@Gameplay & Balance players, I need your response. Let's Talk About Kha'zix.

Darkomantis·2/21/2016, 3:22:01 PM·6 votes·830 views

With Patch 6.3, Duskblade made its debut as a AD Deathfire Grasp/Death Mark item for assassins. Riot was aiming for this item to be a major item for Kha'zix, however he unexpectedly dropped from a 48% winrate to 45% winrate with the release of Duskblade while other assassins saw little difference in winrates. While lots of people have said that Kha'zix is in a good condition, his low winrate could possibly show that he needs more help besides QoL buffs. However, to properly gauge Kha'zix, it would help to know what players feel about him than just a "He is fine" or "He is bad". If you have the spare time, could you please respond to the points I have below?

1.) What excites or satisfies you when playing Kha'zix? 2.) What frustrates you when playing Kha'zix? 3.) What is he overdoing, and what is he missing? 4.) What do you want to build on Kha'zix(or not like building)? 5.) In your mind, does Kha'zix currently fill the "evolve" type of champion?

If I get a good number of responses, I can manually collect the data gained and put it into a thread with the results so that a Rioter can see.

12 Comments

Definitely Bait2/21/2016, 4:50:31 PM4 votes
  1. Being a buggy eldritch abomination that wishes to devourer everything and evolves to be better at doing so.

  2. Dependency on isolation and resets. When he doesn't get a reset or is fighting someone by a minion wave he just feels weak and overly squishy. Team fighting just feels horrible. Kha'zix is purely for cleanup / picking off mispositioned targets.

  3. His isolation damage is too extreme when he does get a chance to use it and is ahead. He is overly fragile and doesn't really offer thing during teamfights unless targets severely misposition and open themselves to being picked off by the insane isolation damage + jump resets.

  4. What I'd love to build on Kha'zix is something like item 1400item 3071 item 3158 item 3074 item 3156 item 3072. He'd be funner with the option to place more of a emphasis on his fighter secondary (Lower burst, better dueling / survival). At the same time I'd like kha'zix to still be able to go pure assassin style with something like item 3142 item 3147 item 3111 item 3074 item 3156 item 3153.

  5. Appearance wise yes. Actual ability wise not so much. The evolutions merely give a straight buff to what is already there instead of adding new mechanics + expanding his gameplay. It should be just as valid to Evolve W -> E -> R as it is to evolve Q -> E -> W and should drastically change his strengths & weaknesses depending on the player's evolution path. Evolutions should dictate whether he is a pure assassin, a gorilla fighter, or a middle ground. Evolving Q + W should focus on being more of a fighter ( Sustained dueling / team fighting / less fragile) . Going E + R should focus on his assassination (Isolation / Burst / picking off squishies / Very fragile).

I loved Kha'zix for a long time and he was probably the first champion I saw a lot of success on in the jungle. There are just many other champions that are stronger and easier to succeed with currently. So, I don't use him much anymore.

Matsoman2/21/2016, 6:35:15 PM3 votes
  1. When I get an isolated Q and see the health bars disappear.

  2. When I get kited/peeled to shit and I become completely useless, or when they have 3+ tanks.

  3. I think the isolation element is overdone, and unless they have no wards, or the adc is bad, kha literally does 0 dmg with his abilities. Not enough damage outside of isolation.

  4. I like building item 3071 or item 3142 as an early rush and just go whatever depending on who they have, I haven't tried item 3147 yet however. The jungle item I go is usually item 1412

  5. I think he still needs more diversity in his evolutions to be that type of champion, as evolving W or R first or second is rarely ever seen, and isn't very good in general. I think a good example of and evolve type champion would be Viktor.

Cho Eats2/21/2016, 7:28:42 PM2 votes

All I rly have to say is that he is too dependant on steam rolling. I've had too many games where I'll get 3 or 4 assists in the first 5 minutes and still be way too squishy too do anything because I'm blown up instantly, just needs more base defense.

Variks the Loyal2/21/2016, 7:32:29 PM2 votes

1.) The same thing as Rengar, but different - Instead of playing a Predator, I'm playing an Alien. More than that, he's one of the more satisfying Assassin's to play, because his kit is so deceptively simple (Compared to someone like Fizz or Zed), but at the same time has a lot of outplay potential and little kinks to play with, like using your ult right as someone walks into and out of a bush to juke them, or ulting through someone during a duel, etc.

2.) I actually had a really, really good Kha'Zix game the other day, and what frustrated me was, late game, my Q wasn't doing the job it should have. It took half of the Kalista's HP, and we didn't have a tank. I was fed that game, and I was pretty much always zoned to the sidelines. Perhaps this is true, and should be true, of all Assassins, but without another target for them to focus on, I was much less effective. Typical things like isolation radius and such didn't bother me. Another thing that did, though, was his passive, which I actually found really difficult to proc when trying to Assassinate, but again, may have just been because I was facing a Kalista.

3.) I don't feel like he's overdoing anything. If anything, though, it would probably be unhelpful utility. Evolved Void Spikes reveals a foe? Great? It's never been very helpful. It's so unhelpful, in fact, I feel as if I'd rather take evolved R than evolved W. I feel like, with unhelpful utility like that, that Riot may add more unhelpful utility to cement him as the 'utility Assassin' (Which I think he should be). I think he's missing selfish utility. He has it in some places - Increased range on evolved Q and resets on Leap, for example. But there isn't enough in his other evolutions. Evolving his skills is hardly a choice beyond the first one (Which is a toss up between Q and E). He needs more selfish utility to cement him as the utility Assassin who can evolve to fit any circumstance.

4.) I love Armor Penetration Assassins. Much, much more than AP Assassins or crit based ones like Critgar. I'm not sure why. So, I like building ArP items on Kha'Zix. I actually like Duskblade on him a lot, and I can pinpoint moments when I don't have it where I wish I did - Maybe I built Maw selfishly, when the extra damage from Duskblade would have secured a kill for me.

5.) Thematically, yes. The way his evolutions are implemented is fantastic. But functionally, no, because their's no choice in his evolutions. It's always either Q or E first, whichever one you didn't choose, second, and then W. No one considers R anymore. Certain evolutions are mandatory and the others are more obligatory because they help a little, but not enough for them to be noticeable. It makes him less of "Evolve to meet any situation", and more of, "Reach your evolutions and late game as soon as possible for bonuses."

Papa Slothy2/22/2016, 2:29:47 AM1 votes

I think his win rate just dropped because more people picked him up thinking "prob pretty good w duskblade"

he could use a few buffs though

WoonStruck2/22/2016, 4:36:56 AM1 votes

Although I like how he functions mechanically, I don't believe he can be a healthy AND consistent part of the game with his current kit.

He needs a small scale rework, then he could be something excellent.