A look at Veigar

I'm just going to say this straight out, I believe that veigar comes nerfed rather than buffed from these latest changes. He was reworked in the name of counterplay, but he now has very few playmaking abilities of his own.

First we start with the changes:

Q: Baleful Strike Baleful Strike is now a skillshot that passes through the first target hit and stops on the second target hit RANGE 650 ⇒ 850 COOLDOWN 8/7/6/5/4 seconds ⇒ 7/6.5/6/5.5/5 seconds

I believe that this is the best part of the rework for veigar. His Q now has longer range enabling him to play safer while farming. The 2 hit q does now allow for double ap gain, but against another good mid, it will be very hard to align up low minions in order to q both of them. Veigar 's optimal new play pattern is now staying back and farming, but his old optimal play pattern used to be a skirmish until 6 when you go for the kill. Additionally, it has a lower cooldown at early levels, but a higher cooldown at later levels. Overall, this is a slight laning identity shift, but overall neutral.

Recap +Double AP +Increased Range +Lower Cooldown at early levels -Reliability -Longer Cooldown late game

Net Impact: Neutral

W: Dark Matter COST 70/80/90/100/110 mana ⇒ 70/75/80/85/90 mana COOLDOWN 10 seconds ⇒ 10/9.5/9/8.5/8 seconds

This is a straight up buff. *Note: The main use of w is to nuke them after you stun them, the secondary use is to farm minions. This leads to a very specific activation condition of a crowd controlled enemy champion.

Recap +Cooldown Reduced +Mana Buff -None

Net Impact: Positive

E: Event Horizon Appears instantly ⇒ Now has a 0.75 second delay before appearing COST 80/90/100/110/120 mana ⇒ 80/85/90/95/100 mana COOLDOWN 20/19/18/17/16 seconds ⇒ 18/17/16/15/14 seconds RANGE 650 ⇒ 700

This is biggest controversy in the rework. The mana cost went down late game, range was increased, and the cooldown was reduced at all points. However, the biggest change is the delay. This delay allows for counterplay by the opponents, however it takes away Veigar's counterplay to most high burst damage champions. Take Zed(a common mid) for instance, while Veigar can still stun Zed, the 0.75s delay allows him plenty of time to dash to a shadow or to engage the now defenseless Veigar. To give you a rough estimate of how long the delay is, if you have a champion at approximately 400 ms, when you drop the edge of the stun directly on top of them, they can walk about 1/3 of the way through the circle before the stun appears. Additionally, this greatly decreases catch potential as Veigar will have to be within engagement range in order to be sure to land a stun on a fleeing opponent.

Recap +Range Increased +Mana Buff +Cooldown Reduced -Delayed Stun

Net Impact: Negative

R - Primordial Burst RATIO 1.2 ability power ⇒ 1.0 ability power COST 125/175/225 mana ⇒ 125 mana at all ranks COOLDOWN 130/110/90 seconds ⇒ 120/100/80 seconds

In this change, the goal was to reduce the amount of damage the ult did due to increased AP farming as well as compensate for the lack of CDR from Deathfire Grasp. In this respect it succeeded, but the decreased AP ratio usually leads to a lower damage ultimate due to the impracticality of gaining an additional 20% AP (even with increased AP generation) to make up for the ratio. The mana change is largely unnoticed due the frequency of recalls late game.

Recap +Cooldown Reduced +Mana Buff -AP ratio decreased

Net Impact: Neutral

Now that we have seen the changes, my biggest gripe is the lack of counterplay. While the opponents now have counterplay in spades, between a skillshot Q, a 1.25s delay on W, and a 0.75s delay on E, Veigar now has very little. My example against Zed above was just a small taste of this. If you will entertain me for a moment, please use your imagination and think of common mid laners. They can be of any type, AD assassin, AP siege mage, or even the odd AD carry. Chances are, many of the champions you thought about has a dash, or a different kind of mobility. Now with these champions, how many can dodge Veigar's stun? Do keep in mind, dodging Veigar stun is akin to avoiding getting stunning by Leona's ultimate. Just the stun mind you, if you are slowed by her ultimate, Veigar's stun would have missed you. A simple enough task at that, but her delay is only 0.625s. Veigar's stun takes 20% longer to land. With this in mind, landing Veigar's stun has become no easy task to do offensively, but how about defensively?

Let us repeat the thought experiment above once again. Please think of any common mid laners or junglers. Since Veigar plays mainly in the mid lane, these are the biggest dangers for the majority of the game. Now, how many of these champions have a dash? And for the ones that do, let us pretend that they dashed to Veigar. Given an instantaneous and perfect reactionary stun, as in it is guaranteed to land at the earliest possible time, the opposing champion has 0.75s to unload on Veigar. How many of these champions can do damage to Veigar? And how much damage? The standard J4 at level 6 can unleash at least 600 physical damage + 1-2 basic attacks pre mitigation. Given a base health of 817 at level 6, that type of engagement will and should lead to your demise. However, that is just a jungler, how about a resident of the mid lane, preferably not the assassin kind. Lets pick Lux. Given 0.75s of engagement time, a skilled Lux can and will dish out 600 magic damage + 2 passive procs + a basic attack. Once again this spells doom for Veigar. In both these cases, even if Veigar does not die, he is forced to recall or try his hand at instagibbing the opponent. However, if he fails his retaliation, he is certain to die unless he has backup.

A final point is the feeling of helplessness this new stun gives you. One final thought experiment for the night. Pretend you are a lone level 6 bootless Veigar with no flash walking out of mid lane to ward. Suddenly, you spot a wild Rek'Sai with boots a mere tunnel away from you. What do you do? You really have only have two choices, stun before he starts tunneling, or after he tunnels. Supposing you choose the first choice and go for the stun immediately. Pre-rework, assuming good aim, thats an instant stun and a living Veigar. Post-rework, a Rek'Sai will see the stun coming and use the delay to tunnel through to eat a helpless Veigar. Supposing you pick the second choice, pre-rework, thats a stunned Rek'Sai coming out the other end. Post-rework, Rek'Sai has plenty of time to force you back home.

@Riot I appreciate what you are trying to do, but remember the people playing the champion. When everyone can dodge your spells with impunity, what fun is there for you?

tl:dr: Veigar with a delayed stun is not very viable. Rito pls fix.