Kha'Zix should actually have to adapt to the situation

Visigoth··28 votes·1,967 views

His theme, his ultimate passive, and entire design is based on evolving and adapting to the situation. Old Kha'Zix, although incredibly unbalanced, had choices in what to evolve first and which ability had to be left out. Right now he NEEDS E and Q, one giving his damage to assassinate, the other giving his gap closer and reset on kill/assist. Then 99% of the time you evolve W since your R is practically useless.

The champion at his core is supposed to be "Which of these four evolutions can I benefit from most in this specific situation. For a champion that is supposed to adapt I find that I take the same evolution path (Q-->E-->W) 90% of the time, and 9% being E-->Q-->W if they have like a LeBlanc, and the last 1% is either from the quest vs Rengar or if extremely ahead and want to look cool.

Just saying, for a champion who is supposed to adapt, there sure is little variety, even his build path is usually somewhere around item 3707 item 3035 item 3074 item 3117 item 3026 item 3071.

To put it in perspective, Udyr has 2 main damage abilities of his 4; Phoenix Stance and Tiger Stance, and 2 utility forms; Turtle and Bear. Khazix is fairly similar with evolutions; Q is damage, W is more AoE damage and slow, E and R utility. On Udyr, one can max either Phoenix or Tiger first with plenty of success. It can be a difficult choice sometimes which is the form you don't max; Do you want tank stats form Turtle, DoT from Tiger, AoE from Phoenix, CC from Bear? Kha'Zix is pretty much "Well I need this one and that one sucks so I'll take this one." How silly would it be if Udyr's Phoenix was just so inferior that it often wasn't considered to even be viable compared to his other forms.

Now, whether or not this is approached by nerfing some evolutions (which I don't think would make since seeing as how he already relatively weak) or buffing his evolved R, but I would like to see some variety other than the usual 3 evolutions.

17 Comments

Meep Man6 votes

In my opinion, if you were to look at Kha'Zix on paper, he should be able to do EVERYTHING except Support and maybe be a Marksman. He should have THAT much variety in his kit.

test account1 votes

There would be no end of complaints about him on the boards.-

Gank in Progress1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Inept Maverick,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=Pis8t64Y,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2015-03-21T15:26:00.103+0000)

In my opinion, if you were to look at Kha'Zix on paper, he should be able to do EVERYTHING except Support and maybe be a Marksman. He should have THAT much variety in his kit.

he can, i occasionally play him top, hes weaker mid but playable against melee champions. and hes surely a good jungler.

revliledpembroke1 votes

Why not support as well? All you have to do is be a bad Kha'zix and almost kill things, instead of instantly murdering things and let the marksman last hit.

Crett5 votes

kha'zix needs a rework

DJ Hatsune Miku5 votes

The problem is in a competitive video game there will always be a best and a worst. I don't think there's ever been a time where all 4 of his evolutions were prized. E is always going to be a must have as long as it resets and if going R only gets you another stealth it'll probably always be inferior to maxing QWE instead of like.. WER or QER.

What they need to do, if they want to do this sort of thing, is make each ability able to be upgraded more than once. Each evolution further pushes Kha into a specific playstyle. Q would be a high burst assassin, W would be a poke mage/wave clear heavy pusher, E would be a hyper mobile resetting fighter, and R would be an elusive pick champion. It'd be even better if evolving the same thing multiple times also weakened his other abilities to strength the one you want to maximize or tuned the abilities to suit the playstyle. So evolving W turns his Q into a hydra like effect with no assassin potential, maxing Q makes his W a short range mark kinda like Kat's Q.

These are just a few examples really, it'd be hella hard to design 4 different kits onto one champ because his theme is evolving to fit the situation... Not to mention if his whole thing is being 'extremely adaptable' then what honestly keeps him from being picked in every game. 'jack of all trades' champs aren't ever loved, just look at Lee.

Asdeft3 votes

I agree to some extent, but I think all he needs is an ult and regular q isolation damage buff. I think the problem is just that the ^R is so weak, it makes it seem like there is little adapting when his other 3 are so much better now, and the fact his regular Q damage is now pretty weak as well what with the base damage AND isolation bonus being lowered. I would say put the Q isolation damage back to +50% and make his evolved R either A) Not be revealed by true sight B) Increase duration, move-speed and make the unseen threat passive procs from it stronger C) Have it give kha'zix true sight for the duration of the ult charges. Whatever they can think of. KhaZix's ult just needs a buff.

Tannhäuser Gate1 votes

How about give Evo Q a smaller isolation range, or scaling damage based upon how isolated the target is.

SunnyHvar2 votes

Well, kha'zix needs some help in general, so I want to believe someone, somewhere in Riot is thinking about him, and what to do with him. But I feel it's really hard to give him 4 evolutions which are all viable in some situations, and yet none of them is overpowered in some or most of the situations. I feel it's a really hard thing to balance.

I would love to see him buffed in some way though...

I wonder what would happen if, for a start, his R got the damage reduction back. Might make it so R is an option again. Not sure what exactly that would do, but I feel it's worth a test on the PBE. And then we'll see where that leaves us.

Seth Lightheart1 votes

I 100% agree.

There was a time when you could evolve anything first, less so now.

4nth0l0gy1 votes

When I first saw him, I expected his kit to have possible upgrades including:

  1. damage
  2. mobility (escape/engage)
  3. tankiness
  4. poke

They ALMOST got it right. I think they really did need to include an option to increase his tank stats though. Because they didn't, his adaptability is still trumped by Udyr.

Partholonian1 votes

In theory, that's 1-Q, 2-E, 3-R and 4-W. But they nerfed evolved R so much, it doesn't really do that much to keep him alive anymore.

What does Udyr evolve for poke though? He just has two flavors of damage. The fact that Kha can poke at all, even poorly, is an advantage over Udyr, and on top of that his mobility skill is much better than Udyr's minor MS steroid.

Since he also needs a slight buff overall right now, I think they should buff some of his currently underused evolutions (or, really, un-nerf them).

4nth0l0gy1 votes

The Udyr thing is more of a joke. His build paths are much more varied, but no, his kit does not evolve.

I think Kha'zix doesn't feel like he evolves to niche styles because he only has 4 options, of which he gets access to 3 every game.

Dreadlocks1 votes

Lol no1 has voted No and there are 35 yes votes at the time of this post... Amen brotha.

Tentacle Love1 votes

Maybe if they gave him a fifth evolution path, tied to his passive? Something like "if you hit a target with a leap from the bush, you become invincible for the duration of the attack and 0.5 seconds afterwards"? That would really screw up people's strategies on how to deal with him.

Spacesuit Spiff1 votes

Kha is a failed experiment tbh. I'm sorta glad they're leaving him to rot instead of letting him stomp everything atm.

Aatrox

Gank in Progress1 votes

i still evolve R first. diamond 5, last season diamond 3. i dont play soloq atm however. kha zix is bad in this meta, thats it. no need for buffs. maybe slightly buff his R evolution, but too much and hes op again. hes my main and i love him the way he is.

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