How to balance Kassadin.

I've just played Kassadin on the PBE with his new Visual update, and I have to say, while it looks amazing, I feel so sorry for the art guys who put all that work in. He's never going to be seen again, he's virtually unplayable now. In order to make him viable again, some compensation is needed.

I have a couple ideas that could be implemented to make Kassadin's kit more healthy. These ideas consist of two sets, to be implemented with his Riftwalk nerf and without, they are mixed in together.

Q - Null Sphere At the moment, the problem with this skill is it allows free trading. If a mage attempts to trade with you, you just Q them, and instantly their damage is nullified.

• You could give the skill some CC, like a Slow (or a silence ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) and remove the Shield.
• You could make the skill a skillshot instead, meaning that kassadin can't panic Q people, if he wants to get out of taking damage from a mage then he is forced to fire it into a minion, thus not trading efficiently with the opponent, but still reducing damage taken.

W - Nether Blade This skill for many people is Kassadin's main source of damage at the moment coupled with lich bane. This is also the main problem, without the range on his ultimate to appear on top of people, the chance of getting those W's off on champions is going to be very rare. If the ultimate nerfs need to stick, then Kassadin needs his ranged skills buffed to compensate.

• Mana reduction could be reduced to prevent Infinite Qing.
• Really i feel like this skill just needs to be changed, it doesn't really fit with short range kassadin.

E - Force Pulse This is my favorite of all Kassadin's skills, It's very interesting. I think this skill should recieve some buffs to become one of his main skills.

• At the moment, kassadin can't catch anyone, the slow needs an increase, or the range.
• You could base the damage, slow and range on a stacking system. At the moment, this skill can only be cast at 6 spell charges nearby. You could make the skill castable at 3 stacks, with a small range, damage and slow, all the way up to 6 stacks where it does a hefty chunk of damage with a large slow.

R - Riftwalk The skill which makes Kassadin problematic, yet at the same time his Iconic skill.

• Reduce the range slightly, by say 100. I feel it is unnecessary to take that much range from it.
• With the Short riftwalk range, the mana cost needs to come down by a lot, and it needs to do some meaningful damage.
• Remove the damage on riftwalk completely, and give the range back. Obviously this would require some of the aforementioned compensatory buffs to the other skills. I would honestly prefer this to the new kassadin with no range.
• This could be coupled with the above, Give it damage amplification on targets hit for his other skills.

By implementing some of these I believe Kassadin would become a solid and interesting champion without him being too beastly.

I hope someone from riot reads this and is inspired, Kassadin is one of my favourite champions, and I don't want to see him sent back to the void. I've enjoyed playing the Visually updated Kassadin on the PBE, even with 300ping, It still looks fantastic. The art team really outdid themselves on this one. I understand it can't be easy to balance such a large champion roster, and that's why the community tries to help. :)