My personal summary of what was wrong with the fizz rework.

EDIT- Changed the title because I now realize the previous one wasn't accurate to the contents of the post and I'm not one for clickbait.

I love riot to death as much as I love fizz. I've said things here and there might've indicated otherwise but I still love them and respect them very deeply for all of the amazing things they've put into the game. But, I can't really agree with how they did his rework. Delayed damage is fine. Balanced assassins with outplay is fine. But the issue with fizz is that they didn't apply "delayed damage" in the right way.

Fizz's biggest issue is that they forced him into a pseudo sub par initiator. To effectively use fizz outside of a 1v1 you have to land your ult from a long range. "But how is that a problem? It has such a big latch on radius and it's not hard to aim!" What happens if you can't use it period or miss it? Unlike other assassins he's virtually out of options. Melee form is 50/50 at best because while you're in range to get the W proc are chances are you currently have atleast 2-3 champions focusing you. At which point you either die before you can damage your intended target at all or in alot of cases you get smacked with that good Ol' exhaust while the target gets shields, heals, and all other manners of middle fingers aimed at you.

And using it from a range will likely end in priority targets dodging it through mobility, hourglass, or some other workings. Most teams will also consist of frontline tanky champions which will sit in the front (as the name frontline implies) and meatwall your ult. It's not exactly an uncommon occurrence for me to have to sit there and watch a fight progress with me doing little to nothing at all because I can't physically kill anything.

I also said "outside of a 1v1" but keep in mind that's under ideal circumstances. Fizz lacks the ability to effectively 1v1 fighters, tanks, other assassins, and sometimes ADC's. There's a small list of mages that he can't effectively 1v1 as well but there's not a whole lot. My main point is that fizz has a "requirement" that he has to fulfill for his kit to be viable but that requirement has very situational success.

If assassins are to find a place in the meta it'll be the ability to dive squishy targets to secure the kill when others aren't capable of doing it. Unfortunately in this meta there are plenty of non assassins capable of doing this but in that case assassins should have the power to do it with a higher success rate at the very least.

I've posted similar/the same suggestions in other places but I'll post it again here regardless. Fizz's entire theme of the "trickster" deserves a hit and run playstyle. A champion who dances around his foes. So instead of giving him an weird initiation power you should instead let him engage and dive as normal and let the ult be the finisher.

For the sake of power budget this is what I'd do.

Remove damage from E. Lower the CD and make it a utility ability, like you did with talon. "Making i a utility ability" could also mean possibly tweaking its utility stats like increasing the dash range and such. though that isn't necessary.

Place all of the damage on W as a sheen type ability like you've done already except this time the damage is all upfront with no delay. But it has to be strong, very strong. Not to the point of being oppressive and strong enough to outright 1 shot on its own. Would also like to suggest keeping the same form of auto attack reset and mana/cooldown refund combo as that's a very good addition.

Next is remove the DoT. It's weak and almost unnoticable, and looks like nothing more than a reason to lower the power of the ability it's attached to or the rest of the kit as a whole. If the DoT itself is not going to be strong then it doesn't equal to being damage in the first place because it's too easily negated by lifesteal, regeneration, and other mechanics. You either want a strong DoT or more upfront burst to cleanly kill your target before they can use those mechanics to live thus making you useless.

Up next is add in an actual passive. Unfortunately I couldn't think of one that'd suite him and fit with riot's champion design polices but what he could use is some sort of magic penetration mechanic. If there won't be any AP assassins items added in that focus on Magic penetration then he needs a tool that'd actually allow him to deal with bruisers and fighters who've built sometimes only a single item of MR to completely negate his damage so they can easily apply their own to kill him off.

Finally:

• Chum the Waters: Fizz attaches a lure to a targeted enemy champion that attracts a shark, causing it to emerge 2 seconds later, dealing magic damage to the target, and knocking aside surrounding enemies.

• Magic damage is 250/350/400 (+ 50% Ability Power) with a extra magic damage dealt based on the targets missing HP. Every 100 AP gives 5% extra with no starting base damage. Missing health damage is calculated after the damage of the initial sharks damage. So technically 2 components.

• Fizz attaches the lure himself and must be within 325 units of the target. The attachment is instant.

• Cooldown: 100/85/70 seconds

• Fizz can not use this ability while under the affects of CC that would prevent other abilities from casting.

• Should the target be spell shielded, the lure will drop off and remain on the ground for 3 seconds and can be picked up again. At which point, the shark will emerge after only 1 second. Should a target with a spell shield walk over the lure it will instead cause emerge the shark instantly dealing AOE damage to all units caught in the radius. Damage deal is 225/300/350 (+ 35% AP) with no missing HP component.

• Should a target receive a spellshield after having the lure attached then the initial damage of the shark will be blocked but the missing HP component will still activate as normal. This obviously does not apply to morgana's black shield which only blocks CC and shields against magic damage with negating the spell entirely.

That's about all of the input I have for now. I'm really tired unfortunately. What I'm suggesting could be done in any number of ways and the way i suggested could be completely ignored if that's what you want. But, what I do want is for the initial guideline to stay intact when thinking about what could be done about fizz. Have the ult as a finisher/execution (which ever you wish to call it) and make his playstyle strongly, and effectively fit with his actual theme: The Tidal Trickster. r.

My ideal image of him using this kit would essentially be similar to the way yasuo dances around his enemies in a minion wave. Cleanly weaving in and out of trades/fights while also dodging abilities then closing in for the kill. His assassin potential would use his kits mobility and utility to dive a priority target in the back line to really hit them hard then to gracefully leave while leaving his shark attached to said target to finish the job while he slips and slides around the enemy or out of the teamfight to safety. His "Hit and run" style would come from back to back usage of his W going in to use it then back out to dance around his opponent till he can use it again. His "delayed damage" would come from the fact that he needs his ult to still finish his squishy targets in a single sweep and he still has all of the risks involved with his kit but instead has a guaranteed chance at his target unlike he does with his current kit.

I am not claiming this would be THE perfect solution. Not even riot can claim that. but I still wanted to make this post and give it a shot at sharing it with others. If you think I'm complete and utter bullshit and my idea is trash then feel free to of course tell me. I wouldn't beable to progress as a player if I wasn't open to critique's, different opinions, and accepting the fact that I can be wrong about things. One last thing, forgive any typo's as I typed this up while half asleep so there's more than likely something screwed up (depending on what you think this entire post might be screwed up to you) somewhere that I missed. Thank you for reading!