So, Fizz has fallen off the radar
A few weeks ago, the boards were raging about Fizz yet again (with shark attachment after he misses being the issue), and a Red came on and said "yeah we're looking to remove power from Fizz's ultimate but to give him better baseline efficiency."
Even though Fizz has fallen off the radar, those are STILL CHANGES THAT SHOULD HAPPEN.
Let's look at Fizz's outstanding stats here, relative to other mid laners: 3rd-most kills 6th-most deaths 2nd-worst CS 7th-highest ban rate 6th least damage dealt 5th least assists
This describes the exact play pattern that the assassin update was intended to mitigate: Fizz's high deaths and high kills mean that he's jumping in, getting a kill no matter what the enemy team does, and then instantly dies.
Fizz's extremely-low CS means he's getting bullied out of lane. Extremely-low damage and assists means that he's not interacting with other champions except to 100->0 them with ult, and then die.
And his ban rate means that people don't want to play against him.
By having Fizz NEED to ult someone from full range in order to provide any assistance to his team, Fizz then needs to use both Q and E in order to get in range of his target. This leaves him with no way to get back out, so in order to be picked, he has to be "one-shotting" the target that he hit with R in order to be effective. And he can't do anything without his ult. This sounds a lot like the gameplay pattern that was so toxic on Rengar and Talon and resulted in them getting such large reworks.
And, as a jungle Fizz player, I'm horrified by how weak he is there and would like to see some buffs that increase his base non-ult gameplay power so that he can do better there.
**I'm hoping that Fizz hasn't disappeared off of the roadmap just because his winrate is reasonable and people have stopped complaining. **
At the same time, I've been told not to point out a problem without recommending a solution: More power needs to go back into Fizz's dueling potential. Bursting people while being tricky is no fun, so his damage should be spread out. W changes were trying to do this, but are ruined by R applying W. R should be relegated to a catch-out spell, rather than the bulk of Fizz's damage. The CD is so low as it is, that it's not a meaningful mechanic to prevent him from jumping on the enemy every time they return to lane if he gets a bit of a head start (which really, he doesn't get until his level 6 power spike). And the fact that it's so powerful means he gets almost a guaranteed level-6 kill, otherwise his abysmal laning phase just isn't worth doing.
Changes I might make: Passive buff (more damage blocked from AA harass). This improves his jungling and his early laning. Q addition: Applies W Active to all targets hit W change to: Passive: deal bonus magic damage per attack, multiplied against targets affected by the Active DoT Active: AA reset, your next attack deals % HP damage over time R change to: No longer get bigger/deal more damage as the shark moves farther Fizz gains a movement speed bonus toward the fish
This does a few things: Gives Fizz better dueling power at all points of the game, while avoiding making him more bursty. Q->W is no longer a thing for big burst, but instead he wants to space out Q, W, and R in order to keep the DoT up as long as possible. Gives Fizz better jungling. %HP damage is great against camps, and passive buffs help him remain healthier. Makes R feel less like garbage, and provides room to make him play properly. Rather than buffing the slow, R now speeds Fizz toward the enemy so that he can avoid using Q and E in order to get in range. And the insane burst from R->W is gone now, and the giant shark utility is gone now. Gives Fizz a very good reason to level W instead of E, making him less mobile and frustrating early game.
While I'd like to see changes like that, I'd mostly just like to hear that something is on the way to make Fizz more fun to play as and against, by shifting his focus away from the old "bad" assassin all-in playstyle and toward something else.
