Episode 372 of "It should be obvious & shouldn't need to be said": Annoying ≠ Broken/Needing nerfs.
No one has ever denied Fizz can be a hell of an annoying champion to play against.
Guess what? That doesn't matter. No one cares. That isn't relevant to balance. That's something that might be handled in a VGU for example, but it's not something that is even the tiniest bit relevant to balance changes.
Balance changes are when a champion is underpowered or overpowered. Tank Fizz is currently overpowered and is abusing a mechanism a way it wasn't supposed to be with unintended items and build patterns. That is the kind of thing balance changes are for. That is the reason Tank Fizz received large W base damage nerfs to the un-empowered W (which means nerfs to the empowered are triple the values to the regular).
Annoying/oppressive/any of these other descriptor words are all subjective. You could describe literally any champion in the game as some selection of these words and they'd all be valid and apply. That's why no one gives a crap about the trigger words.
Aatrox is oppressive because he can duel continuously lifestealing back health and has a revive passive meaning he can be a lot more aggressive and is resourceless.
See how that works? I ignored how his revive passive depends on a full passive bar, how attack speed slows maul him, and he's reliant on getting attack speed and lifesteal to synergize with his lifesteal every third hit.
Fizz (in his intended AP mid build) is oppressive because he has high burst, a long range hitbox-size increasing shark on his ultimate with a slow and knock up, and untargetability on a 6 second cooldown.
See how that works? I ignored how almost every single ranged mid still abuses him pre-6 as long as they play a little smart and watch their health given he's melee which inherently makes farming worse to do. Likewise, how every melee is almost all assassins who also have tools to deal with him and/or are equally bad/strong against each other pre-6.
I ignored how his ultimate and particularly its large hit box as it flies farther makes it easier for a tank to intercept because all he has to do is stand anywhere even slightly in front of the target to eat it instead.
I ignored how his untargetability is only 6 seconds cooldown at maximum rank and maximum CDR in his standard masteries (which takes the Magic Pen over the 5% bonus CDR). I also ignored how 6 seconds is still ample time for a team to deal with him because his very kit means he has to go into melee range to kill someone.
A shark isn't going to kill anyone who isn't low health by itself anyways. To finish them off, he has to get into melee range which is why he has the E in the first place. As an assassin, diving into an entire enemy team is the very last thing any assassin wants to do because it is quite literally suicide to try without some escape provided.
6 seconds in the middle of a team is ample time to both force the E out in the first place and lock him out right afterwards. The only thing it does is give him a CHANCE to escape. If he used the E to go in, he's not going to escape. It's the same reason Akali has shroud which gives her team time to follow up or can R out to a nearby camp or enemy minion. Same reason Zed has his R return and W. Same reason Talon has E. Same reason Kassadin has blink. Same reason LeBlanc has her range and her W. Same reason Kha'Zix has his E. Same reason all others do.
I also ignored how almost all teams (intelligent ones at least) will have Locket and Redemption in teamfights, as well as Exhaust. All 3 of them are a fuck you to assassins. Locket gives a shield to survive till Redemption heal and Exhaust is just the "no" button to assassins.
Every single relevant statistic from a credible site across every possible factor supports he (as AP Fizz) is currently balanced regardless of how annoying he is.
This applies to champions like Yasuo, Zed, LeBlanc, so on and so forth. No matter how annoying they are, statistics all support them being either weak or balanced.
#You don't nerf champions just for being annoying. You nerf them if they are actually too strong.
You simply cannot make a valid statement he has no counterplay. He has ample counterplay to every part of his kit.
MR works against his entire kit.
W's biggest is literally shown. There's a delay before he can get the bonus damage off. The regular W damage is poor. The mark also disappears just a few seconds later if he doesn't proc it.
E is on a cooldown that is relatively long in any setting outside of a 1v1 or farming in an isolated lane with no enemies nearby at all. But on that note, you shouldn't be getting anywhere near an assassin alone if you can't handle it anyways (a tank or someone who can kill an assassin like anti-assassin champions), regardless if it's Fizz or any other. If you did, that's your fault if you died.
R is inherently dodgeable even with the increasing hitbox size. The auto lock hit box and the pickup were both nerfed and removed respectively. It can be bodyblocked. The shark appears after a set delay that is always the same. That gives time for shields, heals, and mitigation otherwise. The knockup is avoidable by not standing within the box. Tenacity reduces the slow.
#Champions aren't nerfed nor do they need or should they be nerfed just for being annoying. Pure balance changes are for being too strong or weak alone.
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