A simplistic explanation to Fizz's problems.
Way back when I'd go on massive thread rants explaining my side of the story because I lacked the ability to put things into a decent TLDR or condense things properly.
As such I stopped all this because in most cases people tend to hate those sort of posts and I just couldn't get people to understand the point through the wall of text. Thankfully though i now have a good copy pasta to use that explains his problems in a short sweet manner and still gets the point across.
TLDR below.
Fizz will always have this problem while all of these problems exist
- Fizz has no way to set up from range besides a very long ult which can be easily countered.
- Fizz has to wait 2 full seconds to proc his damage, the only way to set up before going in is ult which brings to number 1
- Fizz has low escape mobility compared to most assassins as he often times has to use the E on the way in to avoid incoming CC
- Piss poor melee AP itemization. While melee ADs get items like speed boost ghostblade, edge of night bubble, maw for a shield etc. Fizz gets zhonyas that leaves him stuck in one place. Zhonyas is a very mediocre item, horrible stats and just an ok active, given the CD and how you are unable to keep mobile during it AND most importantly, NO OTHER ITEMIZATION to support zhonyas, such as ghostblade and edge working in tandem.
Conclusion: Strong initiation, all melee basic abilities, delayed damage potential, no resets on mobility or portbacks and no AP itemization to support him means he is closer to Lee sin, Fiora, Camille and Riven than any assassin outside of rengar (WHO ALSO GOES BRUISER MOST OF THE TIME). Where Fizz has E dodge, Fiora has her parry, Riven has a stun as well as Camille while lee has ranged initiation on a basic.
If riot actually gave proper itemization to AP's, then Fizz wouldn't have to have an overloaded kit. But seeing as how Riot refuses to acknowledge the problems with AP itemization EVER and seeing as how it's all designed for ranged, we will always have this issue.
And for those that bring up that Fizz didn't always go bruiser, it was because Fizz was allowed to one shot people, thereby hiding the inherent flaws as an assassin. Take away the 1 shot potential and they were all exposed, giving birth to a better fizz in tank. Riot should just balance fizz around being a bruiser AP and call it a day. He is an assassin in name only. He is a skirmisher/bruiser.
TLDR Finished.
The original comment was a reply to a fizz rework discussion. I can't agree with the last part about how he should be balanced around being an AP bruiser, but everything else is spot on.
There are 3 major issues affecting fizz
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Lack of assassin focused AP itemization. This is due to the majority of AP champions being standard mages and thus balancing itemization around them. If someone like syndra who is already on the edge of being broken got her hands on AP items meant for assassins, then it turns into a DFG meta all over again because it's very difficult to create an item for fizz only. It'd have to be a melee locked item like the Hydra set I imagine. He just doesn't have the stats late game to deal with the insane amount of defensive stats/items the enemy could/will have.
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Weird initiation conditions for a melee assassin. Fizz's ult and W has too much counterplay lategame. Spell shields, GA, body blocking, untargetability, Hourglass, simple mobility and some ok level reflexes, and Raw tank which is the worst of all. The short range melee assassins requires a mid-long range ult in order to squeeze any decent amount of damage out of his kit and use his W, but then also need to waste some combination of mobility spells in order to reach the target once the ult has landed. Typically it's his E which equals 1/3 of his kits damage and acts as his only defensive tool for staying alive.
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Lack of Disengage. Just like the comment noted, he doesn't have the freedom or mobility that other assassins actually have. It'd be fine if he can't reliably assassinate people, or that his ult has too much counterplay, if only he had a reliable way to cut his losses and get away from a dive attempt when he can't kill whoever he was going for. But with a lack of strong mobility tools like Leblancs/Zeds W or Katarina's resets, and the fact that he has to blow his mobility spells just to get within range, he's almost always left to die once he dives anyone. Sure, he can and will build hourglass but riot specifically nerfed him so that he couldn't just hourglass and have his E back up when hourglass ended, and even if he can E away it's not that hard to chase him and then finish him.
That's just the major issues though while there's still tons of smaller issues that plague him. A targeted mobility spell that's dodgeable, a passive that continues to remain one of the most outdated passives remaining and is statistically useless, and random interactions like blitz being able to E fizz out of his untargetability.
So in short: Fizz needs another rework that focuses on changing how his mobility works, changing how his engage pattern works, and also making an item specifically designed for him that puts him on equal footing with normal assassins.
