Kassadin's Identity Crisis

Context

In the upcoming patch Kassadin's ultimate, Riftwalk, will have massive range decrease from 700 to 450. This picture accurately shows the impact of this change. But why? Kassadin has always been a HUGE problem in relation to gameplay and balance, his ultimate is practically a flash that can be used many times before running out of mana. Complaints of him lacking counterplay to his humongous roam potential or him being impossible to run from are very common. So it would only make sense for a large nerf to come to him right?

Problem

To that I say of course, but balancing this guy is near impossible. Even with the removal of AP scaling on his ult, and the massive cooldown for the stacking mana cost to dissipate he was still very strong. His ultimate IS his trade mark ability and what he is known for. And this is his biggest problem.

Why problem is a problem

A champion whose soul identity is a SINGLE ability is a big problem. Why? Because if that ability is changed in any way shape or form, so does the champions identity. This very reason is why Kassadin needs a Nidalee style rework. The two champions share a lot in common, both were known for predominantly one ability, (Old Nidalees Spear and Kassadin ult) but Nidalee got a rework, Kassadin didnt.

The Rest of this thread is MUCH more opinionated, these are just my highly personal thoughts.

This is my suggestion for a new Kassadin. Kassadin has a lesser known identity as the anti-mage (why his passive and q give resistance to magic damage) but this identity isnt explored that far after that. In fact one of Kassadin's biggest weaknesses being harassed out of lane and guess what, Mages are the most common source of poke in the game. After six however, Kassadin can be an absolute nightmare to immobile mages being able to dodge skill-shots and negate their remaining damage with his passive and Q shield. THIS is the identity Kassadin should have in my opinion, instead of the roam oriented AP assassin, we should have an agile, skill shot dodging, anti-mage. So if Kassadin's kit were to get this turnaround there would need to be incentives for him to be using his ult not as a roaming ability, but as a dodging gap-closing AP bruiser who excels at dealing with poke and punishing immobile mages.

Riftwalk Values.

RANGE: 450-New 700- Live COST: 60 / 120 / 240 / 480 / 960 MANA COOLDOWN: 7 / 5 / 3 Riftwalk ACTIVE: Kassadin teleports to a nearby location, dealing magic damage to enemy units within 150 range upon arrival. MAGIC DAMAGE: 80 / 100 / 120 (+ 2% of max mana) Each subsequent Riftwalk within the next 20 seconds costs double the mana and deals bonus damage, stacking up to 4 times. TOTAL COST OF USING RIFTWALK N TIMES: 60 / 180 / 420 / 900 / 1860 BONUS DAMAGE PER STACK: 40 / 50 / 60 (+ 1% max mana) MAXIMUM MAGIC DAMAGE: 240 / 300 / 360 (+ 6% max mana)

References of use

PIc of 450 range vs 700 http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q6dF1yIWH_k/VOQSL4COyzI/AAAAAAAAkLE/_iy44Z7HQEk/s1600/cmm.jpg Kassadin Lol Wiki page http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Kassadin Anti Mage from Dota2 http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Anti-Mage