How to tweak Vel'koz without sacrificing identity

Hello!

With the announcement of the big six for the immobile mage update, I have seen quite a few threads and comments on the boards talking about Vel'koz, with some of my threads and comments being among them. I gave a summary of Vel'koz and what should be considered when tweaking him in a previous thread, but I wanted to create a separate post exclusively focusing on my proposed solution.

Lets cut to the chase, in the coming immobile mage update, any tweaks made to Vel'koz need to help Vel'koz establish a unique identity in various team compositions. Vel'koz is already oozing with both mechanical and narrative identity, so taking away from those to bolster a more defined role in team compositions should be seen as an extremely dangerous move, as doing so would drastically harm Vel'koz's identity and healthy lane mechanics. The best way, in my opinion anyway, to this would be to help solidify Vel'koz's capabilities as a tank buster.

Before I begin to talk about my reasoning, I want to preface this by saying any item data will focus exclusively on mid lane Vel'koz instead of support Vel'koz, simply because I feel more comfortable talking about and playing Vel'koz in the mid lane.

So why should Vel'koz be the champion you lock in when you start seeing the enemy team pick champions that stack MR? The short answer is that Vel'koz already tries to be the champion to counter more tanky foes. A lot of this stems from his passive; Organic Deconstruction. For those of you who do not know the specifics of the passive, know that after three consecutive spell hits, Vel'koz deals a burst of true damage to his opponent that scales based off of his level and his level alone. This grants Vel'koz two important things, the ability to still deal reliable damage based on level even when behind, and bypass magic resist of his foes. Both of these are really powerful tools for a tank buster. The first helps prevent Vel'koz from falling off into obscurity when behind, allowing him to still weaken frontlines in lopsided teamfights. The second, of course, helps Vel'koz do what Vel'koz does best deal raw damage.

To further talk about Magic Penetration, I want to look at the items commonly used on Vel'koz. My data is from Probuilds.

The most popular item for Vel'koz is Liandry's Torment. Magic Penetration, health, and a unique passive that burns enemies based on their current health. Right behind it is Frost Queen's Claim, which I am sure no one is surprised to hear, especially with the mix of utility and damage it provides in the current meta. Then there is Luden's Echo to help kiting, Doran's Ring because Doran liked it, Rylai's Crystal Scepter to boost the effectiveness of Liandry's Torment and survivability, and Void Staff in order to make sure any magic resist left is pointless. Not to mention Vel'koz's favoured boots; Sorcerer's Shoes.

A final build that you could probably expect to see against an especially tanky team would look like this;

It is no surprise that of the four completed Magic Penetration items in LoL, Vel'koz regularly builds three of them. The only exception being the Abyssal Scepter. To further cement this, Rylai's is built on Vel'koz to supplement Liandry's, for the dreaded Rylandry's combo. By these items combined, even a simple Q from Vel'koz can do puns tons of damage because geometry.

For people who are not Vel'koz mains, I feel that it is important to explain why Vel'koz prioritizes magic penetration over flat AP. Vel'koz has high base AP on his abilities. but not the greatest AP ratios. Thats not to say the Vel'koz does not love Rabadon's Deathcap, he just benefits more from his flat AP / magic penetration coupled with his true damage passive.

So whats my point? People play Vel'koz with the intent of being a tank buster. Something that he accomplishes decently now, but sadly not enough to grant Vel'koz any form of prominence in a draft pick system. While the prospect of modifying Vel'koz still makes me feel slightly uneasy, if Vel'koz needs a niche, he needs to be a tank buster.

What do you guys, community members, mains, non mains, rioters, and anyone inbetween, think? Should Vel'koz be groomed into the immobile Tank Buster to compliment his current item builds and playstyles, or should he take a different direction?