R&D (Research and Disintegration): A Vel'Koz rework proposition

Tried to get this to Riot more directly, but there seems to be no option for PMs on this board. So, oh well, tossing it out into the wild, then. Hopefully Statikk or whoever sees it.

As a Vel'Koz main, I've given a lot of thought to what I would change about him, especially now that you've mentioned he's part of the Immobile Mage Rework. I love his image and identity, Lifeform Disintegration Ray is super satisfying, I like that his abilities are a bit odd, I like that he does decent damage and can kite and so on and so forth. But you're right when you say he doesn't have a clear purpose to be taken on a team over any other mage with a similar kit. And I thought about what he seemed to be lacking, or not quite a right fit. And, while Void Rift is pretty generic and so forth, I think you can actually make it less dull by changing the part of his kit which I think isn't bad, but could use some more identity: his passive. I loved the idea of a Void biologist, a researcher learning more about these strange creatures by systematically disintegrating them. And while Organic Deconstruction kind of delivers on that and is also effective, I think it could be more unique. So how about this?: (these are descriptions for design; the tooltips obviously won't be such a mess)

Organic Deconstruction (passive) (keeping the name for clarity's sake) Vel'Koz's abilities that land on enemy champions give them a permanent stack (or several, depending on his level) of Organic Deconstruction. For each stack, a percentage of his damage on them is True damage instead of Magic or Physical (not capping at 100%, allowing them to do additional damage if he stacks that far, and counting for his autoattacks as well). Additionally, when Vel'Koz's abilities strike a champion with at least X stacks, they gain an additional effect:

-Plasma Fission - If the primary shot lands on an enemy champion with at least X stacks, it fires a secondary shot out at 180 degrees behind the target also, rather than just the 90 degree split. If a secondary shot strikes a champion with at least X stacks, it splits again into two more secondary shots at 90 degree angles, as before. This can chain.

-Void Rift - If Void Rift damages an enemy champion with at least X stacks, another Rift fires out at a 90 degree angle to the original at the point of impact with the champion. This can result in multiple 'side rifts' if more than one champion with sufficient stacks is hit. These rifts do not produce a secondary detonation like the original spell, only a single instance of damage, though someone standing in a rift for both the initial damage and the detonation will produce two secondary rifts. This can chain.

-Tectonic Disruption - If Tectonic Disruption damages an enemy champion with at least X stacks, a secondary Disruption fires a moment later in a concentric ring around the initial blast (in the same way as Nautilus' slow). Note that if the initial victim is close enough to be knocked back instead of just knocked up, this can cause them to be hit by the secondary Disruption as well. Secondary Disruptions do not further trigger more.

-Lifeform Disintegration Ray - No further effect in the same way as the others. However, the damage and slow applied scales up significantly with the number of stacks the victim has, as well as applying a stack every half second.

Hopefully it's clear what I meant by this, as the description was tough to pin down without diagrams. Basically, it makes enemies more and more vulnerable to his abilities the more he 'researches' them, and after a point he makes them a liability to their allies, turning the battlefield into a crisscrossing web of things to dodge to avoid both damage and stacks of your own. It keeps him as an applier of True Damage, but only as he gets to know the opponent. More nimble enemies can easily dodge his abilities, but they also tend to have little magic resistance. True Damage is more useful against tanks, and fortunately tanks aren't very dodgey and tend to be big, easy to hit targets. It would start with 1 spell hit = 1 stack, but as he leveled it would increase to 2 or 3 stacks per hit; this would give him time to research his lane opponent since he'll be with him a lot, but would let him catch up on new faces once group fights start, while still encouraging him to roam when possible to get a head start with researching new enemies. To be clear, 1 stack isn't necessarily 1% True Damage, you'd obviously need to tweak the numbers. Enemies with enough stacks to empower spell hits against them would be a detriment to their team, needing to stay back lest they keep bouncing hits to the rest of their team, which allows Vel'Koz to 'learn about' whoever they put in front as teams face off, and solidifying his place as a poking, probing mage systematically learning how best to dissect the enemy; engage fast and decisively or else the situation gets steadily worse for you as your team acquires stacks. It would also draw him a bit away from his current identity as an early- and mid-game bursty mage with odd pacing, as Thunderlord's + his Thunderlord's-ish passive kind of put him there, and really if you want bursty mage there's Annie, Ryze, Brand, LeBlanc...plenty of others. And it helps with the "he mostly just W's down the middle of the lane to clear minion waves, that's very plain" issue; do you use your W ammo to efficiently hit all 6 minions and clear them up, or do you angle it to try to hit the enemy champion as well to try to build stacks? Morgana hits you with a skillshot, you probably are immediately screwed, but just once and she only gets stronger in that she got gold for it. Cassiopeia hits you with an ability, and she gets stronger for it personally and against everyone. Vel'Koz hits you with an ability, he gets stronger for it, but only against you specifically; until, of course, he hits you with enough of them that your team starts to become hampered by the mere fact that you're around. A visual indicator for any 'sufficiently researched' enemy for Vel'Koz, maybe an eye following them or something, for clarity's sake. Though perhaps not let it be seen by the enemy team; I could see either way working out, perhaps even finding a way to have an enemy's stacks visible to Vel'Koz but no one else. The only real problem I see is that his spells won't stack 3-hit-passive stacks against minions and monsters like before, so he'll do less damage against non-champions, but perhaps just let his abilities do some extra True damage against them or something; I'm sure you can work it out. Also, I'm not quite sure how your math for magic resist works, so I don't know if his 'more of his damage is True' thing does much of anything against people who aren't building MR, so it could instead add a scaling amount of True damage in addition to the damage of his abilities. But like I said, wasn't sure on the numbers on this; you get the idea, more stacks = more damaging, or at least more efficient damaging.