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Ideas For a Kassadin Rework/Buff

CommunistComrade·7/28/2015, 2:06:36 PM·4 votes·1,058 views

Just recently I have bought Kassadin thinking he would be a very interesting and fun champion to play as. After the first three games I loved him. He matches my play style in almost every way. But then I remember the Kassadin "rework" and the nerfs to his ultimate and how he has the lowest win rate in the game (besides Tahm Kench). People keep telling me that he is a bad champion and has fallen out of the meta. However, I ignore most of their criticism, but it makes me urge for changes to make Kassadin "viable" again and to give him more love since he only has a 1.5 play rate now. So, here are my thoughts and ideas for future changes that I hope Riot can implement (obviously they don't have to) to help out The Void Walker Kassadin

Q (Null Sphere): I think Riot should slightly buff the Q base damage like they did with Ryze a while ago and/or higher the ap ratios for more burst to come in the same position with other ap bursters. They should also increase the magic shield duration and the amount of magic damage it blocks. Maybe they should even add in a slow or some small amount of cc but obviously not too much. If this is too much or if it's not enough they should lower the mana cost and/or the cooldown.

W (Nether Blade): Honestly, I think this ability is fine, but maybe higher the early game base damage a little for easier csing. Even though this might sound OP, they should add in an additional effect/passive similar to Pantheon's Hearseeker Strike.

E (Force Pulse): When I use this ability it just feels overwhelming even with a lot of ap. They should slightly higher the ap ratio or the late game base damage. I also think they should change this into a cooldown ability instead of a "stacking" ability. The cooldown should be a maximum of 5-11 seconds since sometimes it takes a while to get the 6 stacks for this ability and sometimes (usually during late game) it takes very little time to get the 6 stacks for this ability. Lowering the high mana cost it has could be helpful.

R (Rift Walk): This is the ability Riot has the most trouble with balancing on Kassadin. I heard some people calling it the "Rift hop" because of its low range. I suggest highering the range by 50 but not too much because the range of riftwalk on the old Kassadin in my opinion was overpowered. I also suggest making the ability also scale with ap and not just mana or maybe even just ap because I never see anyone buying an Archangel's Staff, just a Rod of Ages which from the new ap items rework the Rod has been given less mana (but more "stacking" mana) which makes him quite weak early game.

These are my ideas for buffing and reworking Kassadin. Again, Riot doesn't have to take them. All I want is to make this fun champion viable again without him getting a high ban rate and being overpowered like before. Yes, he is good Diamond and up so maybe give Kassadin a series of small buffs. After all if Elise was buffed shouldn't they buff Kassadin, too?

3 Comments

CommunistComrade7/28/2015, 2:10:14 PM1 votes

These are just my opinions so I hope that you don't take this seriously. However, some feedback will be helpful to improve this discussion. If you have anymore ideas I would be glad to have them. If you want copy+paste this to edit my ideas. Thank you!

CommunistComrade7/28/2015, 2:13:35 PM1 votes

By the way if the changes to Q, W, and E are too much maybe they should just give his ultimate his old range and then just leave him alone.

DirkTarTar7/28/2015, 4:48:39 PM1 votes

Im glad that you are making an attempt, and are crying out for some fixes. However, the majority of the board was in agreement that the last patch of nerfs that came his way were absolutely unnecessary. Even though he is a hated champ, much of the community was on board with the "stop kicking the dead Kassadin" train.

In order to make Kassadin viable again, he needs a complete rework. Riot has made it pretty clear that they do not ever want to hear another word about Kassadin, this is evident by how they gutted him repeatedly and then never spoke of him again.

To go off of what your post recommended, I just have a few thoughts in agreement, and disagreement on some points.

P - 15% Magic Damage reduction and ignores unit collision. I would trade this for almost anything.

Q - Agreed, needs a damage buff. Specifically it would be nice to have his ratios upped and the shield strength increased. Right now, the shield ONLY blocks magic damage, and at later levels doesn't even do that well enough.

W - A good ability, it is pretty awesome right now with some mana sustain and last hitting capabilities. Adds some good burst and cooperates well with Lich Bane / IBG.

E - Extremely underwhelming, his only "CC" and it isn't even that great. It takes forever to charge up, unless in a team fight or you plan for it, and you only get a use or two out of a team fight due to its relatively high CD. The damage is pretty poopy, maybe the base needs to go up, maybe a stronger slow, maybe better ratios. It just needs help. Because its really not that awesome.

R - Extremely underwhelming. Pitiful damage. Scales off mana (which you should only really be getting from RoA). You only get a couple of uses out of it before you go OoM. And the range is crap. Other champions have 2x the mobility at half the cost... not to mention he is melee AP.

All in all, all of his abilities are lacking, except for his W. He is an assassin champion that is spec'd out as an AP Bruiser that will simply fail at both. Simply playing with the math isn't going to cut it, that has been shown by Riot's inability and obvious lack of desire to go further with it.

He needs a proper rework. Specifically, his Passive, Q, E, and R.