I only need to type 1 letter to explain how to play Kassadins laning phase vs mages: Q. Thats it. U just need Deathfire Touch, and his laning phase is so oppressive its stupid. There is no outplay, no juking, just walk behind your enemys ranged minions and press Q. Your shield and passive + DFT will win the trade for you. There is no skill involved in any way, shape or form.
Nerf the damage, cooldown and mana cost. That shit should NOT be allowed.
I wouldn't say gutted, but he does need at least a small nerf to his early game. He is designed to be a counter to mages, but he also does well vs AD matchups early.
Personally I feel like he needs it considering he is a melee champion with no other reliable form of poke. And the shield only protects against magic, not AD or autos, so it's not like it's OP. In fact I often see Kassadins who get ahead early game fall behind later because they can't jump in and out of teamfights safely enough and his spell rotation doesn't net him kills fast enough.
Most mages can poke with abilities outside of Q range and just auto whenever he Q you.
That's litterally it.
Also, don't die to ganks. Then you'll get snowballed on too hard
Id be happy with nerfing his W mana restore. Watching a kass endlessly spam his riftwalk and chunking peoples health while getting all his mana back doesnt make any sense. Theres no decision making. It's just button mashing, and once he gets ahead you're screwed. Anywho
Idk about the Q since I dont mid, but it's a good idea to either play long ranged mages, or AD into him, since his passive makes him take reduced magic dmg ontop of his Q giving him a magic shield. Start shield if you're worried about his poke, and if its really a problem, build cowl. Cowl is such an underrated item. Just because it doesnt have an offensive stat on it doesn't mean it isn't worth building
