Proposed Twitch Changes

I used to be an avid Twitch player last season. Mostly Twitch jungle, but played him bot as well. He was always fun. I stopped playing him in Season 5, since the jungle changes made jungling on Twitch a lot more difficult, if not impossible, and his nerfs in Season 4 made laning as him an absolute chore.

I miss playing him, though, and I recently got a surge of inspiration to make changes/a small rework for him. I know they won't implement anymore major changes until after worlds, but I can wait that long, and would like to spark conversation about Twitch and how we can bring him back into viability.

So, the main issue with Twitch is his extremely weak laning phase. He's extremely unsafe and can almost never win trades. His passive is easily countered by a strategically placed health potion or healing spell, and his stealth is far too delayed on engage for it to be used as a reliable escape. I have buffs here that would hopefully help him out in the laning phase, and allow him to more easily reach late game. The goal isn't to make him a bully, mind you. Twitch having a weak laning phase is fine, it's just that, right now, it's too weak.

Deadly Venom:

• Base damage changed to 36 over 6 seconds. Gains 1 damage per level, for a maximum of 54 at level 18.
• Now stacks 4 times, down from 6. 144 maximum damage at level 1, gaining 18 every level, for a maximum of 216 at level 18.
• Now deals Magic Damage. At 4 stacks, still deals True Damage.
• Reaching 4 stacks on a neutral monster or minion will stun that target for 2 seconds.

So, we buff the early damage. By a lot.

By changing it to Magic Damage, you add a way for some mitigation, but with this, you're looking at some real punishment. At max level, however, the damage is exactly the same at maximum stacks. This buffs his early game without buffing his already strong late game. The stun is just to help make it so Twitch can jungle again. I miss it, so much.

The increased damage really helps Twitch with trading in lane. Get 4 stacks on your enemy and retreat. Pop in and out to refresh the stacks. The damage will steadily tick away, and the enemy needs to play around that either by not allowing Twitch to keep 4 stacks on (Use the brush, evade out of the way, etc), or just all in him, since he's very squishy.

Ambush:

• Mana cost increased to 40/45/50/55/60 from 40.

Venom Cask

• New Passive effect: When Twitch gets a kill or assist on a target afflicted by Deadly Venom, the cooldown on Ambush is reset and the delay on Ambush will be reduced to .5 seconds with no delay increase.
• Mana cost reduced to 0 from 50.
• Now carries up to 2 charges.
• No longer applies Deadly Venom, but will refresh any Deadly Venom stacks currently on affected enemies.
• Slow reduced to 20/25/30/35/40% from 25/30/35/40/45%.
• Now slows enemies for an increased amount based on how many stacks of Deadly Venom they’re afflicted by. 5% per stack, for a maximum of 40/45/50/55/60%.

Here, we're really reimagining Venom Cask. Currently, you use the slow more for disengage than engage, although late game it's very helpful in assassinating enemies. Now, it also helps you escape in lane. With a maximum of two charges and no mana cost, you can always slow down an encroaching jungler. The increased mana cost on Ambush is compensation for the reduced one on Venom Cask. It also gains the new effect of inflicting an increased slow on enemies with Deadly Venom stacks, while nerfing the base slow amount. This gives it more usefulness when Twitch is actively fighting, and not just assassinating, and helps him kite enemies who want to get really close.

And then, the new passive. This is meant to buff Twitch's teamfighting. Yes, he's already a strong teamfighter, but one that's easily countered by a number of things. Wind Walls. Crowd control. Not standing in a line. You know, the usual. This new passive on Venom Cask rewards him for picking and sticking to a single target by allowing him to reposition in the middle of a teamfight. It's also meant to capitalize on his core fantasy. The idea behind this passive was sort of inspired by Twitch's boss fight in Blitzcrank's Poro Roundup. Twitch pops from the shadows, inflicts massive pain, and then vanishes when either the job is done or the advantage is lost, only to reappear in a completely different spot than you expect a moment later.

Contaminate

• Name reverted to Expunge.
• Removes one stack of Deadly Venom on affected targets when cast, but refreshes the duration of the remaining stacks.
• Bonus damage per stack increased to 20/25/30/35/40 from 15/20/25/30/35.
• Deals additional physical damage equal to 2% of an enemy’s missing health per Deadly Venom stack.
• Is no longer blocked by Yasuo’s Wind Wall or Braum’s Unbreakable.

One, change the name back. Expunge was much cooler. The stack removal is for two reasons. One, for the name Expunge to make sense. Two, curb some of his trading power in lane. I know, we were about buffing his trading power, but Expunge should be emphasized as an assassinating, killing skill. The numbers are buffed slightly, since Deadly Venom only stacks to 4 now instead of 6, but also deals additional physical damage based on how much health the target is missing, which also scales with Deadly Venom stacks. This ability is played up to it's strengths, which are killing low health enemy's in an instant burst. After all, what doesn't kill you just isn't finished yet.

Also, no longer blocked by Wind Wall or Unbreakable. This should have been done a while ago. The old Twitch's Expunge, before his Visual Update, didn't get blocked because it wasn't considered a projectile. Now it is, but the nerf was never documented. Part of me thinks it was overlooked. Either way, it should be reverted.

Rat-Ta-Tat-Tat

• Bonus Attack Damage reduced to 10/20/30.
• Basic Attacks while active will also inflict Twitch’s primary target with 4 stacks of Deadly Venom instantly.

Last couple changes. The bonus AD is actually reduced. Twitch has been given more power elsewhere, so this extra bit of AD isn't really needed, but still kept so that his ultimate helps in a 1v1 situation. Also, Twitch's primary target will instantly get hit with maximum Deadly Venom stacks. This also rewards Twitch for choosing and assassinating a single target. Think of the piercing bolts as collateral damage, softening the rest of the enemies so you can make mincemeat of your next chosen target just a bit easier.

With this, Twitch still has counterplay. Pink Wards and other True Sight will still spot him out with his Ambush resets. His laning phase is still weak, just not as weak, and allows him to trade better while still being very vulnerable to all ins and CC. In teamfights, if you catch Twitch, he's done. It's the Twitch player's job to be sneaky and uncatchable, however they can.

Any thoughts? Even if you dislike my changes, I'd still like to spark a conversation about what can be done with Twitch.

Jungle for life.