He is probably the only balenced champion In the game with clear counterplay and a niche. How about looking at Galio who's niche has been destroyed.
How about looking at veigar who's ult scales with enemy ap stupidly for no reason at all.
Apocyliptic6 votesI don't know what it is with these boards and circle jerking, but honestly, it gets annoying at time, and this is one of those times. "OMG VEL KOZ SO BALANCED, HE PERFECT, NO BUFFS OR NERFS SINCE RELEASE, PERFECT!"
Fact of the matter is, Vel'Koz is almost never played and every reason given for reworking him has been valid (him being outclassed in a certain way by champions similar, such as lux, xerath, and ziggs). You act like him being reworked is automatically a bad thing, and it really isn't (this coming from a morde fan pre rework).
With the rework, instead of looking it like it's gonna kill him, look at it like a lot of the ADC reworks, which were almost all amazing and helped make the champions played a lot more unique but at the same time keeping their identities in tact.
Wyrmblade1 votesZiggs and Xerath aren't wombo combo AOE mages like Vel'koz, they're poke/waveclear mages, while Lux is for long range picks. Don't try to get him reworked if you don't play him.
Narasimha4 votesJust to jump in, balance does not always correlate with rework. The purpose isn't to make him weaker or stronger. It's to make him actually unique. Right now, he shares a niche with Ziggs and Xerath. Except Xerath has always been the more offense damaging one, and ZIggs has been the safer defensive one. Velkoz is kind of in the middle ground. He doesn't really bring anything special other than how he brings it. He needs a minor rework, if only to make more able to stand out.
hobomann22 voteswhen i hear the words "unique" and "riot" together it morphs into "shitty gimmicks out the ass", jins's 3 passives, greaves's ammo count, shen's sword, morde's "square into a circle hole" rework in its entirety, cass's passive stacks
i dont respect or trust riot to rework a balanced champion to be "more unique" AT ALL
Silents4291 votesSpeaking of 3 hit passives, are you aware on what Vel Koz's passive does? He already has your gimmick in his kit.
hobomann21 voteshis "gimmick" is what he would do even if he didnt have the passive, a shitty gimmick is something that is a poorly made mechanic on a champion that greatly alters how they play and is almost always a bad thing to have
Silents4291 votesA shitty gimmick is what Vel Koz has, where in most cases you only accidentally set it off because you forgot it was even there.
Wyrmblade1 votesZiggs and Xerath aren't wombo combo AOE mages like Vel'koz, they're poke/waveclear mages. Don't ask for a rework if you don't play him.
Narasimha1 votesIf it makes you feel better, I've probably played most champions more than you have total matches. I can safely say know almost all of them, if only because I've literally sat through and played them till I knew. The ONLY 'combo' part of Vel'koz is his passive, because thats what supports it. If that as altered, then he's literally as much of a 'wombo combo'ist as Xerath. He doesn't have innate combos built in. And there is a world of difference between abilities comboing and abilities having synergy with each other.
Wyrmblade1 votesXerath has a long channel time on his Q, meaning it doesn't combo fluidly.
When I say combo, I mean he casts his entire basic kit at once if he's in the right situation, specific semantics don't matter. If you hit someone with E, you hit them with Q and W too pretty much every time. Hell his passive alone is enough for him to be considered a combo mage, his kit is built around procing his passive. His entire gameplay revolves around comboing people to get passive stacks off.
Also I doubt you've played almost every champion in the game more than about two thousand times.
Narasimha1 votesXerath has a long channel time on his Q, meaning it doesn't combo fluidly.
He also has a minimum .75 second stun, which lets him combo from E-W-Q extremely fluidly. And that's at close range. A good Xerath can use his range to increase the stun.
When I say combo, I mean he casts his entire basic kit at once if he's in the right situation,
By this logic, pretty much EVERY mage is a combo mage. Literally, that's the entire point of a mage, to find the right time to unleash everything they have. Hell, by this point, Gragas would be a combo mage, since if you land your E, you'll pretty much always follow up with W and Q.
A combo mage isn't someone who CAN combo. It's a champion that excels BECAUSE of their combos. Prime examples include Syndra, Anivia, and Brand.
And if you've played over 2000 games in 1 season, then uh... kudos to you? Thats super impressive. Also kind of scary.
Wyrmblade1 votesXerath is a poke mage with a little bit of combo, Vel'koz is a combo mage with a little bit of poke
Vel'koz DOES excel BECAUSE of his combos BECAUSE of his passive.
About 2000 games scattered across all queues since Vel'koz release. He was the reason I decided to pick this game up.
Narasimha1 votesVel'koz DOES excel BECAUSE of his combos BECAUSE of his passive.
Ok, lets try this from another angle. Take away Vel'koz's passive. Now is he still a combo mage?
Now take away ANY other combo mage's passive. Does it change their playstyle? Not so much.
Wyrmblade1 votes"Ok, lets try this from another angle. Take away Vel'koz's passive. Now is he still a combo mage?" He would still combo people with his Q W and ult after landing E so yes. The combos just wouldn't be as good.
"Now take away ANY other combo mage's passive. Does it change their playstyle? Not so much."
Read what his kit does.
Also if you took away Kalista's passive she would stop being mobile. If you took away Tahm Kench's W he wouldn't be able to save people. If you took away Gnar's passive he wouldn't transform.
Isn't that amazing?
Kaioko3 votesTo rework someone the champion doesn't necessarily need to be imbalanced. The fact is Vel'Koz is one of the more played out of the un-played pool so he stands a good chance of not getting changed but if they do their hope it to make him fun to play as and against.
Silents4292 votesHe doesn't have a niche!? He doesn't get played, I swear to god half the people forget he even exists on a daily basis.
There is never a reason to pick him, never a moment where you think "Vel Koz would be perfect against that team" because he doesn't do anything specific.
Keevalroy1 votesHow about looking at Morde who was ruined and abandoned when CertainlyT got ahold of him? How about Ryze who became more anti-fun with his rework and left frustrating the top laners? Why not Xerath who seems strong but doesn't feel strong as far as visuals go if there's something minor that can be done there? I'd suggest Syndra but she's been talked about. Vel'Koz should be the last mage Riot updates.
Meep Man1 votesWhat is Vel'Koz's niche? Damage? Nice niche.
The reason Vel'Koz is fun to play AND balanced is because he is INCREDIBLY EASY TO BE BALANCED.
Look at his kit:
Passive: After dealing damage 3 times, the enemy takes more damage. Q: Send out an orb, dealing damage and slowing. W: Send out a fissure, dealing DAMAGE! E: Break the ground at the target position, dealing DAMAGE and knocking enemies up. R: Channel for a few seconds, shooting a huge laser that deals DAMAGE and slows enemies hit.
Wow, look at his abilities. We have passive for bonus damage, a splitting skill shot that does damage, an AoE skill shot does damage, a delayed area of effect that deals damage, and a channeled ultimate that deals DAMAGE. Wow, I can feel how unique Vel'Koz is!
Let's be honest here, if Vel'Koz was imbalanced right now, then Riot would have failed at the easiest champion to balance in the game. Tune the damage to be right and WOW, he's magically balanced.
But what am I even typing this for? Ignorance is bliss and those that love Vel'Koz love him. That's fair, it's fun to see those big damage numbers. But Vel'Koz isn't accomplishing anything Xerath, Veigar, Malzahar, Brand, Cass, Annie, Anivia, or Viktor aren't also doing with some other things. Vel'Koz is balanced and fun to play because it's almost impossible for him to be unbalanced and not fun to play since his balance is basically just a damage meter that you can pull up and down.
Wyrmblade1 votesVel'koz occupies the same niche as Miss Fortune. AOE wombo combo.
Starfish H1 votesNope. It seems your guys' expectations on how much we'll warp some of these champions just because they're in "the 6" is quite large and drastic. Guess it's understandable given some of our track record. It's important to consider that our changes have ranged from as small as Darius and Miss Fortune to as large as Mordekaiser and Graves.
Our current plans for Vel'Koz might literally be the smallest scope changes we've ever done in a class update. In fact, I could understand how some people may not even really perceive it as a significant update and more of a "patch note."
Either way, your downvotes are loud and clear. You don't really want Vel'Koz to change much. We don't really plan on moving Vel'Koz's core at all - just want to amplify what's already there. Stop farming upvotes.
