What does a buff do if you can't use the ability 80% of the time in lane?

Soooo, they buffed It is underwhelming, to say the least. I mean, I max E and use it frequently only when I am playing against . If I am against a champion with long range cc and damage such as , my E won't do shit most of the time. If the purpose to help him scale into late game healthily, why not give him something to survive the early game? Kassadin already has stupid damage and he snowballs hard if he gets ahead. He needs a buff on his Q shield instead. If his magic shield is a little bigger (or longer), he can negate some of the stupid early game damage some of these champs can dish out: