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Assassin Rework: Kha'Zix Discussion

Merxamers·6/29/2016, 2:54:23 PM·41 votes·25,778 views

TLDR: Don't fix what isn't broken, don't nerf Q and E evolves to make W and R evolutions more appealing; let's think of creative ways to make W and R more appealing as early evolve choices, maybe through situational strengths.

Kha'Zix was one of the listed candidates for the upcoming Assassin Updates, and i want to list some of my thoughts and concerns about it (would love to hear from other K6 players too)

Current State: K6 is my main jungler right now, and i think he's really fun. I know everyone says this about their main, but I feel like he's pretty balanced; he struggles against tanks and people who group up, but he's rewarded for punishing poor positioning. My only disappointment with him is that not all his evolutions are as viable or "situational" as the others. Q and E are by far the best evolutions, and you will probably lose if you don't evolve those first.

My Worries: I personally don't think K6 is in strong need of buffs or nerfs, so I suspect that Riot wants to change his evolutions around to make evolved W and R more appealing. What i'm worried about, though, is that **they'll nerf the Q and E evolves (or "adjust power" without calling it a nerf) **, which I would hate. The E (leap) is what makes him feel like a bug assassin, and is really fun to use well. The Q is viscerally satisfying, and is the core part of his kit. Nerfing these two, or changing their function to make them weaker, would make him a lot less fun to play.

What I Hope Happens: The W and R evolutions are rethought to make them appealing choices, without having to nerf Q and E. With some out-of-the-box thinking, and creativity, some changes could be made to W and R evolutions to make them interesting, w/out making him overpowered.

For example: I choose the W evolution for poke/AoE damage, but always take it 3rd if at all. What could make this an appealing choice for an earlier evolution? Maybe make it reveal stealthed champions (make it a champ counter option); maybe have it steal movement speed rather than just slowing (helps him stick to kiting targets; might be messy thematically, but the missiles already heal him for some reason, so...); maybe lower the damage a bit, but have it restore mana for units killed/champions hit to help with seige comps.

For R: if i take this one, it's to help with teamfighting and to improve survivability. Right now all it does is add a stealth charge and increase the stealth duration slightly. To make it more appealing as an early choice, emphasize it's strength for situations where it's needed. Maybe bring back the AoE damage reduction during stealth? Or how about granting 1 immediate stealth charge (still a max of 3) on a kill or assist to complement his reset nature? Or maybe take it in a different direction, and have evolved R reduce damage K6 takes from isolated targets (makes his strengths stronger against bruisers/tanks, but still preserves his weakness of needing isolation).

Kha'Zix is one of my favorite champions. I think his kit is fair, rewarding, and fun to pull off right. I don't want to see him ruined by "fixing" what doesn't need to be fixed. Instead, I want to see him made MORE fun. I was just spitballing ideas here, so i'd love to hear from other K6 players what they'd like to see.

77 Comments

Cubíx6/29/2016, 6:14:51 PM10 votes

I love Kha'zix and I'm in the same boat as you, I would dread riot to touch him and make him less fun to play. I genuinely believe I would stop playing league if they made him less enjoyable. I like the Ideas you gave for the evolution's. One that I've thought of is for the W make it work some what like Quinn's, how it lower vision of the person hit, but make it to where only kha'zix can be seen by them and cause them to be isolated or something on that level.

NineTailedMystic6/30/2016, 12:19:29 AM8 votes

As someone who hates playing against Kha, I just feel he does insane non-isolated damage and it's not really clear if you're isolated or not. Does the tower count as an ally? How tiny are the minions range to count as non-isolation? It's just something you can't know until you actually play him, and I feel like that's not good design.

Akali is SO HOT6/30/2016, 1:20:44 AM3 votes

The problem is that his Q and E evolve are so good that the only reason you would ever choose to evolve W or R over them would be if they were horrendously overpowered. See Season 4 Khazix for example when Riot made his ult give him 50% damage reduction.

PsychedelicLemon10/19/2016, 7:41:51 PM2 votes

I've loved K6 since the beginning of my career, which happened to start around the time bard came out (I'm a relatively new player, in that regard). He was the first champion I've ever played, and the first assassin that I bought, disregarding Xerath, who is listed as one in his secondary. But I digress. Although he's just about figured out at this point, I dont see why it wouldn't be appropriate to give a suggestion as an experienced Kha' player, but also as a summoner in the lower percentile of play.

His Q and E shouldn't be touched, of course. That's agreeable to just about everyone here.

Sticking to the idea of spikes that literally propell from the shoulders of a bug, why not have the evolved form slow and deal damage based on max health as a DOT (Like Elise's Neurotoxin) and, instead of revealing them downright, leaves a 'scent' along the ground that splashes nearby entities and shows the direction they're headed in while the poison is in effect, much like an oracle lens. This will enable the 'zix to track down his targets, detect invisible champions, and reveal wards over the short duration (assuming that the blast will explode upon hitting max range).

For his ultimate in base form, I'd suggest a similar version of Akali's ult (which is rather unique, in terms of stealth). Instead of sending it to cooldown, have his active camouflage hold charges that restore over time and add addictional ones per kill.

Let the evolved form hold more charges, break CC (or just slows), and passively activate while he's in a brush (it's camo, after all), remaining for a second or two afterward so he can get the jump on his opponents.

Remix the K6

Crowe Stalker6/29/2016, 4:47:54 PM2 votes

I remember they nerfed Kha'zix's E Evolution a long time ago, taking out 100 range... and putting it in the base skill. That was a good change on their part and considering they also buffed him with the Q and W cooldown buffs I get the feeling they know what Kha'zix players want.

I don't main Kha'zix, let me say that right now. Hell, I'm not even Mastery 3 with him when I'm making this post, but I think he's a great Champion and I think buffing R is the way to go as well. That being said... I definitely saw a lot of him yesterday (like, four times in seven games) and that was BEFORE the Kindred Nerfs, so I'm thinking if he starts seeing some serious play, Riot's probably going to nerf his Q damage.

I agree with the R recharge on Kills/Assist, but the last time we had Damage Reduction on R it essentially became his go-to First Evolution skill (I still remember Meteos constantly going Red in the LCS, he was about the first person I have half a damn about back when I first started watching because he was fun to watch back then) I think they may rework W though, it's only satisfying on the Howling Abyss or for Waveclear, and the heal isn't really that useful unless you are dueling (yes, dueling, not Assassinating)

Auz the Ripper6/30/2016, 3:41:21 PM2 votes

One though I had was giving each skill 2 levels of evolution. The same number of evolution points but the ability to soup up one skill at the cost of only having 2 evolved skills. Of course some numbers would have to change.

Chaotic Reks6/29/2016, 4:22:39 PM2 votes

I would like it if evolved W allowed his W to proc his passive to isolated targets, or maybe if his heal was increased by the number of enemy units damaged by it.

RUNAAANS HYDRAA6/30/2016, 5:20:46 PM2 votes

I really like the idea of evolved W revealing stealthed units. It would be extremely valuable especially now that there is no option to upgrade trinket to Greater Vision Totem, and would be great late game once you have no item slots open to carry around pink wards. The idea of resets on ult stealth would be super cool! I ♥ Khazix

SiG DxD6/30/2016, 9:31:20 PM2 votes

R and W should be more appealing esp R ,rather than that its as impossible to teamfight vs stacked team as rengar. go in ,get fked

Σφuilibrium Ψ10/6/2016, 12:41:02 PM2 votes

Yes!! Exactly my thoughts! You literally even brought up a few of the solutions for his w and r that i had thought of the stealth reveal or move speed steal on w would be really nice imo

I also thought of maybe evolved w isolating targets for a few secs even though they aren't actually isolated (that might be op though and you would have to change evolved w into 1 and not 3 missiles) Evolved r could in addition permanently reduce the cds of your basic spells (q/w/e) by a certain amount (eg: -1 secs on q cd, -2 on w and -3 on e) (that way u can evolve q w r and still have a rather low cd on e) or it say something like "when k6 casts (evolved) r his next basic ability will have an additional effect - Q: your next q deals isolated dmg regardless of isolation or your next q heals you for 20% of dmg dealt etc W: Your next w has +300 range or increased slow or pierces through champions etc E: your next deals extra damage or your next e slows etc Those are just some ideas and the one or the other might be a bit op, but as stated in the original post it would really be a shame if they nerfed his q or his e

AcidTheWarlock8/11/2016, 7:30:28 PM2 votes

His R evolution is called Active Camouflage, so maybe make him the same color as his surroundings while he has Unseen Threat instead of extending the stealth and resetting it one more time.

Not actual stealth, but make him harder to see, so when he hits R, he gets actual stealth and renews his camouflage upon exiting stealth.

3tyson6/29/2016, 6:16:01 PM2 votes

oke i dont have the anserws here but when i first got introduce to kha i felt like hed be the kind of champ that levels abilitys based on who is on the enemy team or who is on his team

but hes basicly just evolve e than q than r or w

maybe it be cool if he could make decissions on his envolve for example his w could once evolved either do healing for him or griefiouse wounds

than some way of turning him into a teamfighter where he now does only isolated damage you could choose to get w evolved to get more teamfighting aoe damage this is nice but verry small

it be cool if kha could decite to either go full teamfighter full assassin or something in between depending on what he levels maybe an example would be to remove his e reset and than let him have the choise later either have a reset so he can be played like now ) or choose path 2 wich would (give him more dmg ) ??? idk something :P

ps im a bad kha player those where just a bit my nooby expectations when i got introduced to the champ and he turned out to be a bit different

OneExit6/29/2016, 9:33:02 PM2 votes

I totally agree with this post I love playing Kha'Zix for those moments when the fed ADC thinks that they're big enough to step out alone then POP GONE BYE-BYE GOODNIGHT, but it's fair in the fact that if they stay with their team then you're much less effective. I feel that W and R evos are not as strong choices as Q and E right now, but I feel that Q and E are balanced. Keep in mind I love playing Kha, but he isn't my main so this is somewhat objective.

TheOneThatMeows11/21/2016, 12:51:13 AM1 votes

With the new rework, what skills should i evolve first and which last?

Schàdenfreude6/30/2016, 1:09:39 AM1 votes

Yeah i totally agree. They should really make the evolutions on W and R more creative but leaving the Q and E untouched.

SkyblazeHydraX36/30/2016, 9:44:46 PM1 votes

Oddly enough, there's one change I really wanna see them make, and it's mostly for thematic cohesion than balance. You may not immediately notice, but Kha'Zix is the only void-origin champion without any sort of true damage in his kit. Honestly, I'd like to see them change his passive to true damage, and tune it accordingly. The AP scaling doesn't really do much for him anyhow, since no Kha'Zix feasibly builds any sort of AP.

EDIT: And I feel I should mention I'm saying this as a Kha main since Season 3, with over 100 games on him alone in ranked and a roughly 54% winrate.

griaa10/6/2016, 3:29:36 PM1 votes

make Kha'zix's leap invisible when he is using evolved R. so he can have a nice gap-closer against champions with a good disengage (like azir or tristana). if so, you must evolve R instead of E and so you can't double jump until level 16.
i'm just saying something, don't yell at me xD

comanderpig10/19/2016, 3:46:36 PM1 votes

Feeling u but what is dumn is that they dont listen today i got 5 people said im a hacker with k6 but truth is if Lucian goes solo top and he is level below i can izi kill him and what rito whants is to not be able to do that because yes why not solve bitchin from some people is to take fun from others i personally think that kha zix shoud get buff cuz i can get 1 shot true my ult by jinx who is 1 lv under me and she can 1 shot me while im chasing her invisible (maybe become invincible while he is ulted)and ofc i need to say that the biggest bullshit i have seen is that i jump away from katarina and she kills me mid jump(mid air)that need fixing and i also agree that I would stop playing league if k6 got nerf cuz i only play him bought him 2 days ago and i am lv 5 and intend to play him forever so plz Riot dont ruin my game

Kaioko10/19/2016, 10:38:20 PM1 votes

Kha is going to get the warwick treatment anyways when the new assassin items come out. He'll be just as viable as warwick after feral flare changes.

Night Predator10/24/2016, 3:21:49 PM1 votes

Im a relatively new player to k6 and i dont want "fixing" to ruin all the fun ive been having.i used to main zed but found out k6 is more fun so now im kind of maining him.i want his evolutions to be more powerful dats all. ALL PRAISE Khazix

the weeaboo10/24/2016, 3:27:41 PM1 votes

W Upgrade: Shoots in a narrower cone in front of him and behind him. Then you could have some defensive option to turn to if you fall behind.

R Upgrade: Can auto once during each stealth for a current health true damage bonus.

Primaquarius10/24/2016, 4:47:24 PM1 votes

I think W evo should have a single-target projectile that heals based on damage dealt