with all this damage mitigation in the game now, is Karthus's kit actually healthy?
I was just thinking about it, now that Ornn can let supports upgrade both Redemption and Locket (which both are already kind of big Middle Fingers to Karthus's ult already), and with every other new or old champion getting some sort of shield, heal, or some other form of damage mitigation, I've got to ask; Is Karthus's kit actually healthy for the game?
I ask this for 2 reasons; the first is that a couple times a week I see threads asking riot to buff Karthus since it feels like he just doesn't belong in this current meta of the ADC deleting all the squishies, and Tanks ALSO deleting all the squishies (see: Cho'Gath), and of course the assassins. Mostly, this is due to the fact that he has no mobility, and most of the time outside of teamfights, his W is pretty Garbage. However I'm also playing Teemo's Advocate here and I can also see why Riot DOESN'T want to touch him and let him into the LCS, as well as keeping him Permabanned in OFA as well as Gimped when he enters passive during Doom Bots. When he DOES get ahead, it's kinda hard for him to STOP being ahead outside of the rest of his team getting stomped instead.
I've also noticed that perhaps Riot themselves may want to update Karthus in the future, but I'm not actually sure when, or how they'd do it. IIRC I remember Reav3 mentioning that perhaps Karthus would have done better with a full VGU instead of just the VU he got a few years ago. If anything, I would just like to have a few of his inherent problems shored up that I think would at least be a bit better.
- Have the Delay on his Q decrease by .1s for every 10% CDR (leaving it at .1s delay at 40% )
As Karthus, it sucks during the late game when you can't land a single Q on an enemy thanks to dashes, at least this way, he can actually hit things during the late game
- Either increase the AP ratios on E, or give it a faster tick rate like singed got.
I don't know about yall, but I've always felt that Karthus's E Active just doesn't do enough. Sure I've gotten a couple kills on it before, but otherwise it's just sort of there and I can never tell if it's actually causing an impact in the game.
- Rework W, or at the VERY Least, give it the grounded debuff
W is what I feel the most useless ability on Karthus, and tbh I don't even think it fits him thematically. Yeah, I guess it's a wall of souls, but the MR shred and slow just doesn't feel like something a legion of souls would do to enemies. Not only that, but the slow on W doesn't even really help unless you're close enough to get in range of enemy abilites so you can land the Q's.
- R.... ?
I honestly don't know what I can even attempt to change with R to be honest. It's the one ability that Makes Karthus...well Karthus. The problem is, that because it is a 5-man nuke, it's whats taking up his entire power budget mostly, and is what's causing this balance dilemma for me.
I'm trying to think of a way to give Karthus more power without breaking him, and it's obvious Riot doesn't want him in LCS, half of the RGMQ, and especially OFA. But all I really have to ask is: Is Karthus actually healthy for the game? Feedback is appreciated of course, and I'm interested what any Rioters want to say about him.
-D2Vincent
