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Kassadin nerfs unjustified

relatable moment··58 votes·3,540 views

I don't understand why Kassadin's riftwalk is getting nerfed when there are champions like Nidalee who have a gap-closer that is almost as long and doesn't cost any mana .(and its on a 3 second cooldown) Compared to other champs, his ult is balanced because of the stacking mana cost. I don't even play Kassadin but I have empathy for actual Kassadin players who feel the same way that I do.

67 Comments

Kitten of Evil14 votes

Because Nidalee, unlike Kassadin, doesn't have tons of damage to go with her mobility.

... BAHAHAHAHA sorry I couldn't say that with a straight face.

relatable moment4 votes

Yeah nidalee's damage with the Hunted debuff is flat out insane

SERIOUS PLAYER3 votes

Once you've got your Magus jungle item ( Hell, even with just a machete ) you can out duel maybe 95% of champs if a spear lands and you're level 3-4. May be kinda over exaggerated but that passive mark is just ridiculous

Cindikle14 votes

I think the change is justified.

But the rest of his kit should get some power back. Problem is that his should of been the first change they did.

GuiltyGecko3 votes

I was thinking that perhaps they could allow his spell shield to function like Morg's, and also grant immunity to CC. That would be an interesting compensation that would go along with his anti-mage identity.

relatable moment2 votes

It all depends on what type of champ riot wants him to be

GuiltyGecko2 votes

Well Riot wants him to be anti-mage according to 4.4 patch notes.

In the end, we opted for a full-on kit rework to reinforce his core theme as an anti-magic assassin with unrivaled mobility.

relatable moment5 votes

"assassin with unrivaled mobility." These nerfs just don't make sense anymore

LeeDark9 votes

They might want to try looking up "unrivaled" first.

Raja Chachki4 votes

"unrivaled mobility" Kalista

I Main Swain1 votes

oh gosh no, please no. nobody would ever beat him ever again O_o

GuiltyGecko2 votes

The shield only last 1.5 seconds, and it's about 3/5 the strength of an equivalent support shield. He also has to stay closer to targets now with shorter range rift walk.

I Main Swain1 votes

first off, even if it only has a low duration it is still essentially a health stealing shield. and also, imo I don't think they should change his ult range at all. I think they should add a second to his ult cooldown assuming they are set on nerfing his ult. either way though, I think his q and e ranges should be lower and his passive should grant flat bonus mr.

Goosetard9 votes

There's a really important difference between the nidalee gapcloser and kassadin gapcloser: nid has to do something first. She either has to land a spear or trap. We can argue about how easy/hard that is, but that's not really my point... the bummer about kassadin ult is that he can blink long distances whenever he wants with no proactive play (like nidalee) beforehand. Nidalee's gapcloser involves additional strategy/gameplay; kassadin's is a low-cd "I-positioned-poorly-but-oh-well-who-cares-R" ability.

I don't think kass is misbalanced by much (if at all) but if they were to change something about him I think they should do something besides tweak the numbers on his ult. Maybe reduce the mana cost/mana scaling, increase the damage, but have **a significant cast time that decreases with ult stacks. Something that bugs me about his kit is that he's nearly untouchable unless he wants to go in. I think there should be more risk/reward involved in his play style; with a change like that, Kass would have to proactively decided whether or not he wants to be mobile in the near future. The reward for choosing correctly is that he gains additional damage (and said mobility), the penalty is that he stacked his ult at an inopportune time and blew through a lot of resources.

TLDR I don't like the change to Kass's ult either but for different reasons.

relatable moment1 votes

I think I'm going to have to do some more research on kassadin before I start discussing things but I'm confused on whether Riot is trying to define kassadin's role or if they are trying to balance him.

Daedalus8715 votes

This actually gave me an idea that I think could be fun:

Rift Walk base range is decreased to 400. For each stack of Rift Walk, it gains 100 range.

Mandang07 votes

I think limiting the mobility in the game is a good direction. Maybe Nid should also get hit, but I don't think she's a good argument for why Kass should be left to eat up a ban slot for yet another year.

relatable moment3 votes

I am just saying that compared to other champions, his new ult will be sub-par to champs such as nidalee. If limiting mobility is the key to balancing the game, then I think the focus shouldn't be on kassadin but rather other champions who have greater ability to escape/engage.

Mandang03 votes

Care to list more than just Nid?

I'm sorry, but when the only defense to ban-worthy champs seeing nerfs is that other ban-worthy champs will be stronger, well... it's not a very convincing defense.

Kitten of Evil6 votes

Other mobile champs whose mobility could probably use some toning down? Okay:

Kalista Zed Leblanc LeeSin

I should say, I don't find any of them OP because I know how to play against them, but the presence of so much mobility stifles the game and limits the universe of acceptable choices and builds. It also greatly downplays the importance of positioning. I'm used to playing champs like Anivia, Brand, Varus, Orianna where if you're out of position, you're dead. A mobile champion doesn't have to position properly because they can get out of danger much more easily.

Mandang01 votes

And would you be opposed to them getting nerfed?

All I'm saying is that this "bbbbut he has mobility too" isn't a good reason not to nerf Kass.

Kitten of Evil1 votes

Not at all, but I'd honestly prefer immobile champs to be buffed as well.

Kobila20001 votes

This. Just because another champion isn't hit doesn't make this one unproblematic.

SpongebobIsLife5 votes

Yea, I really don't see why they are nerfing him. He isn't even an issue.

killd0zer5 votes

87.5% Pick/Ban LCS

Poorly Dressed4 votes

He is the new Olaf :( It just sucks because i love his fluid style :(

A Miss Fortune4 votes

I played Kassadin a few games just to try him out.

He's difficult to play, extremely high skill cap, and has many weaknesses. I don't know why they nerfed his ult when Nidalee just has to Q you and if you live past that she has a gap closer that you can't get away from, or Zed just has to make a clone/throw a shuriken.

Cosmic Warper4 votes

The change is only justified if he gets power back in the rest of his kit. If this change just goes through without any other changes then he will be a garbage champion. Ahri will be the new kassadin.

Alorasence4 votes

I liked it better when Kassadin was terrible in lane.

It justified his annoying mobility and targeted damage Q that was so oppressive late game.

Kassadin's power right now is inevitable, while before you could do something about it (shut him down in lane and win before he got going).

Now, to fix the issue Riot has decided to absolutely gut his mobility.

They should just weaken his laning, and allow him to be powerful and hyper-mobile later on.

Auryiel4 votes

Riot in 2 patches ''We think the Kassadin nerfs hit him a little too hard, so we're gonna buff him beyond 35% win rate''

Krys Star4 votes

They're more likely Olafing him until a rework is ready is my guess.

Anidan2 votes

3 years of being put on the backburner is what the Kassadin mains have to look forward to in that case? Those... those poor, brave souls.

Well, I guess he's not alone with the likes of Poppy, Urgot, Yorick, Fiora, Taric, and Evelynn (Welcome back!) then, I suppose. There should not be a line for large-scale reworks. Less yet one that is this long, with this long between reworks themselves.

HigeR3 votes

it's quite a heavy nerf the one Kass is eating, undeserved though? probably not, mobility happens to be really good in this game, look at kalista for example, or Zed, both of these need to do something in order for their mobility to kick in, Kass just needs to hit R...

So it's not just that he has crazy good mobility, but that it's super easy to do if compared to pretty much any other champ, except Ezreal I guess but his cd is way longer.

Now, since these nerfs are a huge slap in the face, I think Kass should get a compensation buff somewhere, perhaps lower significantly the time between riftwalk stacks, like 10/8/6 seconds or so and instead of loosing stacks immediately you'd loose stacks one by one so you can juggle it, of course it's cd should be modified properly like 5/4/3 seconds, his mana stacks would remain the same since now you can wait out your stacks a bit better.

relatable moment3 votes

Compensation buffs would be great after the slight q nerf and then this.

Rikari3 votes

Cons: -Bad Early Game -Item Reliant -Low Base Mana -Predictable -Melee -Not Tanky -Combo leaves a squishy mage in the middle of the team

Pros: -Strong against AP -Multi-Cast Gap Closer.

Yep,reason enough to nerf him.

Boulderox2 votes

The problem i always see with kassadin is that he will ult over a wall and wait for the teamfight to break out, ult back over and sweep the fight, he has a lot at his disposal in the means of lots of damage and a low cooldown blink. Thats not to say he deserved these nerfs, i feel the nid situation should be dealt with first before thinking of kassadin, but then again kassadin top can be opressive, all he does is sphere you for poke, slow you if you get close and ult away to safety, so i can see where they want to add some counterplay to his kinda new top lane position.

relatable moment2 votes

I understand what you're saying but I was just comparing him to other short ranged dashes. I am all for riot introducing counterplay for different champs but i feel like kassadin shouldn't be the first one on that list.

Boulderox1 votes

Yes, that should be priority, yet nobody understands riot's balance system

Yoella2 votes

I have nothing against Kassadin, and I have respect for those who play an off-meta champion (seeing as I'm a Veigar main), but his passive is enormously powerful for midlane. Passively resisting 15% of all magic damage (the primary damage source in midlane) while also never getting creepblocked is something that a lot of people don't talk about, and it's a pretty powerful passive. Add onto that a damaging AoE slow, a point-and-click attack that grants him a shield, bonus magic damage and temporary range to his AA's, all topped with a 700 range instant teleport that he can use multiple times and that damages you in an AoE area makes for a pretty frustrating matchup for many champs.

Now like I said I don't hate Kass, but I feel like the nerf to his teleport range isn't that devastating considering he can just use it multiple times anyway. Just be glad that's all they changed about him, at least he didn't get steamrolled like Veigar did.

relatable moment5 votes

Veigar didn't get steamrolled... They just added a little counterplay/skill to his abilities

Rinky Dinky4 votes

Everyone who has played him on pbe has pretty much said the same thing.

Only really problem is the lack of benefit to trapping opponents in your cage in lane. There needs to be a slow within the cage :/

Immortal Strife1 votes

I'll agee that it's a hefty nerf, however he does have a VU coming which may prompt more game play changes for the rift walker.

Sometimes power picked get nerfed to the ground...see Fizz & Gragas.

relatable moment2 votes

VU are just to keep champions updated and I'm not sure if they would make gameplay changes solely because he was brought into the light again.

Ace Access 1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Immortal Strife,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=E70N187v,comment-id=0007,timestamp=2015-02-21T17:29:47.851+0000)

I'll agee that it's a hefty nerf, however he does have a VU coming which may prompt more game play changes for the rift walker.

Sometimes power picked get nerfed to the ground...see Fizz & Gragas.

how does visual update justify a large mobility nerf ?

Silents4291 votes

Well to be fair, The range on it now is akin to Ezreals E, or a flash.

And using Nidalee who is currently a bitch right now isn't helping your case much. Nid pretty much does everything better.

imPARKs1 votes

How about implementing something similar to his E's passive to his ultimate cost? When he ults, Kassadin would use all the charges that he had.

mjack331 votes

Kassadin's Riftwalk got nerfed because he essentially had super flash up the entire game, super duo-flash up most of mid game, and super triple-flash up most of late game. It's one of those things where you had an insane amount of safety.

Now....... now he just has the same thing but it's the same range as flash. ..... I never get the thought process behind these things. It's like Veigar's E. They need to just spike the thing into the ground already and buff to compensate. If they had done that a while ago instead of trying to nerf everything else to compensate, Kassadin wouldn't be about to suck.

The Hexmage1 votes

Viktor is getting buffed, Kassadin counters Viktor :)

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