Vel'Koz Improvement Thread

Hello all, I love Vel 'Koz . Made it to plat with him as my most played champion last season, specifically in mid lane (where he belongs!).

All of these talks about a possible Vel Koz rework is really exciting to me actually. He is an awesome champion but there are definite things about him that could be improved upon.

First off, I want to take his core identity and shine some light on it. I've heard a lot of different opinions on the matter (tank shred, pure damage, etc) but I haven't heard his main purpose pointed out yet (imo of course).

Vel Koz is uniquely powerful in bottleneck fights. In fact, I can't think of any other champion that can punish an enemy team stacked up in a line better than he can, especially in the jungle and dragon/baron pits. Hail , the funnel punish king! As such, his core identity is really based off of grouped up objective combat away from the lane. His ultimate is the key to his entire ability to contribute to fights. It has the power to hit the entire team, front line to back line, and disintegrate them with high base damage and true damage. It really defines him out from any other champion.

So then, where is the potential to improve him? The answer lies adjusting the rest of his abilities to help out these situations. They don't really add too much to this identity. I'm not saying they are worthless, just that they don't add a whole lot to the "funnel punish king".

First, lets evaluate the rest of his abilities based on this criteria.

His W is probably the closest of his abilities to contribute to this theme. Its completely instant cast and can be simultaneously cast with any of his other abilities for 3 different sweet combos, is actually really unique because of this combo power. In a funneled spot it can do some good damage, but its still completely useless by itself in most combat situations which leaves for improvement.

His E comes in second place in terms of theme contribution. It can knock back the enemy front line which is pretty sweet, but the slow missile speed and relatively small radius of area it effects make it feel pretty unreliable. Plus after you use it, you are essentially completely exposed to any dive. Keeping with the goal of identity, this just doesn't feel like the right answer.

His Q can have some situational usage in terms of poke, but its relatively slow moving and breaks at the first unit hit. Because of this, it just doesn't pull its weight once all hell breaks loose. Its realistic use in a team fight is to slow the single most forward enemy. After that, you are channeling your ult and doing other things. But at least the CD is pretty short.

Now, lets talk about some ways we can adjust his abilities that will help fit his unique role. **The main concept that comes to mind is using his abilities to somehow artificially create a funnel situation. **Punishing a line of enemies in the jungle or baron pit is awesome but if that's the only time you are really useful well... that's not really enough to merit wanting to pick him as your champion (especially as mid lane). But if his other abilities can somehow help create this situation in the open rift, now that starts to be really interesting.

For example, what if his W created a valley upon its explosion (it is a crack in the ground after all), temporarily adding terrain walls on both sides while still allowing movement forward or backward. This could be useful to funnel enemies with the risk of funneling your teammates. It could also double with some cool wall plays in all sorts of situations (sideways blocks, tower dive trap, etc)

Or what if his Q split in a backwards V shape after the initial hit and then upon reactivation, both splits shoot toward each other making a sort of diamond shaped attack. This would allow it to hit both the front target and the back (fitting the theme) while still being fun to aim/dodge. It's also unique and space-age like which is of course a plus. It would force the back line to take a step forward to avoid the slow, putting them in closer to the danger of being trapped by W, or they could take a step back and get zoned for a second or two.

For E, maybe something along the lines of a black hole type abilty, that slowly sucks enemies in toward the center and then explodes. Lots of possibilities here!

The point of these suggestions aren't to pretend I am a champion designer, but rather to show the type of thought toward the theme I would like to see in the rework. I know that the brilliant minds at Riot can come up with things 1000x times cooler than I ever could, we as a community just need to make sure we communicate the direction we want them to put those big brains to work.

So please, contribute your own thoughts and ideas about our favorite one-eyed alien. Let's get this rework moving in the right direction!

thanks you for it!