@Riot, with Kassadin sitting at a 42.04% win rate...

I GANK LANES·Jul 14, 2015·40 votes·3,118 views

Are you guys content with how you left him? Out of the majority of the mid laners he has the worst stats. His base stats are laughable, his scaling is mediocre, his ult doesn't even do damage anymore. Is there any word on any plans for him or is he just gonna stay like this? I understand how he an get of out hand easily with his ult but I feel like after nerfing that repeatedly can't you get his basic abilities some love?

I was thinking increasing the damage on all of them, and no that's not over the top, they're LOW. Increase the scaling on his shield and let the shield block ALL damage. (Viktor?) Let Kassadin's abilities proc his e charge twice, even as an anti-mage he loses trades due to the fact that it's rarely up for them. You have to use it when it's up a lot to push the wave due to the lack of wave clear.

Now the problem with Kassadin was his ult, right? I've seen it time and time again. A champ has a problem, Riot nerfs other things about the champ, then finally nerfs the problem, and leaves the rest of the kit trash and nerfed into the ground. This I feel is exactly what happened to Kassadin.

What do you guys think?

55 Comments

UltraSceptileJul 14, 201516 votes

I think kassadin does less damage than a support name until he gets like 3 items. He's a fun champ to play, but just takes too long to actually scale into something decent. It's pitiful.

RetillinJul 14, 20158 votes

He can't be balanced. He is a high damage champion built around high mobility. They have tried to gate him (mana costs/bad early game), they have tried to nerf his numbers, but at the end of the day the high mobility plus high damage is not something Riot seems to be able to balance. (Personally it's because I don't think Riot forces champions to pay enough for mobility) They will do everything in their power to protect his "identity" (ult jumps) by hitting his other numbers. It's just what they do.

Earl EulrichJul 14, 20154 votes

he would be easily balancable if they´make him melee-dps instead of burst-impact - that way his mobility wouldnßt matter as much, as he really would have to stay in range for a prolonged time to really have an impact, he could even get his silence back if the condition is to apply some hits before it proccs - as that still would offer counterplay options to his opponents. But alas, they did stick to his "appear out of nothing -> unload the whole kit within 0,5sec and disappear again"-pattern, so they had to utterly gut the numbers to have it not destroy the game.

RetillinJul 14, 20151 votes

Yeah, they tried to maintain his high damage and his high mobility.

ZalinthelJul 14, 20155 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Eulrich,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=G4G56BEA,comment-id=00020000,timestamp=2015-07-14T14:33:58.770+0000)

he would be easily balancable if they´make him melee-dps instead of burst-impact - that way his mobility wouldnßt matter as much, as he really would have to stay in range for a prolonged time to really have an impact, he could even get his silence back if the condition is to apply some hits before it proccs - as that still would offer counterplay options to his opponents. But alas, they did stick to his "appear out of nothing -> unload the whole kit within 0,5sec and disappear again"-pattern, so they had to utterly gut the numbers to have it not destroy the game.

Essentially this. His kit was originally designed around a melee-DPS mentality, and it shows. As long as they continue to center him around his current front-loaded burst play style he won't ever be healthy. His mobility and utility should be there to back up DPS and help him survive rather than annihilate targets instantly.

TusutakiJul 14, 20151 votes

{quoted}

He can't be balanced. He is a high damage champion built around high mobility. They have tried to gate him (mana costs/bad early game), they have tried to nerf his numbers, but at the end of the day the high mobility plus high damage is not something Riot seems to be able to balance. (Personally it's because I don't think Riot forces champions to pay enough for mobility) They will do everything in their power to protect his "identity" (ult jumps) by hitting his other numbers. It's just what they do.

Currently, he is at a healthy spot as far as dealing damage. However in ever other field he is lacking. With a shield that absolutely fails in comparison with Morgana and lack of tools to actually deal with mages, he is currently considered as one of the weakest champions to play. Why call him an antimage when he doesnt have a antimage tool?

All they need to do is slightly buff his shield ratio and duration and add his silence back. Not to his Q though, but to his W. A 1 second melee range silence should help him out greatly. It wouldnt be like prenerf Talon where there's literally no counterplay against a point and click blink silence, but something that you can actually play around.

BeoridasJul 14, 20154 votes

healthy spot. sure if you like him being shitty because you want to play your squish champs with no risks involved. his dmg is highly subpar compared to ANY champ in the game in the same category.

MohawkBirdJul 14, 20156 votes

[deleted]

LittleBlastJul 14, 20151 votes

Riven can only get over walls with her 3rd q though, and she generally has to choose Dmg or Mobility. Kass didnt.

Spicy RiceJul 14, 20154 votes

Nidalee

BeoridasJul 14, 20152 votes

Thats frankly untrue. What people dont understand tho is that the eco system of league has drastrically changed and is very very sensitive compared to lets say s1-s2.

For instance: Kassadin has usually bad match ups across the board, but he was a good pick versus Kat and lb. Kassadin silence was removed; so kat and lb's win rate spiked. (LB having actually the same dmg pattern and almost identical mobility than him, just a LOT more dmg all game long) Now, funny enough, kassadin was so bad but still won some games cause of these match ups that--when they nerfed leblanc his win rate actually dropped because the play rate of leblanc dropped hence people would go to better mid champs! The irony.

Mobility isnt something that you cant balance. Usually mobility means less abilities to do dmg with: a trade off, a counterplay etc...

Kassadin paid in all of the above. (he was the guy who paid the most for his ult than any other champ)

The issue is that perception and actual strength (speculation) is very different and Riot refused at first to change him: but the perception was so intense on him to get gutted that they finally did it.

Back in season 2/3: He was all right. You know what Riot did?

-Nerfed all the picks that challenged him AND that he countered himself. -Changed the meta around bruisers, poke and adcs. (means assassins are no longer relevant, leaving him the only alternative) -Removed Force of Nature. THEN

-athenes nerfs -MR items change

There you go, uve got OP champ!

Wanna know something that would make him alright even tho you would give him back the stuff he had before? (base dmg, scaling and silence, dmg on ult) YES I STILL THINK HE SHOULD GET SILENCE.

-Raise warmog back to 1k. (tho before it could go up to 1.2k if im not mistaken (scaling item)) -buff Athenes MR. -add tenacity items -add D.O.T Item other than liandries.

BOOM bingo.

Kassadin was living in a world in which he had his place, and many could fight him, catch him even. Riot just created a world in which he had no place in cause Riot didnt want that sort of design to be alive.

in the meantime: Ahri Akali Fizz Hecarim Leblanc Nidalee RekSai Udyr Yasuo has their places and are all SORT of balanced. imo. (special mention to Riven

but without the proper settings, the proper items existing and thriving, a proper meta. he cant be good and live since Riot has no plans for HIM specifically. Even tho, as hypocritical it sounds, the others can.

I used to love Kha (mid air W), Olaf, Old ryze, old kass.

and now look. werent op, until Riot changed the rules.

Harrys Nut ShackJul 15, 20152 votes

This. He's the most mobile champion in the game and he's next to impossible to gank past level 6. Generally, if you have enough CC to stun him before he can riftwalk away, you won't have enough damage to kill him before the CC ends.

Zair UmbrasJul 15, 20156 votes

Honestly, Kass just needs his Thematic actually played into. He's always been the anti-mage, a Mage Killer. The thing is, they removed his Mage Killing tool, his Silence, but kept his Tankiness. He's more or less the 'Ignore The Mage Because We're Immune To Magic' champion rather than Mage Killing. Galio and Beigar are the other two Anti-Mages. Veigar is a Mage, Galio is a Tank, Kassadin is an Assassin. Out of all of them, Kassadin is the only one who DOESN'T do additional damage for being an anti-mage. Veigar's R does more based on his opponent's AP and Galio gets Damage for building MR. Kassadin is just the 'I don't take damage from you because screw you.'

We need something to make Kassadin fit the Mage Killer theme again. He's SUPPOSED to be countered by AD, but in reality, he does about the same against magic damage champs as he does against most AD champs. Maybe give him some damage based on some one's AP or have him pierce MR or give him bonus damage for something mage related about his opponent so he's actually a mage killer, not a Mage Ignorer.

canpan14Jul 14, 20155 votes

His base stats are around the middle. Some high (mana) and some low (health).

His ult does do damage. His scaling isn't mediocre (he can build tanky like ryze and still rip your face off). He is just more challenging to play now and doesn't reward sloppy play/mistakes early. I agree he is a bit weak now but he has been pick/ban almost the whole time s1-s4. Let him take a break on the bench for a bit.

Spicy RiceJul 14, 20151 votes

The problem is that at the current time, his break is less on the bench, an more in the ICU

BeoridasJul 15, 20151 votes

i will slightly disagree here.

his base stats are mathematically the very absolute worst for dmging abilities across all mages and anti mages/assassins. supports have better bases. His scaling is not so bad. far from being the best. (very far)

More challenging is an understatement. i could say that to every nerfed or olafed champs. they literally gutted butt fucked him. Because of their own balance designs.

He wasnt actually a must pick ban s1 to s4.

its s3 that reaaaaally screwd him over with ALL the changes that super benefited specially him. I liked having a force of nature, AP/MR items, 1.2k warmog (after farming) and strong assassins. when they removed all that....what was supposed to happen? hes been perma banned all s3. s4, he was weak, but playable. picked in pro plays but wasnt anything special. Just a safe pick. Which pros values above all else. not because he was that powerful..

so its pretty much s3 only.

TusutakiJul 14, 20155 votes

In my opinion, they should just buff his defensiveness. The nerf to his magic shield basically makes him null and void. For a shield that only blocks magic damage it sure has extremely short duration and low strength. Kinda defeats the purpose of making him an antimage when he can hardly has the proper tools to handle mages himself. It kinda feels like Morgana is the better antimage than Kassadin.

BeoridasJul 15, 20151 votes

frankly his issues is his offensiveness more than anything. He is trash compared to everyone who does his job. Kassadin however is currently unemployed. His defensiveness has been nerfed aswell thats been true.

WutsKrakenJul 14, 20154 votes

I agree, turning his entire kit trash before nerfing the one thing that ACTUALLY made him strong was just stupid

I'm flamed to death for picking Kassadin now, and even when I play him I'm just like "PLEASE enemy bot lane overextend, I need to last hit 2 people to get my items"

He's got some of the lowest base damages in the game, and for some dumb reason decided that taking away his scaling MR was a good idea

BeoridasJul 15, 20151 votes

ITs because at first. Riot didnt want to gut him. so they added some weaknesses bit by bit.

starting with his scaling MR.

I always thought the point of a passive is to get a benefit from it. instead of paying for it somewhere else :/

WutsKrakenJul 15, 20152 votes

Maybe, but then he didn't get any compensation after his kit got slowly gutted

Quite frankly, as much as I hated it, the first proposed incarnation of Kassadin's rework was the best thematically

Passive: Same as old passive. That means taking magic damage increased his attack speed Q: No shield, still silenced, Base damage down to 200 at max, .5 AP ratio W: Same as now, but autoattacks had .4 AP ratio instead, base damage increased to 80 at max, and active added 200 base damage and .8 Ratio. Therefore making his W very powerful with a 1.6 AP ratio if used as an AA reset and high base damage E: Like Q, 200 base damage at max, .6 AP ratio R: Basically same as ult before gutting the range. Mana scaling and stuff

Quite frankly, this was just fine to me. His W as truly a powerhouse and he felt like a REAL anti-mage like he was originally designed to be. Still able to destroy any mage with his high risk high reward passive and also he had to take the risk of getting up close and personal for assassinations, but it was very rewarding

Now why did it get scrapped? People were like "HOLY SHT THAT W IS OP!!!!!!!!!"

Hard4HamstersJul 14, 20154 votes

Give him MR/lvl again. Boom. Instant 45% winrate.

LuggJul 15, 20154 votes

I think Kass is at a point where they could give him his silence back. That would help him immensely.

I GANK LANESJul 15, 20154 votes

I'd rather have his bases and scalings then his silence back

KirbyCakeJul 14, 20153 votes

"but win rates mean nothing" - retards who haven't taken any kind of statistics course

TaredomJul 15, 20151 votes

{quoted}

"but win rates mean nothing" - retards who haven't taken any kind of statistics course

Down voted for the insanely poor choice in words. Win rates mean little, but they do mean something, in a case like this however, it speaks volumes that he has such an abysmal win rate.

You should really consider cleaning up your language a little, throwing that word around has a tendency to piss a lot of people off.

KirbyCakeJul 15, 20155 votes

{quoted}

Down voted for the insanely poor choice in words. Win rates mean little, but they do mean something, in a case like this however, it speaks volumes that he has such an abysmal win rate.

You should really consider cleaning up your language a little, throwing that word around has a tendency to piss a lot of people off.

If win rates means so little, why is elo system based purely on winning and losing? The fact is that win rate is the final result of everything combined. It is the UMVUE if you even know what that means. There is no such thing that win rate matters in this specific case but doesn't matter in other cases. I find it hilarious that people with no understanding of probability talk about elo system.

TaredomJul 15, 20151 votes

{quoted}

If win rates means so little, why is elo system based purely on winning and losing? The fact is that win rate is the final result of everything combined. It is the UMVUE if you even know what that means. There is no such thing that win rate matters in this specific case but doesn't matter in other cases. I find it hilarious that people with no understanding of probability talk about elo system.

What I meant by my statement is that when a champ is like 54% winrate plus, they may wanna be looked at, of course if they're 46% as well, this applies, in Kass case, something needs to be done. I'm sorry that I didn't clarify.

SmokinSickStyleJul 14, 20153 votes

Kass' mobility became a joke after the stack counter needs so much time to wear off, and the mana cost increased drastically, on top of that, his ult had 80% AP ratio, that was the highest damaging ability in his kit, many people used it for mobility, but a fed Kass jumping "into" you was also part of his burst.

Honestly?

I fear more a Leblanc with blue, SHE'S much harder to catch due to 907 ways to naturally juke the enemy without even trying to and she makes lifebars disappear for real, as a true assassin should.

They didn't want to rework him because it could change his identity, but right now he has an existential crisis instead.

It's amazing that i get fed and can't take out the enemy support that won botlane, just because you don't deal any burst until you get 4 damage items.

That's laughable.

Anti mage my ass, his base stats for a melee are the worst and until he reaches 6 he gets shit on by many mages with long range, they removed his mr\lvl but still has the passive, a nonsense change since the difference is "void", just like when champs have a gimped stat because they naturally gain it (Sion had laughable hp\lvl just because he could farm it up, before the advent of cinderhulk and EXTREME buffs to his HP gain, you basically had to farm alot to just get the average HP for a bruiser\tank).

I don't get that, they make fixes to something they intentionally broke, for no reason at all, and now the difference between fighting an AD mid or AP is so small, not only by base stats, also gameplay wise.

Changes are easy, it's just that Riot's balance team is full of silly monkeys, "silence too oppressive because it countered all casters instead of AP caster mages only? Easy, make it that the silence procs only if their % AP is higher than their AD, this way, early in the game, mages can exploit Kass' weak early as usual since their AP won't be higher than their AD until they actually buy some, and AD casters will continue to crap on him because they don't buy any AP.

They say you can't be sad and happy at the same time, then i heard Kass saying "SILENCE" i laughed because he no more has one but still says that line (Talk about identity, Silence was core of him, yet....) but felt sad because he no more has one...

At this point i'd rather have a rework if Riot can't balance him, or hire a new team of competent players such as ex professionals.

Cenobite AzazielJul 15, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Kass' mobility became a joke after the stack counter needs so much time to wear off, and the mana cost increased drastically, on top of that, his ult had 80% AP ratio, that was the highest damaging ability in his kit, many people used it for mobility, but a fed Kass jumping "into" you was also part of his burst.

Honestly?

I fear more a with blue, SHE'S much harder to catch due to 907 ways to naturally juke the enemy without even trying to and she makes lifebars disappear for real, as a true assassin should.

They didn't want to rework him because it could change his identity, but right now he has an existential crisis instead.

It's amazing that i get fed and can't take out the enemy support that won botlane, just because you don't deal any burst until you get 4 damage items.

That's laughable.

Anti mage my ass, his base stats for a melee are the worst and until he reaches 6 he gets shit on by many mages with long range, they removed his mr\lvl but still has the passive, a nonsense change since the difference is "void", just like when champs have a gimped stat because they naturally gain it (Sion had laughable hp\lvl just because he could farm it up, before the advent of cinderhulk and EXTREME buffs to his HP gain, you basically had to farm alot to just get the average HP for a bruiser\tank).

I don't get that, they make fixes to something they intentionally broke, for no reason at all, and now the difference between fighting an AD mid or AP is so small, not only by base stats, also gameplay wise.

Changes are easy, it's just that Riot's balance team is full of silly monkeys, "silence too oppressive because it countered all casters instead of AP caster mages only? Easy, make it that the silence procs only if their % AP is higher than their AD, this way, early in the game, mages can exploit Kass' weak early as usual since their AP won't be higher than their AD until they actually buy some, and AD casters will continue to crap on him because they don't buy any AP.

They say you can't be sad and happy at the same time, then i heard Kass saying "SILENCE" i laughed because he no more has one but still says that line (Talk about identity, Silence was core of him, yet....) but felt sad because he no more has one...

At this point i'd rather have a rework if Riot can't balance him, or hire a new team of competent players such as ex professionals.

Rework him? Never. I guess they used all the cool mechanics on echo. Echo dash+blink would be a perfect ult for kassadin. With a lower cooldown.

NarogJul 14, 20153 votes

riot rather see Kassidin die than admit they were wrong in the balance change .

Soda PopkillskiJul 14, 20153 votes

It says something when a dedicated anti-game assassin gets 1v1ed by a mage.

Gregor GysiJul 14, 20152 votes

As someone who likes to play kassadin: leave him the faq alone. Yes, he could use maybe slightly more base dmg on his Q. But still, just don't. I want to play him, so don't buff him to 100% banrate again.

BeoridasJul 15, 20151 votes

he wont ever be that tbh. the meta IMMENSIVELY CHANGED since s2. The items are different and the Ekko system changed. There is FAR more problematic champions and he is heavily countered across the board. him being good wont make him perma banned.

Gregor GysiJul 15, 20151 votes

{quoted}

he wont ever be that tbh. the meta IMMENSIVELY CHANGED since s2. The items are different and the system changed. There is FAR more problematic champions and he is heavily countered across the board. him being good wont make him perma banned.

He was permaban in s4 aswell. The recent item changes favor him except for the Echo nerf and while the meta changed ultra mobility + AOE CC is still extremely valuable. The hardcounters that existed in S2 (back then hardcounters were still a thing) don't exist any more. Nope, him being good will definetely make him permabanned.

BeoridasJul 15, 20151 votes

he wasnt at all in s4. i challenge you to find that evidence. kassadin win rate was around 46% or something. people still thought he was shit. the pros always picked him before because hes safe since all his competitors and hard counters are too weak to stop (nerfs) him or were subpar to their safety and late dmg potential while being safe.

now hes being picked as a counterpick to azir pretty much. Funny enough. when riot will nerf azir. kass win rate will go down even more. you watch.

Gregor GysiJul 16, 20152 votes

{quoted}

he wasnt at all in s4. i challenge you to find that evidence. kassadin win rate was around 46% or something. people still thought he was shit. the pros always picked him before because hes safe since all his competitors and hard counters are too weak to stop (nerfs) him or were subpar to their safety and late dmg potential while being safe.

now hes being picked as a counterpick to azir pretty much. Funny enough. when riot will nerf azir. kass win rate will go down even more. you watch.

Challenge accepted and done: 70+% banrate in season 4 His kit is awesome and did not fall of in any way. Why would you assume that his hypermobility would have lost worth over S4/5?

BeoridasJul 16, 20151 votes

are you joking man? I just read that. thats not 70+ win rate....that never everrrr happened to any champ in recent memory. whats 70% around was his ban rate. hardly perma banned if that could have been your argument.

cause for a month when he was spammed in the pro scene for the split playoffs.

What do you mean how did he fell off in ANY way? His mobility was MUCH more gated than it is now His dmg and scaling was uber nerfed as it is today His buying pattern was shit, tho slightly less And i think twas his shield that was actually pretty massive then. (triple the size)

but most of the season: his ban rate was 20-40% ish. then fell flat later on.

Wanna know something else? People were also banning him cause they didnt want people to play them in their team! His win rate, was something i checked almost on a daily basis since S3. It has never been more than 51% when it peaked at S3. Was lower at S2 (around 49%) and dropped at 45-46% s4.

Gregor GysiJul 19, 20152 votes

{quoted}

whats 70% around was his ban rate. hardly perma banned if that could have been your argument.

And up there we see the typical Kassadin main. Every other league player would say - 'wtf 70% banrate, there must be something wrong!!'. However, Kassadin mains see everything below 90% as nothing, lmao. You said people thought Kassa was shit, however 70% of the games they banned him, wtf mate.

Also I won't even answer your winrate stuff, seeing how plenty champions get nerfs at <50% winrate, so idc.

BeoridasJul 20, 20151 votes

{quoted}

And up there we see the typical Kassadin main. Every other league player would say - 'wtf 70% banrate, there must be something wrong!!'. However, Kassadin mains see everything below 90% as nothing, lmao. You said people thought Kassa was shit, however 70% of the games they banned him, wtf mate.

Also I won't even answer your winrate stuff, seeing how plenty champions get nerfs at <50% winrate, so idc.

the point is you messed up your facts big time. also, im not as kass main rofl. ad hominem much? i think you have some homeworks to do since all your previous statements became obsolete and that you adressed only that mess up lol.

HighKingOfSkyrimJul 14, 20152 votes

I wont say much about numbers, but as his ult is no like SUPER FUCKING EXPENSIVE i dont really see why it should not do more damage...

A simple solution would be to just make multiply ulti hits on the same target more rewarding...

(this way he would not be able to get super expensive rift walk in base and then teleport for a oneshot)

In his anti mage tradition i would also suggest to buff the shield a lot... so he can actually lane vs mages that he was in super old days designed to counter...

The LovelessJul 14, 20152 votes

Reduce/remove the stacking cost on ult and take away some damage. Put that damage on q-w-e. Mind you, q-w-e have far higher cooldowns, so he won't be hitting you with them that often.

It's sad man, I stomped two Kass' last week and he couldn't do anything in teamfights either.

BeoridasJul 15, 20151 votes

well if you remove his dmg hes just going to be a blinking minion lol :p

Big Bang BobJul 15, 20152 votes

I don't even think he deserved the nerfs. D:

He already did sub-par damage for an assassin unless he's fed and had an ult that didn't become ult-like until level 11. Now that his ult is closer range, I'm sure they can at least make him do mage level damage. He does have to get relatively close to his enemies and can't really escape with one blink unless everyone is melee and immobile.

Gregor GysiJul 20, 20152 votes

{quoted}

the point is you messed up your facts big time. also, im not as kass main rofl. ad hominem much? i think you have some homeworks to do since all your previous statements became obsolete and that you adressed only that mess up lol.

First I did not mess up my facts, the only thing I did wrong is that I misstyped and wrote winrate instead of banrate - so sorry for that one. Secondly fallacy fallacy much. Instead of bothering with my argument you only focus on the ad hominem - which is the most legitimate ad hominem ever, but more of that in the following. Seeing how it seems that you forgot about YOUR previous statements I am going to sum the previous arguments up.

{quoted}

he wont ever be that tbh. the meta IMMENSIVELY CHANGED since s2. The items are different and the system changed. There is FAR more problematic champions and he is heavily countered across the board. him being good wont make him perma banned.

You basically said that S2 was 'his' season and the worth of his kit decreased while more counters to him showed up. I denied that and said:

{quoted}

He was permaban in s4 aswell. The recent item changes favor him except for the Echo nerf and while the meta changed ultra mobility + AOE CC is still extremely valuable. The hardcounters that existed in S2 (back then hardcounters were still a thing) don't exist any more. Nope, him being good will definetely make him permabanned.

Please note how we both were talking about banrate (you said that he won't get permabanned if viable, I said that he in fact WAS permabanned not so long ago).

{quoted}

he wasnt at all in s4. i challenge you to find that evidence. kassadin win rate was around 46% or something.

So and here goes the reason for my Ad Hominem. Btw - do you realize that you suddenly brought the winrate up (which is pretty weird seeing how LeBlanc had a similiar winrate when getting nerfed - and was in a similiar condition when it comes to her banrate).

{quoted}

Challenge accepted and done: 70+% banrate in season 4

You challenged me to find the banrate while stating that he wasn't permabanned - 'at all'. 70% banrate is ridiculously high! That's insane! A champion who got a 70% banrate won't have a bad Kit 1 season later without any changes to his kit and only few champ releases (which he funnily enough even counters!). You however said that he wasn't permabanned 'at all'. That is IMHO so absurd, that I had to make a joke about Kassamains who don't even care about any banrate below 90%. That ofcourse is a generalization and yaddda yadda blabla, but it was never meant to be an argument of itself. Why would it? IMO the way the facts are looking its pretty obvious that I managed to prove that he was more than just viable in season 4. And this would be a huge problem for your thesis which implies that his kit is outdated now - why would it be so bad just after being permabanned just one season before AFTER a huge amount of nerfs to it? Simple: it wouldn't. It is still as awesome as it was in S2 (except for the silence, but S4 was post silence removal so that's not the problem). To sum it up: my main thesis that a viable Kassadin would be permabanned stands. Go ahead and rofl and lol as much as you want, but unless you manage to explain why 70% banrate is either not a sign for a champion being still problematic or explaining why Kassadin got shrekt by the item changes within ONE SEASON it doesn't look like your argumentation is worth too much. Kind regards.

idokiJul 14, 20151 votes

What other said: gimped champion because his ult is his identity (same as Olaf, Tryndamere, etc.) and since it's his "identity" Rito can't remove it in a rework and therefore he will be forever OP or UP, so obviously Rito prefers to keep him UP

Zair UmbrasJul 15, 20152 votes

What..? Tryn isn't gimped. o.o He does perfectly fine, he just suffers from Melee Carry Syndrome. Symptoms include 'CC Is Death', 'Not Being Fed Makes You Useless', 'Getting Fed Pisses Everyone Off', and much more!

idokiJul 15, 20151 votes

Melee carry syndrome, aka giving a champion who is supposed to fill a certain role an ability so toxic makes certain champion gimped: olaf ult, kassadin ult.

Zair UmbrasJul 15, 20151 votes

Nah. Kass got nerfed because his role was supposed to be Mage Killer, but he was more of a Mage Ignorer and Burst the ADC type since his kit gives him tankiness against mages and it used to have the burst to kill any squishy.

XhaderJul 15, 20151 votes

As a Kass lover, I'm glad they haven't destroyed his ult. Yeah he only gets kill potential after he's got enough AP to make AP Vayne work, but even when I'm miserably behind & getting my butt kicked while playing him, I still have fun. His zippy teleporty style is really fun for me.

If his mobility & assassination style cant coexist I would prefer to keep his mobility & do something like turning him more into a bruiser.

I could appreciate some shift to a prolonged spellcasting rotation where W is cast several times a rotation & spells like his Q & E are used for utility to keep him from getting deleted. Honestly as long as they keep Riftwalk I'm happy. No single spell keeps a champ from being balance-able & if any champ should have a kit built around one spell, I think Kass would be the dude it would work for.

That's just my two cents on my boy here Kassadin