Ziggs ideas for balance to bring him up to par in the mage world

Hello!

I have been playing Ziggs a lot lately. I am a newer LOL player. I used to play DOTA 2 a lot so I know how this type of game goes. It seems after reading some older stuff that Ziggs got nerfed pretty hard over the seasons because in the right hands he could kite and do great damage to a team. The way he is now though he's just not a really viable option to even play. He can't really contribute much to his team as other mages in mid. I will explain my thoughts on this and not just say random stuff and not back it up somehow. I don't want Ziiggs to be OP again. NO! I would like for him to be able to be on par with other mids and balanced. He isn't balanced right now and is far under balanced.

So let me talk about the points.

-Slow. 325 starting walk speed is a bit low for him IMO. Other mages with teleport moves like Leblanc or skills that move around like Orianna make his movement speed even more of a hurdle to deal with. Again, I don't want Ziggs op just tuned up some in these departments to make him more viable in this age of LOL. It seems fair to me to speed him up since he doesn't have a leap or dash. Yes, I know Satchel charge knocks him away. Right now Satchel charges CD is so high you can't rely on it enough.

-Spell costs vs damage. This is really what is hindering him right now. Badly. You can not build Ziggs like other mages because you wont have enough mana to sustain in the lane and do your job. I literally have to build Rod of Ages or Archangels staff first with a Clarity summoner spell and mana potions just so I can stay in lane and push the lane properly. Even with this I still have to back way earlier than the other person because of Mana. People will probably say that I am not managing my mana properly. I would agree with this if the enemy mid couldn't push the lane and keep a lot of mana and still push me back into my tower if I try to conserve mana. I have already gone down that road. It doesn't work and I'm sure its due to the nerf to his passive. You will get out pushed because Ziggs mana costs on his abilities are really really high and get higher and higher as you level them. It's because of the nerfs to his damage I assume from previous seasons. You can't nerf the damage and keep the high mana costs. It's not logical to balancing. If those skills had higher damage then I would agree to the higher mana costs. Also, if I just sit back and try to conserve mana I am not going to hurt the other midlaner much if at all. Smart players know Ziggs abilities and will stay out of the range or to the side. While still having their way with the minions. I have to use a lot of mana to keep the lane equal or pushed and to hurt the enemy because ziggs is all skill shots. I am not trying to make them lower Ziggs mana cost to account for any of my bad skill shots I take. NO. I should be able to miss skills shots on enemy players some and not deplete my mana so bad. Now if i am missing a ton of them then of course that is fair. But even a few misplaced or misjudged skills really hit you hard in the mana department. You can't move them or get a second chance with them like some other mages skills. Again, it is about balance. Leblanc has no issues rushing into me and doing a lot of damage then TPing out right away and taking 0 damage from me. Even if i put minefield at my fieet and put a satchel charge down fast and use them both her damage is way higher than mine with her one ability against my two to counter her dash in. Eventually i get dwindled down to nothing. I shouldn't be forced to tower hug all day because another mage has a far superior skill than I do that isn't a skill shot.

-Satchel Charge This is the only escape Ziggs has. The cooldown on it is so unfair and unbalanced. It needs to get reduced to 10 seconds easily. With a max decrease in cooldown to like 8 seconds. Heck it could start off at 12. I could see that being fair. This skill does very little damage and no one can say a lower cd would make it do too much damage. I think with the low damage it puts out right now and a much lower cd it would be very balanced. Right now it just makes Ziggs too easy to get onto and stay onto him. He absolutely needs to this to be competitive. Leblancs are all 10 seconds or lower. Also, if this is lowered CD then you wouldn't have to worry about his run speed since Satchel charge would be a viable escape mechanic. Right now you can't rely on it due to the super high CD. Also, I feel that the charge should knock Ziggs farther away or it should knock the enemy away just as far as it does Ziggs. Right now it barel knocks back the enemy.

Hexplosive Minefield-

The mana cost for this is just too much and not enough reward for the cost. I would say to balance the cost out to make it invisible to enemy players. I mean its called a minefield. Mines are put under the ground and aren't visable. Make it so the Vision ward shows the minefield. Pretty simple one. They last for 10 seconds. This also balances this idea out. If it was permanent until you cast a new one then that would be fair as it stands right now, but its only 10 seconds. Reduce the CD to something more practical. Could be 16/15/13/11/10. Leblancs are all 10 seconds or lower. If you don't want to make them invisible then change the name to Hexplosive Bombfield.

Mega Inferno Bomb-

This one is kind of a toughy. My last game I sold my boots and went all damage items. Got to 968 AP. Now when I hit Tahm and someone else I did like 2750 damage. This game was over a hour long. So at that point it didn't really matter and I wasn't able to contribute as much as I would think a mage should. Q does around 800. Honestly I think I could handle the low damage this does early-mid game if Hexplosive Minefield and Satchel charges CDs got reduced to a practical amount. Right now they are at a point where it was a oh shit lets nerf this so hes not OP anymore and we will get back to him later. I feel that increasing the AOE size on this would be fair since there is a AOE indicator the enemies can see before it lands. Personally I think the AOE indicator should be taken out and leave the AOE size the way it is. You can HEAR and see it coming. That should be enough. Putting a AOE indicator down for a ultimate makes that ultimate that much less useful and effective and takes the skill out of it from the enemy players who are pretty much smacked in the face and told to move out of the way instead of having to pay attention and have some sort of skill involved. Garen gets a insta kill ult that is point and click and no skill whatsoever when a person is in the health range. So this shouldn't be a issue. Also, Pantheons Ult has a huge AOE size with the indicator. Which makes sense. Ziggs doesn't.

I have done a lot of research on how to build ziggs and play him because I don't just play a champion without knowing how they work and what to do. I always research everything first and then play. I have gotten a lot better with ziggs, but even higher skill doesn't compensate for high mana costs and high cd times on skills. Not when other mages have way lower cds, more damage, more escapes or skills that stun and damage at the same time and such. Just want to see my favorite mage become a viable pick against all the top tier mages in the game. I don't want him being OP or going crazy. Again, Balance! I think Ziggs being all skill shots is a huge step in the right direction for all champions. I would hope one day all champions have nothing, but skill shots like Ziggs does to make it about skill and not just point and click gameplay. I think this is why I love Ziggs so much. It is so much more rewarding to play him and do well because he is all skill shots and not easy in the least. Nothing about him is easy like it is on other mages. I am sure others will argue that point, but I am not here to get flamed, but to bring this stuff to light in hopes these ideas could help balance a fun and skillful champion.

Thanks for reading all this if you have! All this is my opinion and I do not claim to be a expert or pro in the least.