Let's talk about Anivia
Greetings,
I am Ice Chicken, a dedicated Anivia main. To whom it may concern: I've heard news of potential Anivia changes made known through the PBE, and I would like to provide some input (while doing my best to set bias aside).
Potential Changes in question:
Flash Frost (Q) : Pass through slow now referred to as [Chilling] enemies. Now applies [Iced] to targets hit with the detonation.
Frostbite (E) damage has been changed! Rather than dealing double damage to enemies slowed by Q/R, E now deals different bonus damage based on [Iced]or [Chilled]. [CHILLED] targets take 150% damage and [ICED] targets take 200%
Glacial Storm (R) Normal slow now referred to as [Chilling] enemies. The full blown storm (max damage & slow) now applies [ICED] to enemies caught in it.
In regards to the potential changes to her Q: I support this change, and believe it makes sense to give more of a reward aspect for landing the Q "Ice" or stun effect.
Now, onto the potential R changes: This is overkill. The 6.9/Mage update changes hit Anivia's R ability hard, but made her more interesting to play, for better or worse. After this update, her "Glacial Storm" radius dropped from an instant 400, to 150, expanding to 400 over 3 seconds. If the current potential changes to her R+E combo were to be added, you would have to last against other burst mages/assassins typically seen in the mid lane, for an entire 3 seconds just to land the E to do full 200% damage. This essentially increases her overall burst window by 3 seconds. This is rough since Anivia is mostly played in the mid lane, against champions with already much shorter burst windows. Whereas in the upcoming assassin update for instance, most assassins will see burst window increases by 1-1.5 seconds tops.
Players will likely have to throw down the R, land the stun/Ice effect with the Q on the enemy, and potentially wall them in with W/Crystalize before being able to throw the E for full damage. This would essentially render her R+E combo useless, if you plan to hit her Q+E in the combo anyways. The whole point of having a Q+E and a R+E combo is to poke the enemy down with Q+E (assuming the player has E maxed first) and finish with R+E since the E will have cooled down within that time. But against most mid lane champions, there is no way you can fairly do full damage with R+E without hitting a Q anyway, or walling the enemy in and draining your mana.
That being said, I consider myself to be a reasonable guy--so if it is deemed necessary to publish changes to her R+E/Glacial Storm, I propose that you change her R+E to do full 200% damage on the E when her Glacial Storm is at half size (approx. 1.5 seconds, or a radius of 200/250) increasing her burst window by a maximum of 1.5 seconds.
Given the fact that her play/ban rates are still fairly low, and she is already an incredibly high skill cap champion built for counterplay, I believe my proposed counter changes to be fair for all elos, especially since Anivia starts to fall off Plat+ and is a rare sight nowadays in the Pro scene.
In conclusion, I fully support the Q changes, but major changes to her R again will just increase the skill cap on one of the already highest skill cap champions, increase her burst window by an entire 3 seconds, and make her honestly less fun to play, and make her even more of a rare sight on the battlefield than she already is. I hope this message finds the right eyes, and is taken into consideration. I've put a fair amount of thought into it.
I sincerely thank you for reading,
~ Ice Chicken
Fun Fact: It would cost 305 Mana + 40 Mana per second to keep her R running to full size to achieve Anivia's full combo at level 6 if these changes were published. Anivia has a base mana of approx. 450-600 max. at this level. This combo could potentially use 90% of her total mana, and might not even secure a kill if the enemy escapes her R before it is full size (3 seconds).
EDIT: Here is a link to Anivia's Full Patch History: http://lol.gamepedia.com/Anivia_-_The_Cryophoenix#Patch_History
2nd EDIT: Another proposal by Westiko I'd like to reference in this post: "I think there should be an inherent compensation for the changes as the game goes on. For example, maybe Anivia gets mana back for proccing her E when ICED because that would reward the same style of play that the changes are promoting because as of right now, her mana costs are insanity for the damage she would be outputting. Or another compensation whould be chilled targets take 150/175/200% of E at ranks 1/2/3 for ultimate instead of a flat nerf, this way anivia can still scale well." -- You can read the full post here
#GameplayAndBalance 
