The Truth About Veigar Changes From a Plat Veigar Main
Q - Now a skillshot, can hit two targets. Increased cooldown at max level. W - Cheaper to cast E - .75 second cast time, warning indicator thing added R - scaling with AP changed from 1.2 to 1.0, increased cooldown at max level, cost less mana at max level
The rest of the changes are basically irrelevant.
Veigar is a niche pick that isn't really viable, because he has no mobility in a mobile metagame, but is strong enough to be played in high-elo solo queue on a regular basis.
Why is he viable? Because he has a fucking AOE stun with an enormous range. Not because of his burst, just because of the massive utility that stun offers. It makes his lane very easy to gank and get kills from, it can serve as a way to initiate teamfights, and it can serve to stun multiple members of the enemy team at crucial times.
If you're going to nerf any part of Veigar, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't nerf the fucking stun. That's the entire point of Veigar. It's his whole strength. No other champion has such a ridiculously strong CC. It already gets countered hard by Mercury Treads.
There are a lot of matchups where, as Veigar, your only hope to win trades is to land E + W + Q and get out. Matchups like Leblanc and Zed. If they have any chance to respond to you, you just die. If you can stun them though, you can get poke off and get out of range before they can respond, and then try to one-shot them the next time your stun is up. The stun is hard enough to land already. Now you're gonna increase the cast time and give a warning indicator, and say you don't want Veigar to even be able to fucking stun? Just to fucking trap them in a cage? Are you aware of a summoner spell called flash? Are you aware that Veigar is probably the squishiest fucking champion in the game?
"Instead of blowing up a prone target, Veigar traps his prey in a chamber of horrors and shoots Baleful Strikes at them and drops Dark Matters where they have limited space to dodge."
No. As Veigar, if you miss stun against an assassin, you just die. Period. You can't even get in range to cast R, you'll die first. By the time you get in range to cast R, Leblanc has already used her combo on you, Zed has already ulted you, Kass has already used Q, got a shield, and you have lost the trade. If Veigar loses the ability to use E as a long range mostly consistent stun, then he's completely gone as a champion. Completely fucking gone.
As Veigar, you don't have the choice to try to build tanky or resistance against these matchups. If you build a single defensive item it's so painful on your burst, it's not even funny. There is so much opportunity cost to building even a mana item on Veigar, you can't do that. At best you can get two doran rings. Veigar HAS to have the ability to stun first. In a 1v1 duel, Veigar always has the opportunity to make the first move with the range of E, and he HAS to have that ability, because it's the only thing making him viable. If he can't make the first move in a fight, he just dies. That's the way he is. Period.
And WTF are these Q changes? Veigar lategame is shit, because the enemy team just buys banshee's and you lose. Veigar is a snowball midgame champion. He snowballs hard enough. You don't need to make CSing harder by trying to make the Veigar player get two minions with Q, that's retarded. In a ton of matchups it isn't even correct to try and farm with Q. It's about using Q as a harassing tool so you don't get bullied out of fucking lane. So you actually have some ability to trade in the early levels.
What you're telling me is this: If there's a minion wave between me and my enemy, I can't use combo on them? What? Are you joking? So now we just have this stupid movement game, where you're chasing each other around the minion wave? Haven't I told you already that if Veigar can't make the first move he just dies?
Not to mention the fact that you just never fucking land W except when the opponent is stunned. If they can't get stunned by E, W basically doesn't exist anymore. It's not hard at all to dodge. Nobody is trying to escape Veigar when they're trapped in their E, they're just trying to jump on him. Lots of times in lane, if you want to go in, and miss E, you just have to back out. You can't miss E and then charge at them, even if they couldn't run away, because YOU JUST DIE.
Sigh...
My only hope is that somehow it's still possible to land E as a stun consistently. There's already a cast time on it. Not sure what it is, but it isn't .75 seconds. If that isn't removed Veigar still has a chance. Sort of.
Tl;dr:
Veigar's E is the last thing in his kit that needs to be changed. It's his strength and the only reason he's viable.
Q changes make no sense. Great, you can farm more AP - so what? Lots of matchups are about poking, not farming, and a little extra AP lategame makes no difference. Also means you can't combo through a minion wave.
WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?
My proposed changes to Veigar:
- You can't make Q a skillshot. It introduces too many problems. If you want him to get more AP, just make it have a 1/3 chance to give double AP or something.
- Instead of adding cast time to E, remove the cast time completely. This spell defines Veigar.
- If you really want to compensate for the above buffs, then just change the ult ratio back to 1.0 and leave it. It used to be 1.0 back in season 2 and Veigar was fine.
Or, if you insist on destroying his E:
- Make Veigar tankier. Period. There's no other solution to fix his matchups. Give him a lot more health and MR, whatever it takes to give him a chance to win trades.
- Significantly reduce fall time on W (Or just the size of the AOE). If you leave the E changes, W becomes a completely worthless spell, except for wave clear. Needs fixes.
The end.
Has RIOT ever said once in their life, "Hey, people like the game the way it is. Maybe we should just leave it."
There is nothing wrong with Veigar... why on earth are they trying to change him? He's the perfect champion. He's not picked a ton, he's not OP at all, but he's viable and fun, and has some awesome mechanics. So why are we even making changes?
If the only reason for the changes is the DFG nerfs, why not just add damage onto his Q or ult and call it a day? Why do you have to mess with a perfectly fine champion? Why do you have to ruin what we all have loved and cherished for so long?
Riot, I kept playing after you continually nerfed DFG throughout season 2 and 3. I'm fine, even, with you removing DFG and compensating Veigar not at all. Frankly, he's still viable. But this is NOT compensation, these are nerfs, and they make no sense. If these changes go through, then fuck it. I'm quitting League. I'm tired of all this bullshit. You've gone too far, Riot.
/end of rant
