auto attacks. This means that, for him to be useful given the nature of his kit, his initial burst has to be high enough to kill his target; it isn't.

Let's look at another jumpy mage assassin champion, LeBlanc. She is: Ranged, has multiple blinks available before level 6, has a higher base damage AND scaling due to conditional damage bonuses, a skillshot slow to snare, and she can duplicate any one of her spells with her ult. Leblanc is not melee, so she can safely farm at range with no mana cost, she can use her ult to duplicate any spell she needs when she needs it, and she clones her self for extra confusion factor. She has enough damage with her spells that she can burst down a marksman in the early/mid game with one use of her W.

In theory Leblanc can't jump around as often as Kassadin can. In practice, she doesn't need to, her jump does exactly what an assassin needs in a jump - "go in long enough to kill her target, then get out", and she can pull back instantly any time she wants up to 4 seconds from the initial cast! Kassadin on the other hand, needs to wait for a second cast of his ability before he can jump to safety, and he doesn't even jump as far, plus he has quadratically scaling mana costs for recasting his abilities. IMO, there is no reason to use Kassadin if Leblanc is available.

Now lets look at another assassin, this time comparing jumps on ults, Akali. She is: Melee ranged like Kassadin, has 1 ranged ability vs Kassadin's 2, can stealth, has lower based damages across her non ult skills and lower total AP scaling, and can multi-cast her ult. Akali doesn't have free dash capability, she has to basically commit to offense when she goes in - but right off the bat, when she needs to go in, she has 100 extra range on Kassadin. On top of that, her jump is actually targeted, which is bad on defense, but great on offense, due to the fact that even if the opponent flashes or jumps away, she will continue to travel to them closing the gap instantly. Akali also has much shorter cooldowns than Kassadin, meaning that while she has less up front burst, she is better at chasing and sustaining her damage, while also healing through spellvamp. Most importanly, while her escape skill can be countered ( OP), it's on a separate cooldown ability so again, she has it available when she needs it.

Now, Kassadin is better at running away than Akali, assuming he has only used his ult a couple of times to get into position, but he's worse at chasing, and long cooldowns mean he does less damage overall in the amount of time that Akali does. He also has no sustain like Akali does, and his escape is tied to one skill alone. Plus, he has to build mana and Akali doesn't. And while he has an extra damage vs Akali in his kit, he can only use it once before it needs to "fill up with stacks". So he's down his only other advantage after akali after his first combo - 2 ranged skills.

Kassadin's kit is extremely low base damage, cooldown gated, stack gated, and heavily mana gated, on top of having no utility and only a 1 second slow on a melee champion. What is his reward for all of these huge constraints? He gets a very expensive not so good multiple short cast dash, which still isn't enough to keep him near his target. He may be a champion which theoretically can be better than he looks on paper, but right now in his overnerfed state he looks bad on paper and is worse in play.